In Week 4 of college football, Louisville got its first win, a Boston College Eagle named Flutie threw a touchdown pass and the Duke Blue Devils stunned its ranked, in-conference opponent. Four teams — No. 11 Clemson, No. 10 Florida State, Miami and Pittsburgh — had bye weeks.

Intraconference:

No. 20 Georgia Tech (2-2, 0-1 Atlantic Coast) entered its game with the Duke (3-1, 1-0) as the second-best rushing team in the FBS — averaging 377 yards per game — but ended up watching a team run by it instead. Shaquille Powell had three touchdowns and the Blue Devils jumped out a 19-3 first-quarter lead. Duke was shut down in the second half, but the defense held off the Yellow Jackets for a 34-20 victory.

Winners:

Coach Larry Fedora wasn’t happy with the way his team was executing in the first half, so North Carolina (3-1) benched Marquise Williams in favor of backup quarterback Mitch Trubisky. The backup QB tossed four second-half touchdowns and gave North Carolina a three-game win streak as the Tar Heels beat the Delaware Blue Hens 41-14 Saturday.

A week after Northern Illinois gave No. 1 Ohio State a scare, the Huskies nearly beat Boston College (3-1, 0-1). But for the Eagles, it was another quarterback with the last name of Flutie who made it all happen. Troy Flutie, famed quarterback Doug Flutie’s nephew, threw a touchdown pass in his first career start and helped lead the Eagles to a 17-14 victory.

After losing to two top-11 teams in Auburn and Clemson, as well as being upset by Houston, Louisville (1-3, 0-1) took out all of its frustration on FCS Samford, scoring 21 points in the first quarter. The Cardinals won 45-3 as freshman Lamar Jackson cemented his new role as the Cardinals starting quarterback with a school-record (for a quarterback) 184 rushing yards.

Shadrach Thornton and Matthew Dayes combined for five rushing touchdowns as North Carolina State  (4-0) ran over Southern Alabama, 63-13. Running back Reggie Gallaspy II scored twice and Jaylen Samuels caught two more scores from quarterback Jacoby Brissett.

Losers:

On the first play of the game, Virginia (1-3) had the ball, yet found itself down by six points seconds later because Justin Taimatuia took an interception 21 yards to score. That was just the start of the Cavaliers’ rough afternoon. Boise State put away Virginia 56-14 after already going up 17-0 in the game’s first seven minutes.

Wake Forest (2-2, 0-1) tried its best to ruin Indiana’s best start since 1990, but the Hoosiers fought off a Demon Deacons fourth-quarter rally when the team trailed 31-10 but scored two late touchdowns. After a 90-yard touchdown drive, Wake Forest recovered the onside kick with 2:31 to go and needed a touchdown to tie. Wake Forest completed a 4th-and-10 play deep in Indiana territory, but it was called back because of holding. Indiana broke up the next pass to win the game.

East Carolina kept the ball on the soggy ground and out of the rainy sky Saturday as the Pirates rushed for three touchdowns in a 35-28 victory over Virginia Tech (2-2). Brenden Motley, the Hokies quarterback, ran and threw for scores early as Virginia Tech jumped to a 14-0 lead. Poor defense allowed the Pirates to tie it up before the second quarter and take the lead shortly thereafter. Hokies linebacker Sean Huelskamp was ejected for targeting when he hit a sliding Pirates quarterback midway through the fourth quarter.

Former fifth-string quarterback Zack Mahoney overcame a poor first half to lead Syracuse (3-1, 1-0) back into the game, at one point trailing 24-17, but couldn’t finish it off as No. 8 Louisiana State and its large contingent of fans came to the Carrier Dome and beat the Orange 34-24. LSU’s Leonard Fournette, a Heisman hopeful, led the Tigers with 244 yards on the ground and two touchdowns.

Read all of The Daily Orange’s coverage of the game here.

Published on September 27, 2015 at 12:45 pm

Contact Sam: sjfortie@syr.edu | @Sam4TR