College Football: 25 most unforgettable games of the 21st century
By Phil Poling
No. 24: USC vs. Penn State, Jan. 2, 2017
The 2017 Rose Bowl often gets forgotten or overlooked, but we’re here to rank it in its rightful place. When the No. 9 USC Trojans (9-3) squared off with the No. 5 Penn State Nittany Lions (11-2), the focus was elsewhere in college football.
The Alabama Crimson Tide had just beaten the Washington Huskies in one College Football Playoff national semifinal, while the Clemson Tigers thrashed the Ohio State Buckeyes in the other. Still, USC and Penn State took the field in Pasadena.
USC jumped out to a 13-point lead in the first quarter behind a Sam Darnold touchdown pass and a couple of field goals, but the Trojans struggled during the second and third quarters, scoring only 22 points; Penn State dominated the middle quarters.
Behind the arm of quarterback Trace McSorley and the legs of running back Saquon Barkley, the Nittany Lions exploded for 49 points in the second and third quarters. Barkley was responsible for two on the ground and one through the air, while his signal-caller threw four total touchdown passes.
The biggest lead of the game was 15 points, but a JuJu Smith-Schuster score, coupled with a 2-point conversion kept the Trojans afloat. The Nittany Lions still held a 49-35 lead heading into the fourth, but the outcome wasn’t certain.
Like any spectacular college football game, the winning team often makes a miraculous play or two that have people questioning, “how?” Two, in particular, stand out from this contest.
The first: USC has the ball. The Trojans were trailing 49-35 with just under 12 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. From their own 21-yard line, third-and-6 is upon them.
As Darnold drops back to pass, he’s flushed to the right. He’s leaning back and lets the ball fly, going over his intended targets hands and right to…Smith-Schuster for a Trojan first down. USC capped that drive with a touchdown and scored the game-tying touchdown with 1:20 left in the game.
The second miraculous play from this game is more of a bone-headed one by the Nittany Lions, but the Trojans still made them pay. On third-and-9 with under a minute to go, McSorley decided to launch a pass down the right sideline to about the 35-yard line.
What he didn’t expect was the pass being intercepted, and then returned to almost the Penn State 30-yard line. Two plays later and the comeback was complete. Kicker Matt Boermeester drilled a 46-yard attempt and the Trojans were Rose Bowl champs.