ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Keyone Jenkins threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to tight end Grayson Brousseau in the second overtime, and UCF survived a wild finish in regulation to knock off No. 2 BYU 39-31 on Saturday.
Needing a touchdown and a 2-point conversion to force a third OT, the Cougars (6-1, 3-1 Big 12) drove to the UCF 4-yard line, but Bear Bachmeier’s fourth-down pass to Walker Lyons fell incomplete, giving the Knights (4-3, 2-2) their first win over a top-5 team in school history.
A week after knocking off then-No. 2 Notre Dame and moving into its highest spot in the AP Top 25 since its national title season of 1984, BYU became the latest unbeaten team to fall in a wild stretch of the college football season.
UCF was driving toward a potential game-winning field goal in regulation when Jenkins lost the ball on a play that was ruled a sack on the field. But after a replay review, the call was overturned to an incomplete pass, and BYU was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct, moving the Knights into kicker Will Stone's range.
But BYU blocked Stone's 47-yard attempt to force OT.
Jenkins finished 25 of 41 for 293 yards and three touchdowns and ran for a score in his fifth start since replacing Alonza Barnett III, who is sidelined with a hamstring injury.
“There’s a lot of teams in football with their quarterbacks hurt and their backups aren’t doing great,” UCF coach Scott Frost said. “Our backup is not a backup. He had an unbelievable game tonight.”
Tyren Hornes had six catches for 137 yards for the Knights, and Duke Watson ran for 94 yards on 15 carries.
Bachmeier threw for 257 yards and two touchdowns with one interception. Kyler Kasper had six catches for 129 yards.
The Knights drove to the BYU 1-yard line with less than two minutes left in regulation, but Jenkins was stopped on a quarterback sneak on fourth-and-goal.
“That’s the weirdest end of a game I have ever seen,” Frost said. “I thought it would take 31 to win it. It should have if we would have got a sneak in.”
UCF forced a three-and-out and got the ball back with 42 seconds left but couldn't convert the game-winning kick.
In the first overtime, Bachmeier gave BYU the lead when he connected with Legend Glasker for a 28-yard touchdown, and UCF tied it on a single play when Jenkins hit Josh Derry for a 25-yard TD.
There were five lead changes in regulation. Jenkins' 1-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter put UCF ahead 24-21, and BYU's Matthias Dunn connected on a 47-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter to tie it at 24-all.
BYU: No longer chasing a No. 1 ranking, the Cougars now trail rival Utah in the Big 12 standings.
UCF: Frost, who led the Knights to a 13-0 season in 2017 before leaving for Nebraska, now has a signature win in the second season of his return stint.
BYU: Hosts Arizona State next Saturday.
UCF: Hosts Baylor on Friday.
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BYU wide receiver Kyler Kasper (3) catches a pass in the end zone for a touchdown as Central Florida defensive back Antione Jackson (7) defends during the first half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
DETROIT (AP) — Former President Barack Obama on Saturday seized on what he described as cruelty and indecency coming from President Donald Trump and his Republican allies, stepping into one of the nation's ugliest midterm fights as he worked to rally Democratic voters in two Midwestern battlegrounds.
First in Ohio, Obama took aim at Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who has doubled down on an advertising campaign featuring the estranged mother of Democratic rival Dr. Amy Acton. Trump and Vice President JD Vance have also defended the ad, even as Republican leaders across Ohio, including Gov. Mike DeWine, have called for its removal.
“In recent days, we’ve seen there is no line he will not cross, no low he will not sink to,” Obama said of Ramaswamy, noting that Acton has “spoken movingly about her painful childhood and all she’s experienced: abuse, neglect and homelessness.”
Later in Michigan, Obama condemned critics of Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, suggesting that they're using his name or his faith to tear him down.
“We have seen this movie before. I starred in it,” Obama told a packed high school gym in Detroit. “I’ve got a long-form birth certificate to prove it."
“Abdul is as Michigan as it gets," he added.
Obama, 65, remains the Democratic Party’s best motivator nearly a decade after leaving the White House. And he's taking his star power on the road in the final days of the midterm elections, which will help determine the balance of power in American politics on Nov. 3.
Trump cast his own ballot on Saturday in Florida, where he defended the Ramaswamy ad, which has emerged as a national flashpoint a little more than a week before Election Day.
“This is a disgrace,” Trump said. “The mother said that Amy Acton is a liar, and she’s no good. And you know what? I don’t think you can get a better reference on that.” He added that if his own mother had said anything bad about him, it would be front and center.
The Ramaswamy campaign video features Acton’s birth mother, Donna Arthur, calling her “a liar” and insinuating she has mental health issues.
Acton, Ohio’s COVID-19-era health director, has made no secret of facing homelessness and abuse as a child. Arthur lost custody of her children after their stepfather, Arthur’s husband, was indicted on a charge of rape involving Acton.
The abuse allegedly happened from December 1976 to April 1978. Cledith Arthur failed to show for a court appearance and became a fugitive. Donna Arthur remained married to him until his death in 2004.
Appearing before Obama, Acton spoke as if addressing Ramaswamy directly.
“My opponent has chosen to exploit, intentionally, my childhood to save his stumbling campaign, but it’s not going to work,” she said. “Decency still matters.” She added: “Mr. Ramaswamy, you are not just out of touch, you are out for yourself and you are a danger to my state. Apparently there is no low to which you won’t stoop.”
Although Ohio has become more reliably Republican, it's been a hotly contested battleground this year. Trump and Vance have both visited the state in recent weeks to drum up support for Sen. Jon Husted and Ramaswamy. And the controversy over Ramaswamy's ad has ratcheted up the already high temperature.
Michigan, too, is a critical state this midterm season, with high-stakes contests for the Senate and governor.
While Obama addressed both races, he offered a passionate defense of El-Sayed, a former public health official running against former Rep. Mike Rogers, a Republican.
The former president pushed back against those who call El-Sayed a radical, declaring that “Abdul shares my values.” He also acknowledged that El-Sayed was critical of him after his 2012 reelection for not following through on all of his progressive campaign promises.
El-Sayed wrote that Obama “was not the right choice — he just wasn’t the wrong one.”
“Some of these folks say, well, you know, Abdul didn’t like some of the things you did as president,” Obama said in Detroit, wearing a blue shirt with no tie, his sleeves rolled up. “You know who else doesn’t agree with everything I do? Michelle Obama. Michelle Obama, about five times a day.”
Democrats hoped that Obama’s appearance in the city, which is three-quarters Black, could bolster support for El-Sayed among Black voters. In the primary, his opponent Haley Stevens won Wayne County, which includes Detroit, by about 6 percentage points. Former Vice President Kamala Harris, the first Black and South Asian vice president, campaigned for El-Sayed in September.
Chunnika Hodges, who lives in Detroit and canvassed for El-Sayed on Saturday, said some Black voters are supporting Rogers because they don’t think anything has changed after years of voting for Democrats. Some are also wary of El-Sayed because of his progressive policies, Hodges said.
“We don’t lean to the conservative, but we have seen that within our community,” Hodges said. “There are conservative Blacks, conservative Democrats.”
And while Obama talked up Democratic candidates in Ohio and Michigan, he also spoke at length about Trump.
He accused the Republican president and his family of rampant corruption and called out his inability to lower costs, noting that Trump has instead focused on building a new White House ballroom and helipad on the South Lawn.
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but he seems very focused on home renovation," Obama quipped. “He should be on HGTV.” He went on: “There's gold everywhere. He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.”
The former Democratic president acknowledged that the nation has Trump for another two years, until his term ends. But voters are not stuck with Trump’s allies, he said.
“We’re not stuck with a spineless Congress and Republican governors who are handling lawlessness and carelessness and cruelty and indifference for working people,” Obama said. “After two years of chaos and cruelty and corruption and incompetence … you get a chance to say enough is enough.”
Obama will headline a rally in Georgia next week with Sen. Jon Ossoff and candidate for governor Keisha Lance Bottoms. Trump is slated to speak in Georgia Saturday.
Peoples reported from New York. AP writer Jill Colvin in New York contributed. GaNun is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Former President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign rally for Democratic Ohio Senate candidate Sherrod Brown, Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Former President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign rally for Democratic Ohio Senate candidate Sherrod Brown, Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Former President Barack Obama greets the crowd during a campaign rally, Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Former President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign rally for Democratic Ohio Senate candidate Sherrod Brown, Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Former President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign rally for Democratic Ohio Senate candidate Sherrod Brown, Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, attends a campaign rally before Vice President JD Vance speaks at the Sharonville Convention Center, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, in Sharonville, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)
