GLENDALE, Ariz. — Oklahoma State was a step slow in the first half, appearing to be stuck in the desert sand while Notre Dame raced around the field.
A quick scoring drive just before halftime gave the No. 9 Cowboys a spark and they rode it one of the biggest victories in school history.
Led by Spencer Sanders, Oklahoma State pulled off the biggest comeback in Fiesta Bowl history, overcoming a 21-point deficit to beat No. 5 Notre Dame 37-35 on Saturday.
Sanders accounted for 496 yards and threw three of his four touchdown passes to Tay Martin, including a 9-yarder to cap a four-play, 75-yard drive just before halftime.
“Us going down and scoring quickly just before the half, that gave us hope,” Oklahoma State Mike Gundy said. “That gave us a chance as coaches to say, ‘Guys, we’re fine.’”
Oklahoma State (12-2, No. 9 CFP) came up inches short of securing a College Football Playoff spot in a loss to No. 6 Baylor at the Big 12 title game and fell into 21-point, first-half hole against Notre Dame (11-2, No. 5 CFP).
Jack Coan led Notre Dame’s early charge while throwing for a Fiesta Bowl-record 509 yards and five touchdowns.
Sanders and Martin brought the Cowboys back.
Sanders, who had a 9-yard touchdown pass to Jaden Bray in the first quarter, cut Notre Dame’s lead to 28-14 with a 9-yard scoring pass to Martin with 37 seconds left in the first half. The pair connected for two more touchdowns, from 5 and 8 yards, to tie the game, and the Cowboys went up 34-28 on three field goals by Tanner Brown.
Sanders threw for 371 yards on 34-of-51 passing and ran for 125 yards after throwing four interceptions in the Big 12 title game. He’s the second player in FBS history with 350 yards passing, 100 rushing yards and four passing touchdowns in a bowl game, joining Clemson’s Tajh Boyd in the 2014 Orange Bowl.
“One the game down to on, it was anybody’s game and we just decided to pull a little harder,” Sanders said.
Notre Dame still had a chance.
The Irish forced two fumbles deep in their own end, but turned the ball over on downs at the 15 and Brown kicked a 25-yard field goal
Coan threw a 25-yard TD pass to Kevin Austin with 1:05 left to pull Notre Dame within two, but Oklahoma State recovered the onside kick to keep the Irish winless in major bowl games since the 1993 Cotton Bowl under Lou Holtz.
“In the first half, we scored 28 points, we’re moving the ball, we’re protecting the quarterback and obviously things didn’t go that way in the second half,” Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said after his head coaching debut. “We have to go back a see what the defense did schematically to give us some issues and try find a way to make sure that never happens again.”
The Irish appeared to be headed toward a rousing start to the Freeman era, building a 28-7 lead behind Coan. Notre Dame’s senior quarterback threw for 342 yards and four touchdowns in the first half, including two to tight end Michael Mayer.
All the momentum came to a thudding halt in the second half.
Oklahoma State ramped up the pressure on Coan and shut down Notre Dame’s offense while its offense was revving up.
Notre Dame finally got something going midway through the fourth quarter, but Malcolm Rodriguez stepped in front of Austin for an interception at the Cowboys’ 18-yard line.
“It was a lot of yards, but all I really care about at the end of the day is winning,” said Coan, who finished 38 for 68. “I wish I could have done more to help the team.”
THE TAKEAWAY
Notre Dame’s latest loss in a major bowl is going to sting for a while. The Irish looked like their argument to have been in the CFP was valid in a dominating first half, only to fall flat in the second.
A monster turnaround after a flat start gave Oklahoma State its first major bowl win since the 2011 Fiesta Bowl.
UP NEXT
Notre Dame: The Irish will have to replace Coan and Williams on offense, but Mayer, their leading receiver, is a sophomore. DT Kurt Hinish is out of eligibility and pass rushing specialist Isaiah Foskey is planning decided whether to leave for the NFL by Jan. 17.
Oklahoma State: Sanders still has eligibility left, but the Cowboys will have to replace Warren, Martin, RB Dezmon Jackson and OL Josh Sills.
ROSE BOWL
OHIO STATE 48, UTAH 45
PASADENA, Calif. — C.J. Stroud and Jaxon Smith-Njigba put on a passing performance that obliterated a multitude of records during one of the biggest offensive days in Ohio State’s storied history.
The Buckeyes still barely did enough to hold off resilient Utah and its backup quarterback in one spectacular Rose Bowl.
Stroud capped his record-setting offensive day by leading a 56-yard drive ending in Noah Ruggles’ 19-yard field goal with nine seconds to play, and No. 7 Ohio State beat No. 10 Utah 48-45 on Saturday night in the wild 108th edition of the Rose Bowl.
Stroud passed for a school-record 573 yards and a record-tying six touchdowns for the Buckeyes (11-2), who won the Granddaddy of Them All for the second time in four years while toppling one long-standing offensive record after another. Stroud’s yards passing and touchdowns both are Rose Bowl records, and he finished 3 yards shy of the record for yards passing in any bowl game.
“It’s emotional for me,” said Stroud, from nearby Rancho Cucamonga. “It’s like I’m dreaming right now. I was able to come home and win the Rose Bowl like this. … This is the Rose Bowl, man. This is where the legendary games are being played.”
Ohio State created a few more legends on this trip.
Smith-Njigba set the record for any FBS bowl game with 347 yards receiving while catching a school-record 15 passes and scoring three touchdowns. Marvin Harrison Jr. also caught three TD passes for the Buckeyes, who set a Rose Bowl and school bowl record with 683 total yards.
Yet the Buckeyes were the ones playing from behind for nearly all of the first three-plus quarters in Arroyo Seco until they summoned the will for three fourth-quarter scoring drives.
“Our team is built on fighting,” Smith-Njigba said. “It doesn’t matter if we’re up, down. We were down the first half, but we just had to stay level headed and keep fighting.”
Ohio State had to rally from 10 points down late in the third quarter to get past the Pac-12 champion Utes (10-4), who got off to an electrifying 35-point first half in their first school’s first trip to the Rose Bowl. They even stayed competitive after star quarterback Cameron Rising went down with an injury while getting sacked with 9:56 to play.
The Utes had to turn to backup Bryson Barnes, who grew up on a pig farm in central Utah and had never thrown a collegiate pass. He he led them on a tying drive, capped by a 15-yard TD pass to Dalton Kincaid with 1:54 left.
Stroud coolly drove the Buckeyes back downfield in the waning seconds, and Ruggles hit his easy field goal. Ohio State kicked off to Britain Covey, who already had a 97-yard kickoff return for a touchdown earlier, but the Buckeyes smothered his cutback as time ran out.
“All we needed was 30 more seconds, if that,” Barnes said. “Get down the field, tie it and head to OT. But we didn’t get enough time. … A lot of dudes are sad, but there’s not a lot to hang our heads on. We’ve been through the lowest of lows and highest of highs, but we made Utah football history today.”
In front of a raucous crowd dominated by Utah fans in the venerable stadium that opened in October 1922, the schools matched the 2012 Oregon-Wisconsin matchup for the highest-scoring first half in Rose Bowl history, combining for 42 points and 443 yards in the second quarter alone.
Ohio State trailed 38-31 entering the fourth quarter despite the pyrotechnics of its passing game, but the Buckeyes immediately stopped Utah on downs at the Ohio State 31, and tied it on Harrison’s 5-yard TD catch with 10:12 left. After Rising’s injury, Smith-Njigba made a 30-yard, over-the-shoulder catch for his third touchdown with 4:22 to play.
“To come out in the second half and play the way we did says a lot about this team,” said Ohio State coach Ryan Day, who earned his second bowl victory. “We were short-handed, and for us to respond the way we did at halftime says a lot about the character of this team.”
Rising passed for 214 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 92 yards and a score while leading the Utes to a 35-21 halftime lead, but he left the game with an apparent head injury. Utah played without three of its top four cornerbacks, even forcing running back Micah Bernard to play defensive back for the first time since high school.
“At some point, we have to play defense,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said. “We didn’t play very well all night long on defense. It wasn’t our usual. Not sure we’d be able to get a stop.”
JAXON DRIVE
With two top Buckeyes receivers opting out, Smith-Njigba had a landmark day that included TD receptions of 50 and 52 yards made 30 seconds apart — albeit with Covey’s TD return in between.
He broke Cris Carter’s 1985 school record of 172 yards receiving in a bowl game in the first half alone. He snapped Keyshawn Johnson’s 1996 Rose Bowl record of 216 yards receiving and then Terry Glenn’s 1995 single-game school record of 253 yards after halftime. Smith-Njigba finished his season with 1,606 yards, blowing past David Boston’s 1998 school record.
OLD MAN STRENGTH
The 24-year-old Covey’s sensational 97-yard romp through the Buckeyes’ coverage unit was the first kickoff return for a touchdown in Utah’s entire bowl history. Covey, who also caught a 19-yard TD pass for the Utes’ first points, arrived at the school in 2015.
DOWN STATE
The Buckeyes’ loss to Michigan in November knocked them out of the national title picture, four key starters opted out to preserve their health for the NFL draft: Receivers Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson, starting left tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere and defensive tackle Haskell Garrett.
THE TAKEAWAY
Ohio State: A win in Pasadena is always never taken for granted by a Big Ten power. The Buckeyes overcame the instinct to relax after their national title dreams died, and they put on a performance that showed Day’s program has tenacity.
Utah: The Utes were agonizingly close to their third New Year’s Six victory during their two-decade transformation from a mid-major overachiever to an elite Power 5 program. Despite the loss, the impressiveness of their fight and the size of their traveling fan base confirms Utah has arrived.
OUTBACK BOWL
NO. 22 ARKANSAS 24, PENN STATE 10
TAMPA, Fla. — KJ Jefferson picked up 104 of his 110 rushing yards in the second half and threw for 90 more to lead Arkansas past Penn State in the Outback Bowl.
Raheim Sanders had 79 yards and two touchdowns on 13 rushing attempts and Dominique Johnson added 85 yards on 11 carries. The Razorbacks finished with 361 rushing yards.
Arkansas (9-4), coming off four consecutive seasons of four or fewer wins, got its first nine-win year since going 11-2 in 2011. The Razorbacks also played in their first bowl game since the 2016 Belk Bowl.
Jefferson ran 20 times while completing 14 of 19 passes. The 6-foot-3, 245-pound sophomore was sacked five times and limited to 6 yards rushing on 11 carries during the first half.
Sean Clifford went 14 of 32 or 195 yards for Penn State (7-6). He gained 47 yards on the ground on 11 attempts.
CITRUS BOWL
NO. 25 KENTUCKY 20, NO. 17 IOWA 17
ORLANDO, Fla. — Chris Rodriguez scored on a 6-yard touchdown with 1:48 to play and Kentucky rallied in the fourth quarter to beat Iowa in the Citrus Bowl.
Kentucky (10-3) was forced to rally after blowing a 10-point lead in the second half. Wan’Dale Robinson set up the winning score when he caught a 52-yard pass from Will Levis to get to the 1. Robinson finished with 10 catches for 170 yards, and Levis completed 17 of 28 passes for 233 yards and a touchdown.
DeAndre Square intercepted Spencer Petras’ pass with 48 seconds to seal it.
Iowa finished 10-4.