AP Player of the Week: Backup Cooper Legas’ 5 TD passes lead Tulsa back from 28-point deficit in win

The Associated Press national player of the week in college football for Week 9 of the season:

Cooper Legas, Tulsa

The backup quarterback threw for 333 yards and five touchdowns to lead the Hurricane back from a 28-point halftime deficit to beat UTSA 46-45.

Legas, a graduate transfer from Utah State, replaced Kirk Francis on Tulsa’s first full possession of the second quarter and threw a 31-yard TD pass to Bill Jackson.

Tulsa was still down 42-17 late in the third quarter when Legas threw a 74-yard pass to Kamdyn Benjamin for the first of four second-half touchdowns. Legas’ other TD passes were 4 yards to Viron Ellison Jr., and 20 and 4 yards to Benjamin, the last one giving the Hurricane the lead with 1:01 to play.

Legas also netted a team-best 46 yards on 13 carries, including a 33-yard burst that helped set up a field goal in the third quarter.

Runner-up

Texas A&M freshman Marcel Reed replaced an ineffective Conner Weigman in the third quarter in a 38-23 win over LSU and became the first Aggies quarterback to score three touchdowns in a game since 2008. Reed ran nine times for 62 yards with TD runs of 8, 8 and 4 yards. He also was 2-for-2 passing for 70 yards.

Reed started three straight games when Weigman was injured. He took five snaps against Missouri and none against Mississippi State before being called on against LSU.

Honorable mention

Colorado WR-CB Travis Hunter had nine catches for 153 yards and two scores and had two tackles and four pass breakups in a 34-23 win over Cincinnati. Auburn RB Jarquez Hunter rushed for career highs of 278 yards on 23 carries and two touchdowns as the Tigers scored 24 straight points for a 24-10 victory at Kentucky. Mississippi DE Suntarine Perkins recorded four sacks and finished with a career-high five tackles for loss in a 26-14 win over Oklahoma. The four sacks were the most by an Ole Miss player since 1993.

Six stats

— SMU, which beat Duke 28-27 in overtime, became the first team in 13 years to win after committing six turnovers with no takeaways, according to Sportradar. Marshall did it in a 23-22 win over Memphis in 2011.

— Vanderbilt’s three losses this season have come by a combined 10 points (4, 3, 3). Of the Commodores’ 10 losses last season, only one was by fewer than 16 points.

— East Carolina’s point total in its 56-34 win over Temple was its highest since a 70-41 win over North Carolina in 2014.

— Boise State’s nation-leading 35 sacks through seven games is one fewer than its 14-game total in 2023.

— Mississippi has allowed 26 second-half points through eight games, fewest in the nation.

— Indiana, in its win over Washington, did not allow a tackle for loss for the first time since 2013 against Navy and the second time since at least 2005.

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AP voters: Aaron Beard, Pat Graham, Gary B. Graves, Stephen Hawkins, Pete Iacobelli, Mark Long, John Marshall, Eric Olson, John Zenor.

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