Canidate, Arizona Run Wild, 50-42

If the Rose Bowl wants big plays, Arizona should be headed to Pasadena.

Trung Canidate shattered Arizona’s single-game rushing record with 288 yards in 18 carries, including touchdown runs of 80, 66 and 48 yards, as the seventh-ranked Wildcats held off Arizona State, 50-42, Friday night at Tucson, Ariz., to complete the best regular season in school history.

“I knew I had to run somebody over or put a move on,” Canidate said. “I put some moves on and I got into a flow and went to the house. The [offensive] line told me they would give me 14 inches of daylight. That’s all I needed.”

The shootout was the highest-scoring game in the intense intrasate rivalry.

Arizona State’s Ryan Kealy completed 33 of 56 passes for 511 yards, third most in Sun Devil history. Four of his passes went for touchdowns, including two to Todd Heap.

Kealy threw a 17-yard scoring pass to Heap on fourth and 10 with 5:55 to play to cut the lead to 43-35 and a 23-yard scoring pass to Lenzie Jackson with 1:52 remaining to cut the lead to 50-42.

In between, Canidate, a junior who grew up in Phoenix just a few miles from the Arizona State campus, dashed 48 yards down the right sideline to put the Wildcats ahead, 50-35, with 4:02 left.

After Kealy’s last touchdown pass, Arizona’s Brad Brennan recovered Arizona State’s onside kick.

Arizona punted the ball away with less than a minute to play, then Kealy drove the Sun Devils from their 20 to the Arizona 28, but Kelvin Hunter knocked down the final pass in the end zone to save the victory.

Arizona (11-1) must wait until next weekend to see if Pacific 10 Conference champion UCLA beats Miami and advances to the national championship game at the Fiesta Bowl. If that happens, Pac-10 runner-up Arizona would be a leading candidate for what would be its first Rose Bowl berth.

Canidate, who has nine career touchdowns of 48 yards or more, broke the single-game record of 232 set by Jim Upchurch against Texas El Paso in 1973.

No. 14 Nebraska 16, Colorado 14--Mike Rucker forced two second-half fumbles and Kris Brown kicked three field goals for the Huskers at Lincoln, Neb.

The victory prevented the Cornhuskers (9-3, 5-3 Big 12) from having four losses for the first time since 1968 and gave Nebraska at least nine wins for the 30th consecutive season.

For the first time in the modern era, Nebraska won without scoring an offensive touchdown. Records are incomplete before 1961.

Brown set an NCAA record with his 217th career extra point after Nebraska’s only touchdown, a 42-yard interception return by Clint Finley in the first quarter.

Quarterback Mike Moschetti completed 12 of 18 passes for 132 yards with two touchdowns and one interception for Colorado (7-4, 4-4).

No. 13 Arkansas 41, Louisiana State 14--After two consecutive heartbreaking losses, the Razorbacks didn’t take any chances against the Tigers by building a commanding 21-point halftime lead at Little Rock, Ark.

Clint Stoerner completed 27 of 38 passes for 334 yards and one touchdown for Arkansas (9-2, 6-2 Southeastern Conference), which earned a share of the Western Division title.

West Virginia 52, Pittsburgh 14--Marc Bulger passed the Mountaineers into an upper-tier bowl game. Bulger, unwanted by Pittsburgh despite playing high school football only a few blocks away from its campus, threw a school-record six touchdown passes.

West Virginia (8-3, 5-2 Big East) had seven touchdowns in a span of eight possessions to position itself for a possible Gator Bowl bid.

The Panthers finished 2-9, 0-7.