SMU 31, Texas State 24

SAN MARCOS, Texas – Playing in the school's first nationally-televised game on ESPN, the Texas State's comeback bid for a victory came up short when the Bobcats suffered a hard-fought  31-24 loss to the SMU Mustangs on Saturday at Bobcat Stadium.
 
Sophomore quarterback Brady McBride threw for 227 yards and two touchdowns in his first start as a Bobcat, completing 21 of 39 passes and having touchdown passes of 3 yards and 19 yards.
 
Calvin Hill added 100 yards on 13 carries, and Brock Sturges ran for 95 yards and another TD in his Texas State debut as the Bobcats rushed for 189 yards.

Arkansas State 24, Memphis 37
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – In the 2020 season opener, Arkansas State dropped a tough 37-24 decision at Memphis Saturday night at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium.

A one-score contest through two and a half quarters, Memphis (1-0) scored twice in the third to pull away for a three-score lead, although A-State (0-1) made a late push to cut it to 13 with under five minutes to go.

"We had a few opportunities to make it interesting and just missed those really good chances – we had an opportunity to tie it up and we let them off the hook a couple of times," head coach Blake Anderson said. "We really did not tackle well at all and have to do a better job of wrapping up. There were some miscommunications defensively, which we thought could be a concern with as many new bodies as we have there. Offensively, we didn't match up great against how big they were up front."

The Red Wolves tallied 424 yards on offense, with 299 coming in the passing game in a combined performance from Logan Bonner (14-of-23, 133 yards and one touchdown) and Layne Hatcher (13-of-20, 166 yards). Dahu Green hauled in five passes for a career-high 99 yards to lead A-State receivers. Jamal Jones led all A-State rushers with 64 yards on 15 carries. Lincoln Pare also racked up 33 yards on just five carries in his collegiate debut.