Tag: Best Games

My favorite college football season ever

If you could pick one college football season to relive, which would it be? Nick Shepkowski remembers his favorite in this piece.

What was your favorite year of college football ever?

If you’re a Notre Dame fan visiting here it doesn’t have to be a year the Irish won it all.  Instead, which year did you enjoy all of college football the most?

I got to thinking about this because of a recent draft of favorite seasons that ESPN put together.  Mine didn’t take much thought, but did have four other seasons go ahead of it in ESPN’s draft.

I know it likely has to largely do with age for most but how can a season be better than 2005?

It may sound boring when you hear that the two top teams in the pre-season polls went on to meet in the national championship, but how each got there was incredible with the defending champion USC team escaping the closest of calls at Notre Dame.  Texas’s biggest challenge was a thrilling Week Two win at Ohio State that sent the Longhorns on their way.

Each week ESPN would air a segment discussing if USC’s current team was the greatest in college football history.  The absurdity of it all was laughable, yet I couldn’t hate-watch it enough.

All year Reggie Bush turned heads for the Trojans while Vince Young did ridiculous things week after week in the Big 12.

It wasn’t just a couple of star players becoming legends on a weekly basis, top to bottom it was a phenomenal year nationwide.

Go look at October 15 of that season alone.  Any of the “Bush Push”, Mario Manningham walking Penn State off or West Virgina out-dueling Louisville would easily be considered the game of the year, but two weren’t even the best on that single day.

Just a year after going 6-7 and 4-7 respectively, Notre Dame and Penn State returned their national brands to a combined 20-4, with the Nittany Lions winning a thrilling Orange Bowl over Florida State.

If that’s not enough, those top two pre-season teams ultimately met in the greatest football game most of us have ever seen.  Despite USC being the greatest thing since sliced bread, underdog Texas pulled off the thriller behind an all-time performance from Vince Young.

I was 19 years old and starting my sophomore year of college in the fall of 2005.  I’m guessing being the same age as the guys playing each Saturday probably only helped the bigness of that season to me, but for my money that was the most enjoyable college football season I’ve ever taken in.

 

 

2020 FIW Tournament: Second Round Voting Open – Hesburgh Region

Any win over Michigan is sweet and this Second Round match-up offers a couple of those.  Manti Te’o’s huge night en-route to 12-0 takes on the old No.1 vs No. 2 game from 1989 that saw Rocket Ismail blast off.  Twice.

The time has come to begin voting in the Hesburgh Region in the 2020 FIW Tournament to crown the best Notre Dame football game since 1986. Round one in the Hesburgh Region saw an 11 knock off a six-seed and was also home to the closer opening-round game where ’00 Purdue beat ’90 Tennessee by just a vote.

How was Round Two shape up? Gets your votes in now. The second round will close voting on Sunday afternoon before we advance to the Sweet 16.

— 1. ’93 Florida State vs. 8. ’99 Oklahoma

The Game of the Century goes down to the final play and results in a Notre Dame win over No.1 Florida State.  That will be a tough one to beat at all but the ’99 forgettable season did feature an entertaining comeback win over Oklahoma that got into the second round.

— 5. ’02 Florida State vs. 4. ’00 Purdue

Carlyle Holiday found Arnaz Battle to start things early as Notre Dame went on the road and beat Florida State in 2002.  Can that huge win get by 2000 Purdue who avoided upset in round-one by the slightest of margins or will Gary Godsey and Nick Setta sneak out another victory?

— 3. ’89 Michigan vs. 11. ’12 Michigan 

We (and by we I actually just mean me) were surprised how little love the 2000 win against Air Force received.  That said, any win over Michigan is sweet and this Second Round match-up offers a couple of those.  Manti Te’o’s huge night en-route to 12-0 takes on the old No.1 vs No. 2 game from 1989 that saw Rocket Ismail blast off.  Twice.

–2. ’12 Oklahoma vs. 7. ’12 Stanford 

We often view the 2012 Oklahoma as the biggest win of the 2012 season and it takes on the overtime thriller that concluded with an all-time goal-line stand.  During seeding, I thought it was certain the Oklahoma game would roll but the more I think the more I’m like Stanford’s chances to make this a Second Round thriller.

2020 FIW Tournament: Bracket Release – Notre Dame’s Best Game Since 1986

We’re excited about the tournament we’re holding at FIW as we spend March determining the best game Notre Dame football has won since 1986.

Happy “Selection Sunday” and welcome to March Madness, Fighting Irish Wire style.  We may not have live sports to watch but we do have each other and that’s really all that matters at the end of the day.

We also have a bracket for our tournament here at Fighting Irish Wire where we will determine the best Notre Dame football game (wins only) since Lou Holtz took over in 1986.

How Will Winners be Determined?
By YOU!  Voting is now open as of this post going live.  Follow along to pick your favorite games and go ahead and share them with your Notre Dame fan friends and let’s make this a fun few weeks.

How Games Were Chosen:
Nick Shepkowski and Jeff Feyerer, both of FIW looked over every Notre Dame win since 1986 and nominated games for selection.  From there they drafted out the nominations until a field of 64 was determined and the bracket was built from there.

The Regions:
What are the four most recognizable locations on Notre Dame’s campus?  As appropriate as the Backer or Corby’s may have been, we decided to the controversial route and select the Basilica, Golden Dome, Grotto and Hesburgh Library instead.  Crazy, we know.

The Bracket:
Like you’re watching the CBS crew do their thing on Selection Sunday, let’s start with the number one seeds.

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5, Page 6, Page 7