Michigan State: 2021 Peach Bowl Champions

 

ATLANTA -- — Michigan State capped its turnaround from from a two-win season with a fourth-quarter comeback in the Peach Bowl.

Payton Thorne's 22-yard touchdown pass to Jayden Reed gave No. 11 Michigan State the lead with less than three minutes remaining and the Spartans overcame an 11-point deficit to beat No. 13 Pittsburgh 31-21 on Thursday night in the Peach Bowl.

Led by Thorne, the Spartans outscored the Panthers 21-0 in the final quarter.

"The whole game, my teammates just kept telling me to stay up and keep chopping like we talk about," Thorne said.

Linebacker Cal Haladay's 78-yard interception return for a touchdown with 22 seconds remaining ended Pitt fill-in quarterback Davis Beville's bid for a last-minute comeback in the game the Panthers played without star QB Kenny Pickett.

Thorne threw two fourth-quarter touchdown passes as Michigan State (11-2) rallied after trailing 21-10.

"We got stronger and stronger as the game went," second-year coach Mel Tucker said. "We ... were able to find a way to get it done."

Michigan State finished 2-5 in its pandemic-shortened 2020 season.

Cam Bright returned a fumble recovery 26 yards for a touchdown only 20 seconds into the second half for Pittsburgh (11-3). The Panthers lost fill-in starting quarterback Nick Patti to a broken collarbone in the first quarter.

Defensive end John Morgan forced the fumble by Michigan State quarterback Payton Thorne that was returned by Bright for a 21-10 lead.

It was the second big play by Pitt's defense. Brandon Hill's interception late in the first half set up an 87-yard touchdown drive for a 14-10 lead.

Thorne's 15-yard scoring pass to tight end Connor Heyward cut the Panthers' lead to 21-16 with 8:06 remaining. The Spartans were stopped on their 2-point play, with Heyward kept out of the end zone on another reception.

Thorne completed 29 of 50 passes for 354 yards with three touchdowns and one interception. Thorne's scoring pass to Reed with 2:51 remaining gave the Spartans a 22-21 lead. A 2-point pass to Jalen Nailor pushed the lead to three points.

With Pickett, who opted out of the game after finishing third in the Heisman Trophy voting, watching from a coach's box, the Panthers' transition at quarterback quickly took on added drama.

Making his first start since 2019, Patti was knocked out of the game in the first quarter.

On third down from the Michigan State 16 on the Panthers' second possession, Patti dropped back before taking off on a run and diving for the end zone, reaching out for the touchdown before landing hand on his left shoulder.

Patti grabbed his shoulder after rising to his feet and was escorted to the Pitt locker room. When he returned later in the first half, he was not wearing shoulder pads and his left arm was in a sling.

Beville took over for Patti and completed 14 of 18 passes for 149 yards with one touchdown and one interception.

"Davis did a great job, as good as you expect a third-team quarterback to do," said Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi. "Wasn't good enough to win the football game."

Brandon Hill's interception of Thorne's pass for Maliq Carr gave Pitt the ball at its 13, setting up the 87-yard touchdown drive.

Beville completed passes of 10 and 52 yards to Jordan Addison, the Biletnikoff Award winner as the nation's top wide receiver, against Michigan State's pass defense, which ranked last in the nation. Beville's 5-yard touchdown pass to Jared Wayne gave the Panthers a 14-10 halftime lead.

Addison had seven catches for 114 yards.

THE TAKEAWAY

Pitt: The game was expected to be a chance for Patti to make his case for the starting job next season. Former Southern Cal starter Kedon Slovis has announced he is transferring to Pitt and also will be part of the competition. Beville may have shown enough to be another contender.

Michigan State: Thorne showed poise in regrouping from a slow start. His two turnovers — one on an interception and one on a fumble — were costly, leading to two touchdowns. Thorne took advantage of his experience to take over the game in the final quarter.

NO WALKER

The Spartans were without running back Kenneth Walker, who opted out of the game after finishing sixth in the Heisman Trophy voting. Jordon Simmons led Michigan State with 16 carries for only 23 yards.

"Obviously, we're missing Ken but we felt we could get some stuff in the pass game," Thorne said. "In the fourth quarter we were able to string some stuff together and take advantage of the areas we thought we were going to be able to."

BLAME FOCUS, NOT FATIGUE

Pitt linebacker Phil Campbell said fatigue wasn't an issue in the final quarter.

"It was probably just lack of focus in certain areas," Campbell said. "We weren't more tired than they were."

RAINY DAY

Due to rain throughout the morning and most of the afternoon, the annual Peach Bowl parade in downtown Atlanta was canceled. The rain stopped in time for the retractable roof at Mercedes-Benz Stadium to be open for the game.

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AP Sports Writer George Henry contributed to this report.

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Purdue: 2021 Music City Bowl Champions

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- — Purdue came into the Music City Bowl short-handed and banged-up, particularly at wide receiver.

The Boilermakers are going home winners after a game that had people clicking over to catch an amazing finish.

Mitchell Fineran kicked a 39-yard field goal in overtime and Purdue finished off its best season since 2003 by overcoming a 14-point deficit and beating Tennessee 48-45 on Thursday in a record-setting Music City Bowl.

Purdue's Aidan O'Connell threw for 534 yards and five touchdowns with three interceptions. He couldn't explain the final five minutes of regulation as the teams combined to score four TDs — two apiece.

"It's why you love the game, it's why it keeps bringing you back," O'Connell said. "The fact it's unknown. No one knows what's going to happen. It's not a movie or TV show where the actors get retries. It seems like the world's watching and anything could happen."

Purdue (9-4) tied for the second-most wins in program history as only the 12th team in the Boilermakers' 134-year history to win nine games. They also won their fifth game away from home, something they hadn't done since 1943.

"We found a way to just barely win," Purdue coach Jeff Brohm said.

Tennessee (7-6) missed a chance to make Josh Heupel the first Vols coach to cap his debut season with a bowl win since Bill Battle won the 1971 Sugar Bowl. The Vols also snapped a four-game bowl victory streak with a loss that dropped the Southeastern Conference to 1-5 this bowl season.

The teams combined for 1,293 yards of total offense — second-most in overall bowl history, trailing only the 1,397 yards Baylor and Washington had in the 2011 Alamo Bowl. Tennessee became the 10th team in bowl game history to run 100 or more plays, and the combined 185 plays rank seventh.

This high-scoring game featured a flurry of big plays and points in the final five minutes only to see Purdue's defense make the deciding play.

On the first possession of overtime, Jamar Brown and Kieren Douglas stopped Vols running back Jaylen Wright short on fourth-and-goal. The stop was upheld on review for Wright's forward progress being stopped despite Wright reaching the ball over the goal line before the whistle without a knee touching the ground while laying on top of Douglas.

"I love these guys," Heupel said. "They fight, they scratch, they claw and they compete. We came up a play short."

Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker watched the replay on the large video board and was excited.

"I thought we scored, but you know it's a tough call," Hooker said. "Feels like me and my teammates gave it our all.

After Purdue ran three plays, Fineran sealed the victory with his fourth field goal of the game, sending the Boilermakers running down the field in celebration after what Brohm called a "a crazy game."

"It really picked up there at the end," Brohm said.

The Vols had a final chance to win in regulation, but Chase McGrath's 56 yard field goal fell well short.

Tennessee finished with 639 yards total offense and Purdue had 623 in regulation — both bowl records before overtime. O'Connell easily set the yards passing record, well above the 383 Mike Glennon had with N.C. State.

Purdue came in without a pair of All-Americans in defensive end George Karlaftis and wide receiver David Bell, both prepping for the NFL draft, with a receiving corps further thinned by injuries. Broc Thompson, who needs offseason surgery on both knees, filled in with seven catches for a game-high 217 yards and two TDs.

The Boilermakers had a chance to keep this finish from being quite so exciting. But they settled for three field goals in the second quarter and only led 23-21 at halftime. Tennessee led 31-30 after the third.

Hooker finished with 378 yards passing. Tillman had three touchdowns on seven receptions for 150 yards, and Jabari Small ran for 180 yards. Small wasn't available in overtime with Heupel saying he was fighting "some things" all through the game.

THE TAKEAWAYS

Tennessee: The Vols set a single-season record with 511 points, topping the 484 scored in 12 games in 1993. ... The Vols brought out a record crowd of 69,489 topping the previous mark of 69,143 set in 2010 when Tennessee also played in this bowl.

Purdue: Brohm said his Boilermakers had a lot of wide receivers, and they tapped that depth in this game. O'Connell spread the ball around connecting with nine receivers.

PENALTY ISSUES

The Vols were flagged 14 times for 128 yards.

"End of the day you can't control when they yellow hankies come out," Heupel said. "There's some things I don't agree with. Yeah, everyone knows that. But it's about what we can control."

UP NEXT

Tennessee is set up nicely for 2022. Tillman, who came into this season with eight career catches, finished with the Vols' first 1,000-yard season since 2012. He's already announced he's returning next season along with Hooker, tight ends Jacob Warren and Princeton Fant and a handful of other Vols.

Purdue has O'Connell coming back along for 2022, giving Brohm a chance to build on an offense that threw the ball more than any other team in school history.

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South Carolina: 2021 Duke's Mayo Bowl Champions

South Carolina coach Shane Beamer had a big day on Thursday, and he concluded it by torching a reporter on social media.

CBS Sports college football writer Dennis Dodd sent a critical tweet Thursday in which he suggested that there were too many irrelevant bowl games, and the schedule needed to be scaled back. To back his assertion, Dodd cited Beamer getting a mayonnaise bath after his Gamecocks won the Duke’s Mayo Bowl.

Beamer took notice of Dodd’s take and responded by calling out the “miserable” reporter, complete with a reminder of how wrong Dodd had been about this year’s South Carolina team.

It is not common that you see a player or coach call out a media figure that brutally. Beamer has not gone as far as one athlete-media member rivalry has, but this is still pretty stinging.

Beamer has a point, by the way. The Gamecocks finished 7-6, and the bowl game victory seemed quite sweet to everyone involved.