Texas St. tops South Alabama in four overtimes

SAN MARCOS — Brady Mcbride scored on the first possession of the fourth overtime and Texas State held on to beat South Alabama 33-31 on Saturday.

Eric Sutton, a graduate transfer from SMU, deflected a pass from South Alabama’s Jake Bentley in the end zone on the final play.

South Alabama (3-2, 0-2 Sun Belt) led by 14 points before Marcell Barbee made a toe-tap catch as he fell out of the side of the end zone to make it 24-17 with 7:17 left in regulation. Then, on fourth-and-goal from the 1, Jahmyl Jeter waited patiently for a blocker and then powered over the goal line with 17 seconds left to force overtime. Jalen Tolbert scored on a 12-yard catch-and-run on the first possession of OT to give the Jaguars a 31-24 lead, but Brock Sturges answered with a short TD run for Texas State (2-3, 1-0) to force a second overtime, which — along with the third — was scoreless.

TCU 52, TEXAS TECH 31

In Lubbock, Kendre Miller rushed for 185 yards and three touchdowns, Zach Evans had 143 yards and two scores without a carry after halftime and the Horned Frogs ran past the Red Raiders.

Evans didn’t have another carry he appeared to hurt his foot on a 1-yard touchdown with 1:35 left in the first half that pushed the Horned Frogs (3-2, 1-1 Big 12) to a 35-10 lead. It was his fourth consecutive 100-yard game, and his sixth in the last eight games going back to last season.

TCU coach Gary Patterson said Evans, whose 17 carries before halftime were more than he had in each of the last two games, could have returned if needed.

“We just made a decision. … We wanted to be very careful about it, the injury,“Patterson said. “It’s not a good turf for foot injuries.”

The Frogs, playing their first road game of the season, piled up 394 yards rushing. They jumped out to a 14-0 lead midway through the first quarter on a 33-yard score by Miller.

Henry Colombi, under intense pressure most of the night, completed 23 of 41 passes for 344 yards for Texas Tech (4-2, 1-2), which finished with 558 total yards. Sarodorick Thompson ran for 118 yards and three TDS.

“We played cruddy defense … The bottom line is, we didn’t stop the run,“Tech coach Matt Wells said. “Offensively we moved the ball well at times, but not very smooth early.”

The Red Raiders were coming off a 23-20 win at West Virginia after dropping their Big 12 opener 70-35 at Texas, which came after they swept through their three non-conference games undefeated.

Miller had two of his touchdowns after halftime, wiggling through a hole on an off-tackle run and dashed down the sideline for a 75-yard TD. He also broke free for a 45-yard touchdown with 4:51 left in the game to finally ice the victory after Tech failed on an onside kick attempt.

UTEP 26 SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI 13

Breon Heyward scooped up a fumble and raced 53 yards for a touchdown to spark the Miners past the Golden Eagles in Hattiesburg, Miss.

Ronald Awatt ran for 159 yards and a touchdown and Jacob Cowing broke free for a 53-yard touchdown to give UTEP a 14-7 halftime advantage.

Jake Lange threw a 31yard touchdown pass to Jason Brownlee in the first quarter to get the Golden Eagles even at 7-7, but had the ball stripped early in the third quarter and Heyward converted to put the Miners up, 21-7.

Awatt had 18 carries and scored the game’s first touchdown on a 17-yard run five minutes into the game. Deion Hankins carried 13 times for 46 yards for UTEP (5-1, 2-0 Conference USA).

Lange was 20 of 31 for 239 yards passing and threw two touchdowns, but was picked off once and sacked five times. The Golden Eagles (1-5, 0-2) ran the ball 32 times but managed just 15 yards.