PSU escapes USC behind Warren’s 17-catch day
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Paolo Uggetti, ESPN
LOS ANGELES — Nearly seven years ago, James Franklin watched a USC kicker split the uprights in Pasadena as the clock hit zero and Penn State squandered a 17-point fourth-quarter lead to lose the Rose Bowl Game.
On Saturday, just a handful of miles west of the storied venue, Franklin found himself doing the same. This time, however, it was at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and it was his kicker, Ryan Barker, who converted a 36-yarder in overtime to beat USC 33-30 and keeping No. 4 Penn State’s undefeated season alive.
The kick capped the Nittany Lions’ comeback after they trailed 20-6 at halftime.
“We found a way to get a tough win on the road,” Franklin said. “I’m going to take it and run to the airport.”
Though Barker’s laces sent the Nittany Lions on the long trip back to Happy Valley with a smile on their faces, it was tight end Tyler Warren who carried the offense — and team — on his back Saturday.
“Game saver,” cornerback A.J. Harris said of Warren. “We really needed him today.”
To be able to save the game from an upset, Warren needed to break it. And he did, catching 17 passes for 224 yards, tying the FBS record for most catches by a tight end in a game and posting the second-most receiving yards in school history.
Coming into this game, Warren had never had double-digit receptions in a game.
“I’ve been talking about him being the best tight end in college football,” Franklin said. “But the reality is, he’s now part of a conversation on one of the best players in all of college football.”
Warren gave the Trojans’ revamped defense fits all game long. When they didn’t cover him, he made them pay. When they tried to cover him, he still found his way to the ball like a magnet. There was no stopping Warren on Saturday, but the Trojans couldn’t even begin to contain him. And that’s just what he did in his normal role — a position he had only started playing once he arrived at Penn State.
Elsewhere, Warren was a Swiss Army knife. In what was perhaps the play of the game, Warren lined up as the center. He snapped the ball to backup quarterback Beau Pribula, who lateraled it to starter Drew Allar, who then found Warren in the end zone for a 32-yard touchdown.
“Actually, my first position I ever played in football was center my first year of flag,” Warren said postgame. “I’ve thrown the ball 17 times in high school, but I never [had 17 catches]. … So yeah, it was fun.”
Warren also ran the ball for 4 yards on one play and even had a pass himself — a 9-yard completion that resulted in a first down for the Nittany Lions.
While the Penn State offense got off to a slow start against the Trojans, scoring only six points via two field goals in the first half, there wasn’t too much that was conservative about offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki’s game plan Saturday. He tried trick plays at will, moved skill position players around like chess pieces and left the revamped USC defense under D’Anton Lynn looking, at times, confused. Warren was at the center of Kotelnicki’s madness and in the second half, the unit found their stride, gaining over 300 yards and scoring 24 points. Allar, who had thrown two second-half interceptions, totaled 391 yards and two touchdowns by the end of the game.
“Coach K, Coach Franklin, they never lost faith in me,” Allar said. “We always talk in the QB room, to keep shooting. Keep shooting no matter what. Some things aren’t going to go your way. But it’s about how you bounce back.”
“I feel like our offense has stepped up a lot since last year,” Warren said. “Playing to win was something we preached on all week, not playing conservative, being aggressive. We did a great job”
It helped, too, that as Franklin and Co. made their way west, plenty of Penn State fans who were either local or made the trip peppered the stadium in bright white Saturday.
“Once we started making some plays, you could feel our Penn State presence in the stadium,” Franklin said.
USC coach Lincoln Riley took responsibility for the Trojans blowing a 14-point halftime lead. With his Trojans falling to 3-3, Riley said they have had a chance to win all six games despite playing one of the hardest schedules in the country
“To put yourself in position to win these games is friggin’ hard to do to begin with,” he said. “I get it. We have to do a better job at the end of games, I have to do a better job. We’ve got to be able to finish, and it all falls on my shoulders. That’s why they call me the head coach.”
Before the game, Riley had asked Trojans fans to bring the energy. But by the time Barker, a former walk-on, had won the game with his left foot and the stands had mostly emptied out of cardinal and gold, a gleeful Franklin and his team celebrated as if they were right at home.
Knight’s Choice has won the 2024 Melbourne Cup, defeating Warp Speed and Okita Soushi in a thrilling finish at Flemington on Tuesday afternoon.
The massive outsider saluted for Irish-born jockey Robbie Dolan, who claimed victory in what was his first ever ride in the “race that stops a nation”.
In what was a gripping 164th staging of Australia’s most-watched thoroughbred race, Knight’s Choice proved too strong in a sprint to the finish, pulling over the top of Okita Soushi and holding off Warp Speed by the barest of margins.
Trained by John Symons and Sheila Laxon on the Sunshine Coast, Knight’s Choice was well down the betting across all markets. It was Laxon’s second Melbourne Cup triumph after she trained Ethereal to victory 23 years ago.
“This is the pinnacle of all pinnacles, this is the Melbourne Cup,” Symons said.
Zardozi rounded out the first four.
As the field approached the final few hundred metres it appeared as though Jamie Kah, aboard Okita Soushi, would become just the second woman to ride the winner in the Melbourne Cup. But Okita Soushi was swallowed up as the winning post neared, with Knight’s Choice beating Warp Speed to the line after a peach of a ride from Dolan.
“We’ll be singing tonight after a few beers,” Dolan, who was a contestant on the 2022 edition of “The Voice”, told Channel 9.
“It is amazing and a lot of people doubted this little horse. Doubt me now.”
Laxon was more than happy with the ride, with Dolan threading his way through the field from near last on the bend.
“He started the race, and he knew how to ride him. We didn’t give him instructions, he knew what to do,” she said.
“I love it being down for the Australians. The Australian horse has done it, and Robbie is Australian now as well, so I’m thrilled to win the Cup, and it is the people’s Cup, and that’s what it is all about.”
Knight’s Choice is just the sixth Australian-bred horse to win since 1993, and the first since Vow and Declare back in 2019.
The five-year-old gelding carried only 51kg to victory and was making its first start over the 3200m trip. It had most recently come off a fifth-placed finish in the Bendigo Cup, but had showed sparing little form this preparation otherwise.
“I watched every Melbourne Cup for the last 40 years. I thought my best chance was to get him to stay the trip and, hopefully, he can run home and do the quick sectionals he can on a good track and he proved everybody wrong,” Dolan said.
MILWAUKEE — The Brewers‘ starting rotation could have a new look next season with right-handers Frankie Montas and Colin Rea heading into free agency.
The Brewers announced Monday that Montas had declined his part of a $20 million mutual option for 2025. The Brewers turned down the $5.5 million club option on Rea’s contract.
Montas receives a $2 million buyout and Rea gets a $1 million buyout.
In other moves Monday, right-hander Kevin Herget was claimed off waivers by the New York Mets, and left-hander Rob Zastryzny was claimed off waivers by the Chicago Cubs. First baseman Jake Bauers and right-hander Bryse Wilson cleared waivers and were sent outright to Triple-A Nashville.
Montas, 31, had a combined 7-11 record with a 4.84 ERA and 148 strikeouts over 150⅔ innings in 30 starts for the Cincinnati Reds and Brewers this season. He was 3-3 with a 4.55 ERA in 11 starts for the Brewers, who acquired him just before the trade deadline.
Rea, 34, was 12-6 with a 4.28 ERA this season in 32 appearances, including 27 starts. He struck out 135 in 167⅔ innings. Rea had an 8.31 ERA in September and was left off the Brewers’ NL Wild Card Series roster.
Herget, 33, had no record with one save and a 1.59 ERA in seven appearances with Milwaukee this year. He was 5-1 with four saves and a 2.27 ERA in 38 relief outings with Triple-A Nashville.
Zastryzny, 32, was 1-0 with a 1.17 ERA in nine appearances with Milwaukee. He pitched in 30 games with Nashville and went 4-0 with a 3.03 ERA.
The 29-year-old Bauers batted .199 with a .301 on-base percentage, 12 homers and 43 RBIs in 116 games this season. He also hit a seventh-inning homer that broke a scoreless tie in the decisive Game 3 of the Wild Card Series with the Mets, who rallied in the ninth to win 4-2.
Wilson, who turns 27 on Dec. 20, went 5-4 with a 4.04 ERA in 34 appearances, including nine starts.
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