This College Football Season Was Awesome
In honor of another great College Football season, here are my top 5 games of the year.
As a college football fan at the beginning of the season, I was just happy football was being played. I did not know we would get one of the most bizarre, hectic, and exciting seasons I could remember.
It was an all around crazy season. Notre Dame joined the ACC. BYU, Liberty, Coastal Carolina, and Cincinnati were all ranked. A wide receiver won the Heisman trophy for the first time since 1991. The only thing that wasn’t crazy, was Alabama winning the National Championship. With that being said, here are my top 5 games from this absolutely, electric season.
Honorable Mention:
Ohio State vs. Indiana (November 21, 2020)
Kent State vs. Buffalo (November 28, 2020)
Ohio State vs. Clemson (January 1, 2021)
Florida vs. Alabama (December 19, 2020)
USC vs. Oregon (December 18, 2020)
Florida vs. Texas A&M (October 10, 2020)
Kansas State vs Oklahoma (September 26, 2020)
Five: Oklahoma at Texas (October 10, 2020) Oklahoma 53 - Texas 45 (4OT)
Entering this game, the Sooners were 1-2 after suffering two consecutive losses to Iowa State and Kansas State while, the Longhorns were 2-1 after a 33-31 loss to TCU. If you were to look at this game before the season began, you would think “Wow, one of these teams will make the playoff”, but, by game week, these two teams needed to win to keep their BIG 12 title chances alive.
Tom Herman and the Longhorns trailed 31-17 headed into the fourth quarter but, thanks to a pair of Sam Ehlinger touchdown drives, one coming with 14 seconds left, Texas pushed the game to overtime.
In overtime, the two high flying offenses exchanged touchdowns in the first and second overtimes and in the third overtime they both missed field goals. Oklahoma got the ball to start the fourth overtime when Spencer Rattler hit Drake Stoops on a 25 yard passing touchdown, followed by a Stoops two point conversion reception. On the Longhorns possession, Ehlinger was intercepted by Tre Brown to end the game.
This game really turned OU’s season around as they went on to win out in the regular season and win the BIG 12 Title.
Four: LSU at Florida (December 12, 2020) LSU 37 - Florida 34
One name sums up this game; Marco Wilson. Florida defensive back Wilson, literally threw away the Gators chance of making the College Football Playoff as he threw an LSU players cleat 15 yards. With that action, Florida was penalized and put LSU in field goal range to hit the game winner through the fog with 23 seconds remaining.
The Gators put up 609 total yards on offense behind the efforts of Heisman finalist, Kyle Trask. Coach O’s Tigers were able to hang around by forcing 3 turnovers and it was inevitably enough to win them the game.
Three: Penn State at Indiana (October 24, 2020) Indiana 36 - Penn State 35 (OT)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, this game didn’t really have huge implications for bowl games or the playoff but, it gave us the second best overtime game this season. Before this contest, the Nittany Lions were ranked eighth in the nation while the Hoosiers were projected to finish seventh in the BIG 10.
With less than two minutes remaining, Indiana turned the ball over on downs but, Penn State running back, Devyn Moore, scored on the first play of their drive and handed the rock back to Indiana down eight points. In 1:20, Hoosiers quarterback, Michael Penix Jr. went 75 yards and capped the drive off with a one yard touchdown run and then running in the two point conversion to send the game to overtime.
Penn State started OT with the ball first and scored right off the rip. On Indianas possession, Penix Jr. found Whop Philyor on a 9 yard touchdown pass. Tom Allen then made the choice to go for broke. He kept the offense on the field to go for two and this caused a stir across the college football world after Penix Jr. fully extended on a QB scramble to score the final two points. The argument still rages on, “was he in or not but?”, I believe the officiating crew got the call right by giving the Hoosiers the two point conversion and the win.
You can be the judge.
Two: BYU at Coastal Carolina (December 5, 2020) Coastal Carolina 22 - BYU 17
If I told you at the beginning of the season that BYU and Coastal Carolina would be powerhouse programs this season and would also account for one of the most entertaining games this year, you would have thought I was nuts.
Football fans didn’t even know this game was going to happen. The week before this competition, Liberty was set to play Coastal but, when Liberty had a Covid-19 outbreak and had to cancel, BYU and Coastal gave us an unreal three hours of football.
The game was tagged “Mormons vs. Mullets” and we got to see a potential top ten pick at quarterback for the Cougars, brawls, and a swarming Chanticleer defense. The game came down to the wire when BYU quarterback, Zach Wilson, carried the Cougars 81 yards in seven plays. On the final play of the game, Wilson hit Dax Milne who picked up 17 yards but, fell one yard short as time expired. An absolutely tremendous game.
One: Clemson at Notre Dame(November 7, 2020) Notre Dame 47 - Clemson 40 (2OT)
Maybe it’s my bias to the Irish but, no other game this season captured my attention the way this matchup did. Notre Dame joined the ACC this season to make sure they would have a full schedule and by doing that, gave us two games vs the Tigers.
At the beginning of the week, Clemson found out they’d be without Heisman finalist, Trevor Lawrence at quarterback so, freshman DJ Uiagalelei stepped up. DJ, had little help from star running back Travis Etienne, who rushed for 28 total yards. The Irish defense was stifling, forcing three fumbles and stepped up in overtime.
The Irish o-line paved the way to Kyren Williams rushing for three touchdowns and 140 yards vs a really good Tiger front seven. In the first overtime, the Irish and Tigers exchanged rushing touchdowns and in the second OT, Kyren punched in his third of the night for Notre Dame.
Clemson got the ball for their second possession and the Irish pass rushers pinned their ears back and got sacks on first and second down. DJ and the Tigers offense couldn’t convert on 4th and 24 giving the Irish the win. The Notre Dame students stormed the field for one of the best moments of this season.
While the season maybe over, we have a lot to look forward to next year as many out of conference games have been scheduled. Some notable games are Miami vs Alabama, Georgia vs Clemson, Cincinnati vs Notre Dame, Ohio State vs Oregon, and Auburn vs Penn State.
Just remember, we are only 227 days away.