BBVA Compass Bowl: Mississippi 38, Pittsburgh 17
Bo Wallace threw three touchdown passes and Mississippi beat Pittsburgh on Saturday in Birmingham, Ala., to complete an impressive turnaround under first-year coach Hugh Freeze.
Ole Miss (7-6) took a five-win improvement over its 2-10 finish in 2011.
Pitt (6-7) struggled on offense as leading rusher Ray Graham was held out with a hamstring injury he suffered in bowl practice. The Panthers fell behind in the opening minutes after quarterback Tino Sunseri threw his first interception since Sept. 15 and trailed the remainder of the game.
Wallace’s 13-yard touchdown pass to Ja-Mess Logan gave the Rebels the 7-0 lead. Wallace added first-half touchdown passes to Randall Mackey, for 27 yards, and Vince Sanders, for 18 yards.
Pitt, under first-year coach Paul Chryst, was making its third consecutive appearance in the bowl. The Panthers lost to SMU in last year’s game.
The Panthers played their last game as a Big East team. They are moving to the Atlantic Coast Conference next season.
Wallace, chosen the game’s MVP, completed 22-of-32 passes for 151 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions.
Ole Miss backup quarterback Barry Brunetti had a 1-yard touchdown run in the third quarter and freshman running back I’Tavius Mathers added a 62-yard scoring run midway through the fourth quarter to cap the rout.
Pitt stayed close early with Devin Street’s 10-yard pass from Sunseri in the second quarter. That was Pitt’s only touchdown until Sunseri threw a 16-yard scoring pass to Mike Shanahan with only 2:23 remaining.
Sunseri completed 16-of-32 passes for 185 yards with two touchdowns and one interception.
Sunseri’s streak of 271 passes without an interception, the nation’s longest, ended on his second throw of the Panthers’ opening drive. Senquez Golson’s interception, returned 17 yards to the Pitt 23, set up Wallace’s touchdown pass to Logan. It was only Sunseri’s third interception of the season . Sunseri lost a fumble early in the second quarter for the Panthers’ second turnover.
Wallace completed his first eight passes, including two for touchdowns but his hot streak ended with two second-quarter interceptions.
Kevin Harper kicked a 47-yard field goal, his longest of the season, for Pitt in the second quarter. Bryson Rose kicked a 31-yard field goal for Ole Miss and missed from 44 and 48 yards.
Pitt said Graham, the team leader with 1,042 yards rushing, suffered the hamstring injury in bowl practice.
Rushel Shell and freshman Malcolm Crockett, who had only 32 yards rushing in the regular season, shared the carries. Shell led the Panthers with 25 carries for 79 yards. Crockett added five carries for 18 yards.
Mathers led the Rebels with 96 yards rushing on only six carries. Jaylen Walton had 10 carries for 56 yards.
A strong turnout by Ole Miss fans within driving range of Birmingham pushed attendance to 59,135, easily a bowl record. The previous high was 42,610 for the 2010 game between South Carolina and Connecticut.
FCS Championship: North Dakota State 39, Sam Houston State 13
Quarterback Brock Jensen ran for three touchdowns, Sam Ojuri scored twice and North Dakota State beat Sam Houston State 39-13 in a title-game rematch for its second consecutive FCS championship in Frisco, Texas.
Jensen scored the go-ahead touchdown on a 1-yard sneak in the third quarter, and Ojuri had a 2-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-1 after the Bison (14-1) got the ball with a fourth-down stop.
The Bearkats (11-4) had a 40-yard touchdown run by Tim Flanders brought back by a holding penalty on the first possession of the second half, and Brian Bell’s second interception on the next play led to Jensen’s go-ahead score.
The Bison, who won 17-6 a year ago, improved to 10-1 in the FCS playoffs with their eighth straight postseason win.
Late Friday, Cotton Bowl: No. 10 Texas A&M 41, No. 12 Oklahoma 13
Johnny Manziel stretched out both of his arms and ran off the field as if he were flying.
With the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback known as Johnny Football, Texas A&M certainly is soaring in the SEC.
Manziel tiptoed the sideline for a 23-yard touchdown on the first drive of the Cotton Bowl, the first of his four touchdowns as part of his bowl-record 516 total yards and the Aggies capped their first SEC season with a rout over Oklahoma on Friday night in Arlington, Texas.
The Aggies (11-2) broke the SEC record with their 7,261 total yards this season (the first over 7,000 after 633 in Cowboys Stadium). They also averaged more than 40 points a game. Manziel’s 33-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Swope with 4 minutes left in the third quarter gave Texas A&M a 34-13 lead. Manziel set an FBS bowl record with his 229 yards rushing on 17 carries, and completed 22-of 34-passes for 287 yards.
SEC teams have won the last five Cotton Bowls, all against Big 12 teams, and nine out of 10. That included Texas A&M’s loss to LSU only two years ago.
