College football top 25: LSU stuns No. 6 Florida 37-34 on foggy night in the Swamp

Associated Press

Kyle Trask and No. 6 Florida look nowhere near ready for top-ranked Alabama.

Max Johnson threw three touchdown passes in his first college start, Cade York kicked a 57-yard field goal with 23 seconds remaining and reigning national champion LSU stunned the Gators 37-34 on a cool and foggy Saturday night in Gainesville, Florida.

York drilled his kick through the dense fog and the uprights, leaving Florida with a final shot. Trask got the Gators (8-2) in position to tie it, but Evan McPherson was wide left from 51 yards on the final play. LSU (4-5) celebrated wildly all over the field.

Johnson had a lot to do with the outcome.

The son of former Super Bowl champion Brad Johnson repeatedly torched Florida’s beleaguered defense. He threw for 239 yards, nearly half of them (108) to Kayshon Boutte, and ran for 52 more.

No. 11 Coastal Carolina 52, Troy 38: Grayson McCall threw a 23-yard touchdown pass to Jaivon Heiligh with 45 seconds left and the Chanticleers (11-0, 8-0 Sun Belt) beat the Trojans (5-6, 3-4) in Troy, Alabama, to complete their first perfect regular season.

McCall needed just 45 seconds to move the Chanticleers, who didn’t have any timeouts, 75 yards for the score. He completed all four of his passes, three of them to Heiligh.

Coastal Carolina survived a sandwich game between an upset of then-No. 8 BYU and the conference title game against No. 17 Louisiana-Lafayette. The Trojans didn’t make it easy for the highest-ranked team to visit Veterans Memorial Stadium.

No. 1 Alabama 52, Arkanasas 3: DeVonta Smith returned a punt 84 yards for a touchdown as the Crimson Tide (10-0 SEC) scored 28 points in a span of 11 minutes in the first half and rolled past the Razorbacks (3-7) in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

It was an otherwise quiet day for Smith, with three catches for 22 yards, but the receiver bolstered his surging case for Heisman Trophy consideration on one play.

Crimson Tide defenders racked up eight sacks, the fifth of which resulted in a fumble by quarterback Feleipe Franks that was recovered by DJ Dale at the Razorbacks 4. Harris scored on the next play.

Alabama allowed just 188 yards and kept Arkansas from registering a first down during a streak of seven straight possessions from the first quarter to the third.

No. 19 Iowa 28, No. 25 Wisconsin 7: Spencer Petras threw for 211 yards and two touchdowns to Ihmir Smith-Marsette and the Hawkeyes (6-2 Big Ten) stopped the Badgers (2-3) in Iowa City, Iowa, for the Hawkeyes’ sixth win in a row.

Iowa beat the Badgers for the first time since 2015 to reclaim the Heartland Trophy. Hawkeyes players celebrated by making snow angels after flurries picked up in the second half and blanketed the field in white.

Smith-Marsette finished with seven catches for 140 yards, and Tyler Goodson had 106 yards rushing.

The Badgers gained just 225 total yards, 56 on the ground.

No. 20 North Carolina 62, No. 9 Miami 26: Michael Carter and Javonte Williams set an NCAA record by combining for 544 yards rushing, and the Tar Heels (8-3, 7-3 ACC) embarrassed the Hurricanes (8-2, 7-2) in Miami Gardens, Florida, in the regular-season finale for both teams.

Carter ran for 308 yards and two touchdowns, and Williams had 236 yards and three touchdowns for the Tar Heels. Per the NCAA, it was the seventh time teammates each ran for at least 200 yards, the first since 2016 and the first such instance in ACC history.

The numbers only got worse for Miami. Carter and Williams’ combined total topped the NCAA’s listed FBS record for teammates, set on Nov. 30 when Jaret Patterson (409) and Kevin Marks (97) rushed for 506 for Buffalo against Kent State.

North Carolina finished with 778 yards – the most yielded by Miami and a Tar Heels record – and 554 yards rushing, also the most allowed in Hurricanes history. Sam Howell threw for a score, ran for a score and caught a TD pass for the Tar Heels.

It was the third-most points allowed in Miami history, the most since 66 for Syracuse in 1998. The record is 70 by Texas A&M in 1944.

No. 12 Georgia 49, Missouri 14: JT Daniels threw three touchdown passes, two to George Pickens, and the Bulldogs (7-2 SEC) routed the Tigers (5-4) in Columbia, Missouri.

Zamir White ran for 126 yards and a score for Georgia. Missouri managed just 200 yards of offense after topping the 600-yard mark each of the past two weeks.

The game was tied at 14 when Pickens reached to his shoe tops to gather in a 36-yard touchdown toss from Daniels in the final minute of the first half. The pair connected again on the first drive of the second half, with Pickens catching a short pass on a slant route, stepping out of a tackle attempt and racing 31 yards for a score.

Daniels completed 16 of 27 passes for 299 yards. Pickens caught five passes for 126 yards and James Cook caught a TD pass and ran for a score.

No. 15 Northwestern 28, Illinois 10: Cam Porter ran for a career-high 142 yards and two touchdowns, Evan Hull added a season-best 149 yards on the ground, and the Wildcats (6-1 Big Ten) tuned up for the Big Ten championship game by beating the Fighting Illini (2-5) in Evanston, Illinois.

Porter came in with just 32 yards and one TD. But the freshman broke out in a big way, leading the Wildcats to an easy victory over the Illini.

Northwestern’s focus shifts to the Big Ten championship game against No. 3 Ohio State next week. It’s the second title matchup in three years between the teams.

Northwestern won the Big Ten West after finishing last in the division in 2019.

No. 24 Buffalo 56, Akron 7: Jaret Patterson ran for 105 yards and matched a major college football record by reaching 1,000 yards for the season in five games, helping the Bulls (5-0 MAC) rout the Zips (1-5) in Amherst, New York, in a tune-up for the Mid-American Conference championship against Ball State.