The top 100 games of the 2017-18 college football season

We did it. After 834 regular season games, 40 bowl games, 4,376 Nick Saban scowls, and one hell of a national championship game, the college football season is over. To remember and honor the season that was, I (along with a little help from the rest of the SB Nation college football crew) am going to count down the best 100 games of the season. We’ll unveil 30 games at a time on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, then count down the top 10 on Friday.

Let’s get to the list:

When a one-handed catch-and-run decides a battle of two famous helmets, it’s on the list.

UTSA was Conference USA’s best team in September and entered 3-0. Southern Miss was 2-2 and coming off of a disappointing loss to North Texas.

UTSA led, 13-7, at half, but USM opened up the spigot. Keon Howard hit Quez Watkins for a 48-yard score late in the third, then Ito Smith erupted for an 89-yard TD run. The Roadrunners responded with 16 fourth-quarter points. They needed 18. After a touchdown from Dalton Sturm to Marquez McNair with 48 seconds left, Sturm’s two-point attempt failed.

Fresno State flipped from 11 losses to 10 wins in Jeff Tedford’s first season, winning the MWC West and coming three points short of the conference title. They capped with a Hawaii Bowl full of twists.

You had Houston blocking a 24-yard field goal and returning it 94 yards, turning a likely 23-13 Fresno lead into a 20-20 tie. With the Bulldogs up 26-20 and under four minutes left, UH was nearing midfield with a chance to lead when Jaron Bryant had a 44-yard pick six for the clincher.

Buffalo broke through in Lance Leipold’s third year. After winning seven games in his first two years, the Bulls went 6-6 and won their final three games to finish bowl eligible (albeit bowl-free).

The last win was the most impressive. Against an eventual nine-win Ohio, the Bulls raced to a 24-7 first-quarter lead thanks to two Tyree Jackson touchdown passes and a Chuck Harris fumble return. The Bobcats came back, but KJ Osborn returned a punt to the Ohio 6-yard line midway through the fourth, and Emmanuel Reed punched the ball in. Ohio drove to the UB 5 with under 90 seconds left, but a Khalil Hodge interception sealed the deal.

Under Neal Brown, Troy had its first 10-win FBS season in 2016, then its first 11-win FBS season in 2017. And the Trojans knocked off the big boys in Baton Rouge.

ASU was 1-2 and in desperate need of a turnaround. They scored 17 first-quarter points and took a 31-14 lead. But the Ducks went on a 21-3 run midway through the fourth quarter.

No worries! ASU responded with an 11-play, four-minute drive, and a 41-yard Brandon Ruiz field goal. Oregon turned the ball over on downs twice, and the Sun Devils hung on.

Arkansas fans won’t rank this among their favorite comebacks, but it was fun for a neutral party. CCU took an 11-point lead on Nicholas Clark’s 31-yard fumble return and led by 13 in the fourth quarter.

Arkansas’ T.J. Hammonds ripped off an 88-yard run with 10 minutes left, however, and Cole Kelley capped an 11-play touchdown drive with a one-yard score with 1:55 remaining. This upset bid only lasted 58 minutes, and Bret Bielema got to keep his job for a couple more weeks.

Pitt wrecked Miami’s plans for an unbeaten season, and the Panthers used a freshman quarterback to do it. To make matters even more impressive? They did so after gut-wrenching losses.

J.T. Barrett won approximately 11 million games as Ohio State’s quarterback, but we got a glimpse of a post-Barrett future when he left The Game with injury.

Blue-chipper Dwayne Haskins came in for his first meaningful action and went 6-for-7 for 94 yards, adding three carries for 24 yards. His 22-yard run set up the go-ahead, and the Buckeyes scored 17 in his four drives.

In Lamar Jackson’s final game at Louisville, a younger quarterback — MSU freshman Keytaon Thompson — stole the show.

It’s hard to lose six straight and still make a bowl, but that’s what Duke did, falling from 4-0 to 4-6 and then rallying. They were 5-6 when they went to Winston-Salem, and they spotted Wake Forest a 17-3 lead.

Rally, they did. Daniel Jones’ one-yard run gave the Blue Devils the lead in the fourth, and Brittain Brown’s four-yard score made it 31-23. Mark Gilbert’s midfield interception sealed a bowl bid, and Duke took advantage with a romp over NIU in the Quick Lane Bowl.

Thanks to a late comeback, Rutgers got to bat around bowl thoughts well into November before finally finishing 4-8. The Scarlet Knights watched a 17-7 lead turn into a 24-17 deficit late in the third quarter, but a Robert Martin touchdown run tied the game back up, and a 23-yard pass from Giovanni Rescigno to Gus Edwards put RU on top. Maryland marched the length of the field late, but a fourth-down pass from Ryan Brand to DJ Moore missed its mark, and Rutgers survived.

Every year sees a batch of Big 12 shootouts. There are a few further up the list, too.

For a changeup, one of the best games of the Big 12 season was an anti-shootout. And it ended with one terrible dose of miscommunication.

Former Big 12 member Missouri did its best to bring the spirit to the SEC, averaging nearly 38 per game and rallying from 1-5 to 7-6. They only played in two particularly close games, but both were shootouts.

In Lexington, the Tigers spotted Kentucky a 13-0 lead before trading a barrage: Drew Lock threw touchdowns of 50, 58, and 75 yards, while UK scored on a 71-yard Benny Snell run and a 64-yard pass to Garrett Johnson. Mizzou was driving with a chance at the lead, but Lock couldn’t find tight end Albert Okwuegbunam on the final play.

Mizzou got its road shootout win a few weeks later. In Bielema’s final game, the Tigers again spotted their hosts a lead (21-7) but took a 31-28 lead at halftime. Lock broke the SEC’s single-season touchdowns record, and with the game tied at 45, Mizzou went on a five-minute drive and sealed with a field goal.

A week after beating EMU in overtime, Ohio survived a wild shootout. It was 27-27 at halftime, and the Bobcats went on a 21-2 run, but UMass kept coming back, and it wasn’t until Dorian Brown’s 42-yard run with 1:42 left that Ohio escaped.

The most MACtion-worthy game happened two weeks earlier. Eventual conference champ Toledo spotted Tulsa a 28-7 lead. Two long Diontae Thompson touchdowns gave Toledo the lead, but the Golden Hurricane tied it with 2:47 left, until Jameson Vest’s field goal at the buzzer.

The Eagles’ hopes of a second straight bowl were dashed by gut-wrenching losses. After a 2-0 start, they lost to Ohio in OT, at Kentucky by four, at Toledo by five, at Army by one, and to WMU in OT.

In desperate need of a win, they took a 24-10 lead early in the fourth quarter ... and gave up two touchdown drives. A field goal gave the Eagles a lead in OT, but Marcus Jones’ run gave NIU the win. You won’t ever see another six-game losing streak this competitive.

Y’all noticed that the AAC was fun as hell again, right? UCF dominated headlines, and the Knights’ final two conference wins are further up the list. But those weren’t the only doozies.

Of the Knights’ first 10 games, only one was particularly challenging. The big plays started early — SMU’s James Proche scored on an 86-yard catch-and-run six minutes in, and UCF responded with an 80-yard pass 15 minutes later.

Adrian Killins’ 64-yard score gave UCF a 28-17 lead in the third, but SMU cut it to 28-24. The Mustangs worked into Knight territory twice in the fourth but couldn’t break through.

Every season features fun FCS-over-FBS upsets, and we saw a wild duo in Week 1.

Soon-to-be-FBS Liberty ruined Matt Rhule’s Baylor debut by posting 585 yards and going on a 21-7 second-half run to take a 48-38 lead. Baylor made it 48-45, but Brandon Tillmon ended it with a last-second interception.

Later that night, we saw technically the biggest upset of all time. UNLV was somehow a 45-point favorite over Howard — UNLV should not have been a 45-point favorite over anybody — but fell victim to one hell of a debut by Caylin Newton. Cam’s little brother rushed for 190 yards and threw for 140 more. The Bison withstood a 24-0 run and came back from 33-21 down to score 22 of the final 29 points. This was a thriller, even if “biggest upset ever!” might oversell it.

Check back all this week for the rest of the Top 100.