Written by Adam Jones
Sunday, 16 October 2005

I was always confined to the downstairs bedrooms when my parents held a dinner party. We lived in a split-level house with two beds downstairs and two beds upstairs and the main floor in between. The 1970's were dark years for residential architecture. I do not need to mention that we had shag carpeting, but I will. Being "confined" downstairs meant that the adults were not to be bothered, but it wasn't exactly one day in the life of Ivan Denisovich. My older siblings would play board games with me and we had television. M and D's room had an RCA XL 100 or something. Whatever it was, it was state of the art and it got not three but four channels with crystal clear reception (we had "cable" which meant we picked up the PBS affiliate in Dallas; we must have been rich). If it was a fall dinner party, I would climb into my parents' king-size bed with the orange and brown bedspread from the Autumn Harvest collection at Sears and watch college football. 

That's where I was when Anthony Davis returned the second-half kickoff for a touchdown. I was seven.

I need not tell any college football fan what that means. But I will indulge those of you who can't think back to 1974. Notre Dame raced to a 24-0 lead over the allegedly unbeatable USC Trojans. Still with a 24-6 lead, the Irish kicked off to begin the second half. The incomparable Davis - the best USC tailback never to win the Heisman Trophy and that's actually saying something - ran it back and never stopped running. I remember the play like it was yesterday. USC 55, Notre Dame 24. I was seven.

There is really not a greater game in college football. Oh, I think Texas/OU is more special because of the neutral site. I think Auburn/Alabama and Michigan/Ohio State are more fiercely contested. I think - I know - that Army/Navy is the only contest that potentially brings a tear to my eye each fall. But USC/Notre Dame is in Technicolor. It doesn't even look like other college football games; it looks like a Disney movie. And when it lives up to the hype? Say when an unstoppable team is taken to the limit? When the game is decided on the last play of the game after huge plays turned in by the biggest players in the game have failed to decide it? When it ends in controversy? When one team's fans have even gone so far as to start a premature celebration only to be called back to the sidelines to watch one final emotionally devastating play? It doesn't get any better. And I can't do it justice.

USC 34
Notre Dame 31

I cannot recount every great play in the game. The Notre Dame defense regularly held 'SC in check when it seemed that Troy was about to roll. Brady Quinn made some clutch plays I didn't think he could make. Reggie Bush proved that, no, you can't really keep him completely in check. I am leaving out dozens of other players on both sides who will be part of this story for years to come. But one play stood out. If you were wondering if Matt Leinart has lost a little luster over the first half of the season, go back and watch the 4th and nine pass to Dwayne Jarrett. It will be the play of the year in the college football regular season.

They did play some other games on Saturday afternoon. Not only did I not need ESPN Game Plan to see them; I didn't even need cable. For most of the afternoon I had the NCLS on Fox, Texas v. Colorado on ABC, USC v. Notre Dame on the Notre Dame Channel and LSU/Florida on CBS. All this and key lime pie in the kitchen (NOTE: You can eat key lime pie in October in Central Texas, the high was 87 on Saturday). For the second straight week, picking the greatest ending proved almost impossible. Maybe you can't top USC/Notre Dame, but check this out:

Wisconsin beat Minnesota 38-34 on a blocked punt with 30 seconds left. The Badgers needed 21 fourth quarter points to claim Paul Bunyan's axe. On a side note, Minnesota's Laurence Maroney only carried the ball 43 times for 258 yards; he'll never make it to the NFL at this pace.

Like last play of the game stuff? Largely ignored in the aftermath of the Big Game, Michigan knocked Penn State from the undefeated ranks with a 27-25 win courtesy of Chad Henne to freshman Mario Manningham with zeroes on the clock.

Likewise Alabama needed all 60 minutes to put away Mississippi, 13-10. 'Bama played just well enough to win with Brodie Croyle making the clutch passes down the stretch. If he hadn't, then this would have been the upset of the day.

Instead, the upset of the day was Virginia's head scratcher over FSU, 26-21. The Seminole defense took long stretches of the game off, or so it seemed. Al Groh needed this one.

Cal took most of the game off in an upset loss to Oregon State, 23-20.

Do you like overtime? How about West Virginia taking out Louisville in three extras 46-44. Louisville cruised into the third with a 24-7 lead in this one. The Mountaineers hung tough. West Virginia, if you hadn't noticed, is 6-1.

Or how about UCLA staying undefeated by coming from 21 points down to beat Wazzu in overtime 44-41? In any other week that's the lead story. Not today.

LSU rode Joseph Addai to a 21-17 win over Florida in Baton Rouge. Chris Leak looks worse and worse as the season progresses. The Gators win over Tennessee was ages ago.

Boston College came back in a thriller to nip Wake Forest, 35-30. Kevin Challenger's game winning catch was phenomenal. Hate to sound like a broken record, but on any other day it might have been the lead story.

I talked to an Ohio State grad this week who was convinced that the Buckeyes would fold against Michigan State. I guess I have more faith than some of the disgruntled Jim Tressel fan base. OSU 35, Michigan State 24. The Buckeyes had 12 (12!!!!) sacks. My favorite stat, however, was that OSU did not run a play in MSU territory until 4:56 remained in the game. That's because the Buckeyes scored once on special teams and scored twice from their own side of the field on a 51-yard strike to Santonio Holmes and a 57-yarder to Ted Ginn, Jr. Anybody remember Ted Ginn, Jr.?

Not all of the games were great. Georgia had no interest in Vanderbilt's Cinderella season (Who the hell schedules Georgia for homecoming? I guess The Citadel was already booked.) and put the Commodores away 34-17. Auburn did the same to Arkansas by exactly the same score. The Tigers go to LSU next Saturday.

Texas scored TDs on their first five possessions to rout a reasonably good Colorado team, 42-17. All together now: That would have been a major story on any other Saturday...

Miami extended the right hand of Christian understanding by only beating a reasonably awful Temple squad 34-3. The 'Canes could have named the score in this one.

Texas Tech annihilated Kansas State 59-20 behind 643 passing yards from Cody Hodges. Granted defending Tech is not a walk in the park, but how could Kansas State be this bad? This team won the Big 12 title two seasons ago.

Oregon crushed Washington 45-21. The Ducks might finish 10-1; they should be favored in every game down the stretch.

Finally, TCU, a team I praised for beating Oklahoma and knocked for losing to Southern Money (and rightfully so), has done nothing but win since. The Frogs are 6-1 after a 38-17 win over Army.

Impressive Showing of the Week: USC and Notre Dame - they simply played the best game of the season and maybe the half-decade.

1. USC: Seriously, do you really expect USC to lose after that? I don't, not even against the best UCLA team since 1998.

2. Texas: Vince Young was scary good against Colorado: 25 of 29 for 336 and two TDs. What is a defensive coordinator supposed to do with that?

3. (or 2. if you have a PhD in statistics) Virginia Tech: A couple of weeks ago the Hokies handled West Virginia with ease; that win looks better and better in the computers. The good news is that Va Tech had the day off during a very strange college football weekend. The bad news is they get the Thursday special against Maryland, which is not a sure bet.

4. Georgia: If the chattering class believes Virginia Tech might be the equal of Texas - a legitimate point - then why doesn't anyone ever ponder Georgia being the equal of Virginia Tech? It's worth pondering.

5. Miami: Not that the win over Temple tells us anything. The Hurricanes will regret the loss to FSU all season.

6. Notre Dame: I may be giving them too much credit, but there certainly were not more than five teams that could have beaten the Irish on Saturday.

7. Alabama: Winning ugly - hey, is that Jay Barker on the field?

1200. (yards of total offense on Saturday) UCLA and Texas Tech: That's not an exaggeration. I don't which of them is more fun to watch. (Forgive me if I fail to mention that UCLA gave up 330 yards of rushing to Wazzu).

9. LSU: No rest for the weary, Auburn comes to Death Valley next Saturday. No team has had more challenges than LSU, either on the field (at Arizona State, Tennessee, Florida) or off it. At least they scheduled Appalachian State for homecoming.

10. Hell if I know: Ohio State probably, but Michigan's win over Penn State puts a damper on that. Of course Penn State still has a better record than Ohio State and, oh yeah, beat them head-to-head. Maybe Boston College, except they lost to FSU, a team that also (probably) deserves to be in the top ten. What about Oregon? Their only loss is to USC. I am guessing AP voters just start making things up at this point.

Now I am in serious trouble and call for the assistance of faithful JTT fans everywhere. Remember the scene in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" when the gambler in the beginning of the movie accuses Sundance of cheating before realizing who he was accusing? It leads to the great line: "When I accused you of cheating I didn't know you were the Sundance Kid. If I draw on you, you'll kill me."

Well. I didn't know Texas Tech would be 6-0 and in the top ten when I agreed to take Z and two friends to the Texas/Texas Tech game last month. It ain't gonna be easy.

Anybody got tickets?

If not, I will be forced to re-enact the game in my backyard on Saturday night.