Houston quarterback Greg Ward Jr. was named the offensive player of the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl after leading his team to a 38-24 victory over Florida State on Thursday in the Georgia Dome.
Ward completed 25 of 41 passes for 238 yards and a touchdown and rushed 20 times for a game-high 67 yards with two more touchdowns.
“It really doesn’t seem real,” he said. “Coach always talks about confetti falling and being with your brothers and celebrating a win. I’m really numb to the face that we won right now.”
Few plays were bigger than this in the fourth quarter: His team’s lead cut to 24-17 and facing third and eight on FSU’s 39-yard line, Seminoles’ supporters roaring as loudly and chopping as quickly as they could, Ward threw a laser across the field to a stretched-out Demarcus Ayers for a 20-yard gain a first down and smidgen of relief.
Three plays later, he hit an open Chance Allen for a 17-yard touchdown pass to give the Cougars a 31-17 lead with 6:08 left. Allen was left open along the sideline because of a busted coverage by the Seminoles.
“He’s a great player,” FSU defensive back Derwin James said. “He fits their system very well. He’s really good at controlling their offense. I feel like he’s one of the best mobile quarterbacks we’ve played this year.”
Ward constantly rushed to the line of scrimmage, urging his teammates to get set so that he could hike the ball for the next play. The Cougars ran a season-high 99 plays and totaled 448 yards with Ward and backup Kyle Postma under center.
Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher said the speed of Houston’s offense wasn’t anything new to his team, but he said the difference was they executed it very well.
“I felt like we’re not going to matchup player for player,” Houston coach Tom Herman said. “We’re just not with them. So we felt like we had to use tempo to our advantage and go fast. Our kids bought into that plan and we practiced, had a great couple of weeks practicing that way.”
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