No. 3 Utah stays perfect, ends Holy War skid against No. 7 BYU
· Yahoo Sports
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Devon Dampier accounted for four touchdowns, Utah intercepted four Bear Bachmeier passes and the third-ranked Utes remained undefeated with a 28-20 victory over No. 7 BYU on Saturday.
Dampier hurt the Cougars with with his arm and legs, finishing with 264 yards of offense to help the Utes (9-0, 6-0 Big 12, No. 3 CFP) snap a three-game losing streak in the Holy War rivalry series. He threw two touchdown passes to Braden Pegan and ran for two more scores.
Visit fish-roadgame.online for more information.
Trailing by six at halftime, Utah forced three turnovers and shut out the Cougars (7-2, 4-2, No. 9 CFP) in the second half to keep alive its College Football Playoff hopes. BYU has lost two of three to dampen its CFP chances.
Bachmeier threw for 272 yards and a touchdown and ran for 59 yards, but he had two of his four interceptions in the fourth quarter — both in the end zone. He had four interceptions in BYU’s first eight games.
Down 20-14 at halftime, Utah went ahead in the third quarter on Pegan’s 14-yard TD catch while its defense held BYU to 39 yards and had an interception during that stretch. Dampier’s second TD run — this one from 5 yards out — gave Utah a 28-20 lead with 12:03 left.
Bachmeier marched BYU down to the Utah 2 but threw an interception to Trey Reynolds with 4:39 remaining. Nate Ritchie picked off another Bachmeier pass in the end zone in the final seconds after the Cougars had reached the Utah 41.
NO. 5 UCLA 34, MINNESOTA 20
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Ty Dieffenbach threw two 75-yard touchdown passes to Aidan Mizell in the fourth quarter for UCLA, as the Bruins sped away from Minnesota to stay undefeated with a victory.
Wayne Knight rushed for 109 yards and his 15th score of the season to help keep the Bruins (9-0, 6-0) atop the Big Ten and boost their College Football Playoff bid after landing eighth in the first ranking this week.
Dieffenbach, who took over a month ago for the injured Nico Iamaleava, had a career-high 303 yards on just eight completions to overcome an interception and a lost fumble. He found Mizell, a transfer from Florida, streaking through the secondary on consecutive one-play possessions to fend off the Gophers (5-4, 3-3).
The Bruins have been the breakout story in major college football behind first-year coach Bob Chesney, who took James Madison to a playoff spot last season and has tied the largest year-over-year turnaround in program history. UCLA went 3-9 in 2025.
Drake Lindsey passed for 205 yards and a touchdown to freshman tight end George Rohl that tied the game at 17 in the third quarter, but the defense wore down in the second half after keeping the Gophers right there with the Bruins before the coverage breakdowns on the track-speedy Mizell.
NO. 9 ALABAMA 31, NO. 15 LSU 13
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Keelon Russell passed for three touchdowns, Alabama’s defense made several pivotal fourth-down stops, and the ninth-ranked Crimson Tide pulled away for a victory over LSU.
Alabama (7-2, 5-2 SEC) remained firmly in the College Football Playoff picture, while leaving LSU (6-3, 3-3) with long-shot hopes at best under first-year coach Lane Kiffin, who also dropped to 0-6 in his coaching career against Alabama (including prior stints at Mississippi and Tennessee).
Russell’s touchdown passes went for 7 yards to Josh Ford, 25 yards to Cederian Morgan and 4 yards to Kaleb Edwards.
LSU quarterback Sam Leavitt completed 35 of 47 passes for 380 yards, but was intercepted for the first time in three games as the Tigers struggled to cash in on scoring chances.
LSU went 0 for 4 on fourth down, those failures combining with a missed field goal and a turnover in Tide territory to limit the Tigers to a single touchdown.
NO. 10 TEXAS 34, NO. 19 MISSOURI 20
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Arch Manning threw for 297 yards and three touchdowns, including the go-ahead TD pass to Raleek Brown with just over five minutes to go, and Texas rallied to beat Missouri and keep alive its College Football Playoff hopes.
Brown added 85 yards and a clinching touchdown on the ground, while the Longhorns (7-2, 4-2 SEC, No. 7 CFP) made a series of big defensive plays in the fourth quarter to help preserve their fourth win over a top-20 opponent this season.
The biggest defensive play came as the Tigers (6-3, 3-3, No. 18 CFP) were trying to match Brown’s go-ahead score.
They had taken over near midfield with about two minutes to go, and Jamal Roberts was stopped for a short gain before Austin Simmons threw incomplete. On third down, Simmons tried to find favorite target Cayden Lee, but a defender knocked the ball into the air just as it arrived and Texas cornerback Graceson Littleton hauled it down for an interception.
Brown scored moments later, powering into the end zone to put the game away.
OREGON 41, NO. 11 OHIO ST. 28
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Dierre Hill Jr. rushed for two touchdowns, Dylan Raiola passed for 257 yards and Oregon rallied from an early two-touchdown deficit to hammer Ohio State.
The Ducks (6-3, 4-2 Big Ten, No. 23 CFP) were down 14-0 late in the first quarter before scoring on four of their next five drives to take control of the game and deliver a stunning loss to the Buckeyes, who have dropped two straight games for the first time since 2011.
Ohio State has also likely seen its chances of making the College Football Playoff dashed after opening the season as the top-ranked team in The Associated Press Top 25.
It is also the first time since October 1992 that Ohio State (6-3, 4-2, No. 12 CFP) has lost back-to-back games to unranked opponents.
NO. 14 WAKE FOREST 77, MERRIMACK 0
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — Steele Pizzella stepped into the starter’s role and kept Wake Forest rolling, throwing for 432 yards and three touchdowns in the first half to lead the Demon Deacons to their sixth straight victory, a record-setting rout of Merrimack of the Football Championship Subdivision.
With Pizzella filling in for injured starter Gio Lopez, Wake Forest (8-1) scored 11 touchdowns to break the school scoring record set in a 70-58 win over Army on Oct. 23, 2021.
Pizzella accounted for 495 yards while playing just the first 30 minutes. He had 63 yards rushing, including a 13-yard touchdown late in the second quarter that sent Wake into halftime leading 49-0.
His performance was the first 400-yard passing day for Wake Forest since Hank Bachmaier threw for 403 yards against Virginia in 2024. The Demon Deacons finished with 546 yards passing, breaking the record set in that Virginia game. Jack Foley was their leading receiver with six catches for 162 yards.
The Demon Deacons finished with 730 yards of total offense, 4 yards shy of the school record set against Syracuse on Nov. 11, 2017.
NO. 17 HOUSTON 31, CINCINNATI 24
HOUSTON (AP) — Re’Shaun Sanford II ran for 126 yards and the tiebreaking score in the fourth quarter, and Conner Weigman threw for 227 yards and two touchdowns as Houston beat Cincinnati.
Sanford’s 51-yard TD run with 5:10 remaining gave the Cougars (7-2, 4-2 Big 12) the lead.
Cincinnati (5-4, 2-4) drove to the Houston 42, but a throw by JC French IV was ruled a backward pass after a replay review, and Houston recovered with 2:11 remaining. The Cougars ran out the clock from there.
Makhi Hughes rushed for 90 yards, and Weigman, who finished 17 of 24 passing, also rushed for a touchdown. Amare Thomas had six catches for 78 yards and two touchdowns, and Patrick Overmyer had four receptions for 66 yards for Houston, which finished with 468 yards of offense.
NO. 23 SOUTH CAROLINA 23, TEXAS A&M 9
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — LaNorris Sellers threw for 251 yards and a touchdown and ran for a clinching score as South Carolina won its fourth straight game by outlasting Texas A&M.
Malik Orsan’s 43-yard field goal midway through the final quarter put South Carolina ahead for good, 10-9, while Sellers’ 41-yard TD run on an injured ankle in the last two minutes sealed things.
It was far from a vintage performance from Sellers or the Gamecocks (6-3, 4-3 Southeastern Conference; No. 21 CFP). Still, it was good enough for South Carolina to continue its second-half surge this season.
Texas A&M (4-5, 1-5), which started the season at No. 8, fell for the third time in its past four games and guaranteed itself a losing league season a year after reaching the College Football Playoff.
_____