Navy wins with trick play
Last-minute option sets up field goal to decide outcome
Navy built the biggest turnaround of any team in college football this season by relying on the nation’s most prolific rushing attack.
So, naturally, the 21stranked Midshipmen won the Liberty Bowl on Tuesday in Memphis by completing a fourth-down halfback option pass in the final minute.
CJ Williams’ 41-yard completion to Chance Warren on fourth-and-3 gave Navy firstand-goal from the 5-yard line. After quarterback Malcolm Perry spiked the ball, Bijan Nichols kicked a 23-yard field goal with two seconds remaining to give Navy a 20-17 victory over Kansas State.
“Sometimes you just go with your gut,” Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo said. “You have all this analytics stuff and all these sheets, but sometimes you’ve got to go with your gut and roll with it.”
Perry was named the Liberty Bowl most valuable player after rushing for 213 yards and throwing a touchdown pass.
Perry ran for 2,017 yards this year to set a Football Bowl Subdivision record by a quarterback. The mark had been owned by Jordan Lynch, who ran for 1,920 yards for Northern Illinois in 2013.
“I still really can’t believe it,” Perry said.
But the ball was only briefly in Perry’s hands on the play that mattered most of all.
Other bowl games
Belk: Lynn Bowden Jr. outplayed Virginia Tech all day with his feet.
Then he closed them out with his arm.
“Ya’ll said I couldn’t throw, so over the top it goes,” Bowden joked after the game in Charlotte.
Bowden ran for 233 yards on 34 carries, and then tossed a 13-yard touchdown pass to Josh Ali with 15 seconds left as Kentucky rallied behind its remarkable receiver-turned-quarterback to beat Virginia Tech, 37-30.
Bowden ran for two touchdowns before leading an 18play, 85-yard game-winning drive that took more than eight minutes off the clock. It ended with Ali getting open down the middle of the end zone.
Sun: With each team missing its standout rusher, defense dominated in El Paso. Hardly pretty, but hardly a concern for Arizona State coach Herm Edwards.
Willie Harts returned an interception 25 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter to lead Arizona State to a 20-14 victory against Florida State. Harts, a freshman cornerback, halted a 14-0 surge by Florida State (6-7) and helped the Sun Devils (8-5) hang on for their fourth Sun Bowl victory.
Arizona: Wyoming wanted to make the most of its bowl game after being passed over in the postseason last year. Giving a freshman quarterback his first career start didn’t seem like the best approach.
Levi Williams handled it just fine and the Cowboys are riding off from the 2019 season with a bowl victory.
Williams accounted for four scores, Xazavian Valladay ran for 204 yards and scored two touchdowns, and Wyoming rolled over Georgia State, 3817, in Tucson.
Once at the 2019 Arizona Bowl, the Cowboys turned to Williams over Tyler Vander Waal, who entered the transfer portal but remained with the team for bowl practices. Williams did not shy away from the spotlight, hurting the Panthers with his arm and legs.
Alamo: Sam Ehlinger passed for three touchdowns and ran for another, and Texas excised the frustrations of a disappointing regular season with a dominant 38-10 win over No. 12 Utah in San Antonio. Texas pounded out 231 yards rushing against the nation’s No. 1 defense against the run, which had held 10 opponents under 70 yards.