Friday Night College Football: Backup Quarterbacks Steal the Night as Washington and Appalachian State Win on the Road

Friday night belonged to the quarterbacks who were not supposed to be starting. In West Lafayette, Indiana, Washington's Elijah Brown made his first start of the season and produced the Huskies' best offensive night in weeks. In Conway, South Carolina, Appalachian State split its quarterback snaps and watched its backup take over the second half of a comeback win. Both road teams left with victories that change the shape of their seasons.

Washington 38, Purdue 26: Brown answers an ugly first play

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.

Brown, starting because Demond Williams Jr. was hurt in last week's loss to Iowa, was intercepted on the first play from scrimmage. It was nearly the whole story of the night in miniature: Washington kept hurting itself and kept scoring anyway. Brown finished 21 of 27 for 302 yards and three touchdowns with three interceptions, and the Huskies won despite a string of turnovers that kept Purdue in the game far longer than the yardage suggested. Washington outgained the Boilermakers 488-371.

The Huskies led 24-17 at halftime, helped by a roughing-the-passer penalty that extended a late drive on third down near the Purdue goal line. Two plays later, freshman Brian Bonner Jr. scored on a 1-yard run with 27 seconds left in the half to give Washington the lead for good. Bonner also caught a 25-yard touchdown pass and ran for 64 yards.

Early in the fourth quarter, Brown found Dezmen Roebuck for a 4-yard touchdown and a 31-20 lead. Purdue answered with a touchdown to close within 31-26 with 11:18 remaining, but the two-point conversion attempt failed. On the next Husky response, Trey Cooley broke a 53-yard touchdown run with 10:30 to play. Cooley carried only eight times and finished with a team-high 113 yards.

The ground game was the turnaround inside the turnaround. A week after rushing for minus-3 yards against Iowa, Washington ran for 188 yards. Chris Lawson caught six passes for 103 yards, and Roebuck added five catches for 97 yards and the score.

Purdue's takeaways were not enough

Purdue will look at this one as a missed opportunity. The Boilermakers intercepted Brown three times and still gave up 24 points before halftime — nearly as many as they had allowed in their previous two games combined. Ryan Browne threw for 273 yards on 21-of-41 passing with one touchdown and two interceptions. Antonio Harris gave Purdue its biggest play, a long run of about 60 yards that set up a touchdown, and finished with 65 yards on just four carries. Asaad Waseem caught nine passes for 116 yards.

The running back Purdue leaned on a week ago never got going. Fame Ijeboi, who ran for 195 yards against Minnesota, was held to 19 yards on 13 carries, and there was an extra sting in who directed the defense across from him: Washington's defensive coordinator is Ryan Walters, the former Purdue head coach, who is now 2-0 against the school that fired him after the 2024 season.

Washington is 4-3 overall and 1-3 in the Big Ten. Purdue is 3-4 and 2-2, heads into its idle week, and now needs to win three of its final five games to reach bowl eligibility.

Appalachian State 35, Coastal Carolina 32: Lewis, four times

CONWAY, S.C.

Jaquari Lewis scored on runs of 12, 1, 12 and 3 yards, carrying 13 times for 85 yards, as Appalachian State came back from ten points down at halftime to beat Coastal Carolina 35-32 at Brooks Stadium. It was the most rushing touchdowns by a Mountaineer in a game since Cam Peoples tied the school record with five in the 2020 Myrtle Beach Bowl, played in this same stadium.

Coastal Carolina owned the second quarter. After the teams traded early Lewis touchdowns around a Deuce Bailey scoring pass, Bailey threw a 71-yard touchdown to Robby Washington to tie the game, then an 8-yard touchdown to Ben Verges at the end of a 13-play, 78-yard drive with 1:53 left in the half. A fumble recovery in the final seconds set up Nico Cavanillas Alti's career-long 58-yard field goal, and the Chanticleers led 24-14 at the break.

The game turned after halftime. Lewis scored his third touchdown to cut the margin to 24-21 midway through the third quarter. Devin Henderson then intercepted a Bailey pass, and ten plays later Lewis scored again for a 28-24 lead heading into the fourth.

Hasselbeck closes it

App State started Malachi Singleton, who was an efficient 12 of 14 for 151 yards. But the second half belonged to junior backup Henry Hasselbeck, the son of former NFL quarterback Matt Hasselbeck. He completed 9 of 12 passes for 112 yards, including his first career touchdown pass, a 31-yarder to Sam Pickett III with 6:41 remaining that stretched the lead to 35-24. He also rushed 21 times for a game-high 125 yards — the first 100-yard rushing game by an App State quarterback since Zac Thomas ran for 109 against ULM in 2020.

Coastal Carolina made it interesting late. Jaden Allen-Hendrix scored on a 2-yard run and the Chanticleers added the two-point conversion with 3:11 left to pull within 35-32, but Appalachian State ran out the clock.

The numbers describe App State's best offensive night of the season against an FBS opponent: 516 total yards and 253 rushing yards. The win was the Mountaineers' first over Coastal Carolina since 2021 and their first in Conway since 2018. App State is 4-2 and 1-1 in the Sun Belt, and nearly every game it has played this season has been a one-score game inside the final two minutes. Coastal Carolina falls to 2-5 and 1-2 in the conference. Next up for the Mountaineers is a meeting with James Madison.

What Friday night told us

Two road teams with damaged confidence got exactly what they needed, and both did it with their second quarterback. Washington's season, sliding after three straight losses, has a pulse again because Brown produced points even while giving the ball away. Appalachian State, meanwhile, may have found a genuine two-quarterback problem for its opponents — Singleton's efficiency early, Hasselbeck's running late — on a night when its ground game finally travelled.

For Purdue and Coastal Carolina, the home losses are the kind that linger: Purdue because it forced turnovers and lost anyway, Coastal because a ten-point halftime lead and a 58-yard field goal were not enough.

Follow the rest of the weekend's action on the Previously sports front.