W. Virginia, Baylor nuke scoreboard

No. 7 West Virginia and the Big 12, perfect together.

Geno Smith and the fast-moving, high-scoring Mountaineers proved they fit right in with their new conference, outracing No. 24 Baylor, 70-63, on Saturday in Morgantown, W.Va., in the Big 12's highest-scoring game ever.

Smith tied a conference mark with eight touchdown passes and narrowly missed another one with 656 yards passing.

"It did feel like one of those classic Texas shootouts," said Smith, whose school moved over from the Big East this season. "That's kind of what the Big 12 is about."

Smith outdueled Baylor's Nick Florence, who broke Heisman Trophy-winning predecessor Robert Griffin III's school record with 581 yards. Florence threw for five TDs. School, conference, and FBS marks all were rewritten in this one.

How wild was it? Smith, the early Heisman front-runner, had more TD passes than incompletions (six). He finished 45 of 51 and still doesn't have an interception this season.

West Virginia (4-0, 1-0 Big 12) amassed a school-record 807 yards, and the teams combined for 1,507 yards of offense and 67 first downs. Six receivers had at least 100 yards receiving.

The Bears' Terrance Williams set a Big 12 record with 314 yards receiving. The old mark was set minutes earlier by West Virginia's Stedman Bailey, who had 303 yards and a school-record five TDs.

Williams' 8-yard scoring catch brought Baylor (3-1, 0-1) within 70-63 with about 3 minutes left. But Dustin Garrison ran for 17 yards on third down and the Mountaineers ran out the clock to snap Baylor's nine-game winning streak, the second-longest in the nation.

The Mountaineers now must hope they can score points on the road when they head to No. 10 Texas next week.

LSU 38, Towson 22 - Zach Mettenberger and the LSU offense are still searching for consistency as the 4-0 Tigers enter one of the toughest stretches on their schedule. Mettenberger connected with Odell Beckham Jr. five times for 128 yards and two touchdowns, but No. 3 LSU was unable to eliminate nagging offensive sloppiness in a victory over the overmatched but feisty Towson Tigers (2-1), an FCS school, in Baton Rouge, La. 

Georgia 51, Tennessee 44 - In Athens, Ga., Todd Gurley ran for three touchdowns and Keith Marshall added two as the No. 5 Bulldogs recovered after blowing a 17-point lead to beat the Volunteers in the highest-scoring game ever between the SEC rivals.

Georgia (5-0, 3-0 Southeastern Conference), which had never scored more points against the Volunteers (3-2, 0-2) in 41 previous meetings, needed three takeaways in the final six minutes stay unbeaten.

South Carolina 38, Kentucky 17 - Marcus Lattimore ran for two TDs and Connor Shaw passed for another in the second half as No. 6 South Carolina (5-0, 3-0 SEC) scored 31 straight to beat Kentucky (1-4, 0-2) in Lexington, Ky.

Clemson 45, Boston College 31 - DeAndre Hopkins had a school-record 197 receiving yards, catching 11 passes from Tajh Boyd to help the No. 17 Tigers beat the host Eagles (1-3, 0-2 Atlantic Coast Conference). Boyd threw for 367 yards and three touchdowns and ran in another himself as Clemson (4-1, 1-1) bounced back after blowing a two-touchdown lead to No. 4 Florida State last week.

Texas 41, Oklahoma State 36 - David Ash threw three touchdown passes to Jaxon Shipley to lift the No. 12 Longhorns over the Cowboys in Stillwater, Okla. Ash directed the Longhorns (4-0, 1-0 Big 12) on a 75-yard scoring drive after the Cowboys (2-2, 0-1) had taken the lead on Quinn Sharp's 23-yard field goal with 2:34 to play.

Texas Christian 24, Southern Methodist 16 - Casey Pachall threw two touchdown passes, Jason Verrett had two interceptions, and the No. 15 Horned Frogs extended their FBS-best winning streak to 12 games by beating the Mustangs in Dallas. TCU (4-0) has won 11 of 13 over SMU (1-3) and regained the Iron Skillet trophy, which goes to the winner of the Dallas-Fort Worth rivalry.

Boise State 32, New Mexico 29 - Joe Southwick passed for 311 yards and three touchdowns and Timmy Smith knocked down a fourth-down pass with two minutes to go to help the No. 24 Broncos (3-1, 1-0 Mountain West) beat the 2-3, 0-1 Lobos in Albuquerque, N.M. Boise State led by 25 points at the half after turning three Lobos fumbles into 18 points.