C.J. Stroud capped his record-setting day by leading a 56-yard drive ending in Noah Ruggles’ 19-yard field goal with nine seconds to play, and No. 6 Ohio State beat No. 11 Utah 48-45 on Saturday night in a wild 108th edition of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.
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 with an offensive performance that shattered multiple long-standing offensive marks. Stroud’s passing yards and touchdowns both are Rose Bowl records, and he finished 3 yards shy of the record for yards passing in any bowl game.
Ohio State still 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 start and stayed competitive even after star quarterback Cameron Rising went down with an injury with 9:56 to play in Utah’s first trip to the Rose Bowl.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba set an FBS bowl game record with 347 yards receiving, 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 record with 683 total yards.
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 touchdown catch with 10:12 left. Rising was injured moments later while getting sacked, and the Utes turned to Bryson Barnes, who never had thrown a collegiate pass.
Smith-Njigba then made a 30-yard, over-the-shoulder catch for his third touchdown with 4:22 to play, but Barnes improbably led the Utes on a tying drive capped by a 15-yard scoring pass to Dalton Kincaid with 1:54 left.
But Stroud coolly led the Buckeyes back downfield in the waning seconds, and Ruggles hit his easy field goal. Ohio State kicked off to Britain Covey, who earlier had a 97-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, but the Buckeyes smothered his cutback as time ran out.
Rising passed for 214 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 92 yards and a score, but he left the game with an apparent head injury after getting sacked.
With two top Buckeyes receivers opting out of the Rose Bowl, Smith-Njigba had a spectacular day that included touchdown receptions of 50 and 52 yards made 30 seconds apart — albeit with Covey’s TD return in between.
Smith-Njigba broke Cris Carter’s 1985 school record of 172 receiving yards 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.
When Utah led 35-21 at halftime, the schools matched the 2012 Oregon-Wisconsin matchup for the highest-scoring half in Rose Bowl history — and they combined for 42 points and 443 yards in the second quarter alone.
The 24-year-old Covey’s sensational 97-yard romp through the Buckeyes in the second quarter was the first kickoff return for a touchdown in Utah bowl history. Covey, who also caught a 19-yard touchdown pass for the Utes’ first points, arrived at the school in 2015.
A sellout crowd dominated by Utah fans created a crackling atmosphere in the venerable stadium that opened in October 1922.
With the anticlimactic nature of this Rose Bowl for the Buckeyes, whose 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.
Citrus Bowl: No. 22 Kentucky 20, No. 15 Iowa 17
Chris Rodriguez ran for a 6-yard touchdown with 1 minute, 48 seconds to play, rallying the Wildcats in Orlando, Fla.
Kentucky 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 the Wildcats to the 1-yard line. Robinson, the game MVP, finished with 10 catches for 170 yards, while Levis completed 17 of 28 passes for 233 yards and a touchdown.
DeAndre Square intercepted Iowa’s Spencer Petras with 48 seconds to play to clinch the victory. Kentucky (10-3) won a fourth straight bowl game for the first time in school history and became the fourth Wildcats team to win at least 10 games.
Iowa (10-4), which rose to as high as No. 2 in the AP Top 25, saw its bowl winning streak end at three games. The Hawkeyes stormed back from a 13-3 halftime deficit and led 17-13 after Petras’ 36-yard touchdown pass to Sam LaPorta with 10:54 to play.
Iowa dominated Kentucky in the second half before the final drive, when the Wildcats drove 80 yards in eight plays. Rodriguez rushed for 107 yards and the go-ahead score, and he caught a short touchdown pass from Levis in the first half.
Iowa cornerback Jemari Harris appeared to have capped the win for the Hawkeyes when he picked off Levis with 3:59 to play. It was Iowa’s school-record 25th interception of the season. The Hawkeyes also had seven sacks.
But the Hawkeyes elected to punt on fourth-and-1 from their own 45 with 3:38 remaining, and the punt sailed into the end zone for a touchback, setting up Kentucky’s game-winning drive.
The Hawkeyes came in with the nation’s 123rd-ranked offense (297.5 yards per game) and having scored two offensive touchdowns in their previous three games. But Iowa eventually came alive behind Petras, who finished 19 of 30 for 211 yards. Gavin Williams ran for 98 yards on 16 carries, while Arlen Bruce IV gave Iowa its first touchdown on a 20-yard sweep with 3:21 left in the third quarter. LaPorta, the latest in a long line of elite Iowa tight ends, caught five passes for 98 yards.
Kentucky passed almost every test offensively in the early going against Iowa’s stout defense. Levis connected on nine of his first 11 passes, including a 5-yard swing pass to Rodriguez for the only touchdown of the first half.
Levin completed a 34-yard strike to Robinson on a third-and-26 play, leading to a field goal for the Wildcats. Thirty-nine seconds later, D’Eryk Jackson intercepted Petras after the ball was tipped at the line by Jordan Wright. However, Iowa’s defense held firm and forced Kentucky to settle for Matt Ruffolo’s second field goal.
Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz and offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz refused to name a starting quarterback in the days leading up the game, but the Hawkeyes went with Petras, the starter most of the season despite injuries that knocked him out of 31/2 games.
Outback Bowl: No. 21 Arkansas 24, Penn State 10
KJ Jefferson picked up 104 of his 110 rushing yards in the second half and threw for 90 more to lead the Razorbacks in Tampa, Fla.
Raheim Sanders had 79 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries and Dominique Johnson added 85 yards on 11 carries as the Razorbacks finished with 361 rushing yards.
Arkansas (9-4), coming off four consecutive seasons of four or fewer wins, finished with nine victories for the first time since going 11-2 in 2011. The Razorbacks also played in their first bowl game since the 2016 Belk Bowl.
Sean Clifford went 14 of 32 or 195 yards for Penn State (7-6). He also ran for 47 yards.
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.
Jefferson and Sanders had scoring runs, and Cam Little made a 36-yard field goal in the third quarter to put Arkansas up 24-10.
Arkansas took the opening kickoff in the second half and put together a seven-play, 75-yard drive that concluded with Jefferson’s 8-yard touchdown run. Jefferson was hurt and left for several plays after a 34-yard dash later in the third period and was replaced by Malik Hornsby. Hornsby had a 32-yard run to set up Sanders’ 1-yard score with two minutes left in the quarter.
Hornsby finished with 67 yards on four carries.
Penn State led 10-7 at the half thanks to a 43-yard field goal by Jake Pinegar. The Nittany Lions tied it at 7 early in the second quarter when Clifford took advantage of blown coverage and hit a wide open KeAndre Lambert-Smith for a 42-yard touchdown.
Arkansas took a 7-0 lead on the last play of the first quarter when Sanders ran for a 3-yard touchdown. The Razorbacks converted a pair of fourth-down plays on the drive, including Jefferson avoiding a sack and running for 13 yards.
In the Big Ten’s last game of the day, No. 6 Ohio State is playing No. 11 Utah in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.
