Weekend roundup: ACC and Big 12 get going

As the Midwest patiently waits for a Big Ten football season and the west coast agonizes over its lack of Pac-12 sports this year, football is upon us in other corners of the country.

The ACC and Big 12 kicked off in what’s officially known as “week two” of the college football season. Let’s take a look at the most important college football action around the country this weekend.

The first major-conference team to kick off its COVID-changed season was Miami, who took the field at Hard Rock Stadium in front of a crowd of less than 10,000.

Behind junior running back Cam’Ron Harris and Houston transfer quarterback D’Eriq King, The U pulled out a 31-14 victory over UAB, giving head coach Manny Diaz his seventh win in charge of the program.

Harris ran the ball just 17 times on his way to 134 yards on the night, the sixth-most rushing yards in a Miami season-opener this millennium.

King picked up right where he left off at Houston, throwing for 144 yards and a touchdown and rushing for 83 and another score. Former Buckeye quarterback and current Hurricane Tate Martell was suspended for the opener, continuing his roller coaster of a college career.

Miami scored 17 in the third quarter to secure win No. 1 for the Power 5 in fall 2020.

No. 18 North Carolina lived up to lofty preseason expectations in the opener of year No. 2 for head coach Mack Brown in Chapel Hill, suffocating Syracuse 31-6.

Carolina shook off an ugly seven-point first half by outscoring Syracuse 21-0 in the fourth quarter. Tar Heel junior running back Javonte Williams ran for three touchdowns, and second-year quarterback Sam Howell completed 25 passes for 295 yards.

Syracuse could not find the end zone all game, finishing with just 202 yards of offense. Junior quarterback Tommy Devito struggled mightily, completing just 13 of 31 passes for 112 yards. Devito also led the Orange in rushing with just 30 yards.

North Carolina has plenty of areas to find improvement, as it turned the ball over three times and committed nine penalties for 91 yards, but the Tar Heels have a chance to do it next week in an in-state matchup with Charlotte.

Notre Dame started its football first season ever as part of a conference with ease, beating Duke 27-13 at home to open the ACC campaign in South Bend.

Fighting Irish senior quarterback Ian Book was effective, throwing for 263 yards and a touchdown, and running back Kyren Williams had a stellar game on two fronts, catching two passes for 93 yards and running for 112 yards and two touchdowns of his own.

Duke was within one point going into the final play of the first half, but Notre Dame hit a 48-yard field goal at the buzzer to go up four, and never looked back.

"We knew it was going to be a grind, but they hung in there," Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly said. "We played much better football in the second half."

The Notre Dame defense was ready for the grind, recording seven tackles for loss and three sacks in the rainy afternoon contest. It held the Blue Devils and Clemson transfer quarterback Chase Brice to just four third-down conversions on 15 attempts.

The only other major conference to take the field Saturday faced a tumultuous start to its season.

No. 23 Iowa State gave up a 95-yard kick return touchdown and an 83-yard punt return touchdown in a 31-14 season-opening loss to Sun Belt member Louisiana.

Up 14-10 at the half, the Cyclones were blanked for the remainder of the game. Louisiana came home with its first win against ranked competition, improving its record to 1-26 against the top 25.

"We've got a lot of belief that the University of Louisiana should always have a competitive team," Louisiana head coach Billy Napier said. "This is what we expected to happen."

Iowa State won the yardage, first downs, and time of possession battles yet lost the overall war.

It was not the only Big 12 team to fall to a Sun Belt opponent.

Kansas State got its 2020 campaign off to a disappointing start at home, losing 35-31 to Arkansas State.

After hanging with Memphis in week one, Arkansas State scored on a 17-yard touchdown pass with 38 seconds remaining to take the lead. It hung on, stopping the Wildcats' last-second, desperation drive and securing a program-great win.

Jonathan Adams Jr. caught three touchdown passes for Arkansas State, who put up 489 yards of offense on the road.

Trevor Lawrence and the Clemson starters played less than three full quarters Saturday night as the Tigers walked by Wake Forest, 37-13.

Clemson, the number one team in the AP Top 25, came into its season-opener favored by over 30 points. It did not disappoint, going up 37-3 late in the third quarter before Wake added 10 garbage-time points.

Dabo Swinney’s squad posted 561 yards of offense behind Lawrence (22-28, 351 yards) and senior running back Travis Etienne, who rushed for an efficient 102 yards on 17 carries.

The Tigers take on FCS member The Citadel next week and do not play a ranked team until week nine, where a showdown at No. 10 Notre Dame awaits.

With the loss Saturday, Wake Forest has been topped by Clemson 12 years straight, with nine of those losses coming by 20 points or more. It has been outscored 152-19 in the past three seasons alone.

The Wake Forest stadium was almost completely empty. Only a small group of families, cheerleaders, and band members was present due to North Carolina state restrictions.