Confession time; when I was growing up I was immensely more into college basketball than college football. That allure almost certainly came from March Madness and monitoring those games during the day when I went to school (if I did go to school that day). However, I was always a football fan deep down. Between the ease of the schedule, the consistent scheduling, and the history and traditions that were soaked into the foundation of the sport, it was only a matter of time until college football took a firmer hold on my life compared to college basketball.

I can point to two major events that helped cause the tides to slowly turn in the direction of college football. The first was a moment that always sticks out in my mind as the moment I truly became a Notre Dame fan, at least independent of my family raising me to be one. After a lackluster debut game at Notre Dame stadium, which I’ve hit on previously, I went back to other things as a kid does. The 2002 season changed everything. I don’t have a ton of memories of games prior (or even during that season) but one game stands out. The 2002 Michigan State game. More specifically, the finish of the 2002 Michigan State game.

The ending, the indescribable joy to see such a dramatic moment unfold, really stuck and has stuck with me. The crescendo of a couple hours of stress relieved in one moment of pure fanatic bliss. It was something I truly enjoyed and something I enjoyed seeking out. 

A Christmas Spark

Fast forward to Christmas of 2006. I received a present of a book with the title “Heart Stoppers and Hail Mary’s” on the cover with a big picture of Matt Leinart diving into the end zone at the end of the 05 USC game. Thumbing through it before my family gets in a 45 minute ride home, I notice on the back of the cover there is one CD. The back cover has another. On those CDs were radio calls of some of the older games, and almost every call after 2000, showing the thrill of a last second victory. I ended up loading those calls to my iTunes for future consumption. Every time I was in the car, I would be listening to all of those calls sans context, losing myself in the moment.

Both Versions of the Book

During my move to California two summers ago, I was packing all of my sports books, and found this book. Looking through it once again, I noticed that the author was in fact a Notre Dame professor. During the moving process, I was thinking of potential off season ideas for the website, when the idea hit me. I could reach out to Professor Mandell and ask for his permission to extend the idea of this book closer to the modern game. However, I ended up tabling it, when I came up with the 2001: A Football Odyssey idea.

As I was doing research on that project last summer, I found writing about the games with the more fun finishes are easier and more fun to research. I finally reached out to Professor Mandell to get his blessing to potentially do this idea this offseason. He happily agreed to the idea. Check out his website here for more information on him and the two books referenced above.

So What’s Next?

So this offseason, in a similar vein of the original two books, I will be hand selecting some of the best finishes since the 2006 Rose Bowl between Texas and Southern Cal. That game is the final  I am looking for games that fit the criteria from the book as best as possible:

There have been 16 complete seasons since the final game in that book. This offseason I will take a look at those first eight seasons (2006-13 football seasons) and talk about the games that meet that criteria. I narrowed down the list to twenty of the games I personally think reach the pinnacle of iconic college football finishes. Let me know in the comments below your guesses for games that will make this list (there will certainly be a handful of ND games in here). Next time, we take a look at the first game on that list.