Tulane reeled off 16 points in the last 4:07 of the game against USC in the Cotton Bowl, including a game-winning touchdown in the final seconds following a safety.
— Tulane tight end Alex Bauman caught a 6-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Michael Pratt with nine seconds left to cap a frantic finish by the 16th-ranked Green Wave in a 46-45 win over Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams and No. 10 Southern California in the Cotton Bowl on Monday.
Bauman’s contested catch, with linebacker Eric Gentry draped over him, was initially ruled an incompletion, but a replay review showed the ball never touched the ground as the players rolled over in the end zone. The Green Wave scored 16 points in the final 4 minutes, 7 seconds, with the game-winning touchdown coming after they got the ball back following a safety.
Over the past five seasons, teams were 1-1,692 when trailing by 15 or more points with five minutes or less remaining in the fourth quarter, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. The lone win came in 2020 with Texas coming back against Texas Tech.
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“I might have had a heart attack,” Tulane coach Willie Fritz said moments after the game ended.
Williams was 37-for-52 passing for 462 yards and a Cotton Bowl-record five touchdowns, exactly one month after the quarterback suffered a hamstring injury in USC’s loss to Utah in the Pac-12 championship game that kept the Trojans from making the four-team College Football Playoff.
