Dating back to bowl week, late Dec. early Jan. of last year, specifically the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, and the opening week of the National Collegiate Athletic Association football season, college football has supplied the fans with examples of why football is so great.
The first example happened Jan. 1, 2007, in the Tostitos Fiesta bowl. The match up was the ninth ranked team Boise State Broncos vs. the seventh ranked team the Oklahoma Sooners. The game was great, it was up and down and high scoring. However, the greatest part of the game was the final 86 seconds. In those 86 seconds, the Broncos and the Sooners combined for 22 points, in what is known as the most dramatic finish in Bowl Championship Series history.
It seemed to be all over for the Broncos as the Sooners took a seven point lead with a minute left in regulation. Down to their last play, the Broncos needed a miracle to stay alive. The Broncos called a play that is only called in the most desperate situations. The Broncos ran what is known as the hook and latter, to stun the Sooners defense and tie the game, sending it into overtime.
The miracle didn’t end there, as in overtime the Broncos found themselves down a point. Instead of going for the tie and sending the game into double overtime, Broncos head coach Chris Peterson elected to go for the win. The Broncos ran another trick play known as the statue of liberty, to win the game and finish last season as the only team with a perfect record.
Even with a horrible tragedy such as the Virginia Tech massacre, a school shooting on April 16, 2007, in which the shooter killed 32 people and wounded many more before taking his own life, football can be an outlet and an inspiration. The season opener against East Carolina University wasn’t just a start of a new season for the Virginia Tech nation. It was a new beginning. A time to remember and honor, the 32 student and faculty members who were killed on that tragic day. The Virginia Tech Hookies will honor them all season long, but before the opening kick off the Hookies remembered the deceased by playing a short video tribute on the scoreboard and releasing 32 orange balloons, one for each of the deceased.
Perhaps the biggest miracle in college football happened in Ann Arbor, MI., in Michigan Stadium, also known as the Big House. The fifth ranked team in the nation the Michigan Wolverines were upset by a Division I-AA school, the Appalachian State Mountaineers.
If there ever was a David vs. Goliath in sporting events, it truly was this game. The Wolverines were heavily favorite going into this game, and they were also preseason favorites to make it to the national title game. Also the Wolverines had talent going to the National Football League, such as: running back Mike Hart, quaterback Chad Henne and offensive lineman Jake Long, to go with a legendary coach in Lloyd Carr.
None of that mattered, however, as the Mountaineers played hard all game long and in the final seconds blocked a field goal, which would have gave the Wolverines the lead and the win. Mountaineers would prevail 34-32. The loss was so big that it knocked the Wolverines out of the top 25 and out of the national title picture.
Examples like these prove that football isn’t just a game to sit and watch with a group of friends. Football is a game that supplies miracles, courageous efforts and the notion that any team can beat any other team on any given weekend.
