College football:
UCLA, down 34, rallies for win
UCLA practiced a fake spike last week, never imagining that it would cap off the biggest comeback in school history.
Josh Rosen faked the spike and threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Lasley with 43 seconds remaining as UCLA completed its comeback from a 34-point third-quarter deficit to stun Texas A&M 45-44 in the opener for both teams Sunday night.
“How many seconds were left when we did it? 40? That’s when we thought of it. Not before then,” said UCLA offensive coordinator Jedd Fisch.
Rosen was 35 of 59 for 491 yards with four fourth-quarter touchdown passes and Jalen Starks and Soso Jamabo had scoring runs for the Bruins in the the biggest FBS comeback since 2006.
UCLA overcame a deficit of more than 20 points for the first time since escaping a 22-0 hole in the first quarter of the 2005 Sun Bowl against Northwestern.
Rosen threw for 292 yards and the four scoring passes in the final 15 minutes to overcome a 27point margin.
“My career at UCLA, we’ve had a lot of times where the chips didn’t fall in our favor, and I think it’s time that finally it did,” Rosen said.
UCLA scored touchdowns on five straight possessions after trailing 44-10 with 4:08 to play in the third quarter. Rosen threw touchdown passes of 9 and 42 yards to Darren Andrews before finding Theo Howard for a 16-yard score on a broken play with 3:08 remaining.
UCLA got the ball back with 2:39 to go and drove 66 yards in 10 plays, including an 11-yard throw to tight end Caleb Wilson. Rosen capped the comeback with a fade to the far corner of the end zone after the fake spike. JJ Molson kicked the winning extra point.
Texas A&M quarterback Kellen Mond was stopped short of the firstdown marker on a scramble with 20 seconds left to close out the comeback win.
“It was a lot of fun, huh? Glad you stuck around?” UCLA coach Jim Mora said. “We knew that this was not going to be an easy game, but we didn’t know we were going to be down 28 points at halftime. I was just so impressed by the way that they managed their emotions at halftime and then coming back in the second half.”
Josh Jackson passed for 235 yards, ran for 101 and accounted for two touchdowns in his first start for Virginia Tech, and the No. 21 Hokies made a lastsecond stand to beat No. 22 West Virginia 31-24 in Landover, Md.
Jackson, a redshirt freshman who won a three-way competition for the job, was up and down with his passing, but showed off some moves running in the opener. His 46-yard keeper up the middle set up Travon McMillian’s 3-yard touchdown run that put Virginia Tech up 31-24 with 6:30 left.
Historic Howard win:
Cam Newton isn’t the only quarterback in the family to lead a team to an improbable win.
Younger brother Caylin made his college debut Saturday, leading Howard to one of the biggest upsets in the sport’s history — a 43-40 win at UNLV. Caylin Newton ran for 190 yards and two touchdowns and passed for another 140 yards with a TD and interception.
“Last night, he made a name for himself,” Howard coach Mike London said about his quarterback. “Caylin did a good job of running the offense and made some fantastic runs, often with guys hanging on him.”
The Bison, a Football Championship Subdivision school, were a 45point underdog to the Rebels.
Going into Saturday’s game, Howard had lost by an average of 38 points in its past seven games against Football Bowl Subdivision teams.
Howard led 21-9 with less than six minutes remaining in the second quarter before UNLV scored 24 straight points. The Bison would eventually rally and take the lead for good on Newton’s 4-yard run with 7:34 remaining.
Francois out:
Florida State quarterback Deondre Francois will miss the rest of the season after tearing the patellar tendon in his left knee in the fourth quarter Saturday in a 24-7 loss to No. 1 Alabama in Atlanta. The Tallahassee (Fla.) Democrat first reported the injury.
The only diagnosis Seminoles coach Jimbo Fisher had after the game was “unfortunately, he’s hurt.” Francois was on crutches and the left leg was in an air cast.
Fisher said if Francois was out, James Blackman would likely be the starter.
Francois started all 13 games last season and threw for the fifth-most yards in school history (3,350). Of the four quarterbacks after Francois on the depth chart, none of them have started a college game and they have a combined 19 pass attempts.