DALLAS —Riley Nelson hurriedly led BYU to the line with a call from the sideline to spike the ball and stop the clock.
Instead, Nelson faked the spike and then threw his third touchdown pass to Cody Hoffman with 11 seconds left, giving the Cougars a 24-21 victory over Tulsa on Friday in the Armed Forces Bowl and another 10-win season.
“There is a play we have which is a fake spike and then throw a touchdown, or you better throw a touchdown,” BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall said. “To have a quarterback in that situation fake spike it on his own and throw a touchdown, that’s the kind of magic of the guys that I get to coach.”
The Cougars (10-3) wrapped up their season of independence by winning 10 games for the fifth time in Mendenhall’s seven years. They won nine of their last 10 games after consecutive losses in September.
BYU needed 12 plays to go 48 yards on its last drive. Nelson converted a fourth-and-9 play with a 14-yard scramble and later ran 8 yards on third-and-5.
Out of timeouts at the 2 with the clock still running, Nelson decided to go with a play that the Cougars hadn’t practiced in about two months. And one he remembered seeing Dan Marino pull off when he was watching the NFL as a kid.
G.J. Kinne threw three touchodwn passes for Tulsa (8-5), including a 30-yard strike to Bryan Burnham with 10:42 left for a 21-17 lead.
Rutgers 27, Iowa State 13 •NEW YORK — Chas Dodd hit Brandon Coleman for an 86-yard touchdown pass late in the fourth quarter and Jawan Jamison ran for two scores to propel the Scarlet Knights.
The Scarlet Knights (9-4) ran their bowl winning streak to five and improved to 2-0 this season at Yankee Stadium, where they beat Army last month. Rutgers, which played in only one bowl game before 2005, is 5-1 in the postseason under coach Greg Schiano.
The Cyclones (6-7) finished the season on a three-game losing streak, their last win coming Nov. 18 in Ames, Iowa, when they pulled off the biggest upset of the season by beating Oklahoma State.
That night, Jared Barnett threw for 376 yards. In this game, Steele Jantz relieved Barnett in the second quarter and helped pull the Cyclones within 20-13 in the fourth quarter on Jeff Woody’s 20-yard TD run with 10 minutes left.
After an exchange of punts left Rutgers deep in its territory, Dodd went deep to Coleman. The 6-foot-6 redshirt freshman went over 5-7 cornerback Jeremy Reeves, then outran the diminutive DB to the end zone to make the score 27-13 with 5:47 left.
It was Coleman’s only catch Friday, but it turned out to be the play of the game.
Mississippi State 23, Wake Forest 17 •NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vick Ballard ran for a career-high 180 yards and two touchdowns, leading the Bulldogs to their fifth straight bowl victory and second consecutive under coach Dan Mullen.
The Bulldogs (7-6) capped a season that started with high expectations hurt by losses to Southeastern Conference teams either ranked at the time or going into bowl season by winning consecutive bowls for only the second time and first since 1999 and 2000.
Ballard’s TDs (covering 60 and 72 yards) were the longest in the Bulldogs’ 14 bowl games.
Mississippi State overcame four turnovers thanks to six sacks — its highest defensive total since piling up seven in a win over Florida in 2000.
Wake Forest (6-7) snapped a two-game bowl winning streak. The Demon Deacons of the Atlantic Coast Conference finished the season having lost five of their last six games.
Oklahoma vs. Iowa •TEMPE, Ariz. — Late game.
