Week 2 of college football didn’t disappoint after an exciting Week 1. There was an upset at Louisville, shortened quarters in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts and Atlantic Coast Conference play opened:

Intra-conference matchups: 

Syracuse’s (2-0, 1-0 ACC) defense tightened up in the second-half of Saturday’s game to stop Wake Forest (1-1, 0-1) while the Orange’s true freshman quarterback Eric Dungey led a charge to capture the 30-17 Syracuse victory in the Carrier Dome.

You can read all The Daily Orange’s coverage of the game here.

Winners:

No. 10 Florida State (2-0), despite having just 6 passing yards at halftime from transfer quarterback Everett Golson, broke the 7-7 tie with South Florida in the second half when sophomore running back Dalvin Cook erupted. Cook finished with the second-best rushing day in school history with 266 rushing yards as the Seminoles won 34-14.

Florida Atlantic started its backup quarterback and lost its starting running back after the first half, yet the score was knotted at 20 with Miami (2-0) in the third quarter. Five FAU turnovers gave Miami the ball often and Hurricanes running back Mark Walton didn’t squander the opportunities, rushing for three touchdowns.

Sitting on the sideline in a neck brace out indefinitely, Mike Williams, the All-ACC Clemson receiver, saw his team get off to a sluggish start only to come roaring back. No. 12 Clemson (2-0) crushed Appalachian State — for which there’d be no Michigan magic — 41-10 Saturday afternoon behind quarterback Deshaun Watson’s three touchdown passes.

Boston College (2-0) demolished Howard, 76-0. Tyler Rouse ran for three scores before the second-half quarters were shortened from 15 minutes to 10. Boston College coach Steve Addazio still wanted to prepare for his team’s upcoming Friday night national TV matchup against Florida State, but didn’t want to keep pressing. Redshirt Troy Flutie, the nephew of BC legend Doug Flutie — threw his first career touchdown.

For the second game in a row, No. 16 Georgia Tech (2-0) dominated its opponent en route to a relaxing second half. The Yellow Jackets blew out Tulane 65-10 and quarterback Justin Thomas, who played one quarter in the Georgia Tech Week 1 win, threw two touchdowns.

Despite eventually losing to unanimous No. 1 Ohio State in Week 1, Virginia Tech (1-1) entered halftime of that game with a lead. The Hokies had lost quarterback Michael Brewer in the second half and backup Brenden Motley entered. Motley led Virginia Tech to a 42-3 win over Furman in Week 2, throwing for two scores and running for another.

Thirteen minutes of the first quarter had passed when Duke (2-0) scored its first touchdown on a 24-yard Thomas Sirk pass. It’s the longest stretch the Blue Devils went without scoring all game as Duke went on to score six more touchdowns and kick two field goals in the final three quarters. The Blue Devils beat North Carolina Central 55-0 on Saturday.

North Carolina (1-1) took care of an in-state foe Saturday when it defeated North Carolina A&T by a score of 53-14. The Tar Heels led 36-0 at halftime behind two Brandon Fritts touchdown catches and two more Elijah Hood touchdown runs.

After failing to score in the first quarter, North Carolina State (2-0) punched in five touchdowns to beat Eastern Kentucky 35-0. Matthew Dayes ran for three scores in the second half and finished the day with 116 yards on 24 carries.

Last September, Akron stunned Pittsburgh with a 21-10 victory at Heinz Field. This September, no such thing happened. Pittsburgh (2-0) punished the Zips 24-7 in Akron. Tennessee transfer Nate Peterman threw for a career-high 148 yards and his first collegiate touchdown after taking over for starter Chad Voytik in the second quarter. Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi said he’ll still employ the two-quarterback rotation system in the foreseeable future.

Losers: 

A week after playing a tight road contest with, but losing to, No. 6 Auburn, Louisville (0-2) was upset at home. Houston had no problem scoring as quarterback Greg Ward Jr. threw two of his three touchdowns in the fourth quarter, including a 15-yard game-winner with 3:09 left. The Cougars special teams blocked a Cardinals 53-yard field-goal attempt to tie with 54 seconds remaining. Louisville head coach Bobby Petrino pulled starting quarterback Lamar Jackson in the fourth quarter and replaced him with Kyle Bolin.

No. 9 Notre Dame’s 34-27 win over Virginia (0-2) came at a cost. The Fighting Irish lost starting quarterback Malik Zaire for the rest of the season when he broke his ankle in the third quarter on a designed quarterback run. A week ago against Texas, Notre Dame’s starting running back Tarean Folston was injured. The backups, quarterback Deshone Kizer and running back C.J. Prosise combined for 247 total yards and three touchdowns in the comeback win.

Published on September 13, 2015 at 2:24 pm

Contact Sam: sjfortie@syr.edu | @Sam4TR