College Football's Best All-Time Buzzer-Beater Plays

As far as buzzer-beaters go, college basketball has earned a stronger reputation than college football.

But are we sure that should be the case? 

No one can deny the beauty of March Madness, but Fall Madness has enough last-second moments to compare. Even Christian Laettner, Tyus Edney and Bryce Drew can tip their hats to the drama of college football's best finishes.

One note before we begin: Because college overtimes are untimed, nothing that happens after regulation is a true buzzer-beater. Therefore, we've omitted certain famous walk-off finishes—Boise State's Statue of Liberty against Oklahoma, Michigan State's "Little Giants" against Notre Dame, et al.—if they failed to meet our criteria.

The eight plays that follow are true buzzer-beaters: historic, frenzied, indelible plays that happened as time expired.

Sound off below and let us know what you think.

The Miracle Bowl (1980)

Final Score: BYU 46, SMU 45

BYU staged one of the greatest fourth-quarter rallies in college football history to beat SMU in the 1980 Holiday Bowl.

Trailing 45-25 with less than three minutes to play, BYU quarterback Jim McMahon found Matt Braga for a touchdown. The Cougars recovered the onside kick and promptly drove for another TD, this one on the ground by Scott Phillips. Now trailing 45-39, the Cougars forced an SMU punt with less than 20 seconds to play, still needing a miracle—nay, miracles—to win.

The first miracle came in the form of a punt block. BYU's Bill Schoepflin got a hand on the kick and gave the Cougars the ball at SMU's 41-yard line. After two incompletions, they were down to their last chance.

Cue: the second miracle.

McMahon launched a Hail Mary into traffic, but SMU covered it well. Regardless, BYU tight end Clay Brown leapt over the pile and outwilled the Mustangs for the ball, which he ripped down in the end zone as time expired. BYU kicked an untimed extra point for the victory.

"I don’t know how you could ever top this one!" screamed broadcaster Ray Scott, per Ryan E. Tibbits of The Deseret News.

It's unclear if we ever have.

The Play (1982)

Final Score: California 25, Stanford 20

Stanford kicked a field goal with four seconds on the clock to take a 20-19 lead against its biggest rival, California. The drive to set up the field goal was legendary in its own right, requiring a 4th-and-17 conversion off the arm of Cardinal quarterback John Elway.

But Cal flipped the script on the ensuing kickoff, which Stanford squibbed inside the Bears 45-yard line. Stanford's band rushed the field before the game concluded, and Cal—which accidentally lined up with only 10 players—used the band members as blockers en route to a lateral-filled touchdown with no time on the clock.

Here is the infamous call from Joe Starkey, as transcribed by Graham Watson of Dr. Saturday:

"

The ball is still loose as they get it to Rodgers! They get it back now to the 30, they’re down to the 20 …. Oh, the band is out on the field! He’s gonna go into the end zone! He’s gone into the end zone!! ... And the Bears, the Bears have won! The Bears have won! Oh, my God! The most amazing, sensational, dramatic, heart-rending, exciting, thrilling finish in the history of college football! California has won the Big Game!

"

We'll never see anything like this again.

Hail Flutie (1984)

Final Score: Boston College 47, Miami 45

Boston College hosted Miami (Florida) one week after the defending national champion Hurricanes lost at Maryland. Still, the game pitted two top-15 teams against one another and held massive stakes.

Trailing 45-41 with 28 seconds on the clock, Boston College drove in three plays from its own 20-yard line to Miami's 48. From there, Eagles quarterback Doug Flutie, a diminutive (5'9") but strong-armed Heisman candidate, rolled right to evade pressure and launched a Hail Mary from his own 37-yard line into the front of the end zone.

Doubting Flutie had the arm to throw that far, Miami's defensive backs let receiver Gerard Phelan slip behind them, where he fell to the ground with the game-winning touchdown. Flutie finished with 472 passing yards, becoming the first FBS quarterback to throw for 10,000 yards in his career, and won the Heisman a few weeks later.

The Fifth Down (1990)

Final Score: Colorado 33, Missouri 31

"The Fifth Down" is one of the most glaring officiating blunders in college football—and major American sporting—history.

Trailing 31-27, Colorado quarterback Charles Johnson, who relieved injured starter Darian Hagan, led his team on a 15-play, 85-yard drive to the Missouri 3-yard line with 30 seconds to play.

The final sequence proceeded as follows:

• First Down: Colorado spikes the ball.
• Second Down: Colorado one-yard run.
• Colorado calls final timeout
• Third Down: Colorado run for no gain.
• Fourth Down: Colorado spikes the ball.
• Missouri fans storm the field
• Fifth Down: Johnson runs for game-winning touchdown.

Confused? So was everybody watching the game.

The miscue occurred after Colorado's timeout, when the official failed to flip the field marker from second to third down. He flipped it after the run for no gain, but Johnson saw the marker read three, which is why he spiked the ball on what was actually fourth down.

Despite the on-field chaos, the refs allowed the fifth-down play to count, and Colorado walked away with a 33-31 road win at the gun. The Buffaloes won the rest of their games that season and split a controversial national championship with Georgia Tech.

The Miracle at Michigan (1994)

Final Score: Colorado 27, Michigan 26

No. 4 Michigan hosted No. 7 Colorado in one of the premier nonconference games of the 1994 season.

It exceed expectations by a mile.

Trailing 26-21 with six seconds to play, Buffaloes quarterback Kordell Stewart launched a pass 70 yards in the air. A planned deflection from CU receiver Blake Anderson knocked the ball into the hands of his teammate, Michael Westbrook, for the game-winning touchdown.

Colorado started 7-0 and rose as high as No. 2 in the country before losing at eventual national champion Nebraska. It would finish the season 11-1 after beating Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl.

The Bluegrass Miracle (2002)

Final Score: LSU 33, Kentucky 30

Kentucky had LSU on the ropes after driving into the red zone in the final minute of a 27-27 game. Wildcats head coach Guy Morriss decided to kick a field goal with 15 seconds on the clock instead of draining even more time with an extra play from scrimmage, opting for the safe points instead of risking the clock running out.

The ensuing kickoff pinned LSU at its own 9-yard line, and even after a quick pass got the Tigers to their own 26, the game seemed over. How over? So over that Kentucky players gave Morriss a Gatorade bath.

But then the incredible happened.

LSU quarterback Marcus Randall launched the ball from his own 18-yard line—so far that he couldn't nearly reach the end zone—but the ensuing scrum, which gathered around the Kentucky 25, deflected the ball backward and into the arms of wide receiver Devery Henderson, who caught the pass in stride and sprinted into the end zone.

"I think we practice those kind of plays," then-LSU head coach Nick Saban told Jim Kleinpeter of The Times-Picayune 10 years later. "There's a little bit of luck when you hit one. Things have to go right for you, the ball has to bounce your way and it did that day."

The Miracle in Mississippi (2007)

Final Score: Trinity 28, Millsaps 24

A Division III game made the list? Yeah, so what?

"The Miracle in Mississippi" is the pinnacle.

Trailing 24-22 with two seconds left on the clock, Trinity College executed what might have been the greatest singular play of the decade, completing 15 laterals—15 laterals—to score the game-winning touchdown against Millsaps.

Do yourself a favor and watch the video.

Words don't do this play much justice.

The Kick Six (2013)

Final Score: Auburn 34, Alabama 28

Alabama (11-0) spent most of the game ahead of Auburn (10-1) in what amounted to an SEC semifinal, as the winner would advance to play Missouri for the conference championship.

With 32 seconds left and Auburn trailing 28-21, quarterback Nick Marshall threw a broken-play touchdown to Sammie Coates for the game-tying score. Alabama drove 33 yards in three plays on the following possession but appeared to run out of bounds on the final play of regulation, sending the game into apparent overtime.

After further review, however, running back T.J. Yeldon stepped out with one second on the clock, giving Alabama one more chance to win. Instead of throwing a Hail Mary, head coach Nick Saban attempted a 57-yard field goal, even though his team had missed all three of its previous kicks.

Backup kicker Adam Griffith, who replaced 0-of-3 starter Cade Foster, shorted the attempt as time expired. Auburn cornerback Chris Davis fielded the miss in the back of the end zone and returned it down the left sideline for the game-winning touchdown and one of the most memorable finishes in college football history.