BOWL ROUNDUP Cougars shut down Texas, 28-20

Texas Tech won the Houston Bowl; Fresno St. won the Silicon Valley Classic.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN DIEGO -- Even the defense came up big for Washington State in the Holiday Bowl.
The No. 15 Cougars scored three touchdowns in the third quarter to build a 16-point lead, then came up with a huge defensive stand late in the fourth quarter to beat No. 5 Texas 28-20 on Tuesday night.
The Holiday Bowl has a history of big offensive plays and wild finishes. That's what the Cougars' D helped provide.
Linebacker Will Derting said the Cougars were pumped up because the Longhorns dissed them at a banquet Monday night.
"They said we have an OK defense and you kind of take that personally," Derting said. "It got us fired up."
With the Longhorns trailing by eight, senior receiver Roy Williams caught a 45-yard pass from Chance Mock to give Texas the ball at the WSU 11 with 2 minutes, 31 seconds to play.
After Mock threw an incompletion, WSU blitzed hard and forced Mock deep into the pocket. D.D. Acholonu hit Mock and forced a fumble that was recovered by Derting at the 36-yard line with 2:16 to play.
"They were coming from everywhere," Chance said. "We knew coming in that's how they were going to play."
Texas got the ball back one more time, but Mock was sacked at midfield by Acholonu as time expired.
Washington State (10-3) won 10 games for the third straight year. At times, Texas (10-3) looked nothing like the highest-ranked team not in the BCS. The Longhorns saw their six-game winning streak end, and with it a chance to post three straight 11-win seasons for the first time in school history.
Houston Bowl
HOUSTON -- B.J. Symons' trip from the NCAA record book to the pros will take a secretly planned detour through the operating room.
There had been rumors and hints that the injury he suffered to his left knee while leaping in celebration of a touchdown toss on Oct. 11 was bad. Neither he nor Texas Tech ever revealed how bad until after he threw for 497 yards and four touchdowns Tuesday to beat Navy 38-14 in the Houston Bowl.
He told reporters he will undergo surgery next Tuesday to reconstruct the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. It's an injury often considered a season-ender, but he pressed on for seven more games en route to a Division I-A record 5,833-yard season.
"He's had a tremendous year," Tech coach Mike Leach said. "He did the equivalent of breaking the home run record, and he did it against the toughest defenses in the country. He not only broke it, but he put it out of reach."
Time will tell, but Symons did obliterate Ty Detmer's 13-year-old record of 5,188.
Both Tech and Navy finished 8-5, though that was a much bigger accomplishment for the Midshipmen, who are at a perennial recruiting disadvantage with their tough entry standards, strict regimens and the five-year armed services commitment after graduation.
Silicon Valley Classic
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Pat Hill has been perturbed that UCLA and the other West Coast football powers decline to play his Fresno State Bulldogs.
So, for now at least, the coach will settle for beating those schools when he does get the opportunity -- in the postseason.
Bryson Sumlin made his first career touchdown catch and also ran for a score and Fresno State defeated UCLA 17-9 in the Silicon Valley Classic.
"We'll play anybody, anywhere, any time," Hill said. "Tonight was great exposure."
Fresno State (9-5) made its school-record fifth straight bowl appearance and fourth in a row in this game.