Saturday's MAC Football Results
Sacramento State 52, Mississippi Valley State 0
Michigan 13, Western Michigan 12
Nebraska 49, Ohio 21
South Carolina 57, Kent State 0
New Mexico 38, Central Michigan 7
Pittsburgh 59, Miami 14
Tarelton State 20, Bowling Green 13
Ohio State 56, Ball State 3
Stories courtesy of MAC Sports Information Departments
Sacramento State 52, Mississippi Valley State 0
Boxscore
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The first win of the FBS era for Sacramento State was a dominant one for the Hornets blew past Mississippi Valley State, 52-0, on Saturday night at Hornet Stadium. The game was played in front 18,523 fans which accounts for the largest season-opening crowd and the fifth-largest overall in program history.
Sacramento State controlled every facet of the contest as the team compiled 453 yards of offense, limited MVSU to 147 total yards, blocked a punt and recovered an onsideskick. Quarterback Jackson Sharman made his first career start as a Hornet and finished 18-of-28 for 247 yards and four scores. Three of those were to wide receiver Matt Coleman who wrapped up the game with 141 yards on six catches. Four players also rushed for touchdowns.
The shutout was the first overall for the team since a 34-0 win at East Texas A&M in 2024, the first at home since downing Northern Arizona, 44-0, in 2021 and the largest margin of victory in a shutout since a 60-0 victory against Cal Lutheran in 1988.
Sacramento State scored in all four quarters and held a 14-0 lead after the first. The team's first touchdown was set up by a blocked punt from freshman Chakai Scott (his second in as many weeks) and recoverd by Caleb Reese at the 9-yard line. That play led to a 5-yard pass from Sharman to Coleman. The second score came on a 1-yard run from Jamar Curtis for his first TD of the year.
The Hornets added 17 points in the second quarter to take a 31-0 lead into halftime. Grant Meadors made a 25-yard field goal, Coleman caught a 19-yard pass and Jace Wilson found the end zone for the first time in his career with 28 seconds left in the half.
Coleman accounted for the only touchdown of the third quarter with a 63-yard bomb down the right sideline. That score made him the first Hornet with three receiving TDs in a game since Pierre Williams against Southern Oregon in 2019. Sharman also matched the school record of four passing touchdowns in a player's first start at Sacramento State.
The fourth quarter scoring began with a 43-yard TD rush from quarterback Jaylen Patterson on his first touch as a Hornet. Newcomer Daniel Swinney added a 3 -yard rushing TD and finished the game with a team-high 58 rushing yards.
The Hornet defense stymied the Delta Devils passing attack, limiting the team to 9-of-19 for 43 yards. Mississippi Valley also averaged just 3.1 yards per rush and finished the game 2.8 yards per play.
For the second-consecutive week, safety Boogsie Silvera led the team in total tackles. Silvera had seven stops and was followed by Derek Houston and Malik Tullis who had four. Four players had sacks in the game as part of the team's seven TFLs.
Sacramento State will next play at Fresno State on Sept. 12 before returning home to host North Dakota State on Sept. 19. The game against the Bulldogs will make the Hornets' first appearance on CBS Sports Network while the NDSU game will be the first for Sacramento State on ESPN.
Michigan 13, Western Michigan 12
Boxscore
Ann Arbor, Mich. - The Western Michigan football team fell to No. 16 Michigan, 13-12, at Michigan Stadium on Saturday night.
The Broncos held 12-7 lead but Michigan connected on a Hail Mary pass as time expired to win the game.
Western Michigan's defense forced three turnovers on the day and sophomore junior college transfer kicker Dieter Kelly went 4-for-4 in his first game as a Bronco. Redshirt senior linebacker Dillon Moore led the Broncos with six tackles and an interception. He also combined with Scoop Gardner Jr. for the team's lone sack.
Jalen Buckley led WMU's ground attack with 62 of the team's 132 yards. Broc Lowry rushed for 35, while passing for 89 on 15-for-21 passing. Sophomore wide receiver Aveion Chenault had a career-high six receptions for 53 to lead the Broncos.
Michigan opened the scoring on their first drive of the game with Bryce Underwood scoring on a one-yard touchdown run.
The Broncos responded with a drive that resulted in a 52-yard field goal by Kelly to cut the lead to 7-3.
Late in the second quarter, Moore picked off Underwood and Kelly connected from 45 yards as time expired in the first half, cutting the lead to 7-6.
WMU took the lead, 9-7, after Kelly nailed a 39-yarder to cap off a 20-play, 13:40 long drive that carried into the fourth quarter. Kelly then kicked a 33-yard field goal with 35 seconds left to play.
Western Michigan welcomes Monmouth on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. for its home-opener and annual CommUniverCity Night.
Nebraska 49, Ohio 21
Boxscore
LINCOLN, Nebraska – The Ohio football team (0-1) began its season on the road in Big Ten country against Nebraska (1-0). The Bobcats got off to a great start on offense and held touch through the first two quarters before the Cornhuskers pulled away to win game one, 49-21.
I was really proud of the way we played the first about 35, 36 minutes, Ohio head coach John Hauser said. We fought, we battled, we were down one at the half.
Individually, graduate student quarterback Nick Poulos (Granite Bay, Calif.) finished with 164 yards and one passing touchdown, while redshirt sophomore wide receiver Riley Neer (Bellfontaine, Ohio) ended with six catches for 104 yards and a touchdown. Graduate student kicker Will Hryszko (Strongsville, Ohio) drilled two field goals, including a career-long from 45 yards.
Defensively, redshirt sophomore safety JT Haskins (Lexington, Ky.) and redshirt senior linebacker Jack Fries (Cincinnati, Ohio.) led the team with eight tackles each. Redshirt freshman defensive end Ike Ackerman (Omaha, Neb.) had two sacks and four total tackles.
The Bobcats started the season hot, with Poulos finding Neer on the first play from scrimmage for a 68-yard gain, putting them inside the red zone. A few plays later, that connection would come through again when Poulos delivered a pass to Neer in the end zone for the first touchdown of the game and Ohio's first of the season.
It's a great opener, Poulos said. Obviously, it's hard to beat that. (I) would have loved to not see him get chased down… but it's great when you see someone (suceed) who's worked their tail off.
Nebraska responded with an opening-drive touchdown of its own, marching down the field to tie the game 7-7.
On Ohio's next drive, Poulos showed off his rushing ability, using his legs to pick up multiple first downs into Nebraska territory. However, the drive stalled, but kicker Will Hryszko converted a 42-yard field goal to put Ohio back on top.
The Bobcat defense showed up on the next Cornhuskers drive with Ackerman getting home for a third-down sack against Nebraska quarterback Anthony Colandrea to force a punt.
We knew we wanted to get after him, trying to get him flustered, and I feel like we did at times, Fries said.
Ohio opened the second quarter with a methodical drive. A Nebraska penalty helped move the ball for Ohio, along with a downfield completion to Dorwart. Poulos and the offense got back into field goal range, and Hryszko again added a field goal, this time from 45 yards away, his career-long.
After Ohio's special teams made a big play by forcing Nebraska to start its drive from its own eight-yard line, Nebraska drove the ball down the field and found the end zone to tie the game, taking the lead with an extra point.
The Bobcat defense forced a fourth down from the Huskers, and graduate defensive end Tyler Gillison (Pickerington, Ohio.) got pressure on the quarterback, getting his hand on the ball, earning a turnover on downs with less than a minute left in the first half.
Ohio was unable to score with the little time remaining and went into halftime down 14-13.
Coming out of the half, the defense remained tough as pressure forced an intentional grounding penalty that would bring on another Nebraska punt.
Nebraska got the ball back and went on another long drive, punching it in with a rushing touchdown and making it a 21-13 lead. The Huskers again were able to find the end zone on their next possession to take a 28-13 lead.
The Bobcats would not go down without a fight, however. The offense responded with a 70-yard touchdown drive that was capped by a Poulos keeper from the 1-yard line for the score. The two-point attempt was successful after Dorwart made an incredible catch in the back of the end zone to cut the Nebraska lead to 28-21.
The Huskers kept it going on the ground, scoring two more touchdowns from running backs to pad the lead to three scores.
Nebraska capped off the scoring with a touchdown late, ultimately taking the victory, 49-21.
South Carolina 57, Kent State 0
Boxscore
COLUMBIA, S.C. – The Kent State Golden Flashes opened the 2026 season on the road Saturday, falling to South Carolina 57-0 in front of 77,559 fans at Williams-Brice Stadium, which was the hottest recorded game in Williams-Brice Stadium history.
The Gamecocks (1-0) set the tone early, closing out the first quarter with a seven-play, 87-yard scoring march capped by Matt Fuller's 7-yard touchdown run. South Carolina never let up from there, outgaining Kent State 645 to 179 in total yards and converting 7-of-8 third-down opportunities on the days.
Three more Gamecock scores came in the second quarter. LaNorris Sellers connected with Mazeo Bennett Jr. for an 18-yard touchdown, a score that came with a successful two-point conversion, before Jabree Coleman broke free for a 60-yard burst and Sellers found Donovan Murph on a 29-yard strike to push the margin to 29-0 at halftime. South Carolina converted a perfect 3-of-3 on third downs in the period.
Kent State's most productive stretch of the afternoon came on a second-quarter possession that saw quarterback Dru DeShields break free for a 26-yard scramble and the Flashes string together seven plays and 31 yards. A penalty and a sack ultimately stalled the drive, and Jake Stoeckel was called on to punt.
The second half offered no reprieve. Sellers hit Murph again for a 37-yard touchdown on the opening drive of the third quarter, and backup quarterback Cutter Woods added a 7-yard scoring strike to Mike Tyler later in the period to push the lead to 43-0. Isaiah Augustave and Coleman added fourth-quarter rushing touchdowns to close out the scoring.
DeShields completed 12-of-20 passes for 63 yards and chipped in 27 yards on the ground to lead the Kent State offense. Mason King was the Flashes' most versatile playmaker, rushing eight times for 26 yards and hauling in two receptions for 21 yards to total 47 all-purpose yards.
Stoeckel was a consistent bright spot in the punting game, averaging 46.2 yards on eight punts with five downed inside the 20.
On defense, linebacker Rocco Nicholl led Kent State with seven tackles and the team's lone sack, a 4-yard loss, while A'tiq Muhammad also finished with seven stops. Sayed Abuhamdeh recorded six tackles, and both Hayden Dawahare and Trey Rubinstein contributed tackles for loss.
New Mexico 38, Central Michigan 7
Boxscore
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Not at all what Matt Drinkall had hoped for or envisioned.
New Mexico dominated the game statistically and on the scoreboard on Saturday night in handing Central Michigan a 38-7 loss in the season opener before 24,126 at the Lobos' University Stadium.
The Chippewas face Football Championship Subdivision Colgate on Saturday, Sept. 12 (1 p.m.) in their home opener at Kelly/Shorts Stadium.
New Mexico outgained the Chippewas 364-149 and finished with 28 first downs to CMU's nine.
"All credit to New Mexico," second-year CMU coach Matt Drinkall said. "That's a good football team. They're well-coached. They're very well-talented. They expect to win. And I really think that is a championship contender (in their league).
"There's good and bad. The bad part is that it's going to eat us up that we did not play our best in any aspect. We don't get that back. But the good part is, New Mexico handed us a blueprint of everything that we are deficient at and that we don't do at a championship level and that we have got to get fixed right away and that's 100 percent on my shoulders.
"I love our players. They do everything right; they do everything that we ask of them. I've got to do a better job of getting in a position to be successful."
New Mexico, which finished in a first-place tie in the Mountain West last season and was picked to finished second this season, forced two CMU turnovers.
The Lobos scored touchdowns on two of their first three possessions and then added two field goals in building a 20-0 halftime lead. The Chippewas struggled against a staunch Lobo defense and did not gain a first down until under a minute remained in the first half.
"Once they get up two or three scores, they can squeeze you pretty tight … and that affects us with our style of play," Drinkall said. "You know, we don't want to sit there and have to throw it 10 times in a row in the second half.
"It was just one of those wonky games where they got the ball and kind of held on to it. We couldn't get it going in the first half. And then the damage was done, and we were playing catchup -- too little too late. We didn't do anything better than they did. They did everything better than us, and that is 100 percent on me. So I've got to get that fixed and get that right."
The Chippewas did a better job of moving the ball in the second half, but they simply couldn't slow the Lobo offense, which tacked on two third-quarter TDs.
CMU avoided the shutout when Nasir Williams scored on a 23-yard run with 4:23 to play.
"These first four games for us, these non-conference games, when you bring in 50-some new players in the offseason, you've got to find out what you're good at, what you can do, and what you can't do very well," Drinkall said. "So we're in the process of figuring that out, and obviously New Mexico helped out with that a bunch."
Pittsburgh 59, Miami 14
Boxscore
PITTSBURGH— The Miami University football team dropped its season opener at Pittsburgh by a score of 59-14 Saturday afternoon.
Freshman quarterback David McComb threw for 240 yards and two touchdowns in his collegiate debut for the RedHawks (0-1). Mason Heintschel completed seven touchdown passes for the Panthers (1-0).
The Panthers got off to a quick start, scoring on their first three possessions to take a 21-0 lead just before the end of the first quarter. 17-yard and five-yard scoring passes from Heintschel were sandwiched around a 50-yard Justin Cook touchdown run.
Miami got on the board with 10:29 left in the second quarter after a key fourth-down conversion on a pass from McComb to Lynel Billups-Williams. McComb then found Scoop Smith for a 30-yard gain to the one-yard line on the next snap and D'Shawntae Jones promptly punched it in from there to make it 21-7.
Pitt briefly extended the lead to 28-7 on a 45-yard reception by Ja'Kyrian Turner, but the RedHawks responded on their next offensive play. McComb hit Damarion Witten in stride for a huge gain through the air and Witten broke a tackle to finish off a 75-yard touchdown and pull the visitors within 28-14 with 4:34 left in the half. Pitt added a 58-yard field goal on the final play of the period to take a 31-14 advantage to the locker room.
The hosts began the second half like they did the first, breaking the game open with four consecutive touchdown drives. Heintschel ended all four drives with scoring passes for Pitt, and the Panthers went on to finish off a 59-14 victory.
Tarelton State 20, Bowling Green 13
Boxscore
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University football team came up just short to Tarleton State University on Saturday afternoon (Sept. 5), as the Texans survived for a 20-13 win at Doyt Perry Stadium.
In his BGSU debut, quarterback Jay Kastantin completed 80 percent of his passes, going 24-for-30 for 262 yards. Austyn Dendy paced the Falcons on the ground with 60 yards and a touchdown, while Jeremiah Scoby caught 10 of his 11 targets for a game-high 102 yards.
BG fell behind by 17 points late in the first half before putting together a six-play, 69-yard drive just before halftime. That drive ended when Dendy took the ball the final three yards with 1:03 on the clock.
Travis Kenner's 40-yard field goal cut the TSU lead to seven with just under five minutes left in the third quarter, but the Texans went back ahead by 10 when Alejandro De La Poza connected from 26 yards out on the second play of the fourth quarter.
The Falcons answered with a Kenner field goal with 10:45 remaining, and the BG defense came up with a stop midway through the final period, as Dorian Pringle and Kal-El Pascal stopped Jackson Gilkey on a fourth-and-one play near midfield.
The next drive lasted over five minutes and saw the Falcons get as deep as the TSU eight-yard line, but the Texans came up with a stop on a fourth-down play with just 2:12 to go.
A big run by Tylan Hines on the next play set the Texans up in the red zone, but Kade Kostus forced a Hines fumble at the BGSU seven-yard line, with JoJo Johnson recovering in the end zone.
The next drive saw Kastantin and the Falcons move into TSU territory, as BG got to the Texans' 23-yard line with 17 seconds on the clock. After a pair of incompletions, Kastantin found Brennan Ridley at the eight-yard line, but he was stopped there as the clock ran out.
Ohio State 56, Ball State 3s
Boxscore
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ball State football team made its first-ever visit to Ohio Stadium Saturday afternoon, falling in its season opener to Ohio State, 56-3.
The Cardinals (0-1, 0-0 MAC) got on the board in the second quarter after Brody Boehm's first career field goal attempt was good from 54 yards, tying the third-longest field goal in program history. The last 54-yarder by a Ball State player was made by Scott Secor versus Central Michigan in 2014.
Ball State's defense came up with a pair of sacks against the Buckeyes (1-0, 0-0 Big Ten), recorded by newcomers Jared Badie and Anthony Pinnace. Pinnace was credited with two tackles for loss, along with a pass breakup. Third-year transfer Cedric Franklin II tallied his first interception as a Cardinal, interrupting an OSU drive midway through the third quarter.
In the first collegiate start of his career, fourth-year quarterback Keldric Luster more than quadrupled his career completion total, converting 18 passes.
Tate Hoover led Ball State's receiving, grabbing five total catches -- four more than his total at the end of the 2025 campaign.
The Cardinals begin their 2026 home slate Sept. 12 when they host Stony Brook inside Scheumann Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. ET, with broadcast available on ESPN+ and WLBC 104.1.
