No. 9 Texas A&M loses at home to Kentucky, meaning SEC will have two top-10 teams tumble

The powerhouse Southeastern Conference will have at least two top-10 teams lose in Week 3.

It could be three if No. 10 Alabama doesn’t beat pesky Florida State.

Kentucky stunned No. 9 Texas A&M on the road Saturday, winning 31-21 behind three transfers: quarterback Kenny Minchey, running back CJ Baxter and safety Jordan Castell.

Minchey, a Notre Dame transfer, completed 14 of 18 passes for 252 yards and two touchdowns. He connected on his final 11 throws. Baxter, a former Texas standout, ran for 87 yards and two scores. Castell, a three-year starter at Florida, finished with a team-high 13 tackles and an interception.

“I’m not shocked,” first-year coach Will Stein said on the field afterward. “This is how these guys practiced every single day. This is what Kentucky football is supposed to look like. So proud of our guys coming on the road, the eye of the storm. How freaking cool is this? Let’s go!”

Stein, 36, replaced longtime Kentucky coach Mark Stoops in December and became the third first-year Wildcats coach to beat a top-10 team — first since Joker Phillips in 2010.

“We knew it was going to be a bar fight, a fistfight, old school,” Stein said. “We were the tougher team tonight. That’s how we won the game.

“This is what we wanted, BBN. Let’s freaking go!”

No. 7 LSU and eighth-ranked Ole Miss will finish later Saturday and provide another top-10 loss.

Alabama led Florida State 26-21 at halftime, rallying after trailing 21-6 early in the second quarter. It was an eye-popping deficit for a Crimson Tide team that shockingly lost at home to the Seminoles to open last season.

Lane Kiffin was wildly booed long before he arrived at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on Saturday for the LSU-Ole Miss game.

Kiffin appeared remotely on ESPN's “College GameDay," and Mississippi fans still angry about how he left the Rebels for LSU late last season greeted him with a chorus of expletive-laced chants. It was a clear sign of what Kiffin and the Tigers should expect when they play at Ole Miss later Saturday.

“I really appreciate you guys gaslighting them with this,” Kiffin said from the team hotel.

It was the latest in a growing buildup for the first top-10 matchup between No. 7 LSU and eight-ranked Ole Miss since 1962.

It started when Kiffin left the Rebels to take the LSU job and a $91 million contract just as the team he had coached for six years was days away from its first appearance in the College Football Playoff. Kiffin wanted to stay through the playoff, but Ole Miss moved on to coach Pete Golding and advanced to the CFP semifinals. LSU finished 7-6, capped by a loss in the Texas Bowl.

The off-field storylines haven't stopped since. Kiffin's comments about whether Black players could be recruited to Ole Miss, lawsuits alleging Ole Miss transfers owe big money for reneging on their NIL deals and LSU’s now-abandoned defiance of rules against rostering former pro players have only brightened the spotlight for this one.

LSU threw another wrinkle into the mix by saying midweek that quarterback Sam Leavitt was “doubtful” to play, sparking immediate fan accusations of gamesmanship. He's been upgraded since and is expected to start.

Kiffin himself acknowledged there could be “hatred” in the stands Saturday. Security has been dramatically increased as authorities expect 100,000 people in Oxford, a town whose school-year population of about 25,000 is virtually all students.

The winner improves to 3-0 on the season — and gets savory bragging rights.

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney can thank Mother Nature for alleviating some heat.

Gideon Davidson ran for 105 yards and scored the go-ahead touchdown with five minutes remaining as the Tigers rallied from a 14-point deficit to beat North Carolina 28-20 on Saturday in a game that included a 2 1/2-hour weather delay.

Clemson’s Tait Reynolds completed 20 of 29 passes for 215 yards with a touchdown and an interception in his first career start.

The Tigers trailed 17-15 with 8:11 remaining and UNC with momentum. It was second-and-goal at the Tigers 7 when officials sent both teams to the locker room after lightning was detected in the area.

When players returned to the field, it was all Clemson. The Tigers stuffed two runs, forced a field goal and took over from there.

It capped a strange week for the Tar Heels. Investigators said they examined a range of allegations tied to potential drug use, inappropriate relationships and NCAA rule violations in the football program. It is a startling list considering Belichick was hired less than two years ago on a five-year deal that included $10 million guaranteed in each of the first three years.

General manager Michael Lombardi resigned earlier this month, and Belichick’s son, Steve, will not return to his job as defensive coordinator.

Clemson, meanwhile, was still reeling from a 51-10 shellacking at LSU to open the season. And losing to Belichick would have provided more criticism of Swinney’s talent procurement decisions.

Jeremiah Smith became Ohio State’s career receiving yardage leader.

Smith caught five passes for 85 yards in a 59-3 victory over Kent State. The junior needed 26 yards to surpass Michael Jenkins’ 2,898 yards from 2000-03 and become OSU’s record-holder and got it on his second catch of the game, when he hauled in a 23-yard pass from Julian Sayin midway through the first quarter.

“Put a lot of hard work into it," Smith said. “They said 33 games, so I’m blessed.”

Keyjuan Brown ran for a career-high 163 yards and a pair of long touchdowns to carry No. 23 Louisville to a 41-31 victory over 16th-ranked SMU. The teams picked to finish second (SMU) and third (Louisville) in the Atlantic Coast Conference put on a back-and-forth affair, trading the lead eight times before the Cardinals sealed it on Isaac Brown’s 27-yard touchdown run with 5:32 remaining.

Both teams were trying to keep pace with No. 5 Miami, which beat Wake Forest 33-20 on Friday night behind an impressive performance by quarterback Darian Mensah.

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Kentucky players celebrate a field goal by kicker Adam Zouagui (88) during the second half of an NCAA college football game against Texas A&M Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026, in College Station, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Kentucky head coach Will Stein celebrates after his team beat Texas A&M in an NCAA college football game Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026, in College Station, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Kentucky's CJ Baxter Jr. (1) and Ty Bryant (14) celebrate after an NCAA college football game against Texas A&M Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026, in College Station, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Ed Sheeran opened a solo concert in Philadelphia on Saturday with comments about Gaza, saying what’s happening is “catastrophic and unjustifiable.”

“My heart has been broken by the scale of devastation and loss of civilians’ lives, of children’s lives,” Sheeran said in the night at Lincoln Financial Field.

Sheeran also said he wants his music and shows to be about unity and humanity, not politics.

He then addressed the controversy that unfolded since his supporting acts withdrew in solidarity with opener Macklemore, who was dropped from the tour after making pro-Palestinian comments onstage.

Sheeran has performed much of his Loop Tour concerts solo, but he had been joined for several songs at each stop by the Irish folk band Beoga. Macklemore, Sheeran’s original U.S. opener, had been replaced by Danish band Lukas Graham and Irish singer Aaron Rowe before they backed out.

Finneas, Billie Eilish’s brother and musical collaborator, was due to tour with Sheeran in South America later this year before he too dropped out earlier this week.

As of Saturday afternoon, tickets were still available for the show, and Sheeran's website did not list any replacement acts.

Earlier a group of about 50 pro-Palestinian demonstrators congregated outside the stadium before the show. Hillary Steinberg, 34, of Philadelphia, said she got tickets a year ago but wound up getting a refund and attending the demonstration instead, disappointed that Sheeran did not take a stand.

“I was, until this week, a big Ed Sheeran fan,” Steinberg said. “I think all art is political, and all music is political, and so this choice — even though he was saying that he wasn’t complicit — is a political choice.”

The show comes after a tumultuous week that opened with Macklemore being dropped in response to exclaiming “Free Palestine” during a Sept. 5 show in New Jersey. Sheeran has said he was not responsible for the decision, which came at the urging of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. His company owns a stadium where Sheeran’s tour was scheduled to play on Friday.

Within hours of Sheeran's statement Tuesday, his supporting acts withdrew.

Diane Savitz, a 53-year-old concertgoer from Stroudsburg, got her tickets to the show months ago and is a big Sheeran fan. She said she does not think that he did anything wrong or that a concert is the place for politics.

“A concert should be for people enjoying the music. Music should bring people together,” Savitz said. “Everyone has their right to freedom of speech, but not every platform is the place for it.”

Macklemore said Wednesday he is donating $1 million to support Palestinian relief efforts and called on Kraft to match the gift; a spokesperson for Kraft has said the billionaire and Sheeran have each agreed to donate $2 million but have not specified where the money will be directed. Sheeran's representatives have not responded to multiple requests for comment.

Sheeran’s Loop Tour was the highest-grossing in the world, with an average box office gross of over $7 million per city, Pollstar said in May. Through the end of 2025, Sheeran was the No. 3 top-earning concert act since 2021.

Sheeran has said the tour promoter was ultimately responsible for the decision to drop Macklemore.

The Grammy winner was adamant in his Tuesday statement that he wouldn't be drawn into discussion of the war in Gaza, arguing that his fans don’t come to his shows to hear about these issues.

He also said he “spoke with the venues at length all week to try to build a bridge” before Macklemore was dropped. He insisted he would never willingly let down his fans or abandon the touring crew and others who rely on him to make a living.

While promoters and venues wield great power over concert tours, experts say an artist of Sheeran's magnitude generally has the final say about what happens concerning the shows.

Associated Press journalist Jessica Hill in Las Vegas contributed.

Recording artist Macklemore appears on ABC's "Good Morning America" Summer Concert Series in Central Park in New York on July 22, 2022, left, and Ed Sheeran appears at the premiere of the film "F1 The Movie" in London on June 23, 2025. (AP Photo)

FILE - Ed Sheeran attends the Time100 Gala, in New York on April 24, 2025. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)