The Biggest Moments in College Football This Year

The 2015-16 college football season has been stacked with big moments.

The hardest part is deciphering which plays are the biggest and separating them from the best.

Here's what I mean. I'll set the foundation for the list.

We have the gift of hindsight, so let's use it. A big moment had to affect an entire season, say, Stanford's second loss, which came against Oregon.

More: The best plays sometimes aren't big enough. One-handed catches and fake field goals are great plays, but if the moment warrants "big" status, it has to mean something. So no, LSU's fake field goal against Florida does not make the list. In the end, it just didn't mean anything.

But moments aren't limited to game-winners. Seth Russell's injury makes the list and so does some bad officiating and blown calls, like in the Nebraska-Michigan State game. Also, Alabama Crimson Tide's Derrick Henry breaking the SEC single-season rushing record and Stanford's Christian McCaffrey breaking the record for all-purpose yards for a single season make the list.

But the ultimate goal is a title, so those things pale in comparison to national championship aspirations.

That being said, the biggest moments had the most at stake. The game-winning rush by Michigan State's LJ Scott in its win over Iowa is, to me, the biggest moment of the college season because of its context and everything leading up to that touchdown.

We'll favor those moments the most because they happened later in the season and really impacted the current playoff standings.

Honorable Mentions

Like I said, crazy plays or moments in a season don’t necessarily warrant big moments. Here are a couple that didn’t make the list, but are noteworthy.

LSU-Florida: The fake field goal called by LSU head coach Les Miles was gutsy, a play that extended the undefeated season for LSU while giving Florida its first loss of the season. The only issue is the Tigers would go on to lose three straight games, starting with Alabama, and ruin their playoff run, completely negating the impact this play could have had on the overall picture.

Ole Miss-Alabama: The unbelievable, deflected, essentially Hail Mary catch by Quincy Adeboyejo for a 66-yard score helped the Rebels defeat the Crimson Tide. But three losses down the stretch for Ole Miss and Bama’s recovery and No. 2 ranking in the playoff defeat the purpose and “big” status of the moment.

Let's move on to the list.

16. Arkansas' Overtime Victory over Ole Miss and Miami's Laterals vs. Duke

In the scope of the playoff, both of these plays and the wins didn't mean much.

Arkansas and Miami both finished in the middle of the pack in the SEC and ACC, respectively.

But the craziness of the Arkansas win and the officiating incompetence in the Miami win earns them credit for two of the biggest moments of the season.

Arkansas' choice of lateral fails 999 out of 1,000 times. The sheer "WTF" moments—meaning how many times you said WTF during a play—leading up to the score ended what little chance Ole Miss had to reach the playoff, giving the Rebels their third loss of the season.

As for Miami, the controversy over four missed calls earned the  ACC officials a two-game suspension. Again, a ton of WTF moments were followed up by a realization that the play should have never counted, and Miami should have lost.

It's possible the refs were caught in the moment, too, but there's a wide line between letting the boys play and blowing the game. The refs blew that game and didn't even use replay properly to make up for it.

Also this isn't the last time the ACC refs, or bad officiating in general, make an appearance on this list.

15. LSU-Alabama: Derrick Henry Versus Leonard Fournette

Coming into the annual LSU-Alabama showdown, Bama's Derrick Henry wasn't even on the level of LSU's Leonard Fournette for Heisman hype.

Fournette had entered the game with seven straight 150-yard games (and if that game against McNeese State hadn't been canceled, it could've been eight), including three consecutive games with at least 220 yards. 

Henry had a solid season by most stretches (just not Fournette stretch), racking up at least 120 yards in five-of-eight including a 231-yard performance against Tennessee.

But when the two teams met, it was all Henry all day. The Alabama tailback finished with 38 carries for 210 yards and three touchdowns, completely shifting the focus on the Tide and his Heisman chances.

Conversely, Fournette could barely break the Alabama line, finishing with 19 carries for 31 yards. 

When it comes to being a running back, there are variables like offensive line play, but the gap was too wide. Give the round to Henry as his first push toward the Heisman Trophy.

14. Derrick Henry and Christian McCaffrey Solidfy Heisman Cases

In a season where there lacks the flash and electricity that usually comes with a can't-miss Heisman Trophy winner, like Johnny Manziel, Cam Newton or Reggie [REDACTED].

What we have this season, instead, are two favorites who broke single-season records that were held by all-time college greats.

Henry broke the SEC rushing record of 1,891 yards held by Herschel Walker. 

McCaffrey broke Barry Sanders' single season 3,250 all-purpose yards record. 

Both players are underclassmen, and if they don't have the same pull as Newton or even Tim Tebow, at least we can take solace in the fact that the resumes for Henry and McCaffrey are bolstered by historic record-breaking.

Henry may win the trophy, but McCaffrey deserves his fair share of props.

13. Oklahoma Stops TCU's 2-Point Conversion to Seal Win

When you have the guts to do what TCU head coach Gary Patterson decided to do against Oklahoma, you earned my respect.

He went for the win in a game that ultimately determined the Big 12 champion and would have changed the No. 4 spot in the playoff.

At the time each team had one loss, but TCU had dropped to No. 18 after losing to Oklahoma State and then bounced back to win against Kansas.

Over the same period, Oklahoma had worked its way up to No. 7, and the victory over TCU put the Sooners in the playoff at No. 3.

TCU’s chances of making the playoff were over. The Big 12 doesn’t have a championship game, and Baylor’s drop-off weakened TCU’s power wins. But TCU could have played spoiler and would have played spoiler if not for a great and super athletic play by Oklahoma’s Steven Parker.

The longstanding dilemma with late scores is: Do you go for the win, or do you go for the tie and overtime? Most times teams will elect to go for the tie, and in a game of this magnitude, it’s refreshing and nerve-racking to see a coach stray away from conventional wisdom, even if it didn’t work out in the end.

12. Refs Blow Call on Nebraska Touchdown vs. Michigan State

I'm always enraged when I see the referees decide a game, whether through their own actions or negligence.

That play wasn't bang-bang. The receiver took several steps out of bounds and was the first player to touch the ball.

Obviously, the play didn't hurt Michigan State in the end because two weeks earlier, the Spartans beat Michigan in a game in which they had a .2 percent chance of winning.

11. Georgia Tech Returns Blocked Kick to Defeat Florida State

Where to begin with this play?

For one, broadcaster Mark Jones starts the call before the field goal by saying, about Florida State, "To remain unbeaten and perhaps a player in the college football playoff and the 29th consecutive conference win..." If you've watched sports, a disaster or miracle play always seems to happen during one of these prefaces.

Then he tops the call off with: "What a time to be alive!" A beautiful rapper Drake line-drop that couldn't have fit better in the moment.

And in between Jones' brilliant spasm, Georgia Tech's Lance Austin turns his back to the defense, scoops the ball and loops around the outside before running the ball into the end zone.

Georgia Tech had one win in the ACC all season, and it came against Florida State. Its 2015 season wasn't the next step toward building off of their 2014 production that included a 5-0 start.

After beginning the year at No. 16, the Yellow Jackets moved up to No. 14 when their season was flipped upside down starting in Week 3. They lost eight-of-nine to finish 3-9 on the season and 1-7 in the ACC.

Considering two weeks after its loss to Georgia Tech, Florida State would lose to Clemson, the Seminoles loss to the Yellow Jackets didn't end their playoff hopes.

But what it did was end a 29-game win streak in the ACC for Florida State and could have ruined the chances of an ACC team making the playoff had the Seminoles defeated Clemson. (Think what the committee would say about Clemson losing to a team that lost to Georgia Tech.)

10. Baylor Loses Quarterback Seth Russell to Injury

Baylor Bears head coach Art Briles has created a special offensive scheme down in Waco, Texas.

But no matter the scheme, it's so important to have players that can complement the system and allow it to run at its full capacity.

When starting quarterback Seth Russell was injured and done for the year with a fracture in his neck, Baylor's season all but ended. Before he was hurt, Russell helped Baylor score at least four times, (against weak competition, to be fair).

We knew going into the season that the Bears' schedule was stacked with good teams on the back end, and with Russell getting hurt two weeks before that stretch of the schedule, it just made the climb to the national championship seem all the more unlikely.

Freshman quarterback Jarrett Stidham had a good game the following week against Kansas State, throwing for 419 yards and three touchdowns. And he continued his good play against Oklahoma, throwing for a solid 257 yards but tossing two interceptions. 

But Stidham was injured in his third start of the season against Oklahoma State, and Baylor substituted with bad quarterback play from Chris Johnson for the remainder of the season.

Stidham is going to be the next great piece in Briles' system, but for this season and next, Russell is the catalyst to that offense. Had he stayed healthy, who knows if the Bears go 2-3 over their last five games and who knows how the Big 12 shakes out.

9. Stanford Loses Opener to Northwestern

Every loss hurts in college football, but to lose the opener is extra crushing.

And to see how the season ended for Stanford, the loss to Northwestern to start the year kept the Cardinal out of the playoff.

The Big 12 doesn't have a conference championship game, and the PAC-12 was considered to be one the strongest conferences in the country.

Had Stanford done everything the same, while changing the outcome of the Northwestern game, is it possible that it supplants Oklahoma for the fourth spot in the playoff? Even with two losses, the Cardinal are No. 7 in the playoff rankings, three spots behind the Sooners.

Oklahoma had a great run to finish 11-1, but it's not 12-1 with a conference championship win. And Stanford's loss would come against Oregon and not to a team like Texas. (This isn't a shot at Oklahoma either. The Sooners completely deserve the bid, but it's an interesting scenario to think about.)

8. Refs Call Penalty on North Carolina's Onside Kick Attempt Against Clemson

It's merely speculation, and the fact that the refs blew this call doesn't actually vilify them like in the Miami-Duke game.

But the weight of its being the ACC Championship game and involving ACC refs, it makes the list. (The shame of the call is that it overshadows a brilliant cap to Clemson's undefeated regular season.)

Had North Carolina recovered its onside kick, the Tar Heels still would have had to drive down the field, score a touchdown and go for two just to tie.

There are two thoughts I had when I saw this the play. The first is the refs blew it, obviously. The Michigan State-Nebraska play was a missed call, while this call was made with zero obstacles or mishaps. The line judge is standing directly on the line of scrimmage and had a clear view of the 35-yard-line. True, it’s easier to say that in hindsight and with the benefit of replay. The calls refs make are usually bang-bang plays, and we at home underestimate how fast everything is happening.

But that leads me to my second point. Football has a glaring hole in its replay system. It’s senseless to review every play or penalty because games would take about 12 hours (approximation). And to be fair, the referees do usually get the calls right, no matter how swayed we are from our fantasy biases or fandom.

What if during the last two minutes everything becomes reviewable by the refs, penalties included? It’s a tough sell, and I’m sure some of the plays (like pass interference) would be exempt. But plays like these can’t happen because it’s obvious that what could have been (North Carolina with a shot to tie) should have had at least an opportunity.

Like I said, there's no guarantee that North Carolina would have scored. They could have thrown a pick or fumbled. Or they could have scored, tied the game and eventually upset the No. 1 team in the country.

Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated North Carolina's deficit at the time of the kick.

7. Clemson Stops Notre Dame's 2-Point Conversion

Clemson linebacker Ben Boulware assisted on a great run that was taken outside. Notre Dame quarterback DeShone Kizer made it through the line of scrimmage, but the push from Boulware blew the play up before the goal line, saving Clemson's undefeated season and putting a huge stamp on its resume.

(Little did we all know, in five weeks Boulware would be a part of another game-saving tackle.)

It's easy to assume that just because the game is tied, it doesn't mean the team who gave up the lead will lose. 

But it certainly doesn't help your chances to let the other team stay in it.

The "wonkiness" of the college season created a ton of uncertainty and chaos.

The only way to ensure your team was in the best position to win the regular season was, well, win all your games.

In hindsight, the game had huge implications for the future of both teams. But a loss to Stanford to end the season softened the blow for Notre Dame. The Irish wouldn't have made the playoff losing that late in the season, and since they're conference-independent, were idle on championship weekend.

With a loss, Clemson still could have run the table in the ACC and made a case for the committee to put the Tigers in the playoff. But it's just easier to win all the games. 

6. Stanford's Final Drive Against Notre Dame

(You have to love play-by-play man Gus Johnson's screaming "Ukulele" after the end of that pass play.)

My apologies to Notre Dame fans for being on this list twice for the wrong reasons.

In football, the concept of "leaving too much time on the clock" tends to be more paranoia than it is reality. And with 30 seconds left in the game, that's well into the opposite territory of leaving too much time on the clock. Thirty seconds leaves time for only two or three plays, and the odds are slim that everything is executed correctly.

That is, until it wasn't.

When quarterback DeShone Kizer scored the go-ahead touchdown for the Irish, it left 30 seconds for Stanford and its quarterback Kevin Hogan.

Hogan was able to drive 45 yards to get the the ball down to Notre Dame's 30, where Conrad Ukropina kicked the game-winning field goal.

The Irish had been No. 6 in the playoff standings, ready to fill in if any of the teams ahead of them lost, meaning Ohio State in the coming weeks. But losses to Clemson then a Stanford loss over the top ended their run.

5. Stanford's Failed 2-Point Conversion Against Oregon

Stanford needed this win against Oregon to secure its spot in the playoff. The Cardinal had a bad loss against Northwestern in the first week of the season and had to play near-perfect football to ensure their spot in the playoff.

Considering they won out after this loss—and the overall performance of the PAC-12 as a conference—Stanford, at worst, would be No. 4 in the rankings since the Big 12 doesn’t have a championship game. Despite Oklahoma’s win streak and final three wins against ranked opponents, at week 12—when Stanford lost to Oregon—Oklahoma was No. 12 in the playoff ranking while Stanford was No. 7. With an eventual win over then-No. 4 Notre Dame, Stanford's chances of being the fourth team in the playoff were better than Oklahoma's.

Instead, they’re stopped on the two-point conversion, and all of the what-ifs remained unanswered. Stanford’s chances to play for a national championship ended, as Fox's Gus Johnson so passionately said in the video. And this is all because of a loss 11 weeks earlier.

Football is crazy.

4. Michigan State Defeats Michigan on Final Play

With a Big Ten loss to Nebraska looming over the horizon in two weeks, Michigan State needed this win against Michigan.

Had this botched punt never happened, Michigan State would have theoretically gone on to finish 6-2 in the conference, leaving the door open for Ohio State (who finished 7-1 in the conference) to play in the Big Ten Championship, despite Michigan State's head-to-head tiebreaker, per the Big Ten rule book.

The ending to the Michigan-Michigan State game had all the fixings of an all-time classic outside of the actual play itself.

Here is a chart of the win probabilities per team, according to college football writer Matt Hinton.

Notice the extremity of the line trajectories representing either team. According to Sharon Katz of ESPN Stats and Information, the Spartans had less that a 1 percent chance to win with 10 seconds remaining."You probably don't need a win probability calculator to tell you that Michigan State had a 0.2% chance to win before the punt #Unbelievable"

It's always amazing to see the level of statistics that back up a play that we'd casually call a sports "miracle." My math skills are horrible, so I won't try to translate the winning probability of .2 percent. But at that moment, Michigan State's chances to win the game were five times less than 1 percent.

In what will surely be an illustrious career at Michigan, a win over the Spartans would have been an early signature game for first-year coach Jim Harbaugh. It just wasn't meant to be this year.

And when broadcaster Sean McDonough's voice cracks from excitement to the point where it doesn't fit the power of the moment but symbolizes the emotion and insanity of it, the call couldn't have been better.

3. Michigan State Kicks Winning Field Goal Against Ohio State

The last-second boot by Michigan State kicker Michael Geiger—and his subsequent windmills—was the nightcap on a game where the Spartans showed championship resolve.

Without this kick the Michigan win means nothing, so this has to finish higher on the list.

After warmups, starting quarterback Connor Cook was a no-go, meaning the Spartans had to rely on backups Tyler O'Connor and Damion Terry.

Geiger helped Michigan State defeat the defending champions without its star quarterback and subsequently ended one of the nation's longest winning streaks. 

As for Ohio State, it was the ending that was bound to happen. 

After the Virginia Tech game on opening night, the Buckeyes only sporadically looked like the defending national champion—and that was rarely against top competition.

For Michigan State, it locked up the Big Ten East division title and a showdown with then-No. 4 Iowa Hawkeyes for the right to earn a spot in the college football playoff.

2. Clemson Stops Florida State on 4th Down Up 16-13

Ben Boulware strikes again.

When the first College Playoff Ranking came out after week nine, Clemson was the new No. 1 with a showdown against ACC opponent Florida State.

In the play at the top of the page, Boulware stops Florida State's Dalvin Cook on fourth down with a little more than six minutes remaining. That essentially clinched the game for Clemson.

The stop was a microcosm of Cook's day. He finished with 194 yards rushing but only 37 in the second half as Clemson's defense was able to shut him down as the game went on.

Naturally at the time, it was said that the winner of the game would clinch the Atlantic Division and a trip to the ACC championship game. And obviously that wasn't set in stone until three weeks later.

Had Florida State won and things played out the same, the Seminoles would have had an identical record to Clemson in the conference, giving them the edge in the head-to-head tiebreaker, per the ACC rule book.

However, Clemson drove down the field and scored, increasing its lead to 23-13 and putting the game out of reach for a Seminoles team that had won three straight ACC titles.

The loss knocked Florida State out of the playoff and set Clemson on the path toward the No. 1 seed.

1. Michigan State Defeats Iowa on Final Drive

This moment wasn't the flashiest, or the most beautiful or the most electrifying, but it had the most meaning of any play this college season.

One yard separated two teams from a guaranteed spot in the College Football Playoff and a Big Ten championship.

One yard separated two teams who had magical seasons coming in and were both fit to compete in the playoff. (Expansion anyone?)

One yard separated Iowa from earning that win against a ranked opponent that would legitimize its contender's status.

One yard separated Iowa from remaining the second undefeated team left in the playoff.

One yard separated Michigan State from completely erasing that egregious missed call by the referees in its game against Nebraska.

One yard separated Michigan State from its fourth win of the season against the top 15.

And it was all settled by a length of 36 inches.

Football is amazing isn't it?