College football: Christian McCaffrey does it all in Stanford win over Kansas State

Christian McCaffrey had two long touchdown runs and Ryan Burns threw a scoring pass in his first career start to lead No. 8 Stanford to a 26-13 victory over Kansas State on Friday night.

With the Wildcats focused on stopping McCaffrey after he set the major college football record for all-purpose yards and finished second last year in Heisman Trophy voting, Stanford turned to its new quarterback to lead the offense early in the opener for both teams.

Burns completed his first 10 passes, including a 40-yard touchdown strike to Michael Rector on the opening play of the second quarter.

McCaffrey then got into the act with an electrifying 35-yard touchdown run. He froze safety Kendall Adams with a juke and raced to the end zone for the score.

McCaffrey shattered Barry Sanders’ 27-year-old record by gaining 3,496 all-purpose yards last season when he finished second to Alabama’s Derrick Henry in the Heisman.

But Stanford’s offense stalled in the second half before McCaffrey iced the game with a late 41-yard TD run. He finished 126 yards on 22 carries and 210 all-purpose yards.

Spartans hold off Paladins in opener

Tyler O’Connor threw for 190 yards and three touchdowns, and No. 12 Michigan State held off upset-minded Furman, 28-13.

O’Connor went 13 for 18 with an interception, a generally efficient performance in his second career start. The fifth-year senior is taking over as Michigan State’s No. 1 quarterback after spending the last three seasons backing up Connor Cook.

Michigan State was merely serviceable on offense for most of the night, and that was good enough against Furman. LJ Scott ran for 105 yards and a touchdown, but the Spartans let the Paladins hang around for a while in the opener for both teams.

Bears dominate Demons

Seth Russell threw four touchdown passes in less than a half and No. 23 Baylor beat Football Championship Series team Northwestern State, 55-7, in its first game since the dismissal of coach Art Briles.

Russell was the top-rated Football Bowl Subdivision passer when he suffered a season-ending neck injury in the seventh game last season. He completed 14 of 20 passes for 163 yards. The Bears led, 41-0, when he threw his last pass, a 10-yard touchdown pass to Pooh Stricklin with 5 minutes left in the first half.

Liufau becomes leading passer

Sefo Liufau threw for 318 yards to become Colorado’s all-time leading passer and offensive lineman Alex Kelley recovered a fumble for a score as the Buffaloes rolled past Colorado State, 44-7.

Tailback Phillip Lindsay had two touchdowns for Colorado (1-0), which built a 37-0 lead heading into the fourth quarter. The defense did its part, forcing four turnovers and bottling up the Rams (0-1) all evening.

Liufau made an unexpectedly quick recovery from left foot surgery to return for his senior season. He showed he’s up to speed by rushing for 66 yards. He also threw one touchdown pass.

Etc.

The Big 12 has narrowed the field of candidates for possible expansion to 11 schools, with Memphis and Temple among the latest to be cut from consideration, a person with direct knowledge of the situation tells the Associated Press.

The person spoke Friday on condition of anonymity because the Big 12 will not be making public any of its dealings with schools interested in joining the 10-team conference.

Big 12 officials are planning to start holding meetings in the Dallas area next week with Brigham Young, Air Force, Central Florida, Cincinnati, Connecticut, Colorado State, Houston, Rice, Southern Methodist, South Florida and Tulane. The next meeting of Big 12 presidents and chancellors is in mid-October.