By the end of last weekend’s day of dramatic college football, one thing was certain: Saturday was definitely not for the faint of heart.
Culminating with No. 12 UCLA’s comeback win in overtime against Washington State, Saturday may go down as one of the most remarkable days in college football history.
It began with the battle for Paul Bunyan’s ax between rivals then-No. 23 Wisconsin and No. 22 Minnesota. The Badgers trailed 34-31 with less than 40 seconds to play, but in a stunning turn of events, Jonathan Casillas blocked a Minnesota punt that was recovered by Wisconsin in the end zone with 30 seconds left, lifting the Badgers to the eventual 38-34 victory.
The shocking finish was just the start of the awe and disbelief fans felt across the country. Seven of Saturday’s games involving then-top-25 teams were decided in overtime or during the last two minutes of regulation.
Here’s how the day played out.
Michigan scored on the final play with a 10-yard touchdown pass to give the Wolverines a 27-25 victory over previously unbeaten No. 8 Penn State. It was Michigan’s seventh straight over the Nittany Lions.
West Virginia, after trailing 24-7 in the fourth quarter, completed the school’s best comeback in 13 years by stuffing Louisville’s Brian Brohm on an attempted two-point conversion in the third overtime to seal a 46-44 thriller over the No. 19-ranked Cardinals.
In similar fashion, No. 14 Boston College rallied from a 30-21 deficit with less than three minutes to play to score two touchdowns – one with 1:18 remaining – to steal a 35-30 victory against unranked Wake Forest.
Sixth-ranked Alabama kept its perfect season alive after kicking a 31-yard field goal as time expired to secure a 13-10 win on the road at Mississippi.
Yet, most of Saturday’s dramatics rested on the final play between top-ranked USC and No. 9 Notre Dame. The Trojans’ 27-game winning streak was on the line during the final drive in South Bend, Ind., when, on a fourth-and-nine play, USC’s Dwayne Jarrett hauled in a Matt Leinart pass for 61 yards to set up the unbelievable finish. On the 2-yard line, Leinart attempted to scramble and dive into the end zone, but the ball came free and went out of bounds as time ticked down to 0:00, much to the jubilation of Irish coach Charlie Weis.
But, as fate would have it, officials granted Pete Carroll and the Trojans seven more seconds on the clock, setting up Leinart’s plunge into the end zone with three seconds left to give the Trojans the improbable 34-31 win.
In fact, one of the few games involving a top-25 team that played out as scripted was Oregon’s 45-21 thumping of hapless Washington at Autzen Stadium.
But if Saturdays continue to unfold in similarly astonishing fashion, the demand of oxygen tanks may increase as the number of fingernails decrease among college football’s faithful.

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