Cade McNamara threw three second-half touchdown passes and No. 25 Iowa cruised to a season-opening victory without coach Kirk Ferentz, pounding Illinois State 40-0 on Saturday.

Ferentz served a one-game suspension imposed by the university for a recruiting contact violation that is under investigation by the NCAA. Assistant head coach Seth Wallace ran the team in his absence. It was the first game Ferentz had missed in his 26 seasons as the Hawkeyes’ coach.

“What they did today, under these circumstances, was pretty cool,” Wallace said of the Hawkeyes.

McNamara, who missed the final nine games of last season with a knee injury, threw touchdown passes of 7 and 19 yards to freshman wide receiver Reece Vander Zee. He also tossed a 31-yard TD pass to Jacob Gill to help the Hawkeyes pull away after leading 6-0 at halftime.

“The first half was just the norms of the first game,” Wallace said. “The second half is probably a better indicator of what kind of team we are.”

McNamara said the second half was built on Iowa’s last possession of the first half, when the Hawkeyes went 49 yards in 10 plays to set up Drew Stevens’ second field goal of the game.

“I think we really started gain some momentum at the end of that second quarter, when we were able to go on a decent drive,” McNamara said. “We weren’t able to finish with a touchdown. When stuff wasn’t going our way at the beginning, our tempo wasn’t very good. And I think once we were able to gain some momentum and gain some tempo, that set us up really good for the second half.”

NCAA blocks Oklahoma State from wearing QR codes on helmets: The NCAA blocked Oklahoma State from placing QR codes on its players’ helmets, a move that would have allowed fans to link to a team fund and donate to the program’s name, image and likeness money pool, the school announced before Saturday’s game against South Dakota State.

“Oklahoma State interprets the QR code stickers as institutional decals permitted under NCAA bylaws,” the university said in a news release. “The NCAA interprets the QR code stickers as advertising and/or commercial marks, which are not permitted.”

The QR codes are 1.5-inch decals that feature each player’s name and number. They were not expected to be visible from the stands, but they were expected to be noticeable on close shots during broadcasts and postgame photos posted to social media.

The QR codes will not appear on the Cowboys’ helmets, but they will be placed in larger and more prominent locations throughout Boone Pickens Stadium, including the 6,160-square foot video board, according to the news release.

Iamaleava’s huge game leads Vols by Chattanooga: Nico Iamaleava threw for 314 yards — a school record for one half — and three touchdowns in his first regular-season start to lead the 15th-ranked Volunteers to a 69-3 victory over Chattanooga on Saturday.

Dylan Sampson rushed for 124 yards and three scores in the first half as the Volunteers had an easy opener against an in-state FCS foe.

Oklahoma State ends FCS champ South Dakota State’s 29-game winning streak: Alan Bowman threw three touchdown passes, Ollie Gordon II scored three times and No. 17 Oklahoma State ended two-time defending FCS national champion South Dakota State’s 29-game winning streak with a 44-20 victory Saturday.

Bowman, beginning his seventh year of eligibility at age 24, completed 24 of 33 passes for 265 yards in the opener for both teams. He threw scoring passes of 6 yards to Brennan Presley, 22 yards to Ollie Gordon II and 58 yards to Rashod Owens.

Freshman Smith makes 2 TD catches, Ohio State beats Akron: Freshman Jeremiah Smith caught two touchdown passes and No. 2 Ohio State overcame a sluggish start to bury Akron 52-6 in the opener for both teams Saturday.

Under new offensive coordinator Chip Kelly, the Buckeyes needed nearly all of the first half to start running smoothly against the overmatched Zips.

Ewers throws 3 TD passes to help Texas roll over Colorado State: Quinn Ewers passed for 260 yards and three touchdowns and No. 4 Texas rolled past Colorado State 52-0 on Saturday in the opener for both teams. Ewers connected with Matthew Golden for a pair of touchdowns in the second quarter, and had another strike to Isaiah Bond as the Longhorns built a 31-0 lead by halftime.

A big question for Texas heading into this season was just how quickly Ewers and Texas would find their rhythm in a passing attack that lost the top five receivers from the 2023 Big 12 championship team. Texas joined the Southeastern Conference this year.