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.