Tulsa fires coach day after 63-30 loss

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Tulsa fired football coach Kevin Wilson on Sunday and will elevate wide receivers coach Ryan Switzer on an interim basis for the remainder of the season.

The Golden Hurricane lost to South Florida 63-30 on Saturday, dropping their record to 3-8. The school’s decision concludes Wilson’s two-year tenure with a 7-16 record, including 3-12 in American Athletic Conference play.

“With the rapidly evolving landscape of college athletics, we know the importance of positioning our football program and athletic department to thrive and excel in the upcoming years,” athletic director Justin Moore said in a statement. “Our standard will be to play in bowl games every season, compete for conference titles, and build a program that everyone connected to the Golden Hurricane will be proud of.”

Wilson spent six years as Indiana’s head coach, going 26-47 from 2011 to 2016. He then joined Urban Meyer’s staff at Ohio State and stayed on under Meyer’s successor, Ryan Day, before taking over at Tulsa.

Switzer is a native of Charleston, W. Va., and played two seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers and one with the Cleveland Browns.

Former Salem High School All-Ohioan Jackson Johnson is a redshirt freshman quarterback at Tulsa.

The Golden Hurricane finish the season by hosting Florida Atlantic on Saturday.

Ward breaks Kosar’s records at Miami

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Cam Ward keeps rewriting the Miami record book.

Ward, a Heisman Trophy contender who already holds the Hurricanes’ single-season record for touchdown passes and is on pace to break the school marks for completion percentage, set two more school records on Saturday — both at Bernie Kosar’s expense.

Ward now has 3,774 yards on 268 completions this season. Kosar — who was an All-Ohioan at Boardman High School, threw for 3,642 yards on 262 completions in 1984, and for the next 40 years nobody matched those numbers … until now.

“Congrats #CamWard,” Kosar posted on social media. “U R Awesome.”

Everyone seems to think so — except Ward, that is. He has made clear all season that personal accomplishments and stats are of little, if any, importance to him.

“It really doesn’t mean anything … The receiving group that I have, the O-line that I have, any quarterback in this position could set records,” Ward said.

Ward’s 13-yard completion to Damien Martinez with 1:27 left in the second quarter gave him 3,643 yards for the season and broke that record. And in the third quarter, Ward threw a 15-yard pass to Xavier Restrepo for his 263rd completion of the year — topping another of Kosar’s marks.

Ward is up to 34 touchdown passes this season; the previous Miami record was 29 by Steve Walsh in 1988. And with a completion rate of 67.2%, Ward is on pace to break Miami’s single-season completion percentage mark of 65.8% set last year by Tyler Van Dyke as well as the Miami career mark of 64.3% set by D’Eriq King in 2020 and 2021.

“He only cares about winning,” wide receiver Jacolby George said.

Columbia finally a winner

NEW YORK (AP) — Having waited 63 years for an Ivy League football title, Columbia had to stand by for another 40 minutes.

The Lions had beaten Cornell 17-9 but needed a Harvard loss against Yale to secure a share of first place on the season’s final day. So Columbia players retreated to their locker room on a hill a few hundred feet from Wien Stadium to watch the game in Boston on TV as a few hundred fans remained and gazed at the gold-and-orange foliage of Inwood Hill Park glowing in Saturday’s afternoon sun.

When Yale recovered onside kick with seconds left to ensure a 34-29 Harvard defeat, players let out a scream and streamed back onto the field to celebrate, smoke cigars, lift a trophy and sing “Roar, Lion, Roar” with family and friends.

Who would have thunk it?

“You had the realization of, oh, I’m a champion, which is something that hasn’t been said here in a while,” co-captain CJ Brown said.

Harvard dropped into a tie with Columbia and Dartmouth at 5-2, the first time three teams shared the title since 1982 — the conference doesn’t use tiebreakers.

“It was nerve-wracking, for sure, but definitely exciting because that’s something that not a lot of people have experienced, especially here,” running back Joey Giorgi said.

There have been several top players at Columbia — Sid Luckman, Marty Domres, Marcellus Wiley among them — but the school is perhaps better known for owners such as the New England Patriots’ Robert Kraft and former Cleveland Browns head Al Lerner.

Columbia’s only previous championship in 1961 also was shared with Harvard. That Lions team was coached by Buff Donelli, a former Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Rams coach who scored for the Americans in soccer’s 1934 World Cup.

Columbia set a then Division I-AA record with 44 consecutive losses from 1983-88, a mark broken by Prairie View’s 80 in a row from 1989-98. Since 1971, the Lions’ only seasons with winning records until now were 1994, 1996, 2017, 2018, 2021 and 2022.

Ohio State women down Bowling Green

COLUMBUS (AP) — Freshman guard Ava Watson came off the bench to hit six 3-pointers and score 20 points and Chance Gray made three 3-pointers and scored 18 to lead No. 12 Ohio State to a 96-53 victory over Bowling Green on Sunday.

Watson made 6 of 10 shots from beyond the arc and 1 of 4 from inside it for the Buckeyes (5-0). She added a pair of steals and has scored 30 of her 37 points this season in the last two games. Gray sank half of her 14 shots — 3 of 8 from distance.

Taylor Thierry totaled 17 points on 6-for-6 shooting with two 3-pointers, six rebounds and three steals for Ohio State. Jaloni Cambridge pitched in with 17 points, six assists and five boards. Kennedy Cambridge added 10 points, six rebounds and three steals.

Amy Velasco finished with 24 points to lead the Falcons (2-4), who have lost all four of their road games. She made 8 of 16 shots with a 3-pointer and all seven of her free throws.

Thierry made two baskets and a 3-pointer to lead the Buckeyes to a 23-12 lead after one quarter. Watson hit a pair of 3-pointers in the second quarter for a 47-23 advantage at halftime.