Buffalo safety Dylan Powell celebrates an interception against Georgia Southern during the the Camellia Bowl on Tuesday in Montgomery, Ala. Mickey Welsh/The Montgomery Advertiser via AP
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Cole Snyder passed for 265 yards and Tajay Ahmed took over the fourth quarter with 14 carries to lead Buffalo to a 23-21 victory over Georgia Southern in the Camellia Bowl on Tuesday.
The Bulls (7-6) chewed up the clock with runs from Ahmed on 11 consecutive plays and one pile-pushing final first down. He finished with 27 carries for 98 yards and a touchdown.
That last first down meant quarterback Kyle Vantrease and Georgia Southern (6-7) couldn’t get the ball back for a final chance against Vantrease’s former team, with whom he spent five years and started 26 games before transferring.
Snyder, a Rutgers transfer, completed 21 of 38 passes, including a 32-yard touchdown to game MVP Justin Marshall to outduel his predecessor. Marshall caught 11 passes for 127 yards, and Quian Williams gained 100 yards on five catches.
Vantrease completed 28 of 45 passes for 352 yards and two touchdowns with an interception. Beau Johnson had five catches for 118 yards.
It was Buffalo’s third straight bowl win after going 0-3 in bowls.
FIRST RESPONDERS BOWL: Seth Henigan passed for 284 yards and three touchdowns – two of them to Eddie Lewis – and Jeyvon Ducker ran for two touchdowns to give Memphis a 38-10 win over Utah State in Dallas.
Henigan’s touchdown passes were all thrown in the second quarter, when Memphis outscored Utah State 21-3. The Tigers outgained the Aggies in the period 179 yards to 39 and 137-16 in the air.
Ducker had a 1-yard plunge and a 48-yard sprint for scores, both in the fourth quarter.
NEBRASKA: Edge rusher Garrett Nelson will declare for the NFL draft instead of returning for a fifth season with the Cornhuskers under new coach Matt Rhule.
Nelson, who made the announcement on Twitter, is the most productive defensive player on the 2022 team to leave since Rhule was named coach a month ago.
Nelson finished the season with 65 tackles, including a career-high 11 against Rutgers, and had 5 1/2 sacks and nine tackles for loss. He was voted to The Associated Press All-Big Ten second team.
BETHUNE-COOKMAN: Pro Football Hall of Famer Ed Reed has agreed to become the football coach at Bethune-Cookman and is leaving his job with the Miami Hurricanes, the schools announced.
Reed played at Miami and spent the last three years in an administrative role with the Hurricanes, first as chief of staff under former coach Manny Diaz for two years and this past year as a senior advisor under coach Mario Cristobal.
Reed will replace Terry Sims at Bethune-Cookman. Sims was fired after going 38-39 in seven seasons, and when the school made that move Wildcats Athletic Director Reggie Theus – the longtime NBA player – said he would be looking to hire someone who can “ensure that we not only build a championship culture on the field, but also aspire to academic excellence and career achievement off the field.”
About a month later, he struck a deal with Reed.
The move will inevitably spark comparisons to the move Jackson State – like Bethune-Cookman, a historically Black college and university – made when it brought in Deion Sanders to lead its program. Sanders went 27-6 in three seasons at Jackson State before getting hired earlier this month to take over at Colorado.
There are no shortage of parallels: Sanders and Reed are both Super Bowl champions, both won NFL defensive player of the year awards, both were two-time consensus All-Americans in college, both are members of the College Football Hall of Fame and both have been enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
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POSTPONEMENT: The game between No. 14 Miami and Vermont scheduled for Wednesday has been canceled because the Catamounts had weather-related travel issues. It will not be rescheduled this season.
Miami is on an eight-game winning streak and is at its highest spot in the AP Top 25 since being No. 6 in the poll released on Dec. 18, 2018.
The game would have been Vermont’s first contest against a team ranked 14th or higher in the AP poll since a 61-55 loss to then-No. 7 Virginia on Nov. 19, 2019.
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