Year in review: The best college football games of 2021

The first full week of the 2021 college football season concluded with a bang. Behind four touchdown passes from new quarterback Jack Coan, Notre Dame led 38-20 at Florida State after three quarters. Then McKenzie Milton made his emotional return to the football field  and helped the underdog Seminoles score 18 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to force overtime.  However, after Florida State's Ryan Fitzgerald missed a 37-yard field to open the extra session, the Irish's Jonathan Doerer connected from 41 yards out and the visitors escaped with the three-point victory.

Playing at the Horseshoe without star defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux, Oregon didn't seem to have a chance at pulling off this early-season upset against Ohio State. Wrong!  CJ Verdell rushed for 161 yards with two touchdowns and overcame 484 passing yards and three touchdowns from the Buckeyes' C.J. Stroud. Verone McKinley's late interception of Stroud might have been the Ducks' biggest play of the season.

This was back when Florida was still expected to be competitive in the SEC. However, the Gators fell behind 21-3 after one quarter at home. Then Florida got the running game going (totaled 244 yards on the ground) to get within 28-23 late in the third quarter. Down 31-23 with a little more than three minutes to play in the game, Dameon Pierce's 17-yard touchdown run got Florida within two. But, Malik Davis' rush was stopped rather easily by the Crimson Tide to preserve the win.

The first of several times we'll highlight the Nittany Lions -- for better or worse. This proved to be an intriguing prime-time matchup. This was truly a back-and-forth contest until Penn State built a 21-10 lead early in the third quarter. Then Auburn got within a point early in the fourth before Noah Cain's 3-yard scoring run eventually put the Nittany Lions up eight. The Tigers would get down to the Penn State 2-yard line with just over three minutes to play, but Bo Nix's pass on fourth down went incomplete. As it did on the final play of the game from the Nittany Lions' 26.

It's the game that lent some major credibility to Cincinnati's run to a spot in the College Football Playoff . And, the result that ultimately kept the Fighting Irish out of it being part of the final four of college football. The Bearcats led 17-0 at halftime but allowed host Notre Dame to get within four before Desmond Ridder's 6-yard touchdown run gave Cincinnati some breathing room and eventually ended Notre Dame's 26-game home winning streak. 

Less than a month after upsetting Ohio State, Oregon got stunned themselves. Stanford won just three games in 2021, but its biggest win — and last — of the season came in overtime against the previously undefeated Ducks. The host Cardinal led 17-7 at halftime, but Oregon rallied and the game needed more time after the hosts forced the extra session with Elijah Higgins' 2-yard touchdown pass from Tanner McKee. Stanford won the game after McKee hooked up with John Humphreys for a 14-yard scoring pass and Oregon failed with its overtime chance.

It's safe to say that Saturday, Oct. 9 might have been the most entertaining — and, perhaps, craziest — day of the 2021 college football season. The fun began in Oxford, Miss. , where the Razorbacks and Rebels combined for 103 points and 1,287 yards. The back-and-forth game featured three 100-yard rushers. It can also be argued that Arkansas' KJ Jefferson outplayed Ole Miss' Matt Corral with 326 passing yards and three touchdowns, plus an interception. Jefferson's 9-yard touchdown pass to Warren Thompson as time expired to put the Hogs within a point, but the 2-point pass try failed.

If we thought that Arkansas-Mississippi Game was wacky, the 2021 installment of the Red River Rivalry was full-blown madness . Texas led 28-7 after the first quarter, 38-20 at halftime, and 41-30 after three quarters. Then it was Oklahoma's turn to take over, scoring 25 times in the fourth quarter and winning the highest-scoring game in the 117-year history of this rivalry on a 33-yard TD run by Kennedy Brooks (217 rushing yards) with 3 seconds remaining.

A couple of undefeated, top-five teams meeting in Iowa City. Penn State led 14-3 after the first quarter, but the Hawkeyes held the Nittany Lions to just two field goals the rest of the way. Penn State, which managed just 287 total yards, was still up 20-13 after three quarters, but Iowa grabbed its first lead since early in the contest when Spencer Petras hit Nico Ragaini with a 44-yard touchdown pass at the 6:26 mark of the fourth and never looked back.

The deliciously wild action of Oct. 9 concluded with No. 1 going down on the road . Unranked Texas A&M led 24-10 at halftime, but thanks to Bryce Young (369 passing yards, three touchdowns, one interception) and Jameson Williams (10 receptions, 146 yards, two touchdowns), by the five-minute mark of the fourth quarter, Alabama led 38-31. But, the Aggies tied the game on Ainias Smith's 25-yard scoring pass from Zach Calzada (285 passing yards, three touchdowns, one interception), during his breakout performance with three minutes left tied it, and Seth Small etched his name in A&M football history with his game-winning 28-yard field as time expired.

One week after Iowa knocked off Penn State to improve to 6-0 and sat No. 2 in the country when an unranked, 3-2 Purdue squad arrived in Iowa City. In what might have been the biggest upset of the season , the Boilermakers held the Hawkeyes to 271 total yards and quarterback Aiden O'Connell threw for 375 yards with two touchdowns, including one to star receiver David Bell, who went off for 240 yards with 11 receptions.

OK, this probably doesn't fall under the category of "best of ..." for anything. But the way this matchup between two teams on opposite ends of the Big Ten spectrum was kind of like passing by a car accident -- we have to look. And keep looking. Penn State led 10-0, but couldn't deliver that knockout punch in the second half, and Illinois managed to tie the game. That's when the fun, and ineptness began. Nine overtimes (most in FBS history ), resulting in just 18 combined points, with each team getting one crack at the end zone each overtime period after the first two. Eventually, or more like mercifully, Brandon Peters connected with Casey Washington for a scoring pass to end complete the upset for the Illini.

Michigan's lone blemish on the season, to this point, came against a rival that's actually had the best of the Wolverines in recent seasons. And looking back, Michigan is probably kicking itself for allowing it to happen this season. The Wolverines led 30-14 late in the third quarter at East Lansing, then Michigan State outscored the visitors 23-3 the rest of the way. The Spartans got 197 rushing and five touchdowns from Kenneth Walker to  beat Michigan for the 10th time in 14 games and remain undefeated.

If Texas' aforementioned loss to Oklahoma was a turning point on its season, this rather improbable defeat to Kansas, which landed in Austin mired in a 57-game road conference losing streak, was a kick in the teeth . That didn't matter against the already rattled Longhorns, who allowed 420 yards to the Jayhawks. Kansas led 42-21 in the third quarter, but Texas rallied to tie the game at 49. In overtime, the Longhorns scored first, but Kansas answered with Dylan Neal's 2-yard scoring run. The Jayhawks opted to go for 2 points, and a scrambling Jalon Daniels hit little-used freshman fullback Jared Casey in the end zone for the winning catch.

It's been a historical season for 12-1 Texas-San Antonio football. Before the Roadrunners captured the Conference USA title, they found their undefeated season, at the time, in jeopardy at home against UAB. It was a back-and-forth battle all game, with the Blazers going ahead 31-27 on DeWayne McBride's 16-yard TD run with 5:19 left in regulation. However, UTSA wasn't finished. With seven seconds remaining and the ball at the UAB 1-yard line, UTSA quarterback Frank Harris regrouped, after he dropped the snap, to hit Oscar Cardenas, on a tipped pass, in the end, zone for the go-ahead winner.

Not all rivalry games are exciting, but the 2021 installment between these Tobacco Road buddies proved one for the ages . In another contest that went back and forth most of the day, North Carolina scored 20 of the first 27 points in the second half to lead 30-21 with 2:12 left in the game. However, N.C. State's Devin Leary quickly hit Emeka Emezie with a 64 touchdown pass. The Wolfpack then recovered an on-side kick and Leary and Emezie hooked up again, for a 24-yard score with 1:09 to put the home team ahead for good.

There was just something about this season that felt like Michigan would finally end its eight-game losing streak against archrival Ohio State. The Wolverines were sitting at 10-1, riding a five-game winning streak in which it outscored its opponents 193-72 and hosting the game. Michigan delivered , gaining 297 yards on the ground -- 169 with five touchdowns from Hassan Haskins -- and sacked C.J. Stroud four times to post the long-anticipated victory, earn a spot in the Big Ten Championship Game, and end the Buckeyes' shot at a national title.

The Bedlam rivalry lived up to its name in 2021 . Oklahoma State was at home, and a victory over its biggest rivalry would not necessarily be any kind of upset. However, the Sooners led 33-24 after three quarters. But, the Cowboys did not panic. Spencer Sanders got Oklahoma State closer with a 37-yard touchdown run, then Jaylen Warren pushed his team into the lead for good later in the fourth with a 1-yard scoring run that helped snap a six-game losing streak versus Oklahoma.

For as well as Oklahoma State was able to come back against Oklahoma and set the stage for a Big 12 Championship payday, its inability to score from close range in that championship contest might sting for some time. Baylor, under coach Dave Aranda, has been criminally underappreciated all season, led 21-6 at halftime. But the Cowboys got within four with just over eight minutes to play in the game. They had the ball down to the Baylor 2-yard line with 1:27 to play, but the  Bears stepped up and stopped the Cowboys on all four chances to get into the end zone, preserve the lead, and a Big 12 championship.

Navy had won three games all season and dropped four of the last five against archrival Army, which took eight victories into the 2021 meeting. However, this season's matchup was truly an example of the throw-the-records-out-the-window-when-these-teams-meet theory. Navy overcame a 13-7 halftime hole and held the Cadets' ground game to just 124 yards. On 4th down-and-3 with a little less than three minutes to play in the game, the Midshipmen stopped Army's Christian Anderson 1-yard shy of moving the chains and pulled off the upset.