TCU wipes out 31-0 deficit, wins
SAN ANTONIO — Bram Kohlhausen’s 8-yard touchdown run in the third overtime carried No. 11 TCU to a wild 47-41 victory over No. 15 Oregon in the Alamo Bowl on Saturday night as the Horned Frogs stormed back from a 31-0 halftime deficit behind a backup quarterback.
The 31-point comeback to win tied the record for a bowl game, matching Texas Tech in the 2006 Insight Bowl against Minnesota.
Oregon stormed to the big lead early behind quarterback Vernon Adams Jr., but he was knocked out of the game late in the second quarter after taking a hard hit to the head. Oregon gained only 18 yards in regulation in the second half.
Kohlhausen started in place of TCU’s Trevone Boykin, who was suspended after a bar fight two days earlier. Kohlhausen passed for 351 yards and two touchdowns and ran for two more scores.
The Ducks were clicking behind the elusive Adams, who passed for 197 yards and a touchdown, scrambled out of several sacks and marched Oregon to four straight touchdowns and a 28-0 lead.
But Oregon stopped in its tracks when Adams was hurt on a rare called run for him. Adams knocked heads with TCU linebacker Derrick Kindred, left the game and never returned. Jeff Lockie drove Oregon to a field goal that made it 31-0 at halftime, but the Ducks stalled.
Cactus Bowl
WVU 43, Arizona St. 42
PHOENIX — Skyler Howard threw for a Cactus Bowl-record 532 yards and hit David Sills on a 15-yard pass for his fifth touchdown with 2:19 left, lifting West Virginia to a wild win over Arizona State.
The Cactus Bowl made up for its late start with an assault on the record books.
The teams combined for 1,196 yards of offense and the 950 yards passing was the most in the Cactus Bowl’s 27-year history.
Typically a run-oriented team, West Virginia (8-5) went to the air, and Howard broke the Cactus Bowl record of 476 yards set by Washington State’s Drew Bledsoe in 1992.
Mike Bercovici threw for 418 yards and hit Gary Chambers on a 58-yard pass in the fourth quarter for his fourth touchdown of the game, but Arizona State (6-7) kicked an extra point instead of going for 2, then turned the ball over on downs its last possession.
Liberty Bowl
Arkansas 45, Kansas State 23
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Alex Collins ran for 185 yards and three touchdowns and Arkansas capped its late-season surge with a victory over Kansas State in the Liberty Bowl.
Ranked 18th to open the season, Arkansas stumbled through a 1-3 start that knocked the Razorbacks out of the Top 25. The Razorbacks (8-5) turned things around won six of their last seven games.
Collins overwhelmed Kansas State’s defense in front of a sellout crowd of 61,136, the fourth-largest crowd in the game’s 57-year history.
Taxslayer Bowl
Georgia 24, Penn St. 17
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Terry Godwin threw a touchdown pass on a trick play and caught one later, helping Georgia beat Penn State in the TaxSlayer Bowl.
The Bulldogs (10-3) won their fifth consecutive game to close the season, this one under interim coach Bryan McClendon and with incoming coach Kirby Smart watching from the stands.
Penn State (7-6) played more than half the game without star quarterback Christian Hackenberg.
Hackenberg landed awkwardly on his throwing shoulder early in the second quarter when linebacker Roquan Smith tackled him on a 5-yard scramble. Hackenberg threw four more passes, but grabbed his shoulder between plays. He headed to the locker room after an incompletion and returned after halftime wearing street clothes. After the game, he declared for the NFL draft.
