On Saturday in Waco, Texas, TCU quarterback Max Duggan lined up behind his center with 94 seconds remaining in the game and his team trailing 28-26. He had no timeouts at his disposal, as the Horned Frogs used all three on defense to get the ball back with a chance to win the game. Their undefeated record was on the line, as was a possible College Football Playoff berth.
The stakes were high.
After a few passes and scrambles, TCU moved into Baylor territory and field-goal range. A handoff to running back Emari DeMercado got the Frogs to the Baylor 26. With no timeouts, Duggan and the TCU offense hurried to the line and spiked the ball with 22 seconds left. It was third down. TCU then did something that surprised everybody. It called another run play. DeMercado picked up another 3 yards that set off a fire drill. TCU’s offense sprinted off the field as its field-goal unit sprinted on, needing to get lined up, snap the ball, and kick a field goal that would save their season all before the ticking clock reached zero. Somehow they managed to pull it all off, as Griffin Kell’s 40-yard attempt split the uprights.
When asked about it immediately afterward, TCU coach Sonny Dykes said he wasn’t nervous about the final sequence. Fox analyst Brock Huard felt differently. “I’m shaking,” he said. “I can’t believe what Sonny Dykes just did!”
Put me in the same camp as Huard. Dykes might say he wasn’t nervous, but I was, and I had no immediate reason to be. I am not a TCU fan. I didn’t have money riding on the outcome. I was just a person watching a football game who felt his entire life depended on the outcome simply because of what was at stake.
Meanwhile, another unbeaten team in Ann Arbor, Michigan, was in a similar spot. No. 3 Michigan lost its star running back, Blake Corum, to an injury in the first half of its game against Illinois and found itself trailing in the fourth quarter for the first time all season. Down 17-10, the Wolverines put together three field goal drives to hold off defeat. Jake Moody drilled his fourth kick of the day with nine seconds left to improve the Wolverines to 11-0. Unlike the Baylor-TCU game, I had a personal connection to this one as an Illini. As an Illini fan, I did not appreciate Michigan’s comeback! As a college football fan, I understood the moment’s importance for Michigan and what it meant for the Wolverines’ Big Ten hopes and its College…
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