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Every college football season has those plays that fans will remember forever. The reason these plays are transcendent is because they are improbable or just flat-out insane.
Here are the top five wildest, game-winning plays of the 2015 season.
5. Georgia Tech stings Florida State with end-game kick-six: It all started when Florida State kicker Roberto Aguayo attempted a 56-yard field goal to win it for the Seminoles with 6 seconds remaining. But the kick needed to be low to make it far enough to go through the uprights, and Patrick Gamble managed to get a hand on the ball. Then while most of Georgia Tech’s players were celebrating that the game was going to overtime, Lance Austin went back to retrieve the ball as it bounced inside the 25-yard line. Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson waived and screamed at Austin to let it roll dead. Austin paused briefly, looked around, and decided to ignore his coach. He scooped up the football and took off toward Florida State’s end zone, avoiding Aguayo’s diving tackle attempt and cutting it back on the final player who had a chance to tackle him before he reached the goal line. Austin’s 78-yard return of a blocked field goal on the final play of the game gave Georgia Tech a shocking 22-16 win over No. 9 Florida State. Seminoles coach Jimbo Fisher’s stoic look after the final play perfectly expressed the devastation that he and his players were feeling at that moment.
4. BYU QB Tanner Mangum’s Hail Mary shocks Nebraska: Toward the end of its season-opening game against Nebraska, BYU was starting to lose hope. Starting QB Taysom Hill left the game with what would end up being a season-ending injury, and it was up to freshman Tanner Mangum to save the day for the Cougars. With only a second remaining, BYU was down by a point and still had 42 yards to go. Then Mangum heaved the ball toward the left side of the end zone, and Mitch Matthews came down with the catch and reached the ball across the goal line. Matthews scored with no time left, and BYU won 33-28.
3. Wild lateral helps Arkansas stun Ole Miss in overtime: The Razorbacks pulled off a 53-52 victory thanks to two wild plays in overtime that left the Ole Miss fans in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in stunned silence. Arkansas kept is hopes alive on fourth-and-25 when Brandon Allen completed a pass to TE Hunter Henry, who flung the ball backward, and RB Alex Collins picked it up off the bounce and ran it for a 31-yard gain. Collins fumbled the football at the end of the play, but teammate Dominique Reed recovered it. The Razorbacks went on to score two plays later and the drama continued when Arkansas coach Bret Bielema decided to go for the two-point conversion and the win. The first attempt failed, but Ole Miss was called for a face mask penalty. On the next play, Allen ran it into the end zone.
2. Miami’s controversial kick return: Duke thought it had defeated Miami after it scored a touchdown with 6 seconds left on the clock to take a 27-24 lead. But on the ensuing kickoff, insanity took over. The Miami players kept chucking the ball back and forth, trying to keep the play alive and praying that Duke’s defense would eventually break down. And then, after the eighth lateral, magic happened. Corn Elder caught the ball, followed his blockers, made some nifty moves, stayed upright and took it to the house — giving Miami an unbelievable 30-27 victory. But this miracle will always be defined by controversy. One of the Miami players with the ball should have been ruled down, and there were several block-in-the-back infractions that could have been called. The missed calls were so terrible that the ACC suspended the game officials. But regardless of missed calls, it’s still an amazing play to watch.
1. The Big-House Blunder: There is no play that will match the combination of the craziness and importance than the botched punt and the subsequent return for touchdown on the final play of the game that allowed Michigan State to defeat rival Michigan. Up 23-21 with 10 seconds left on the clock, all Michigan had to do was get the punt off cleanly. But punter Blake O’Neil mishandled the snap and made things worse when he recovered the ball and still tried to get the punt off. As O’Neil spun around and tried to make the kick, he was swarmed by Michigan State’s defense, and the ball popped free. Then Michigan State’s Jalen-Watts Jackson grabbed the football with his right hand and ran the ball into the end zone as time expired, thus giving the Spartans a 27-23 win.
Chase Erickson is a contributing writer for SDS. He covers Tennessee. Follow him on Twitter @ChaseDownField.
