COLUMBUS, OHIO – After a 76-0 victory over outmanned Florida A&M, Urban Meyer couldn’t say for certain that his Ohio State team got a lot out of its meek non-conference schedule.
“Obviously, at midnight next week, we’ll know,” the coach of No. 4 Ohio State said, referring to the Big Ten opener on Saturday against No. 24 Wisconsin. “Are we prepared? I like to think we are.”
There’s no doubt that Kenny Guiton is.
For the third game in a row, the perennial backup starred in place of the injured Braxton Miller. He set a school record with six touchdown passes — all in the first half — in a blow-out of historic proportions.
It was an epic mismatch between a team with national-title aspirations and a Football Championship Subdivision member getting a $900,000 guarantee.
FAMU, which picked up the sport in 1899, had never lost by so many points. It was the most lopsided Ohio State win since an 85-7 victory over Drake in 1935.
“We don’t want a pity party,” said Rattlers coach Earl Holmes, who made a point of saying the Buckeyes didn’t run up the score on his team. “I don’t have a problem with that. I don’t expect the coach to kneel. You play the game. You play for 60 minutes.”
At least it was decided relatively quickly. The Buckeyes (4-0) were up 21-0 in the opening 6 minutes and never looked back. Guiton, who completed 24 of 34 passes for 215 yards, tossed four TD passes in the first quarter.
“I had all day,” Guiton said. “The coaches wanted to come out throwing the ball around and I thank them for the trust they had in me to be able to do that.”
FAMU (1-3) was behind 48-0 when it picked up its initial first down in the second quarter.
The stats were as lopsided as the score. Ohio State had a 34-2 edge in first downs and a 603-80 differential in yards.
No. 1 Alabama 31, Colorado St. 6: In Tuscaloosa, Alabama, AJ McCarron passed for 258 yards and threw a 30-yard touchdown to DeAndrew White.
No. 5 Stanford 42, No. 23 Arizona 28: In Stanford, California, Tyler Gaffney ran for 95 yards and two touchdowns, Anthony Wilkerson added 68 yards and another score, and Stanford started strong en route to a victory over Arizona State in the Pac-12 opener for both teams.
No. 6 LSU 35, Auburn 21: In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Jeremy Hill rushed for a career-high 184 yards and tied a career best with three touchdowns.
No. 7 Louisville 72, Florida International 0: In Louisville, Kentucky, Teddy Bridgewater threw four touchdown passes and Louisville’s defense allowed a school-record 30 yards.
No. 8 Florida St. 54, Bethune-Cookman 6: In Tallahassee, Florida, Seminole quarterback Jameis Winston defeated FCS opponent Bethune-Cookman despite plenty of sloppy play.
No. 9 Georgia 45, North Texas 21: In Athens, Georgia, Aaron Murray threw for 408 yards and three touchdowns, and ran for another score to lead Georgia over the pesky Mean Green, who came in as 33-point underdogs but used big plays on special teams to make a game of it.
No. 10 Texas A&M 42, SMU 13: In College Station, Texas, Johnny Manziel accounted for 346 yards with three touchdowns in just more than a half to help Texas A&M cruise past SMU.
No. 15 Michigan 24, Connecticut 21: In East Hartford, Connecticut, Fitzgerald Toussaint ran for 120 yards and two touchdowns, Desmond Morgan made a one-handed interception in the fourth quarter that swung the game Michigan’s way and the Wolverines dodged another upset with a victory against Connecticut.
No. 16 Miami 77, Savannah St. 7: In Miami Gardens, Florida, Dallas Crawford and Gus Edwards both scored three touchdowns and Miami got into the end zone on its first seven possessions in rolling to a victory over Savannah State.
The Hurricanes set a school record for points, topping the 75 scored against Fordham in 1954.
Miami (3-0) lost quarterback Stephen Morris to a lower right leg injury with 8:51 left in the opening quarter. Coach Al Golden said in a televised halftime interview that X-rays were negative.
Stacy Coley had a kickoff return for a score and a touchdown catch for Miami, which has won five straight games for the first time since 2008.
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