Arlington, Texas – Tulane tight end Alex Bauman caught a 6-yard touchdown from Michael Pratt with 9 seconds left to earn a frantic finish through the Green Wave in 14th place in a 46-45 win over Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams and No. 8 in Southern California to crown the Cotton Bowl on Monday.
Bauman’s contested catch, with linebacker Eric Gentry draped over him, was initially ruled incomplete, but a review of the replay showed the ball never touched the ground as players rolled over in the end zone. The Green Wave scored 16 points in the final 4:07, the game-winning touchdown came after they got the ball back from a safety.
“I might have had a heart attack,” Tulane coach Willie Fritz said shortly after the game ended.
Williams was a 37-for-52 pass for 462 yards and a Cotton Bowl-record five touchdowns exactly a month after the quarterback in USC’s loss to Utah in the Pac-12 championship game that stopped the Trojans from scoring the had suffered a hamstring injury to make four -team college football playoff.
Tyjae Spears rushed for 205 yards and his career-best fourth touchdown started the final points push for American Athletic Conference champion Green Wave (12-2), who completed an FBS-record 10 wins after going 2-10 last season. They were the top-ranked group-of-five team in the New Year’s Six game.
After Spears’ 4-yard TD with 4:07 left, the Green Wave opted to go deep rather than attempt an onside kick. Mario Williams signaled a fair catch but fumbled the ball wide on the 1. Two games later, defensive tackle Patrick Jenkins met Austin Jones in the end zone and choked him to safety.
Pratt completed just 8 of 17 passes for 234 yards but had two 24-yard completions on that final drive to safety. The first against Bauman converted a fourth and a 10, and Deuce Watts held on despite a crushing hit from a defender that left both of them down 18 seconds after a 24-yard gain on the 6.
After Williams followed Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley, the Trojans (11-3) pulled off the biggest turnaround in school history (11-3) despite the coach’s first loss in six games at AT&T Stadium. It was a seven-win improvement from last season’s 4-8 record before Riley and Williams arrived on the West Coast.
___
AP College Football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://twitter.com/ap_top25 Sign up for the AP Top 25 newsletter here: https://link.apnews.com/join /6nr /morning-wire-newsletter-footer-internal-ads
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, transcribed or redistributed without permission.
