West Virginia beats ASU 43-42 in Cactus Bowl
PHOENIX — Skyler Howard heard the boos from the home fans. He heard the talk about his inconsistencies. He heard how he wasn’t cut out to be a Big 12 quarterback.
On the biggest stage of West Virginia’s season, Howard did all the talking with his arm.
Howard threw for a Cactus Bowl-record 532 yards and hit David Sills on a 15-yard pass for his fifth touchdown with 2:19 left, lifting West Virginia to a wild 43-42 win over Arizona State early Sunday.
“It’s about time it fell together,” said Howard, who completed 28 of 51 passes. “We finally started clicking on offense.”
The Cactus Bowl made up for its late start with an assault on the record books.
The teams combined for 1,196 yards of offense and the 950 yards passing was the most in the Cactus Bowl’s 27-year history as the game crept well past midnight.
West Virginia (8-5) is typically a run-oriented team but went to the air against the Sun Devils.
Howard shredded Arizona State’s shoddy defensive backfield, breaking the Cactus Bowl record of 476 yards set by Washington State’s Drew Bledsoe against Utah in 1992.
He also blew past the school bowl record of 429 yards passing by Marc Bulger against Missouri in Tucson in 1998.
“He is gritty, he doesn’t ever give up, he continues to go. It doesn’t matter what people think and people say,” West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said.
“He just keeps going to work every day and keeps getting better and better. I am really proud of this kid.”
Tim White and Mike Bercovici did their best to keep Arizona State (6-7) in it.
White broke the school record for all-purpose yards with 289, scoring two touchdowns and a blocked PAT return.
Bercovici threw for 418 yards and hit Gary Chambers on a 58-yard pass for his fourth touchdown of the game to put Arizona State ahead with about 5 minutes left.
A coaching decision on the point-after ended up costing Arizona State.
Instead of going for the 2-point conversion, like their chart says, the Sun Devils inexplicably kicked an extra point and went up 42-36.
West Virginia went ahead by one on Howard’s pass to Sills and the extra point, and Arizona State turned the ball over on downs its last possession.
“We were supposed to go for 2 and we didn’t,” Arizona State coach Todd Graham said. “Mismanagement there and that is my responsibility.”
TCU rallies to top Oregon 47-41
SAN ANTONIO — Bram Kohlhausen’s 8-yard touchdown run in the third overtime carried No. 11 TCU to a wild 47-41 victory over No. 15 Oregon in the Alamo Bowl on Saturday night as the Horned Frogs stormed back from a 31-0 halftime deficit behind a backup quarterback.
The 31-point comeback to win tied the record for a bowl game, matching Texas Tech in the 2006 Insight Bowl against Minnesota.
Oregon stormed to the big lead early behind quarterback Vernon Adams Jr., but he was knocked out of the game late in the second quarter after taking a hard hit to the head. Oregon gained only 18 yards in regulation in the second half.
Kohlhausen started in place of TCU’s Trevone Boykin, who was suspended after a bar fight two days earlier.
Kohlhausen passed for 351 yards and two touchdowns and ran for two more scores.
The Ducks were clicking behind the elusive Adams, who passed for 197 yards and a touchdown, scrambled out of several sacks and marched Oregon to four straight touchdowns and a 28-0 lead.
But Oregon stopped in its tracks when Adams was hurt on a rare called run for him.
Adams knocked heads with TCU linebacker Derrick Kindred, left the game and never returned.
Jeff Lockie drove Oregon to a field goal that made it 31-0 at halftime, but the Ducks stalled.
TCU scored on all of its possessions in the second half and overtime.
Jaden Oberkrom’s 22-yard field goal with 19 seconds left tied it, and TCU scored first in the first overtime when Kohlhausen hit Emanuel Porter for a 7-yard touchdown.
Oregon answered with Royce Freeman’s third touchdown run.
After the teams exchanged field goals in the second overtime, Kohlhausen sneaked around the right end on an option.
TCU’s 2-point conversion pass attempt failed, but Oregon’s final chance to tie and keep the game going ended with an incomplete pass on fourth down near the goal line.