Tulane upsets USC 46-45 in a wild Cotton Bowl finish
USC Trojans #13 Caleb Williams (QB) attempting a pass downfield to one of his open receivers. Photo by Kevin Magee/TGSportstv1.
ARLINGTON, TX- The Tulane Green Waves scored 16 unanswered points in the final four minutes en route to a 46-45 win over USC Trojans at AT&T Stadium in the Cotton Bowl.
Heisman-winner Caleb Williams threw for 462 yards with five touchdowns for USC but it wasn't enough to keep the Green Waves down.
Tyjae Spears rushed for 205 yards and four touchdowns on his way to the Cotton Bowl MVP while quarterback Michael Pratt threw for 234 yards with two touchdowns for Tulane.
The Trojans struck first with wide receiver Michael Jackson catching a nine-yard touchdown pass from Williams with six minutes left in the first quarter.
USC Trojans #2 Brenden Rice (WR) caught a 30-yard pass from Caleb Williams at the Tulane Green Wave’s one-yard line. Photo by Kevin Magee/TGSportstv1.
In the second quarter, Williams wowed the stadium spinning out of a sack on third-and-twenty-two, tiptoeing the sideline before uncorking a 30-yard-strike to receiver Brenden Rice who snagged it at the one-yard-line. Williams completed the drive two plays later with his second touchdown pass of the afternoon, a 3-yard touchdown pass to Terrell Bynum to give the Trojans a 14-0 lead.
Tulane got on the board on their next drive with a three-yard touchdown run from Spears cutting the lead to 14-7 following the extra point from kicker Green Wave kicker Valentino Ambrosio.
After a scoring barrage in the third and fourth quarters by the Trojans, Tulane found themselves down 45-30 with 4:34 to go in the fourth quarter. Pratt then put the Green Waves on his back engineering a comeback for the ages.
Tulane Green Wave #22 Tyjae Spears (RB) 4-yard touchdown run. Photo by Kevin Magee/TGSportstv1.
Pratt led his team down the field in 23 seconds culminating in Spears' 4-yard touchdown run, his fourth touchdown of the game to cut the lead in half to 45-37.
After a costly special team fielding miscue by the Trojans on the kickoff, USC found themselves pinned back on their 1-yard line. Two plays later Tulane defensive lineman Patrick Jenkins tackled Austin Jones in the endzone for a safety, narrowing the gap to 45-39.
Pratt then drove his team 64 yards down the field in the final three minutes of the game. Receiver Alex Bauman completed the comeback catching the game-winning six-yard touchdown pass from Pratt with nine seconds remaining giving Tulane the 46-45 win.
It was a disappointing end to the season for a Trojan team that was one win away from the College Football Playoffs less than a month ago.
"Losses like this are always tough to digest," said Trojan coach Lincoln Riley. "This is as tough a loss as I can remember in my entire career. I'm sick about how we ended the season."
Meanwhile, Tulane's performance not only gave them the Cotton Bowl win but the largest turnaround in college football history going from 2-10 last season to 10-2 this year.