College Football Rewind: 5 most important games from 2000 season

1. (15) Washington 34, (4) Oregon State 29

This is the greatest of the four major ” What If” games of the 2000 season. I ranked this game No. 1 because even though Miami lost to Washington and the Huskies lost to Oregon, you could still make the case that either of those teams should have been in the national championship game over Florida State.

This would have been a program-defining win for Oregon State and they obviously would not have had a shot at the title game without a win over Washington. This game also could have propelled Dennis Erickson into being mentioned as one of the greatest coaches in college football history as this would have been his third national championship in his career after having won two when he was the coach of the Miami Hurricanes.

This game is between two teams that you may not expect. Washington came into this game with a loss to Oregon, but also had a big win against Miami earlier in the season. Oregon State was undefeated and still very much flying under the radar. This game was the same day as the No. 5 game on this list and had even more impact on the Pac-10 title race and the national championship push.

Moreover, this one had star power: Marques Tuiasosopo was the quarterback for the Huskies and Chad Johnson and T.J. Houshmanzadeh were the receivers for the Beavers. Washington led the game most of the way and was up 33-23 in the fourth quarter when Oregon State cut it to a 3-point game and then got the ball back.

It was second-and-1 at the 25-yard line when Oregon State decided to run another play to try and get a first down and stop the clock. The Beavers were stuffed for a four-yard loss and had to spike the ball on third down to stop the clock. They lined up for a 46-yard field goal to tie the game but like Florida State’s attempt that same day, it sailed wide right and the Huskies won.

This would be the only game that Oregon State would lose the whole season and they went on to crush Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl 41-9.

If Oregon State wins this game, we could have been living in a world where the Beavers might have been national champs if they went on to beat Oklahoma. I still can’t even believe that and neither will my children’s children.