Troy State Upsets No. 19 Missouri

Receivers throwing touchdown passes. Offensive linemen scoring. A blocked punt.

Troy State used gadgets and luck to rally from a 14-0 deficit and upset No. 19 Missouri, 24-14, Thursday night at Troy, Ala.

“We don’t have to beat them 365 days,” Trojan Coach Larry Blakeney said. “We just have to beat them for one 60-minute segment of history. For that one 60 minutes, Troy was better than Missouri.”

Jason Samples threw one touchdown pass and caught another and offensive lineman Junior Louissaint scored on a 63-yard fumble recovery for Troy State (2-0).

The Trojans, a fourth-year Division I-A program, had never played host to a team from a bowl championship series conference and were 0-6 against Big 12 Conference teams.

“To me, this is the biggest win we’ve ever had,” Blakeney said.

The Tigers (1-1) scored touchdowns on their first two possessions but not much else went right. Brad Smith passed for 224 yards and ran 15 times for 36 yards but was intercepted twice in the second half and was harried throughout.

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California could be in danger of losing Coach Jeff Tedford unless the school’s cramped and aging stadium is improved.

Tedford, who has led the Bears to two winning seasons, has a buyout clause in his contract that drops from $1 million to $500,000 if work does not begin on upgrading Memorial Stadium. The amount would be zero if the same situation exists at the end of next year.

Sweeping changes have been proposed to upgrade the 1920s-era stadium, but the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the proposal was unlikely to move forward unless a donor willing to give something in the range of $20 million or more steps forward.

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Air Force Coach Fisher DeBerry agreed to a five-year contract extension. DeBerry, 66, in his 21st season at Air Force, has a 156-89-1 career record.... Connecticut Coach Randy Edsall has a new contract worth $5.3 million over six years. Edsall, 46, in his sixth season at Connecticut, will earn just under $900,000 annually.... Wisconsin running back Anthony Davis will be out a minimum of three weeks after suffering an eye injury in the first half of the Badgers’ victory over Central Florida.