Every college football season produces a moment that, years from now, will make people look at one another and say, “I remember where I was when that happened.”
For Kyle Whittingham, Bryce Underwood and Michigan football fans everywhere, that moment came Saturday night at the Big House.
The Wolverines trailed in-state foe Western Michigan, 12-7, with one second remaining on the clock. Their season opener, one in which they entered as 27.5-point favorites, was slipping away.
Underwood, Michigan’s highly touted sophomore quarterback, took the snap at midfield and rolled left. He backpedaled, bought himself a moment and heaved a Hail Mary pass into the outstretched arms of wide receiver JJ Buchanan to lift the Wolverines to an unfathomable 13-12 victory over the Broncos.
But should the play have even been allowed to take place?
That is the question that will undoubtedly be on the minds of Western Michigan coaches and players after Underwood’s first Hail Mary attempt sailed out of bounds as the clock hit zero.
Western Michigan players had already begun celebrating what they believed to be a historic victory. Then the officials went to review the play.
TV replays appeared to show the clock reaching zero before the ball touched the hands of a Western Michigan defender. But after the review, the officials ruled that one second remained.
The Big Ten Conference released a statement explaining the decision, saying that “following video review, it was determined Western Michigan’s No. 18 started his jump from an established out of bounds position (left foot) and made contact with the ball with one second remaining on the clock.”
The Mid-American Conference and Western Michigan contacted the Big Ten office to seek clarification regarding the replay video and the placement of one second back on the game clock.
MAC commissioner Dr. Jon Steinbrecher said the Big Ten explained that “the ball touched a player who was out of bounds before the clock reached 0:00, resulting in one additional play.”
That one additional play changed everything.
“The extra second was huge,” Whittingham said in his postgame news conference. “As I watched the first Hail Mary and the ball sailed out of the back of the end zone, as I glanced at the clock, I was pretty sure there was one second left. But that obviously is not up to me.”
And so Underwood did it again. This time, his Hail Mary found Buchanan, sending the Big House into bedlam and lifting the Wolverines to a victory that, for several minutes, had seemed impossible.
Bryce Underwood connected with JJ Buchanan for a 47-yard touchdown pass that lifted the Wolverines to a win over Western Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
“This game will go down in Michigan history,” Whittingham said. “I don’t know if it’s in a positive way, but it will go down in history for certain.”
For most of Saturday night, it looked as if Michigan was headed toward the wrong kind of history.
Underwood started the game strong, leading the Wolverines on an 11-play, 75-yard opening drive that ended with his 1-yard touchdown run. But Lance Taylor’s Western Michigan team refused to give up. The defending MAC champions kicked four field goals and forced three turnovers, including a costly fourth-quarter fumble by Underwood.
The Broncos took their first lead early in the fourth quarter and remained composed until the final whistle, threatening to hand Michigan its most stunning upset loss since Appalachian State walked out of the Big House with a victory in 2007.
Instead, Michigan got one second. And a miracle to follow.
Somewhere from Ann Arbor to college campuses across the country, plenty of people now have a story that begins the same way:
“I remember where I was when I saw it.”
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