2007 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl

[Kneel B4 Zod]

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Vince Young says hello from the endzone in pasadena

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please tell me I am getting leveled

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You don't think a national championship game between two undefeated teams that decided in the final minute was a good game.

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I'm no longer a big college football fan, and am pretty neutral on both Texas and USC, but the Vince Young game is the best college football game I've seen. amazing 4th quarter, 2 TD dogs (iirc) winning, and the single most dominant performance by a football player I have ever seen. (outside of Tecmo Bowl and high school)

[JaredL]

I don't think enough attention is being paid to the ruined marriage proposal.

[MicroBob]

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I mean, if you're telling the history of football, you're not going to mention random exciting highschool games, because they don't matter.

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But there's a good chance such a book will mention Georgia Tech defeating Cumberland College 222-0 back in the early 20th century which may have been the most meaningless game ever in many ways

(Cumberland College had disbanded their team but was forced to play this game or face a big fine so they had to round up whoever they could to take on this powerhouse and obviously they pretty much stopped trying or caring at a certain point while Ga Tech was determined to run up the score to embarassing levels).

A book on the history of college football will also include some of the blowout championship games.
This doesn't make them 'great games' either just because they were important enough to be included in a history of college football.
they were, in fact, lousy games that just happened to be championships.

Don't get me wrong, the fact that a great game is a championship definitely enhances its greatness.
But to say that it can't be considered among the greatest games just because it wasn't a championship (or was ONLY the Fiesta Bowl) is taking it too far the other way imo.

[.Alex.]

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Don't get me wrong, awesome game that was incredible to see live, but it seems the game is given a lot of extra credit because of the three brilliant gimmick plays that BSU pulled off at the end of regulation and the conversion. Of course if either of those plays failed the coach would have been pilloried in the media and questioned for the rest of his life, but whatever.


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fyp

I think the reason it's fair to consider this game among the very very best is that any ONE of those plays would be enough to make it a classic (see: Music City Miracle). Name me another professional sports game, playoffs or regular season whatever, that has even two plays of that magnitude and excitement. Not to mention the 18 point comeback by OSU, etc.

Also, I disagree that the coach would have been harshly criticized had these plays failed. The hook and ladder and the 4th down were desperate situations in which success was unlikely anyway, so no one would have even blinked if they didn't convert on those. The statue of liberty is the only one that would have been controversial, but I think tiredness and their underdog status were sufficient mitigating factors to at least split the reaction somewhat.

[gusmahler]

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Don't get me wrong, awesome game that was incredible to see live, but it seems the game is given a lot of extra credit because of the two brilliant gimmick plays that BSU pulled off at the end of regulation and the conversion.

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It wasn't just the trick plays. The game was incredibly exciting even before the trick plays. Everyone seems to forget that OU was down 28-20 with 2 minutes left. Then OU scores in 1 minute AND scored a conversion. Then the BSU QB goes from hero to goat to hero by first throwing the INT, then leading the team to the tying TD.

Really an incredible 4th quarter and OT.

But the game really does have to be put in perspective: within the past 5 years, there've been 2 national championship games decided in the last minute or OT.

[Googie]

This game is top-5 all-time. Boise St went from Div 1-AA in 1995 to winning a BCS bowl against perennial powerhouse Oklahoma in 2007. I had OU -7 because I felt that Boise St wasn't ready for the big boys. I lost, but still don't mind. I've been watching football for 30 years and had never seen those trick plays executed so well under such circumstances. This was as impressive as George Mason's final four appearance in basketball. I'd put this game second behind USC/TX Rose Bowl and ahead of Mia/BC 1984.