Michigan-Penn State and USC-Notre Dame are both great college football rivalries. They’re both happening Saturday, both kicking off at 7:30 p.m. ET.
The last time Michigan-Penn State and USC-Notre Dame kicked off at the same time, we got 2 classic endings at once
A 2017 encore wouldn’t be a bad thing.
ABC, Getty Images
For the first time in 12 years, the two games fall on the same day. The last time that happened — Oct. 15, 2005 — both kicked off at 3:30 p.m. ET.
At almost the exact same time three hours later, they delivered two of the best finishes of the millennium.
The 2005 USC-Notre Dame game is considered an all-time classic.
The No. 1 Trojans entered 5-0 that year, part of a 27-game winning streak that had already delivered a national championship. They were at their height under Pete Carroll, with Matt Leinart at quarterback and an unstoppable Reggie Bush-LenDale White tandem in their backfield.
Notre Dame was really good, too. The Irish were No. 9 in the AP Poll, 4-1 that year under Charlie Weis. Brady Quinn might’ve been the most touted quarterback in the country if Leinart didn’t exist, and the defense had a couple of future NFLers.
Trailing in the final two minutes, Leinart drove USC 75 yards in nine plays and 1:55 remaining and scored the winning touchdown with three seconds left on a QB keeper. Bush pushed him into the end zone after he’d been stacked up — a play that wasn’t supposed to be legal at the time, though the rules have since changed.
USC took a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in the ensuing celebration, and the Trojans missed the extra point. But there wasn’t enough time left for the Irish to do anything of consequence. The Trojans stayed undefeated until Vince Young happened to them in the Rose Bowl.
At about the same time, Michigan was breaking Penn State’s heart.
Also unbeaten that week: the Nittany Lions. PSU had dual-threat QB Michael Robinson guiding a powerful offense and eventual two-time Bednarik Award linebacker Paul Posluszny on defense. They were No. 8 when they visited unranked Michigan.
In the fourth, Penn State scored a couple of touchdowns, one with a two-point conversion, to go up 18-10. But Chad Henne threw a 33-yard touchdown to Mario Manningham for Michigan, and a two-pointer tied it. UM went up a few minutes later on a field goal, 21-18.
Then Robinson mounted the drive of his life: 81 yards in 12 plays and 1:55 — the same amount of time USC’s winning drive took at Notre Dame, to the second. After a pass interference penalty on Michigan extended the drive, Robinson scored on a 4-yard run with 53 seconds left to put PSU ahead again, 25-21.
On a do-or-die last play, Henne found Manningham again, this time from 10 yards:
Final score: Michigan 27, Penn State 25.
Penn State didn’t lose again and won the Orange Bowl a couple of months later. Had the Nittany Lions won, they’d have joined USC and Texas as unbeaten teams before bowl season.
They were two of the best college games in a long time.
In an SB Nation poll of fans, USC-Notre Dame 2005 came in as the No. 8 most beloved game since the turn of the century. Penn State-Michigan came in somewhere in the 40s, as we recall, though it didn’t make the final top-25 cut.
So let’s do it again in 2017? OK. Ready, break.
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