PASADENA, Calif. -- Sam Darnold was using his laptop at the team hotel to watch the game that would determine whether Southern Californias Pac-12 title hopes were still alive when he heard cheers indicating that Oregon had scored a last-second touchdown to upset Utah.It turns out Darnolds feed was delayed by a few seconds compared with what his teammates were viewing. It also was one of the few times Darnold was a step slower than everyone else on Saturday, when the redshirt freshman quarterback left rival UCLA utterly baffled.Darnold threw for 267 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions to lead the No. 12 Trojans (8-3, 7-2 Pac-12) to their seventh consecutive win, a 36-14 victory over UCLA . Darnold also rushed for 27 yards, while his ability to extend plays with his mobility offered a striking role reversal from when Bruins quarterback Brett Hundley gave USC fits from 2012-14.I tell you, the creativity that Sam brings was evident, USC coach Clay Helton said.UCLA coach Jim Mora went one step further before comparing Darnold to Tony Romo.A guy as mobile as he is, as heady as he is, keeping his eyes down the field the way that he can, thats what makes him special, Mora said. Ive seen him on film and on TV, and I had a lot of respect for him coming into this game. In person, hes a truly special one.Despite the injury to quarterback Josh Rosen and poor play of the rushing offense, UCLAs defense had played well in a disappointing season. But Darnold was able to run away from and through a defense featuring Takkarist McKinley, Eddie Vanderdoes and Kenny Young, all likely future NFL players.Even Darnolds second interception was more about what he could do, rather than what UCLA could do to stop him. He evaded pressure repeatedly before heaving a ball into the end zone, where it was picked off by Jayon Brown.A similar throw put USC ahead midway through the second quarter, with Darnold putting the ball up for DeQuan Hampton to make a 31-yard touchdown reception. The seldom-used senior receiver boxed out Randall Goforth and extended his arms for the score.That fearlessness is what led USC coaches to elevate Darnold to the starting job after three games in hopes of energizing a sluggish offense.Hes going to push the envelope, offensive coordinator Tee Martin said. Hes going to push the defense and see how much he can get. Like a kid, hes going to play around that stove until he gets burned. Youre going to have to live with some of the mistakes.Id rather him make the mistakes trying to make a play than to play scared, so we just got to live with it.But those mistakes have ended up fueling USCs surge. Darnold forces opposing defenses to account for him as a runner, helping free up space for running backs Ronald Jones and Justin Davis. USC has had a 100-yard rusher in all but two games with Darnold as the starter, while Davis rushed for 92 yards against Colorado and Jones had 93 at Washington in those wins over top 10 teams.We got like a double-edged sword, Jones said. Its great.Darnold has also spread the ball around in the passing game, with 11 different receivers catching balls against UCLA. Helton attributes Darnolds ball distribution to playing point guard in high school basketball.Combine those attributes with a surging defense, and USC would have a strong case for a berth in a New Years Six bowl game with another rivalry win over Notre Dame next week. If the Utes defeat the Buffaloes, USC would win the Pac-12 South on the head-to-head tiebreaker and play for the conference title for the second straight year.Defensive tackle Stevie Tuikolovatu, a graduate transfer from Utah, said he would be cheering super-hard for his friends and former teammates. Tuikolovatu also said he might send Ducks quarterback Justin Herbert a gift to thank him for upsetting Utah.Hes the playmaker today, Tuikolovatu said of Herbert.Everyone that was at the Rose Bowl, however, would say that title belongs to Darnold.Said Martin: Hes still a freshman and I like that part about our future.---More AP college football: www.collegefootball.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP-Top25Custom Cincinnati Bengals Jerseys . Rob Manfred, baseballs chief operating officer, testified last week during the grievance filed by the players union to overturn Rodriguezs 211-game suspension. 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The lawyers filed a 33-page amended complaint Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan, expanding on the suit originally filed Oct. 3 in New York Supreme Court. Arbitrator Fredric Horowitz last week refused to compel Selig to testify in the grievance, and Rodriguez then walked out of the hearing without testifying.Over $20 million in prize money is on the line for Dota 2s The International 6. In Seattles KeyArena, 18,000 people are gathered to watch 16 elite teams fight to the last squad standing. The competition has been fierce and upsets have kept the audience on its toes.On the first day of the playoffs, returning 2015 champions Evil Geniuses made a surprise debut in the winners bracket with a win over Chinese team Newbee. Four of Evil Geniuses players are already millionaires from their $6.6 million win last year, but Saahil UNiVeRsE Arora wants to do it again.I felt pretty good. I think we match up well versus most Chinese teams, he says. I think with Newbee, I wasnt afraid of them at all, because they play pretty passively and their picks are pretty standard; they dont do anything out of the box or they dont really even pick meta heroes. They just pick their own style and go with it.With the win over Newbee, the team has the opportunity to advance to the upper bracket finals if they win a match versus EHOME on Wednesday. While they beat Newbee fairly convincingly, despite a 70-minute game, UNiVeRsE believes that EHOME will be a harder challenge for him and his Evil Geniuses teammates.I think they play a much more aggressive style, and they pick heroes that are more in tune with the meta so Im a little bit more apprehensive towards EHOME, he says. I think itll be a closer series [than with Newbee].He says his teams preparation tonight will begin with watching EHOMEs matches today versus Evil Geniuses sister team, Alliance, and watching matches of their own to see where they can improve.Were probably not going to play that much in between our games, because we have to prepare in terms of draft for the next game and watch the matches going on, he explains. You just get a really good feel of all the teams in the tournament [by watching them play]. It becomes kind of like a chess game, I guess. Just trying to outthink each other.The biggest challenge in facing EHOME and other tournament powerhouse MVP Phoenix, which Evil Geniuses could face should the stars align, is their aggressive playstyle, UNiVeRsE says. Its something that makes both teams incredibly scary opponents.You just have to try and quell their early aggression, he says. You cant get run over in lanes, basically, so you have to pick strong laners and be able to fight midgame because theyre going to take the fight to you, so you have to have strong teamfight [abilities] in order to match up against them.While this is UNiVeRsEs second tiime in a row playing for Evil Geniuses at the International, he has not spent all of the past year with them.ddddddddddddIn March, he left the squad to join rival Team Secret, something he says happened after feeling a lack of compatibility with EG teammates.At the time in Evil Geniuses when me and [Artour Arteezy Babaev] were on it, things were not good personality wise; we werent meshing that well, he says. I thought that it would be hard to reconcile those differences at the time and I didnt see a very good replacement for Arteezy at the time, so I just thought that my best chances of winning would be going to Secret.Upon joining Secret alongside Arteezy, UNiVeRsE and Arteezy did not work as well as expected. Team Secret landed in last place at the Manila Major in June, much lower than anticipated, along with Evil Geniuses. Only days afterwards, UNiVeRsE left the squad to rejoin Evil Geniuses.Obviously [joining Secret] didnt pan out that well, but I dont have any regrets going to Secret, he says. In hindsight, its easy to say, you messed up by going to Secret, but I think I made the right decision and I dont have any regrets.He says the decision to rejoin Evil Geniuses made sense considering that the team also picked up Ludwig zai W?hlberg, who had played on the team previously as well. This move made UNiVeRsE feel that Evil Geniuses was the place for him again.Now, UNiVeRsE and the boys in blue will look to repeat their victory at a second International in Seattle, something that no team has managed to do before. Their upcoming match against EHOME is one that UNiVeRsE says he was looking forward to prior to the tournament.After I saw EHOME in the group stages, I thought they were going to do really well, just from the way they were playing, he explains. They were really confident, it seems like. I really wanted to keep my eye on and watch out for [them] because theyre really good and innovative.But despite a challenge in a competitor that completely wiped Alliance today, he believes that his team can win it all once again, whether it be from the winners bracket or, like last year, the losers bracket.I think we have a good shot, he says. I think there are a lot of teams who could win this event; I think its very close between the top teams. I think anyone can win it; I wouldnt say one team has a huge advantage over other teams, but we definitely have a shot. ' ' '