Directed by interim coach, Utah State tramples N. Texas
Jordan Love threw for 359 yards and four touchdowns and Jalen Greene had six catches for 151 yards and a score to help Utah State rout North Texas 52-13 in the New Mexico Bowl on Saturday in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Interim coach Frank Maile directed the Aggies (11-2) after Matt Wells left to take the Texas Tech job.
Love completed 21 of 43 passes with one interception. D.J. William had two interceptions, helping Utah State ground high-flying North Texas (9-4).
Aaren Vaughns caught two passes for 109 yards and two scores for the Aggies, Gerold Bright ran for 103 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries, and Darwin Thompson added 93 yards on 21 carries.
North Texas quarterback Mason Fine was injured in the first quarter, and the Mean Green ended up using four quarterbacks. Jalen Guyton had four catches for 103 yards and a score.
Cure Bowl: Darius Bradwell rushed for a career-best 150 yards and two touchdowns to lead Tulane to its first postseason victory in 16 years, 41-24 over intrastate rival Louisiana-Lafayette in the Cure Bowl.
Justin McMillan improved to 5-1 as the Green Wave’s starting quarterback, tossing a first-quarter TD pass to Terren Encalade and running for a late score while accounting for 217 yards total offense — 145 passing and 72 rushing — in Orlando, Florida.
Bradwell scored on runs of 15 and 4 yards while setting bowl records for rushing attempts (35) and yards for Tulane (7-6), which won a bowl game for the first time since the 2002 Hawaii Bowl.
The Green Wave also got a rushing TD from Amare Jones and outgained the Ragin’ Cajuns 337 yards to 84 on the ground. Lousiana-Lafayette (7-7) rallied from a 24-7 deficit to pull within three points on Jarrod Jackson’s 15-yard TD reception with just over 10 minutes remaining.
McMillan put the game away, leading a 75-yard drive Bradwell finished with his second TD and later scoring himself on a 16-yard run that put Tulane up 41-24.
Andre Nunez completed 8 of 17 passes for 136 yards and one TD, but Louisiana-Lafayette’s productive running tandem of Trey Ragas and Elijah Mitchell were not a factor.
Celebration Bowl: Lamar Raynard passed for 292 yards and two TDs and Malik Wilson returned a kickoff for the game-sealing touchdown as North Carolina A&T held off Alcorn State to win the Celebration Bowl 24-22 in Atlanta. The Aggies captured their second straight HBCU national championship and third in four years.
The Celebration Bowl kicks off the bowl season by matching the champions of two historically black leagues, the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and the Southwestern Athletic Conference, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Raynard, a senior who finished his career with a 35-2 record as a starter, did most of his damage in the first half with TD passes of 17 yards to Zachary Leslie and 27 yards to Elijah Bell as North Carolina A&T (10-2) built a 17-3 lead in the second quarter. Alcorn State (9-4) stormed back in the third quarter. De’Shawn Waller tallied 116 of his 167 rushing yards on just four carries in the period.
The Braves pulled within 17-16 on a 30-yard touchdown run by quarterback Noah Johnson, the SWAC Offensive Player of the Year, and a 29-yard field goal with 51 seconds left in the quarter. Johnson rushed for 120 yards and passed for 128.
Wilson countered immediately, fielding the short kickoff on the left side of the field. He took off diagonally toward the middle and then cut up the right sideline for a 79-yard score. It was the senior’s school-record fourth kickoff return for a touchdown this season alongside scores of 98, 99 and 100 yards.