Bielema fired after loss to Missouri
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Week after week, the tale of the Missouri Tigers’ remarkable turnaround on the football field keeps adding chapters.
Bret Bielema’s time as head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks, meanwhile, has reached an unhappy ending.
Missouri quarterback Drew Lock passed for 448 yards and five touchdowns, and Tucker McCann made a 19-yard field goal with five seconds remaining for a wild, 48-45 victory over Arkansas on Friday.
Missouri (7-5, 4-4 Southeastern Conference) trailed by 14 points twice in the first half of a game that wound up having five lead changes, but the emotional Razorbacks (4-8, 1-7) were unable to end their season with a good result and Bielema was fired moments after the final horn.
It is only the second losing season for Bielema in 12 years as a head coach, but it left him with a 29-34 record in his five seasons with the Razorbacks, including 11-29 in the SEC. It was a shockingly poor performance from a coach who led Wisconsin to three Rose Bowl appearances before being hired by Arkansas.
Interim athletic director Julie Cromer Peoples informed Bielema of his firing before the coach held his postgame news conference. She is serving in an interim role because Jeff Long was fired two weeks ago.
“During the course of the past five seasons, we have not been able to sustain the success on the field that is expected and required at the University of Arkansas,” she said. “… We are grateful for his contributions to our program and most importantly his investment in the lives of our student-athletes. We wish him the very best both personally and professionally.”
Lock entered Friday’s game needing three touchdown passes to set the SEC’s single-season record for scoring throws, and he had that by the end of the second quarter. He set the record with a 10-yard throw to Albert Okwuegbunam and added two in the second half, the last of which was a 24-yard strike to J’Mon Moore that put the Tigers up 45-42 midway through the fourth quarter.
Lock has 43 touchdown passes this season, topping the previous SEC best of 40 that was set by Kentucky’s Andre Woodson in 2007. Lock finished 25-of-42 passing against Arkansas to help Missouri cap its remarkable turnaround from a 1-5 start, and he has thrown at least three touchdown passes in eight straight games.
They’ll try to extend the streak in their to-be-determined bowl game.
“I’m proud and happy for our seniors to go get a chance to now do something that hasn’t been done very many times in college football — go get an eighth win after starting 1-5,” Missouri coach Barry Odom said.
› No. 10 TCU 45, Baylor 22
FORT WORTH, Texas — Kenny Hill threw touchdown passes to three receivers and added a short touchdown run as the Horned Frogs (10-2, 7-2 Big 12) clinched a spot in next weekend’s conference championship game against No. 3 Oklahoma (10-1, 7-1).
The Sooners host West Virginia (7-4, 5-3) today in a game that won’t affect the conference race but could impact the national title chase.
Baylor (1-11, 1-8) jumped out to a 9-0 lead within the first two minutes of Friday’s matchup, including a safety when Hill was sacked and wound up fumbling in the end zone. But TCU was ahead for good after Hill’s 7-yard TD pass to Jarrison Stewart made it 14-9 with 26 seconds left in the first quarter.
Defensive end Mat Boesen set a TCU single-game record by recording 5.5 of the eight sacks by the Horned Frogs.
Hill completed 26 of 36 passes for 325 yards, including scoring tosses to Desmon White and Jalen Reagor in the third quarter.
› No. 12 UCF 49, No. 19 South Florida 42
ORLANDO, Fla. — Mike Hughes’ 95-yard kickoff return with 1:28 remaining was the difference as Central Florida completed the first unbeaten regular season in program history with a wild victory that clinched the American Athletic Conference’s East Division title.
The Knights (11-0, 8-0) will host Memphis in the conference title game next Saturday. The Tigers (9-1, 6-1) host East Carolina (3-8, 2-5) today.
Hughes’ touchdown capped a crazy 53-second span in which the Knights took an eightpoint lead, South Florida (9-2, 6-2) tied it and then the Knights took the lead for good.
The Bulls tied it at 42 when Quinton Flowers connected with Darnel Salomon for an 83-yard touchdown, then found D’Ernest Johnson for a 2-point play. Flowers finished with 605 yards of total offense.
On the ensuing kickoff, Hughes found an opening on the right side and scored. South Florida drove to midfield late, but Mitchell Wilcox fumbled and the ball was recovered by Chequan Burkett.
Knights quarterback McKenzie Milton was 29-of-44 for 373 yards and four touchdowns.
Central Florida led 21-7 late in the first quarter, but South Florida took a 34-28 lead with 3:41 remaining in the game on Flowers’ 24-yard touchdown run, which marked the first time this season the Knights had trailed in the second half.
› Ole Miss 31, Mississippi State 28
STARKVILLE, Miss. — Jordan Ta’amu passed for 247 yards and two touchdowns, and Jordan Wilkins ran for two scores as the Rebels upset their rivals late Thursday night. Ole Miss held off a fourth-quarter rally by Mississippi State — which threw two interceptions and lost three fumbles — to win the Egg Bowl for the fourth time in six seasons.
The Rebels (6-6, 3-5 Southeastern Conference) had a 10-6 lead at halftime and broke it open in the second half with touchdown passes of 77 yards to A.J. Brown and 63 yards to D.K. Metcalf.
Brown, the SEC’s leader in receiving yards entering this week, had six catches for 167 yards. Wilkins had 110 yards on the ground.
Mississippi State (8-4, 4-4) was a two-touchdown favorite but had to play most of the game without starting quarterback Nick Fitzgerald. He was carted off the field in the first quarter with a right leg injury.
The Bulldogs trailed 31-13 with 8:23 remaining but scored two touchdowns to pull to 31-28 with 1:05 left. Ole Miss recovered an onside kick to seal the victory.
It produced a sweet ending to a rough season for the Rebels. The program, which has a self-imposed bowl ban, is still awaiting word on its full punishment from the NCAA in its rules infractions case against the school. It also must decide if it will keep interim coach Matt Luke or turn to someone else.