Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Football: 100 Greatest College Games

Well, CFN has somehow screwed things up on their top 100 college games of all time. How??? Well, on this list, the Jackets get the #92 spot:


No. 92 Georgia Tech 31 ... Clemson 28, November 28, 2000


At the time: Georgia Tech had won three straight and was 5-2. Number four Clemson had started off the season 8-0 and was looking forward to a showdown with Florida State the following week with the hopes of securing an ACC title.


The setup: It was a tremendous game with long scoring drives and an 88-yard punt return for a score from Clemson's Brian Mance. The Tigers took a 28-24 lead with under two minutes to play on a Rod Gardner touchdown catch. Kelly Campbell finished with 209 receiving yards for the Yellow Jackets, but it was another Tech receiver that would steal the show.


The ending: Tech QB George Godsey, who finished with a school record 454 passing yards, had the ball on the Clemson 16 with time running out. He lofted a pass into the end zone for Kerry Watkins, but it looked out of reach. Watkins dove making a one-handed grab for the game-winning score with just seven seconds to play.


How they ended up: Clemson got steamrolled 54-7 by Florida State the following week before beating South Carolina in 16-14 classic. The Tigers ended up 9-3 after losing 41-20 to Virginia Tech in the Gator Bowl. Georgia Tech won its next three games to end the regular season with a seven-game winning streak before losing 28-14 to LSU in the Peach Bowl for a 9-3 record.


In addition, the Jackets come in at #34

No. 34 Georgia Tech 41 ... Virginia 38, November 3, 1990
At the time: The 7-0 Cavaliers were ranked number one in the country behind the sensational pass-catch combination of QB Shawn Moore to WR Herman Moore. Georgia Tech was ranked 11th with a 6-0-1 record with a 13-13 tie against North Carolina.


The setup: The Cavaliers went up by scores of 13-0 and 28-14 helped by three Shawn Moore touchdown runs only to have Tech quarterback Shawn Jones lead the Yellow Jackets back time and time again highlighted by a 43-yard touchdown pass to Jerry Gilchrist. Virginia had its share of big plays as well with a 63-yard touchdown pass to Herman Moore late in the third quarter, but once again, Tech responded with a touchdown drive to tie it at 35 before going up by three on a 32-yard Scott Sisson field goal. With 2:34 to play, the Yellow Jackets held the Cavaliers on a goal line stand stopping two cracks from the one and surviving a called back touchdown on a penalty forcing Virginia to kick a game-tying field goal to knot it up 38. (Many Virginia fans, and Herman Moore, wanted to go for it from 4th and goal from the six, but head coach George Welsh later explained that he thought his defense would give the offense another chance.) Georgia Tech got the ball with 2:26 to play on its own 24-yard line.


The ending: Jones ripped through the Cavalier defense marching the offense 56 yards, but things stalled on the Virginia 20. The clock ran down to before Tech called a timeout to bring in Sisson to ruin Virginia's national title dreams. After two Cavalier timeouts, Sisson nailed the 37-yard kick for a 41-38 lead. A last gasp Moore pass was picked off and the Yellow Jackets came away with the win.


How they ended up: Georgia Tech went on to win the rest of its games and take a share of the national title (along with Colorado) with a 11-0-1 record after a 45-21 Citrus Bowl win over Nebraska. Virginia beat North Carolina the following week 24-10 before going in the tank losing its final three games finishing 8-4 after a 23-22 Sugar Bowl loss to Tennessee.


Now here's the funny part. The links I just gave you are from CFN'shome page. However, there is another top 100. In fact, in that list they show the GT/UVA 1990 game at #19. Hhhhummmm???

No. 19 - The Cavaliers get stung


Georgia Tech 41 Virginia 38 November 3, 1990


This was possibly the greatest game in ACC history and it could certainly be listed among the most important. The Cavaliers were ranked number one in the country behind the sensational pass-catch combination of QB Shawn Moore to WR Herman Moore. The Cavaliers went up by scores of 13-0 and 28-14 only to have Tech quarterback Shawn Jones lead the Yellow Jackets back time and time again. With 2:34 to play, the Yellow Jackets held the Cavaliers on a goal line stand which forced Virginia to kick a game-tying field goal to make it 38-38. Then came Jones calmly leading Tech down the field marching 56 yards to set up a game-winning 38-yard field goal from Scott Sisson with seven seconds remaining.


Historical Significance: The win propelled Georgia Tech to an unbeaten season (11-0-1) and a share of the national title. Virginia would go into a freefall after losing this heartbreaker losing three of its final four games. Some in college football feel the Yellow Jackets deserved the outright national title as they shared it with a Colorado team that beat a bad Missouri team on the infamous fifth-down play.


So what's up CFN???? One difference - the current list are games from 1970 - current. The later list - I'm not sure.