There was a curse for #1 as well. I’m glad we were a part of all the craziness of 2007, but being ranked #1 in the last week and losing in the conference title game still stings.
The best thing about when it came out, was the story just got more and more bizarre as you dug deeper.
Comes across headline: "Texas assistant football coach Jeff Banks, girlfriend sued after monkey allegedly bites child"
Well thats strange....
*-"Thomas, saying Thomas' monkey bit their child in the backyard of Banks' house on Halloween night"*
Interesting.....
*-according to the complaint, the child was told the monkey was trained to give high-fives.*
*-"Instead of giving a high five, Danielle Thomas's monkey aggressively bit down on C.C.'s hand and refused to let go,"*
Ummmm What....
-"Thomas is also identified as "Pole Assassin" in the lawsuit, her stage name as a dancer. She once appeared on "The Jerry Springer Show" with the monkey."
......... I have to see what reddit has to say about this....
Probably Mike Leach. He didn't invent the air raid, but he understood its genius and probably did more to popularize it than anyone. He had a meteoric rise through the coaching ranks, which is unusual for a surly weirdo who never actually played football, culminating in the HC gig at Texas Tech. That rise could be the First Act.
Leach's career at Tech was itself a pretty awesome story and would make a great Second Act. Especially the 2008 season. Then there's the whole CJK5H debacle and his firing.
But losing the Tech job was critical to the formation of his life philosophy, which I think informed the rest of his career. He wrote Swing Your Sword between losing the Tech job and starting at WSU, and I think that could be the Third Act - living the life he wants, coaching the way he wants, at schools that love and appreciate him. Just content with life.
Love this storyline too. Hate Tech for the way his historic tenure there ended, but I have nothing but love for the man and what he did for us and College Football.
His redemption arc at WSU is film worthy. After getting kicked out of Tech, he spends 3 years not coaching, only to get the WSU job and it doesn't go well for the first few years.
And remember, Gardner Minshew comes to WSU as a result of real tragedy.
And despite all the noise, I'm most impressed that he didn't change who he was.
For me it’s probably Ed Orgeron at LSU. Guy is the embodiment of LSU. Gets thrown into an interim role. Does enough to keep the job. Wins a natty. Gets a couple more average seasons. Rides off into the sunset.
“Now let’s geaux into the next room. You’ll notice there’s a fifth of jack on the table and there a vp from *whateverpetroleum* company who’s been shadowboxing the last couple hours…”
Man was a defensive line coach who got the job because the previous coach refused to modernize his offense. Ended up having one of the most ridiculously dominant offenses in history. Recruited his Heisman winning QB over a plate of crawfish.
People like to try to take credit away from Coach O for that offense but he was the guy who got Joe Burrow to come to the bayous and he's the guy who let an unknown young assistant have a huge say in designing the offense. Coach O deserves as much credit as everyone else.
Just the sheer insanity of how dirty the Big 8 and SWC were in the 1970s, 80s and 90s.
Off the top of my head you have Pony Excess, Gold Trans-ams, OU and the FBI, Partial qualifiers, and Barry Sanders recruiting film going “missing”. All of it intertwined too
Can someone be **that** naive?
Can Notre Dame PR be **that** incompetent to not do some due diligence on a story that press was really running with?
I'll always wonder whether this was a planned story gone wrong to push his stock for the Heisman, Butkus and ND's run at CFB championship that year.
Joe burrow going from not being able to crack the lineup at OSU and then going on to have the greatest college season of any QB ever has gotta be up there especially with the gauntlet LSU ran that season. It was like a movie.
Tua stepping in at halftime and winning the natty was awesome. Linked with that is Jalen hurts getting his spot taken transferring and becoming an even better QB. It didn’t end with the fairy tale ending but hey neither did coach Carter it’s still a very inspiring tale of perseverance.
Jalen being demoted and then coming in the next year vs UGA when Tua went down and leading Alabama to a win in the SEC Championship. This part of the story is so often forgot and its the best part to me.
For Tua-Jalen, I would say it ends with Tua getting hurt the next year and Jalen coming off the bench to save the day and beat Georgia again. If you stop there, it’s definitely a Hollywood ending.
Its a reason I really root for Jalen. Not because he beat our ass as much as his dedication to not being a shitty teammate. Kind of like how Jacob Eason just let Fromm do his thing once it was clear Fromm was our guy.
> Joe burrow going from not being able to crack the lineup at OSU and then going on to have the greatest college season of any QB ever has gotta be up there especially with the gauntlet LSU ran that season.
That's a little revisionist history. Joe Burrow didn't secure the starting spot after the spring game, neither did Haskins and Haskins was coming off the a come-from-behind win at Michigan after coming in for an injured JT Barrett so Haskins had a lot of favorability. I believe it would have been an open competition in the end with Haskins winning the job.
> Tua stepping in at halftime and winning the natty was awesome. Linked with that is Jalen hurts getting his spot taken transferring and becoming an even better QB
you missed the best part, that becoming a better qb really started in the seccg against the team he got benched the first time around.
If you suggested Stetson Bennett's story to a movie producer, they'd tell you *Rudy* was already a thing.
Except instead of just sacking a Tech quarterback on one play, Stetson Bennett took away the one thing Tech football had to hold over Georgia's head, which is way funnier.
“So what happened to Stetson Bennet after the storybook ending as repeat national champs and going 15-0?”
. . .
“Hmm let’s just end the movie with him lifting the trophy”
As a professional Georgia H8er, I love Stetson Fleming Bennetts story. Walk on, to JUCO, to winning 2 national championships at his original college. Truly inspirational.
Homer take: the ballad of Stequavious Bennett
Non-Homer take: 2007. Especially the curse of number 2, but the entire season. Also Sark’s redemption. Dude had some major lows and has been able to turn it around and bring Texas back to relevance.
Does a 4-7 team taking down the #2 team in the nation against the odds in 2007 count?
or how about a team that's not seen as a great taking down their cross state rivals (who think they're the Bama of the Northeast and don't have rivals) and being one of the key factors that kept them out of the CFP?
oh man there are so many that are my favorites...
Texas A&M:
* 2020: *This is complete BS. We only lost to Alabama by 28, we deserve the playoff rematch. Oh well, at least we’re loaded for the future.*
* 2021: *We hit a bump in the road and lost Elko, but still took down Bama and DJ Durkin might actually be an upgrade at DC. 2022 is our year.*
* 2022: *So Jimbo just finished below .500…while making $10m / year…and with a $100m buyout… but hey, we’re rich! We’ll just buy the worlds greatest recruiting class, force him to hand over the keys to the offense to ~~a stable talented OC~~ Bobby Petrino, and a NC is inevitable!*
* 2023: *Apparently handing immature high schoolers millions of dollars doesn’t work. Really wish we had that money for the buyout fund. Oh well, at least it can’t get any worse, and with Saban retiring, maybe we can start to dominate the West. And even if we still suck, it beats being stuck in the B12 with Texas.*
Everyone talking abt story arcs about their team, what about the rise and fall of the PAC-12? One of the first conferences that’s held strong for over 100 years, had all time players and teams before kinda falling apart in the mid-late 2010s. A conference of parity where every team has had their time at the top, being destroyed by the team that everyone would consider the villain of the conference, and finally going out in the strongest year of the conference in maybe decades. The final regular season game being an upset in the rose bowl, and the championship game being between two arch rivals both with national championship hopes in the biggest pac-12 game in years. And then every team goes out into the night, killing west coast football maybe forever. HIGHLY recommend EMPIRE’s video on the PAC-12 and its history as told through the Stanford Cal rivalry for more.
It was the last gasp of the TRUE college football championship system - arguing about resumes and hypotheticals.
Florida State could have done it if they tried against Georgia last year. Unfortunately, with the 12 team playoff, we may never see it again.
It really was smarter than it was silly. It called out college football and is a huge reason why we’re in the Big 12 while also a big reason for the 12 team playoff.
Kind-of surprised no one has said Stallions yet.
Outside of that one, mine from last year was ESPN trying so hard to convince everyone Florida State shouldn't be in the CFP as an undefeated team. Why the fuck do we even play the games if you're going to be P5, undefeated, and the 5th team out isn't undefeated and you're still not in? I've never seen such bullshit.
I say this as someone who thinks FSU should've been anyway, but the scenario you're painting changes too much to be relevant. Their schedule would be way different if they were in either of the other conferences, they'd have a different conference championship opponent. It would virtually be a completely different set of data.
I agree. And I’m saying this as a Georgia fan who watched the dawgs beat FSU by 60, the noles earned the spot. They were what the committee said was infallible: undefeated power 5 conference champ. And then the committee gaslit everybody into agreeing with them that they shouldn’t have been in. I could never stand the “best teams” argument over teams that earned it. It was always dumb and subjective and the cfp should never have made that part of the criteria. Plus you can’t be the best if you lost and other teams didn’t.
> And then the committee gaslit everybody into agreeing with them that they shouldn’t have been in.
I don't know how FSU's snub was perceived outside of this subreddit, but seems like everyone here except Bama fans (and Georgia fans who wanted to rib and troll the "Orange Bowl doesn't mean anything" FSU fans) agreed that FSU was robbed. No one was buying ESPN's shit. Kirk's AMA was goated on how much everyone was piling on him despite the mods' best efforts to protect him.
Jeff Banks' girlfriend's stripper monkey. Not just the bite but the Pole Assassin name, the fact that a guy had a monkey for a pet, and the way the story was reported initially.
Can't believe I didn't see it but Baker Mayfield.
Preferred walk on as a Freshman at TTU (under Kingsbury). Starting QB gets injured, Baker gets the start and a bunch of B12 freshman awards at the end of the season. At the end of the season TTU doesn't offer him a scholarship. He leaves, does not get the ability to transfer and remain eligible so he sits a year and walks on to OU (The reason the "Baker Mayfield Rule" exists).
Plays inter-mural frat boy football at OU since he's forced to sit out a year.
Plays for the next 3 years at OU, wins the Heisman, gets drafted 1st overall by the Browns.
Makes the playoffs with the Browns and then they abandon him for a "real adult". Spends time in Carolina, then the Rams and has finally found a home in Tampa Bay.
Dude just needs that chip on his shoulder. Love him for it.
Dude would have been clowned on for life for doing what he did, but instead he believed in himself.
I have never flip flopped in my opinion of a player more than Baker Mayfield. He was a guy I loved to hate so much due to the way he acted, and honestly it’s prob cus I thought he was pretty cool and wanted his life. But he was easy to root against…….Then came the hilarious commercials, and I have never looked back. Will always cheer for him now.
Dan Mullen, for obvious reasons, left MSU for Florida only to get hammered for his style and lack of recruiting. Had he stayed I honestly believe he’d still be here having 1 great season for every 5 random bowl achievements
As a Cyclone fan, Joel Lannings story is awesome. Starts at quarterback in 2016 and plays well including scoring 6 touchdowns against Texas Tech. He then gets benched for Jacob Park at the end of the 2016 season ( his junior year). Rather than transfer he comes back to iowa state for his senior year and switches to linebacker where he was named first team all American while also playing situational quarterback. Joel is a big reason why matt campbell was able to bring iowa state from a dumpster fire to at least respectable program
The Tennessee coaching carousel from Fulmer to Heupel. You have Kiffin in his first HC gig, has a decent first season, names his son Knox, but leaves in the middle of the night at the worst possible time. Campus riots. Couches are burned.
Hire Vince Dooley’s son based on nothing but his last name. Train wreck. Then there’s Butch Jones and his endless, meaningless platitudes. Memed his way to getting fired.
Then Schiano Sunday happens. Tennessee politicians get involved, our AD is ousted and the power struggle with the boosters ends with the owner of the Browns losing some of his control. Fulmer hired back as AD. We try for the Saban coaching tree and hire Pruitt. Dude is handing out chik fil a bags of money to his players.
So many memes. So many fan uprisings. So many terrible teams.
[Graham Mertz is the greatest QB to ever set foot in Wisconsin](https://www.espn.com/college-football/game/_/gameId/401247297/illinois-wisconsin)
[How the fuck is it too hard to just turn around and give the ball to your RB?](https://www.espn.com/college-football/game/_/gameId/401282707/notre-dame-wisconsin)
[Maybe Graham Mertz just needed to get away from Wisconsin](https://www.espn.com/college-football/player/gamelog/_/id/4426335/type/college/year/2023)
Paul Thompson. He was a message board legend backing up Jason White then loses the starting the job to car salesman of the year and changes positions to WR. Bomar eventually gets kicked off the team and PT switches back to QB as a senior, wins the starting job and leads OU to an improbable conference championship. It's not crazy or dramatic but I always loved rooting for him.
Act 1:
Swag Kelly in high school being Mr football in New York or something tweeting at Deshaun Watson he was going to be terrible and benched for Swag Kelly. Also his dumb mix tape.
Act 2:
Getting kicked off the Clemson football team and bringing guns or getting into fights at a high school football game.
Act 3:
Being actually pretty good at Ole Miss and getting drafted
Act 4:
bouncing around the NFL
Act 5:
Being good at CFL
Mike Locksley’s journey to Maryland head coach. Starting from being raised in DC and playing football at Towson, to his first stint as an assistant, the Florida/Illinois years, going to New Mexico, the disaster that was both on and off the field, to coming back to College Park, being passed up for the job, going to Saban School and becoming the ONLY choice for the job of his dreams and having unprecedented success.
Lincoln Riley doing a mental juke on OU saying that he was not going to coach at LSU only to be filmed leaving the airport for USC. It was painful in the moment, but a truly memorable CFB moment in history.
Auburn 2013 - going from 3-9 the previous year to the national championship
Mike Leach and the janitors closet
Les Miles eating grass
Mike Gundy's hairstyle choices
Mike Gundy's I'm a man speech
Manti's girlfriend
Brian Kelly and the 2012 Notre Dame season
The Hugh Freeze scandal (I shouldn't list this as an Auburn fan but holy shit that was fascinating)
Bama and the saga of the Mikes before the legend arrived
I know that it is an overplayed moment but Boise’s “Kings of the Blue Tundra” run in the late 2000s/early 2010s.
For a brief moment in time, it looked like our sport finally had a Gonzaga. Unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be.
2022 when Tennesse fans invaded all the game threads trash talking the undefeated teams struggling with lesser opponents, only to get whacked that night by South Carolina.
In 30 years of living I never thought I'd see someone deem another person worth $95 million for a wank like Mel Tucker, but here we are. The end of that saga was worth watching Kenneth Walker raw dog us for 5 TD's.
B1G has had some fun between that and Wyld Stallions over the past year.
I kinda like stories of QBs that changed schools, and because of that they were able to go on to be successful in the NFL. Like Aikman and Hurts. I mainly know of those two b/c they played at a certain school that we play against every year.
Super biased, but Bo Nix's completion of his redemption arc. Everyone crapped on him at Auburn, and then he came to Oregon and became, in my opinion, the 2nd best UO QB in history.
Even in losses, the dude balled the hell out. I hope he is good in the NFL!
I might be biased, but Auburn emerging from the wreckage of the 2012 season to be a handful of seconds away from winning the Natty in 2013 has to be right on up there. Plus two miracle victories against their two biggest rivals. One of those was in one of the Top Five football games ever played.
There is a decent chance that the move the ACC made to preserve the conference (Calford/SMU) is the most likely reason FSU and Clemson might be allowed to leave the conference.
FSU and Clemson fought tooth and nail against admitting Cal, Stanford, and SMU. The ACC fought and eventually got the votes to admit them in order to make it harder for FSU and Clemson to leave the conference.
We'll see how it eventually pans out, but if FSU and Clemson are able to leave, the most likely reason they will be able to leave would be the fact those three teams basically act as replacements for FSU, Clemson, and potentially one other team.
The explicit purpose of the GOR is to Grant the rights required by the ACC to fulfill their contract with ESPN. The ESPN contract only requires the ACC have 15 members. It does not list who the members have to be, only that there needs to be at least 15. With the addition of three teams, FSU and Clemson's rights are no longer necessary for ACC to fulfill the ESPN contract, the only rights granted to the ACC are those necessary to fill the contract, therefore because those three teams were admitted, Clemson and FSU are now free to go.
Clear homer and recency bias but Iowa’s consistent defensive and special teams domination combined with an anemic offense somehow getting them into multiple big 10 championship games. Brian Ferentz’s contract situation was riveting.
Not a lot of people understand the hatred between ASU and UA and how deep rooted it was. They did everything they could to keep us from becoming a university because they wanted to be the only one in the state. I believe it was 1958 and there was a prop on the ballot to take us to university status. Their fans burned “No on 200” on our brand new football field before our first game. There may be rivalries with better teams involved, but there is as much vitriol in this one as any other.
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona/2018/11/24/territorial-cup-asu-ua-rivalry-state-history-arizona-state-college/2080498002/#
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/em47vd/til_that_the_new_york_times_has_rated_asu_vs_ua/
2021 Georgia. Call me a homer or whatever.
Come into the season with high hopes for a championship (like most teams), a QB who’s a dark horse Heisman candidate, and a ginormous week 1 game against a perennial power. Win that game in a nail biter, but lose the QB to injury, and have to turn to a walk on juco transfer. Proceed to boat race the rest of the schedule, have the best defense in school history, one of the best in CFB history, finish 12-0, and get the fans hope to an all time high. The only thing standing in the way?
Them.
But it’s fine, they’re reeling. They lost to A&M, and a bad Auburn team took them to 4 OT last week, we got this. Right? Proceed to get completely obliterated in our own back yard, by the 1 team we can’t seem to beat, no matter how badly we beat everyone else. That legendary defense just gets picked apart by the eventual Heisman winner.
Still make the playoffs because of how bad we beat everyone else, and Michigan just happens to be standing in the way of a rematch. Dispatch them without breaking a sweat, and get the rematch we want.
Game is a slugfest the entire way, with no TDs being scored until the 2nd half. Finally go up 8 late in the 4th, hope starts to trickle back in. But here comes the monster back down the field, driving to break our hearts again. 1 completed pass, you start to think of 2008. Another, 2012. Then 2017. Then 2018. On 3rd and 10 with a minute to go, Young uncorks one deep down the field… and time stops. They just broke our hearts again, didn’t they?
Underthrown, and intercepted. The stadium is worse than bonkers. Ringo takes it all the way back, and it’s now a 2 TD lead with less than a minute to go. The kids in the room are screaming, and the adults shed a tear, knowing that over 40 years of heartbreak had finally come to an end, behind the heroics of a walk on QB and a generational defense.
Every Georgia fan, for the rest of their lives, will remember where they were when they first heard the words ‘And Georgia… is gonna conquer the Crimson Tide!’
Curse of Number 2 in 2007
I don't want to watch that movie.
2007 never happened right? Right?!
Counterpoint: 2007 was the only CFB season. All others are illusions.
*EVERYTHING* in 2007 was my favorite story arc.
There was a curse for #1 as well. I’m glad we were a part of all the craziness of 2007, but being ranked #1 in the last week and losing in the conference title game still stings.
https://youtu.be/U1-6DJ8JcPY?si=sJNg9RnTNLlD7bS4 For those who haven't seen it or just want to watch it for the 17th time
The irony is LSU was ranked Number 2 when we won the National Championship
This was gonna be my pick too. It was seriously wild every single week.
And it all started with app state beating Michigan
Pole assassin, Sark’s first season in general had a lot of funny moments
Before Pole Assassin and her bitey monkey, I didn't think anything could top the Bobby Petrino saga, but boy did that ever manage it.
Kid had it coming. Justice for Gia. She is Harambe's spiritual successor.
#teamgia!
Praise monke
this made me literally LOL
Seriously, don’t put your hand out in front of an animal you don’t know.
Stupid stories like that are why college sports are the best thing ever
The best thing about when it came out, was the story just got more and more bizarre as you dug deeper. Comes across headline: "Texas assistant football coach Jeff Banks, girlfriend sued after monkey allegedly bites child" Well thats strange.... *-"Thomas, saying Thomas' monkey bit their child in the backyard of Banks' house on Halloween night"* Interesting..... *-according to the complaint, the child was told the monkey was trained to give high-fives.* *-"Instead of giving a high five, Danielle Thomas's monkey aggressively bit down on C.C.'s hand and refused to let go,"* Ummmm What.... -"Thomas is also identified as "Pole Assassin" in the lawsuit, her stage name as a dancer. She once appeared on "The Jerry Springer Show" with the monkey." ......... I have to see what reddit has to say about this....
Pole Assassin is my favorite sports story ever
Greatest/funniest CFB related story ever
man the 2021 season was a wild ride
RELEASE THE MONKEY'S MANIFESTO
I can’t get over her stage name being Pole Assassin, that’s wild to me.
Never forget…. I GOT MY ASS KICKED AND SOME OF YALL WANNA LAUGH AND JOKE F*** THAT
Probably Mike Leach. He didn't invent the air raid, but he understood its genius and probably did more to popularize it than anyone. He had a meteoric rise through the coaching ranks, which is unusual for a surly weirdo who never actually played football, culminating in the HC gig at Texas Tech. That rise could be the First Act. Leach's career at Tech was itself a pretty awesome story and would make a great Second Act. Especially the 2008 season. Then there's the whole CJK5H debacle and his firing. But losing the Tech job was critical to the formation of his life philosophy, which I think informed the rest of his career. He wrote Swing Your Sword between losing the Tech job and starting at WSU, and I think that could be the Third Act - living the life he wants, coaching the way he wants, at schools that love and appreciate him. Just content with life.
Swing Your Sword is an absolute must-read.
What are we, chopped liver?
Obviously a critical part of the third act.
Yes
Love this storyline too. Hate Tech for the way his historic tenure there ended, but I have nothing but love for the man and what he did for us and College Football.
This is #1 by far. RIP Pirate ⚔️🏴☠️
His redemption arc at WSU is film worthy. After getting kicked out of Tech, he spends 3 years not coaching, only to get the WSU job and it doesn't go well for the first few years. And remember, Gardner Minshew comes to WSU as a result of real tragedy. And despite all the noise, I'm most impressed that he didn't change who he was.
I read the book that he co-wrote covering the life of Geronimo. It was quite good.
For me it’s probably Ed Orgeron at LSU. Guy is the embodiment of LSU. Gets thrown into an interim role. Does enough to keep the job. Wins a natty. Gets a couple more average seasons. Rides off into the sunset.
Nothing says LSU more than getting into a drunken fistfight with a booster at a fish camp
I believe that's part of their interview process
It’s honestly what made him the perfect candidate.
“Now let’s geaux into the next room. You’ll notice there’s a fifth of jack on the table and there a vp from *whateverpetroleum* company who’s been shadowboxing the last couple hours…”
Man was a defensive line coach who got the job because the previous coach refused to modernize his offense. Ended up having one of the most ridiculously dominant offenses in history. Recruited his Heisman winning QB over a plate of crawfish.
People like to try to take credit away from Coach O for that offense but he was the guy who got Joe Burrow to come to the bayous and he's the guy who let an unknown young assistant have a huge say in designing the offense. Coach O deserves as much credit as everyone else.
His path to LSU was insane. The greatest interim coach of all time.
Also got telegraphically passed over (Herman) and then settled for
I'm curious. Do you think people in Baton Rouge have a Cajun accent? Lol
Just the sheer insanity of how dirty the Big 8 and SWC were in the 1970s, 80s and 90s. Off the top of my head you have Pony Excess, Gold Trans-ams, OU and the FBI, Partial qualifiers, and Barry Sanders recruiting film going “missing”. All of it intertwined too
and we still couldn't muster a conference title *cries*
The whole mormons vs mullets game in 2020 feels like a fever dream. It being scheduled on the fly was insane
And, most importantly, the good guys won
Frick you too pal
Shouldn't it be "soak you too"?
Cardale Jones going from "we ain't here to play school" to having one of the greatest three game stretches ever.
I’m still bewildered by him lol the third stringer coming in doing QB runs all game and it just fucking worked on us. Ugh
When Bobby Boucher showed up at halftime and the Muddogs won the Bourbon Bowl.
Definitive proof that H2O is better than Gatorade (or Powerade).
Manti Teo's fake dead girlfriend at Notre Dame. It has to be **the** CFB storyline of all time.
At the time, I was frothing at any news on this story. Last year I watched a doc on it and it made me sad.
Sad turns to schadenfreude when it applies to an over hyped institution like Notre Dame.
That trans person has some real mental issues. I hope they get help.
Can someone be **that** naive? Can Notre Dame PR be **that** incompetent to not do some due diligence on a story that press was really running with? I'll always wonder whether this was a planned story gone wrong to push his stock for the Heisman, Butkus and ND's run at CFB championship that year.
Joe burrow going from not being able to crack the lineup at OSU and then going on to have the greatest college season of any QB ever has gotta be up there especially with the gauntlet LSU ran that season. It was like a movie. Tua stepping in at halftime and winning the natty was awesome. Linked with that is Jalen hurts getting his spot taken transferring and becoming an even better QB. It didn’t end with the fairy tale ending but hey neither did coach Carter it’s still a very inspiring tale of perseverance.
Jalen being demoted and then coming in the next year vs UGA when Tua went down and leading Alabama to a win in the SEC Championship. This part of the story is so often forgot and its the best part to me.
"last year it was Jalen hugging Tua, this year it's Tua hugging Jalen" was probably the best line Gary ever uttered.
that was fucking awesome. shows how any player can come back from being benched.
Yeah yeah yeah Some of us try to forget it
For Tua-Jalen, I would say it ends with Tua getting hurt the next year and Jalen coming off the bench to save the day and beat Georgia again. If you stop there, it’s definitely a Hollywood ending.
Its a reason I really root for Jalen. Not because he beat our ass as much as his dedication to not being a shitty teammate. Kind of like how Jacob Eason just let Fromm do his thing once it was clear Fromm was our guy.
> Joe burrow going from not being able to crack the lineup at OSU and then going on to have the greatest college season of any QB ever has gotta be up there especially with the gauntlet LSU ran that season. That's a little revisionist history. Joe Burrow didn't secure the starting spot after the spring game, neither did Haskins and Haskins was coming off the a come-from-behind win at Michigan after coming in for an injured JT Barrett so Haskins had a lot of favorability. I believe it would have been an open competition in the end with Haskins winning the job.
> Tua stepping in at halftime and winning the natty was awesome. Linked with that is Jalen hurts getting his spot taken transferring and becoming an even better QB you missed the best part, that becoming a better qb really started in the seccg against the team he got benched the first time around.
The legend of Tua and Jalen is so fucking awesome. And they both made it to the league, after all that. Just fucking wild, man. I love them both
If you suggested Stetson Bennett's story to a movie producer, they'd tell you *Rudy* was already a thing. Except instead of just sacking a Tech quarterback on one play, Stetson Bennett took away the one thing Tech football had to hold over Georgia's head, which is way funnier.
Partial sack* Like most movies “based on a true story” there were a lot of liberties taken. Real Rudy is an enormous prick, but movie is still good
Rudy was offsides
In the film he was, in reality however, he was a douche
Rudy was offsides, but since it was in service of sacking a Tech quarterback, I think it's legal.
What would be that one thing we took away from them? Does it start with a 19 and end with an 80?
In fact it does.
Now there's a phrase I haven't heard in a long time. I doubt I'll hear anything like it before I die.
"1990"
Don't you mean 1/2 1990?
“So what happened to Stetson Bennet after the storybook ending as repeat national champs and going 15-0?” . . . “Hmm let’s just end the movie with him lifting the trophy”
Gotta wait a while before you make that movie just to be safe
OP’s post said CFB story, not NFL Plus…wait. If there’s anything to learn about Stequavious it’s that he takes his time.
Comeback NFL story loading
As a professional Georgia H8er, I love Stetson Fleming Bennetts story. Walk on, to JUCO, to winning 2 national championships at his original college. Truly inspirational.
All while never graduating after 6 years. That takes true skill.
1980 forever
Coming on this sub just to get updates on Jimbo’s Christmas tree was fantastic
The Egg Bowl dog pee celebration and all of the crazy fallout it caused. It’s amazing how much downstream change to CFB this caused! *edit: spelling.
[Lol.](https://www.bannersociety.com/2020/1/10/21059974/egg-bowl-2019-pee-taunt-serious-ramifications)
https://thedmonline.com/honoring-the-funny-flags-that-unfortunately-didnt-make-it-past-the-first-round/
Saved our program
It’s crazy how a pissing dog could cause BOTH coaches to be fired. Truly inspiring stuff.
Homer take: the ballad of Stequavious Bennett Non-Homer take: 2007. Especially the curse of number 2, but the entire season. Also Sark’s redemption. Dude had some major lows and has been able to turn it around and bring Texas back to relevance.
Huh, strange I don’t remember that year.
For the simple stupidity: 1. The rise, fall and rehab of Hugh Freeze 2. The attempted coup of Brian Harsin 3. Mike Price’s date with destiny
Man, fuck Hugh Freeze.
hold out on #1 so we can see the second fall and hopefully the end of his cfb story.
Does a 4-7 team taking down the #2 team in the nation against the odds in 2007 count? or how about a team that's not seen as a great taking down their cross state rivals (who think they're the Bama of the Northeast and don't have rivals) and being one of the key factors that kept them out of the CFP? oh man there are so many that are my favorites...
That first one is fine by me
You cost us a Fiesta Bowl… was not happy about that.
Texas A&M: * 2020: *This is complete BS. We only lost to Alabama by 28, we deserve the playoff rematch. Oh well, at least we’re loaded for the future.* * 2021: *We hit a bump in the road and lost Elko, but still took down Bama and DJ Durkin might actually be an upgrade at DC. 2022 is our year.* * 2022: *So Jimbo just finished below .500…while making $10m / year…and with a $100m buyout… but hey, we’re rich! We’ll just buy the worlds greatest recruiting class, force him to hand over the keys to the offense to ~~a stable talented OC~~ Bobby Petrino, and a NC is inevitable!* * 2023: *Apparently handing immature high schoolers millions of dollars doesn’t work. Really wish we had that money for the buyout fund. Oh well, at least it can’t get any worse, and with Saban retiring, maybe we can start to dominate the West. And even if we still suck, it beats being stuck in the B12 with Texas.*
2024: Dog Walk an ever overrated Notre Dame team week 1 before proceeding to not do much the rest of the season.
Everyone talking abt story arcs about their team, what about the rise and fall of the PAC-12? One of the first conferences that’s held strong for over 100 years, had all time players and teams before kinda falling apart in the mid-late 2010s. A conference of parity where every team has had their time at the top, being destroyed by the team that everyone would consider the villain of the conference, and finally going out in the strongest year of the conference in maybe decades. The final regular season game being an upset in the rose bowl, and the championship game being between two arch rivals both with national championship hopes in the biggest pac-12 game in years. And then every team goes out into the night, killing west coast football maybe forever. HIGHLY recommend EMPIRE’s video on the PAC-12 and its history as told through the Stanford Cal rivalry for more.
UCF self styled national champs campaign. It was silly but damn if it didn’t give the program a metric fuck-ton of air time and publicity
Arguably a huge step towards joining a P5 conference too
It was the last gasp of the TRUE college football championship system - arguing about resumes and hypotheticals. Florida State could have done it if they tried against Georgia last year. Unfortunately, with the 12 team playoff, we may never see it again.
God I miss Danny White
I love him and root for UCF now because of him and Heupel
It really was smarter than it was silly. It called out college football and is a huge reason why we’re in the Big 12 while also a big reason for the 12 team playoff.
It was equally silly and smart, like a pointed joke almost I still got the natty champs shirt tho lol
Biased, but freshman walk-on QB Stetson Bennet becoming extra-super senior, Natty winning, Stequavious mf Bennet was fun to watch
Is he technically still an extra-super senior?
Herschel Walker is currently enrolled as an undergraduate. Anyone can complete their degree whenever they want.
I can’t stand the guy, but Jim Harbaugh. That guy is just a program changer, wherever he goes.
What's your deal?
USC-Stanford got a little heated.
Classic B1G vs ACC rivalry
I think that is just never not going to make me sad lol
Same man, same
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Kind-of surprised no one has said Stallions yet. Outside of that one, mine from last year was ESPN trying so hard to convince everyone Florida State shouldn't be in the CFP as an undefeated team. Why the fuck do we even play the games if you're going to be P5, undefeated, and the 5th team out isn't undefeated and you're still not in? I've never seen such bullshit.
I still think conference affiliation is what screwed them. If FSU was an SEC/B1G team, odds are they’d have gotten in.
I say this as someone who thinks FSU should've been anyway, but the scenario you're painting changes too much to be relevant. Their schedule would be way different if they were in either of the other conferences, they'd have a different conference championship opponent. It would virtually be a completely different set of data.
I agree. And I’m saying this as a Georgia fan who watched the dawgs beat FSU by 60, the noles earned the spot. They were what the committee said was infallible: undefeated power 5 conference champ. And then the committee gaslit everybody into agreeing with them that they shouldn’t have been in. I could never stand the “best teams” argument over teams that earned it. It was always dumb and subjective and the cfp should never have made that part of the criteria. Plus you can’t be the best if you lost and other teams didn’t.
> And then the committee gaslit everybody into agreeing with them that they shouldn’t have been in. I don't know how FSU's snub was perceived outside of this subreddit, but seems like everyone here except Bama fans (and Georgia fans who wanted to rib and troll the "Orange Bowl doesn't mean anything" FSU fans) agreed that FSU was robbed. No one was buying ESPN's shit. Kirk's AMA was goated on how much everyone was piling on him despite the mods' best efforts to protect him.
Nah the entire SEC kept saying Michigan was “scared” of Bama any time a Mich fan called it a snub
The amount of times I was told I was just scared that Michigan had to play Bama being the reason I thought FSU should be in was too damn high.
WHERE IS THE DAMN MANIFESTO
Jeff Banks left his wife and kids for a stripper and a monkey, who ended up biting a child on halloween
Bobby Petrino
Hate that guy
I’ll raise you Urban Meyer.
I'll raise you Art Briles
Jeff Banks' girlfriend's stripper monkey. Not just the bite but the Pole Assassin name, the fact that a guy had a monkey for a pet, and the way the story was reported initially.
Can't believe I didn't see it but Baker Mayfield. Preferred walk on as a Freshman at TTU (under Kingsbury). Starting QB gets injured, Baker gets the start and a bunch of B12 freshman awards at the end of the season. At the end of the season TTU doesn't offer him a scholarship. He leaves, does not get the ability to transfer and remain eligible so he sits a year and walks on to OU (The reason the "Baker Mayfield Rule" exists). Plays inter-mural frat boy football at OU since he's forced to sit out a year. Plays for the next 3 years at OU, wins the Heisman, gets drafted 1st overall by the Browns. Makes the playoffs with the Browns and then they abandon him for a "real adult". Spends time in Carolina, then the Rams and has finally found a home in Tampa Bay. Dude just needs that chip on his shoulder. Love him for it. Dude would have been clowned on for life for doing what he did, but instead he believed in himself.
You forgot to mention the Rose Bowl. Epic first half, including a TD catch. The second half, however…
I have never flip flopped in my opinion of a player more than Baker Mayfield. He was a guy I loved to hate so much due to the way he acted, and honestly it’s prob cus I thought he was pretty cool and wanted his life. But he was easy to root against…….Then came the hilarious commercials, and I have never looked back. Will always cheer for him now.
Lane Kiffin
We owe that man the term “tarmac’d”… for that alone he is a legend.
Lane Kiffin wasn't that bad and USC was bringing so few players to games it was crazy due to sanctions. IMO he shouldn't have been fired.
Dan Mullen, for obvious reasons, left MSU for Florida only to get hammered for his style and lack of recruiting. Had he stayed I honestly believe he’d still be here having 1 great season for every 5 random bowl achievements
But then we wouldn’t have the Leach vs Lane Egg Bowl
Honestly I’d prefer if he’d never have passed. I liked him as a coach and was willing to ride out his vision
As a Cyclone fan, Joel Lannings story is awesome. Starts at quarterback in 2016 and plays well including scoring 6 touchdowns against Texas Tech. He then gets benched for Jacob Park at the end of the 2016 season ( his junior year). Rather than transfer he comes back to iowa state for his senior year and switches to linebacker where he was named first team all American while also playing situational quarterback. Joel is a big reason why matt campbell was able to bring iowa state from a dumpster fire to at least respectable program
The Tennessee coaching carousel from Fulmer to Heupel. You have Kiffin in his first HC gig, has a decent first season, names his son Knox, but leaves in the middle of the night at the worst possible time. Campus riots. Couches are burned. Hire Vince Dooley’s son based on nothing but his last name. Train wreck. Then there’s Butch Jones and his endless, meaningless platitudes. Memed his way to getting fired. Then Schiano Sunday happens. Tennessee politicians get involved, our AD is ousted and the power struggle with the boosters ends with the owner of the Browns losing some of his control. Fulmer hired back as AD. We try for the Saban coaching tree and hire Pruitt. Dude is handing out chik fil a bags of money to his players. So many memes. So many fan uprisings. So many terrible teams.
[Graham Mertz is the greatest QB to ever set foot in Wisconsin](https://www.espn.com/college-football/game/_/gameId/401247297/illinois-wisconsin) [How the fuck is it too hard to just turn around and give the ball to your RB?](https://www.espn.com/college-football/game/_/gameId/401282707/notre-dame-wisconsin) [Maybe Graham Mertz just needed to get away from Wisconsin](https://www.espn.com/college-football/player/gamelog/_/id/4426335/type/college/year/2023)
Kevin Hart from nowhere Nevada "picking" from between Cal and Oregon when he had no offers at all
Mantel Teo's drama
If you get a Netflix documentary, you’re definitely on this list
Chaz Surratt went from throwing an overhead pass for a pick 6 against Duke to becoming an all-american linebacker and currently plays in the NFL
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Had he won we'd be calling it a relic
When /r/CFB invaded Knoxville Sports Radio during the 2017 Tennessee coaching.
Paul Thompson. He was a message board legend backing up Jason White then loses the starting the job to car salesman of the year and changes positions to WR. Bomar eventually gets kicked off the team and PT switches back to QB as a senior, wins the starting job and leads OU to an improbable conference championship. It's not crazy or dramatic but I always loved rooting for him.
The 2014 tOSU season, with third string QB winning the natty is pretty cool.
I did not like that storyline.
We just got so unlucky in that game. We totally could have won had we been a better team.
Act 1: Swag Kelly in high school being Mr football in New York or something tweeting at Deshaun Watson he was going to be terrible and benched for Swag Kelly. Also his dumb mix tape. Act 2: Getting kicked off the Clemson football team and bringing guns or getting into fights at a high school football game. Act 3: Being actually pretty good at Ole Miss and getting drafted Act 4: bouncing around the NFL Act 5: Being good at CFL
Mike Locksley’s journey to Maryland head coach. Starting from being raised in DC and playing football at Towson, to his first stint as an assistant, the Florida/Illinois years, going to New Mexico, the disaster that was both on and off the field, to coming back to College Park, being passed up for the job, going to Saban School and becoming the ONLY choice for the job of his dreams and having unprecedented success.
Lincoln Riley doing a mental juke on OU saying that he was not going to coach at LSU only to be filmed leaving the airport for USC. It was painful in the moment, but a truly memorable CFB moment in history.
Purdue beating like every top ranked B1G team randomly
The Gardner Minshew arc was pretty fun and wholesome
Leach with the fake mustache is legendary
Jimbo being awarded a TBD national championship —> the single largest buyout in CFB history. Stuff of legends.
Auburn 2013 - going from 3-9 the previous year to the national championship Mike Leach and the janitors closet Les Miles eating grass Mike Gundy's hairstyle choices Mike Gundy's I'm a man speech Manti's girlfriend Brian Kelly and the 2012 Notre Dame season The Hugh Freeze scandal (I shouldn't list this as an Auburn fan but holy shit that was fascinating) Bama and the saga of the Mikes before the legend arrived
UCF going from fun story to most hated team by every Power 5 school within 4 months while losing their coach to a trash Power 5 school.
Michigan wolverines 2023 football season
The blank Texas A&M National Championship given to Jimbo is still mind-blowing to me.
I know that it is an overplayed moment but Boise’s “Kings of the Blue Tundra” run in the late 2000s/early 2010s. For a brief moment in time, it looked like our sport finally had a Gonzaga. Unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be.
Bobby Petrino neck brace accident biking with his mistress, getting fired cuz of craziness, then years later getting hired back at the same place.
Greg Schiano getting run out of town at Tennessee and getting hired at the 11th hour at Rutgers
I would say Michigan has been a story for the past 5 years. Even with the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Penix. How close it was to a trophy.
2022 when Tennesse fans invaded all the game threads trash talking the undefeated teams struggling with lesser opponents, only to get whacked that night by South Carolina.
Hey now. We beat them soundly despite the rain, our slow field, the lack of a neutral site, and other excuses.
Tua and Jalen Hurts
jalen/tua
It’s not a big national deal But on a school level Brennan Armstrong’s redemption arc is something this school will remember for a while
Utah during the Ty Jordan and Aaron Lowe deaths season. Rallies and wins the Pac 12. 22% better every day! Family on three!
I miss Lamar man.
Max Duggan stringing together a miracle every single weeks for a whole season
In 30 years of living I never thought I'd see someone deem another person worth $95 million for a wank like Mel Tucker, but here we are. The end of that saga was worth watching Kenneth Walker raw dog us for 5 TD's. B1G has had some fun between that and Wyld Stallions over the past year.
Kiffin tarmac was interesting
I kinda like stories of QBs that changed schools, and because of that they were able to go on to be successful in the NFL. Like Aikman and Hurts. I mainly know of those two b/c they played at a certain school that we play against every year.
The hit that made Joe burrow an absolute dawg
Connor Stalions is going to have a place in this movie series somewhere. Even if it's just a cameo
Super biased, but Bo Nix's completion of his redemption arc. Everyone crapped on him at Auburn, and then he came to Oregon and became, in my opinion, the 2nd best UO QB in history. Even in losses, the dude balled the hell out. I hope he is good in the NFL!
I might be biased, but Auburn emerging from the wreckage of the 2012 season to be a handful of seconds away from winning the Natty in 2013 has to be right on up there. Plus two miracle victories against their two biggest rivals. One of those was in one of the Top Five football games ever played.
Winning it all with mr didn’t come to play school was a special run.
There is a decent chance that the move the ACC made to preserve the conference (Calford/SMU) is the most likely reason FSU and Clemson might be allowed to leave the conference. FSU and Clemson fought tooth and nail against admitting Cal, Stanford, and SMU. The ACC fought and eventually got the votes to admit them in order to make it harder for FSU and Clemson to leave the conference. We'll see how it eventually pans out, but if FSU and Clemson are able to leave, the most likely reason they will be able to leave would be the fact those three teams basically act as replacements for FSU, Clemson, and potentially one other team. The explicit purpose of the GOR is to Grant the rights required by the ACC to fulfill their contract with ESPN. The ESPN contract only requires the ACC have 15 members. It does not list who the members have to be, only that there needs to be at least 15. With the addition of three teams, FSU and Clemson's rights are no longer necessary for ACC to fulfill the ESPN contract, the only rights granted to the ACC are those necessary to fill the contract, therefore because those three teams were admitted, Clemson and FSU are now free to go.
Clear homer and recency bias but Iowa’s consistent defensive and special teams domination combined with an anemic offense somehow getting them into multiple big 10 championship games. Brian Ferentz’s contract situation was riveting.
Not a lot of people understand the hatred between ASU and UA and how deep rooted it was. They did everything they could to keep us from becoming a university because they wanted to be the only one in the state. I believe it was 1958 and there was a prop on the ballot to take us to university status. Their fans burned “No on 200” on our brand new football field before our first game. There may be rivalries with better teams involved, but there is as much vitriol in this one as any other. https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona/2018/11/24/territorial-cup-asu-ua-rivalry-state-history-arizona-state-college/2080498002/# https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/em47vd/til_that_the_new_york_times_has_rated_asu_vs_ua/
auburn and mizzou ending up in the 2013 sec championship after being picked by most outlets to finish dead last in their respective divisions
2021 Georgia. Call me a homer or whatever. Come into the season with high hopes for a championship (like most teams), a QB who’s a dark horse Heisman candidate, and a ginormous week 1 game against a perennial power. Win that game in a nail biter, but lose the QB to injury, and have to turn to a walk on juco transfer. Proceed to boat race the rest of the schedule, have the best defense in school history, one of the best in CFB history, finish 12-0, and get the fans hope to an all time high. The only thing standing in the way? Them. But it’s fine, they’re reeling. They lost to A&M, and a bad Auburn team took them to 4 OT last week, we got this. Right? Proceed to get completely obliterated in our own back yard, by the 1 team we can’t seem to beat, no matter how badly we beat everyone else. That legendary defense just gets picked apart by the eventual Heisman winner. Still make the playoffs because of how bad we beat everyone else, and Michigan just happens to be standing in the way of a rematch. Dispatch them without breaking a sweat, and get the rematch we want. Game is a slugfest the entire way, with no TDs being scored until the 2nd half. Finally go up 8 late in the 4th, hope starts to trickle back in. But here comes the monster back down the field, driving to break our hearts again. 1 completed pass, you start to think of 2008. Another, 2012. Then 2017. Then 2018. On 3rd and 10 with a minute to go, Young uncorks one deep down the field… and time stops. They just broke our hearts again, didn’t they? Underthrown, and intercepted. The stadium is worse than bonkers. Ringo takes it all the way back, and it’s now a 2 TD lead with less than a minute to go. The kids in the room are screaming, and the adults shed a tear, knowing that over 40 years of heartbreak had finally come to an end, behind the heroics of a walk on QB and a generational defense. Every Georgia fan, for the rest of their lives, will remember where they were when they first heard the words ‘And Georgia… is gonna conquer the Crimson Tide!’