PHIL JURKOVEC

North Carolina's Sam Howell is a Heisman Trophy candidate and the headliner of the Atlantic Coast Conference's class of experienced returning quarterbacks.

2 Notre Dame overcame an early deficit to roll to a 45-31 over Boston College on Saturday. Ben Skowronek caught all three of Book’s TD passes, but also had one of three Notre Dame fumbles on the day. Th Eagles hung tough in the first half, recovering a pair of Notre Dame fumbles, but they scored only six points of the miscues. It was recovered by Notre Dame defensive end Daelin Hayes on the Eagles 49 with 2:05 left in the quarter. Boston College: The Eagles had moments they can build on, much like they did when they took Clemson to the brink last month.

Uiagalelei stepped in for Lawrence on Saturday and rallied the top-ranked Tigers to a 34-28 victory over Boston College after they fell behind by 18 points. “It's the same mindset that I had this week,” Uiagalelei said. A jarring week for Clemson ended with its 28th straight win over league competition, 10th straight over the Eagles and 27th in a row at home. Clemson coach Dabo Swinney told his team at halftime, “Don't flinch.”“It's been a long time since we've been down like this,” he said. Boston College took advantage of the Clemson chaos early on with TDs on its first two series.

Alabama quarterback Mac Jones (10) hands off to running back Najee Harris (22) during the second half of the team's NCAA college football game against Mississippi in Oxford, Miss., Saturday, Oct. 10, 2020. Alabama won 63-48. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Alabama won 63-48. 2 Alabama in a game that could very well be first of three meetings between the SEC superpowers. A conference title rematch in Atlanta would surprise no one and another meeting in the College Football Playoff would hardly be shocking. UCF (minus 3 1/2) at Memphis — @alanwooten19Knights have won 13 straight against the Tigers; average score in the last three: 50-42 ... UCF 45-44. ___Follow Ralph D. Russo at https://twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP and listen at https://westwoodonepodcasts.com/pods/ap-top-25-college-football-podcast/___More AP college football: https://apnews.com/Collegefootball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25

Most notable on the Big Ten's schedule was how Nebraska will start the season: at Ohio State and home for Wisconsin. Nebraska had both Ohio State and Penn State on its original nine-game, pre-pandemic conference schedule, along with Rutgers. Ohio State definitely caught a break with the new schedule. It might not have been the plan to cut Ohio State, the league's clear favorite and defending champ, some slack. When the SEC redid its schedule to make it 10 conference games, the league ended up feeding its weaker teams to its powerhouses.