Backup QB Worthman leads Air Force past Fresno State 31-21

 Backup quarterback Arion Worthmanran for 102 yards and two touchdowns as an injury replacement to rally Air Force past Fresno State 31-21 on Friday night.

Air Force (5-3, 2-3 Mountain West Conference) snapped a three-game losing streak, while Fresno State (1-8, 0-5) joined the 1929 Bulldogs as the only teams in school history to lose seven consecutive games.

The Falcons were able to win despite senior starting quarterback Nate Romine leaving the game with an apparent ankle injury with 6:19 remaining in the third quarter, when the Falcons were trailing 21-17.

Enter Worthman, a sophomore with one career rush and one career pass - both in this season's opener - to his credit. He fueled the winning rally as the primary ball carrier on two scoring drives in the fourth quarter, attempting just two passes as Air Force ran the ball on its final 30 plays - including all 24 in the fourth quarter.

Worthman's 2-yard leap into the end zone on an option keeper gave Air Force a 24-21 lead with 13:02 to play in the game. His 4-yard keeper sealed the victory with 2:34 to play in the game.

Fresno State was playing its first game since head coach Tim DeRuyter was fired. Freshman quarterbackChason Virgil threw three touchdown passes to KeeSean Johnson, but also threw four interceptions that set up two Falcons touchdowns.

THE TAKEAWAY

AIR FORCE: The Falcons have scored in 293 consecutive games, the fifth-longest streak in FBS history, and the third-longest active streak behind Florida (353) and Texas Christian (300).

FRESNO STATE: The Bulldogs are out of bowl-game contention, so their attention is focused on finding the next head coach to replace DeRuyter. Local media reports name former Cal coach Jeff Tedford, a former Fresno State player and offensive coordinator, as the clear front runner. Tedford has long-running ties with Fresno State athletic director Jim Bartko from their mutual time at Oregon. Other potential candidates include Alabama offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin, a former Fresno State quarterback, and former USC coach Steve Sarkisian.

UP NEXT

AIR FORCE: The Falcons can win the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy for a record 19th outright time with a win next Saturday at Army. Air Force beat Navy 28-14 on Oct. 1 in the first leg of the round robin.

FRESNO STATE: The Bulldogs hope to avoid the second 1-8 start in school history, dating to 1921, in next Saturday's trip to Colorado State.

Utah State pulls away to beat Fresno State 38-20

 Kent Myers passed for 188 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 66 yards to help Utah State beat Fresno State 38-20 on Saturday night.

Utah State (3-4, 1-3 Mountain West) never trailed but allowed the Bulldogs (1-7, 0-4) within 17-14 after a touchdown late in the first half on Chason Virgil's 1-yard pass to Jared Rice.

The Aggies then pulled away steadily in the second half, twice trading touchdowns for field goals and adding a third TD on Damion Hobbs' 4-yard run to cap the scoring with 7:14 left.

Both teams' kickers notched career-long field goals - Brock Warren with a 43-yarder for Utah State in the second quarter and Kody Kroening with a 49-yarder in the fourth. Kroening made two field goals on the night, extending the nation's current longest streak of made field goals to 13.

Tonny Lindsey had 90 yards rushing for Utah State. Dontel James ran for 80 yards and a score for Fresno State.

Pumphrey makes NCAA top 10 rushing in San Diego State win

 Donnel Pumphrey rushed for 220 yards and two touchdowns, surpassing 1,000 yards for the season and moving into the NCAA Top 10 for his career, leading San Diego State to a 17-3 win over Fresno State on Friday night.

With his third 200-yard game of the season, Pumphrey now has 1,111 in six games to raise his career total to 5,383, passing LaDanian Tomlinson, Herschel Walker and Archie Griffin to move into eighth on the NCAA list.

A 2-yard Pumphrey run put the Aztecs (5-1, 2-0 Mountain West) up 10-0 at halftime, when he had 117 yards for his conference record 27th 100-yard game. His 13-yarder in the closing seconds of the third quarter closed the scoring as the Aztecs won at Fresno for the first time since 1997.

San Diego State had 292 yards on the ground and held the ball for almost 15 more minutes than the Bulldogs (1-6, 0-3), who had three turnovers.

Pumphrey is one TD behind Marshall Faulk's school record for touchdowns (62) and rushing touchdowns (57). His five 200-yard games ties the MWC career record.

Demps 3 TD catches get Nevada past Fresno State, 27-22

 Wyatt Demps caught three touchdown passes and Nevada held off a late Fresno State rally to earn a 27-22 win on Saturday night.

The victory evened the Wolfpack's overall record at 3-3 and their Mountain West Conference mark at 1-1.

Demps' first TD came on some razzle-dazzle and it gave the Wolfpack a lead they never relinquished. Tyler Stewart hitAndrew Celis on a swing pass coming out of the backfield, but the wide out pulled up and found a wide-open Demps with a 36-yard strike. Demps, who finished with nine catches for 124 yards, caught a 3-yard toss from Stewart just before intermission and pulled in an 8-yard toss to make it 27-16.

Fresno State (1-5, 0-2) got within five when Dontel James scored from 5-yards out with 5:08 left, but a two-point conversion attempt failed.

James Butler finished with 175 yards rushing on 35 carries for Fresno State.

Sneed, Williams help UNLV run to 45-20 win over Fresno St.

 Dalton Sneed threw for a touchdown and ran for another, freshman Charles Williams had a career-high 153 yards rushing and UNLV beat Fresno State 45-20 on Saturday night.

Sneed, in his first collegiate start, completed 8 of 16 passes for 129 yards and ran for 147 yards - including a 91-yard TD scramble on which he broke a tackle in the endzone to avoid a safety - on 15 carries. Williams, from Bullard High School in Fresno, California, paced the UNLV (2-3, 1-0 Mountain West) ground game which piled up 364 yards for the second consecutive week and scored five touchdowns.

Lexington Thomas scored on a 1-yard run, Williams ran for a 5-yard TD and Sneed hit Elijah Trosclair for a 61-yard touchdown in the second quarter and the Runnin' Rebels led 21-7 at halftime.

Fresno State (1-4, 0-1) used an 80-yard touchdown pass from Chason Virgil to Aaron Peck and a 47-yard field goal by Kody Kroening to trim its deficit to 31-20 with 11:47 to play, but UNLV's David Greene had scoring runs of 9 and 16 yards in the final 2:29.

Peck finished with five receptions for a career-high 194 yards and two touchdowns.

Tulsa overcomes 31-point deficit, beats Fresno State in 2OT

 Dane Evans threw four touchdown passes and ran in the game-winning 18-yard touchdown in the second overtime as Tulsa rallied from 31 points down to beat Fresno State 48-41 on Saturday for the program's largest comeback victory.

Evans was 22 of 32 for 273 yards, Keevan Lucas caught two 40-yard touchdowns, and Josh Atkinson and Justin Hobbs each had scoring catches. D'Angelo Brewer ran for a career-best 252 yards on 46 carries, and James Flanders ran for 101 yards and a touchdown for Tulsa (3-1).

Aaron Peck caught a pass from Chason Virgil on the Bulldogs' second play of overtime but he fumbled. Then Tulsa's Redford Jones missed a 42-yard field goal to force a second OT.

Virgil ran for two scores, and threw a 65-yard TD strike to Jamire Jordan to give the Bulldogs a 31-0 lead with 10 minutes left in the second quarter. Virgil threw an incomplete pass on fourth-and-17 to end it.

Woodside throws 4 TDs, Toledo rolls over Fresno State 52-17

Logan Woodside hit three different receivers for touchdowns, throwing for four scores and 239 yards overall to lead Toledo to a 52-17 victory over Fresno State on Saturday.

Toledo opened the scoring when Woodside passed to Cody Thompson, who finished with 102 yards receiving, at Fresno State's 20. Thompson skirted two tacklers and got into the corner of the end zone with 9:45 left in the first quarter. On their next series Woodside drove the Rockets 60 yards in six plays, hitting Michael Roberts from the nine for a 14-0 lead.

Toledo (3-0) was ahead 24-0 at the break and led 38-0 with 5:37 remaining in the third.

Toledo amassed 619 total yards while limiting the Bulldogs to 254. Fresno State (1-2) gained only 51 yards on the ground, with 49 of those coming in the second half.

The Rockets dominated their first three opponents by combined scores of 128-30.

Fresno State pulls away from Sacramento State 31-3

 Chason Virgil threw two touchdowns to KeeSean Johnson and Fresno State used a big fourth quarter to pull away from Sacramento State for a 31-3 win Saturday night.

Leading by just a touchdown after a scoreless third quarter, Fresno State (1-1) got a 17-yard TD run from Dontel James to make it 17-3 with 14:24 to go. Virgil and Johnson then combined for the next two touchdowns, a 4-yard pass to cap a five-play, 64-yard drive followed by an 11-yarder with 5:03 left to seal the win.

James finished with 121 yards on 27 carries and Jamire Jordan had 100 yards receiving with seven catches. Virgil was 22 of 42 for 274 yards and an interception as the Bulldogs piled up 474 total yards while holding Sacramento State (0-2) to just 96 yards rushing and 89 passing.

Devon Medeiros had a 44-yard field goal for the Hornets to end the first half.

Nebraska honors Foltz, pulls away to defeat Fresno St. 43-10

Nebraska overpowered Fresno State in the second half and won its opener in the easy fashion that was expected.

The lasting memory of Saturday night's 43-10 win will be how everyone inside Memorial Stadium came together to remember the Cornhuskers' fallen punter, Sam Foltz, who died in a July car crash.

The Huskers draped Foltz's No. 27 jersey at the end of their bench, and after they went three-and-out on their first possession, they lined up with 10 players and no punter.

The crowd stood and responded with loud cheers and applause as the play clock wound down, with Fresno State's players joining them in the salute. When Nebraska was flagged for delay of game after the play clock expired, Fresno State declined the penalty.

"It was an incredible feeling, knowing how much he meant to the team and the community and all the fans out there," quarterback Tommy Armstrong said. "It touched my heart a bit, just looking out there."

Fresno State coach Tim DeRuyter was told beforehand that the Huskers would line up without a punter, and he said there was no question that the penalty would be declined.

"If we can't teach our guys something classy like that, what's college for?" he said.

Armstrong Jr. ran for two touchdowns and threw a perfect deep ball to Alonzo Moore for another as Nebraska took control of the game and gave Mike Riley his 100th win as a college coach.

The Huskers pounded away at the Bulldogs with runs on 51 of their 64 plays, and Devine Ozigbo ran for a career-high 103 yards and two touchdowns. The biggest of Armstrong's few passes came two plays after Kieron Williams' first career interception, when Moore beat his man to catch in stride a 57-yard TD early in the fourth quarter.

"When we run it that well, we open up a lot for the receivers," Armstrong said. "When we get a chance to throw it, we have to complete them."

Fresno State's Chason Virgil, who missed the last nine games in 2015 with a broken clavicle, completed his first five passes and 11 of his first 14. The Bulldogs got a scare when he banged up his left shoulder late in the first half after being driven out of bounds by linebacker Luke Gifford, who was ejected for targeting.

Virgil returned to start the third quarter but didn't get much done the rest of the night against a Nebraska defense that got better as the game went on.

"I thought our guys went toe-to-toe with them for a pretty good bit, and then they broke our will in the fourth quarter," DeRuyter said.

THE TAKEAWAY

Fresno State: The Bulldogs, coming off a 3-9 season, hung with Nebraska for a half and should be improved if they can keep Virgil healthy for new offensive coordinator Eric Kiesau. They capitalized on Robert Stanley's blocked punt and a couple Nebraska penalties, and that allowed them to keep it close until the third quarter. First-year defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward can take consolation in that it's unlikely his unit will go against another opponent that runs the ball as well as Nebraska.

Nebraska: The game plan was perfect against an opponent that ranked 117th against the run last year, and once Armstrong and the Huskers got going in the second half, they were nearly unstoppable. Nebraska, which finished with 292 yards on the ground, ran on 20 of its first 21 plays, and Riley made good on his plan to get Armstrong more carries.

Ozigbo and Terrell Newby formed a strong 1-2 combination, and freshman Tre Bryant showed up well when he got his chances late in the game. All that was pleasing to Riley. What upset him were three unsportsmanlike conduct penalties in addition to an ejection for targeting for a third straight game.

"There was some good football, when you rush for that many yards, but I have mixed emotions about this game," Riley said. "Lots of things have to change."

UP NEXT:

Fresno State: The Bulldogs go from playing in one of the cathedrals of college football to hosting Sacramento State. DeRuyter's Fresno teams have beaten Football Championship Subdivision opponents by an average of 26 points.

Nebraska: The Huskers host Wyoming, coached by former Nebraska assistant Craig Bohl. This is no gimme. The last time the teams met, in 2013 in Lincoln, the Cowboys scored a couple late touchdowns and put a scare into the Huskers before losing 37-34.