No. 8 Miami rallies from 25 points down to beat California

BERKELEY, Calif.>> Halfway through his first season at Miami, Cam Ward already has shown a knack for the dramatic.

Ward threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to Elijah Arroyo with 26 seconds left and No. 8 Miami roared back from a 25-point deficit in the second half to beat California 39-38 on Saturday night.

A week after rallying the Hurricanes (6-0, 2-0 ACC) from 10 points down in the fourth quarter to beat Virginia Tech, Ward did even more in engineering Miami’s biggest comeback since rallying from 28 down to beat Boston College in 1999.

“When 1 has the ball in his hands, the game is never over,” receiver Xavier Restrepo said, referring to Ward’s uniform number. “We have extreme confidence in that guy.”

With good reason.

Ward led four straight touchdown drives to end the game and spoil what looked like the most monumental day in years for the Golden Bears (3-2, 0-2), who hosted ESPN’s “College GameDay” for the first time and were on the verge of their second win over a top-10 team in the past 21 seasons.

Instead, Ward made sure the rare sellout crowd at Memorial Stadium went home unhappy after overcoming a 35-10 deficit in the third quarter. That gave the Hurricanes (6-0, 2-0) a second straight dramatic victory after needing a replay review to hold off Virginia Tech last week.

“We just can’t put ourselves in these situations to come back,” Ward said. “That’s two games straight we had to do that. We have to lock in. ... It’s good to get a win. We’re not going to complain. An ugly win is better than a good loss.”

Ward produced 277 yards of offense in the fourth quarter and leads the nation in yards passing (2,380) and TD passes (20) in his first season since transferring from Washington State.

Ward finished 33 for 53 for 437 yards with two touchdown passes and a TD run for Miami (6-0, 2-0).

Oregon state 39, Colorado State 31>>Anthony Hankerson ran for a career-high 113 yards and two scores that included a 25-yard touchdown run in the second overtime, and Oregon State stopped Colorado State twice on fourth-and-goal to end it for a victory in Corvallis, Ore.

On the final possession of the game, Colorado State had fourth-and-goal from the 10. Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi threw the ball out of the end zone, but a pass interference call gave the Rams a new set of downs from the 2.

The Beavers then stopped the Rams three times and a penalty helped make it fourth-and-goal from the 11. This time Fowler-Nicolosi’s fade pass to Tory Horton in the corner of the end zone was knocked away.

Oregon State improves to 4-1 for the second consecutive season and for third time since 2021.

Quarterback Gevani McCoy ran for 91 yards and three touchdowns for Oregon State (4-1). He finished 16-of-28 passing and threw one interception.

Fowler-Nicolosi was 20-of-30 passing for 263 yards and threw two touchdown passes for Colorado State (2-3), which trailed 21-10 early in the fourth quarter. Avery Morrow carried the ball 25 times for 140 yards and scored once.

Horton made nine catches for 158 yards with a touchdown.

McCoy, on fourth-and-2 from the Colorado State 9, took the snap and ran to his right and was briefly stopped at the 3 before slipping through three defenders into the end zone to put the Beavers up 21-10 to open the fourth quarter.

Fowler-Nicolosi tossed a 10-yard TD pass to Horton and a 2-point conversion pulled the Rams to 29-16 with 7:59 left.

Following the final two-minute timeout and on fourth-and-goal, Morrow took a direct snap out of a wildcat formation and bulled into the end zone from the 1 to give Colorado State a 24-21 lead.

McCoy then led a 14-play, 52 yard drive to set up Everett Hayes’ 44-yard field goal with 20 seconds left in regulation.

— The Associated Press