Every Top 25 College Football Team's One Shining Moment from the 2015-16 Season

Every Top 25 College Football Team's 1 Shining Moment from the 2015-16 Season

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Among its many great traditions, the upcoming NCAA tournament will sign off at the end with a montage of highlights and memories meant to carry us into the offseason. Played to "One Shining Moment," a song written by David Barrett in 1986, tends to make things a little dusty while reliving the best moments of the just-completed season.

College football doesn't have its own special tune, but there is no shortage of great moments from each season that we can look back on. And with the 2016 season still nearly six months away, any chance to reflect can help pass the time.

Using Bleacher Report's Post-Signing Day Preseason Top 25 as a guide ^[1], we've picked out the "one shining moment" from this past season for each team in our rankings, chosen based on its significance to the program and what it meant for the season as a whole. There wasn't any money in the budget to splice together a highlight reel, let alone commission a song for it, but if you close your eyes, you can picture these achievements.

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Another signing day splash

The results on the field have yet to come, but Charlie Strong's work on the recruiting trail bodes well for success at Texas in the near future. He signed his third consecutive top-20 class, per 247Sports ^[2], in February, making a huge leap in the rankings on the strength of a slew of late-in-the-game commitments, including several on national signing day.

Strong "clearly sold a promise of good things to come at a program that is just 11-14 the last two seasons," wrote the Associated Press (h/t USA Today ^[3]). "And the payoff came in the final hours with a tidal wave of commitments."

Now with Texas' roster comprised mostly of players he recruited, Strong will be expected to produce game wins instead of just recruiting triumphs.

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Hiring Mark Richt ^[4]

Miami's 2015 season had its share of highs (the lateral-filled kickoff return to beat Duke) and lows (a 58-0 home loss to Clemson that led to coach Al Golden's firing a day later), yet the moment that will stand out above all others wasn't anywhere near the football field.

Instead, it was in the room where the introductory press conference was held in December to announce the hiring of Mark Richt, the former Hurricanes quarterback whom Miami hired to replace Golden just days after Georgia fired him following 15 seasons and 145 wins.

Richt played for Miami from 1979-82, the era just before the program won five national titles in an 18-year span. The Hurricanes last won more than nine games in 2003, something Richt accomplished nine times with Georgia.

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Ben Grogan's back-to-back game-winning kicks

Oklahoma State won its first 10 games in 2015, the unexpected player in a top-heavy Big 12 full of title contenders that includes Baylor, Oklahoma and TCU. The Cowboys' push for the league championship and the playoff stumbled down the stretch, losing their final three games. But early on, they had the makings of a team of destiny.

A three-game stretch to start Big 12 play saw OK State win against Texas, Kansas State and West Virginia by a combined 12 points, with the last of those games going to overtime. Last-minute field goals decided the victories at Texas and against K-State, with kicker Ben Grogan coming through in the clutch each time.

Against Texas, the Cowboys needed two Grogan kicks in the final 93 seconds, with a fortuitous flubbed punt by Texas in between. A week later, Grogan nailed a 37-yarder with 32 seconds left for a 36-34 win over K-State.

Stuffing Stanford's two-point conversion

Oregon played in the national title game after the 2014 season, but the departure of Heisman-winning quarterback Marcus Mariota made this past year one of transition. Shoddy defense and an injury to new passer Vernon Adams led to a 3-3 start, effectively knocking the Ducks out of the shot at another playoff bid before the first rankings came out.

They ultimately rebounded to win six straight regular-season games, the biggest coming against eventual Pac-12 champion Stanford in mid-November. But unlike most of the 2015 results, this one came down to making a rare defensive stand.

The back-and-forth game had seven lead changes, 74 points and 942 yards of total offense and wasn't decided until there were 10 seconds left. That's when, after Stanford scored a touchdown to pull within 38-36, the Ducks thwarted the Cardinal's two-point try.

Linebacker Tyson Coleman came unblocked off the edge, forcing QB Kevin Hogan to rush his throw that Joe Walker batted away from tight end Austin Hooper.

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The last stand in the Alamo

Like almost every team in the country, TCU had dreams of a national championship when the 2015 season started. That remained a strong possibility for several weeks despite a mounting number of injuries, though once offensive stars began to get felled, the shot at a playoff bid went out the door.

The Horned Frogs had to settle for playing in a second-tier bowl game the day after New Year's, though it was still a great opportunity against an explosive and talented Oregon team. A 31-0 halftime deficit, however, seemed like too much to overcome.

And then Gary Patterson changed his shirt ^[7], going from black to purple, and by the end of the night, TCU had matched the biggest comeback in bowl history. It scored 38 unanswered points, the first 31 to force overtime, ultimately winning, 47-41, in three OTs.

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Knocking off former coach Steve Sarkisian

Chris Petersen ^[8] will be at the helm of a consensus Pac-12 and playoff dark horse in 2016, a Washington team that came on strong late last season as its offense began to produce at the same level its defense had nearly all year. It was that defensive prowess that helped the Huskies score a key victory early last fall, doing so against the team's former coach.

Steve Sarkisian coached Washington from 2009-13 before taking the USC job and leading to Petersen's arrival from Boise State. Sarkisian went 9-4 in his first year with the Trojans, while Petersen went 8-6 in Seattle with mostly Sarkisian's players.

The Washington team that won in Los Angeles in October was heavy on Petersen-recruited players, but beating the former coach still proved to be a big deal. And as it turned out, that loss helped spell Sarkisian's doom at USC, as a few days later he was put on a leave of absence after reportedly showing up intoxicated ^[9] at a practice, according to the Los Angeles Daily News' Scott Wolf. USC fired him less than a week after the Washington loss.

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First ACC title game appearance

After losing to South Carolina in Charlotte to start the 2015 season, no one paid much attention to North Carolina. But as the year went on, each victory the Tar Heels compiled made it harder and harder to ignore them.

Eleven straight victories later, UNC had won the ACC's Coastal Division and was all that stood between undefeated Clemson and a spot in the playoff. The Heels wanted to be considered for a semifinal bid as well, but that early defeat and a pair of wins over FCS schools kept them down in the playoff rankings and made it likely they wouldn't rank among the top four, even with a win over Clemson.

And they came oh-so close to doing that, too. Carolina lost, 45-37, and might have had a chance to force overtime, had an onside kick executed with just over a minute left not resulted in an offsides penalty (despite replays showing no such infraction).

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First Rose Bowl in 25 years

Throughout the 2015 season, no team's success or struggles seemed to stand out more than Iowa, which was ironic since little about the way the Hawkeyes play is extraordinary. But when the regular season finished, Iowa was one of just two teams (along with Clemson) that didn't have a blemish on its record.

Iowa didn't lose for the first time until the Big Ten title game, falling 16-13 to Michigan State on a one-yard touchdown run in the final minutes. That prevented the Hawkeyes from having a shot at the playoffs, but they still landed a mighty nice consolation prize in the form of a trip to California for New Year's Day.

The Hawkeyes hadn't played in the Rose Bowl since 1991, and though they lost, 45-16 (after trailing 38-0), to Stanford, that didn't take away from what was arguably the program's best season ever.

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Reclaiming the crosstown title

USC suffered through another season of soap opera-like headlines, most associated with the mid-year firing of Coach Sarkisian and his subsequent lawsuit against the school. Yet the Trojans managed to fight through it all and win the Pac-12 South, awarding interim coach Clay Helton with the permanent job as a reward.

Helton is 0-2 since getting the full-time gig, losing to Stanford in the conference title game and to Wisconsin in the Holiday Bowl, but he accomplished something that USC's previous two coaches (including another interim one) couldn't: beating UCLA.

The Trojans clinched their division title by knocking off UCLA in November, a 40-21 win to snap a three-game losing streak to the Bruins. Those previous three meetings had been with three different coaches at the helm for USC, with Lane Kiffin ^[10] in charge in 2012 and interim coach Ed Orgeron handling the 2013 edition before Sarkisian lost to UCLA in his only full season as head coach.

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Stealing a coach from Alabama

Georgia's 2015 season resulted in 10 wins for the fourth time in five years and 10th in Coach Richt's 15 seasons, but the disappointments outweighed the accomplishments and led to the school parting ways with Richt in late November.

Along the way, the Bulldogs lost badly at home to Alabama, a 38-10 defeat that started a midseason swoon and ultimately sealed Richt's fate. Kirby Smart's defense held Georgia to 299 yards. A little more than two months later, Smart would become its new coach.

Georgia hired Smart away from Alabama in December, though he remained with the Crimson Tide through their national championship game. Since coming on board with the Bulldogs, Smart has already made great strides on the recruiting trail—Georgia was seventh ^[11] in 247Sports' composite rankings—and has rejuvenated a fanbase that had begun to expect disappointment each season.

The miraculous finish to beat Michigan

Even with two straight wins over Michigan and six in the last seven meetings, Michigan State was still getting treated like the little brother in its own state. It didn't help that Michigan's hiring of Jim Harbaugh had once again turned the spotlight on the Wolverines, despite the Spartans having won 24 games over the previous two seasons.

That made the 2015 meeting between MSU and Michigan in Ann Arbor one that was more anticipated than normal, and it resulted in one of the most exciting games in series history as well as the freakiest ending to any game all year.

MSU never led with time on the clock, and after failing on fourth down with 1:47 left, the Spartans looked headed for defeat. All Michigan had to do was get off a punt with seven seconds remaining and the game would be over, but that was easier said than done.

Punter Blake O'Neill bobbled a low snap, but rather than fall on the muff he still tried to get off a kick only to get swarmed by several MSU players. The ball ended up in the hands of Jalen Watts-Jackson, who returned it for a touchdown and a 27-22 win. Watts-Jackson ended up spending that night in the hospital, suffering a dislocated hip in the post-TD celebration pile.

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From down 17 to up 17 to beat Kentucky

It was quite an up-and-down 2015 season for Louisville, which started 0-3 (the first time a Bobby Petrino-coached team had ever gotten off to such a mark) and was 2-4 in mid-October. Once the Cardinals settled on freshman Lamar Jackson as their quarterback, and Jackson himself settled down and cut back on the mistakes, the wins started to pile up.

Louisville won six of seven to finish the year, beating Texas A&M in the Music City Bowl, 27-21. It was its regular-season finale against Kentucky, though, that stood out for how it was achieved and how it mirrored the overall season.

The Cardinals trailed, 24-7, at halftime but then proceeded to shut out host Kentucky, 31-0, in the second half. Jackson didn't start that game, but after replacing Kyle Bolin, he finished with 316 yards of total offense and three total touchdowns, including 186 rushing yards and two scores.

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Peach Bowl win over Florida State

Houston is technically a mid-major program, playing in the American Athletic Conference, yet in 2015, it had more wins against power-conference teams (three) than 13 other schools from those leagues. The Cougars went 13-1 overall, knocking off Louisville and Vanderbilt in the regular season before downing Florida State, 38-24, in the Peach Bowl.

As the top-rated school from a Group of Five conference, Houston earned the Peach Bowl bid for its first major bowl appearance since the 1985 Cotton Bowl.

Houston won that game against FSU the same way it had most all season: with an offense built around elusive dual-threat quarterback Greg Ward Jr. and a defense that loved to force turnovers. The Cougars had five takeaways in that game, part of their FBS-best 35 for the season, while Ward had 305 yards of total offense.

DeShone Kizer to William Fuller to beat Virginia

Kizer was third on Notre Dame's depth chart at the start of spring practice in 2015, but after Everett Golson opted to transfer to FSU, that elevated the redshirt freshman to Malik Zaire's backup. The Fighting Irish had to get Kizer prepared to come in at a moment's notice, though no one could have predicted the scenario that would serve as his first real action.

An ankle injury felled Zaire in the first half of Notre Dame's first road game in September at Virginia, and suddenly a player with one career pass attempt was on the field in charge of the offense. Yet by the end of that game, it was hard to imagine that Kizer hadn't been playing for much longer.

Kizer was 8-of-12 for 92 yards and two touchdowns in the Irish's 34-27 win, the second coming on a 40-yard pass to William Fuller with 12 seconds remaining. The pass was pure perfection, as if Kizer was throwing into a basket down the field, setting into motion a stellar season in which Kizer would throw for 2,884 yards and 21 TDs.

Braxton hits the B button vs. Virginia Tech

Ohio State's attempt to repeat as national champions fizzled out late in the 2015 season after a home loss to Michigan State, which kept the Buckeyes from playing in the Big Ten title game. They still went 12-1, moving to 50-4 in Urban Meyer ^[18]'s four seasons with the program.

The lack of a playoff appearance took away from what was still a wildly successful year, albeit one that included plenty of criticism of OSU's offense as it tried to sort through a quarterback competition that wasn't fully decided until October. At many times, the Buckeyes looked confused on offense despite so many weapons, but when in sync, their many stars shined as bright as any in the country.

Included in that group was Braxton Miller ^[19], who spent three years as OSU's quarterback, but after missing 2014 with a shoulder injury, he converted to receiver. His first chance to show off his pass-catching skills came in the season opener at Virginia Tech, though the play everyone will remember came on a run play when it looked like he was playing his own personal video game.

After taking an end-around and turning up field, Miller unleashed a spin move straight out of the old NCAA Football game to leave a defender on the ground as he raced to the end zone for a long touchdown.

Christian McCaffrey's run to the record book

Stanford got to hoist two trophies during the 2015-16 season, one for its third Pac-12 title in the past four seasons and the other for the program's second Rose Bowl triumph since 2013. The record-breaking efforts of do-everything sophomore Christian McCaffrey made both possible.

McCaffrey finished the year with 3,864 all-purpose yards, breaking the previous mark of 3,250, which Barry Sanders set in the 1980s. McCaffrey broke the record during the Pac-12 championship against USC, when he went off for 461 total yards, including 100-plus rushing, receiving and on kick returns.

Each of his 434 touches in 2015 went for an average of 8.9 yards, with a school-record 2,019 rushing yards and a team-high 45 catches for 645 yards.

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Beating Bama in Tuscaloosa

Ole Miss won 10 games for the first time since 2003, the last coming in its first Sugar Bowl appearance in 36 years. The 2015-16 Rebels set numerous offensive records, mostly coming from quarterback Chad Kelly, and a handful of their departed stars figure to have their names called early in April's NFL draft.

Yet if you ask an Ole Miss fan what one thing stood out above all others last season, the vast majority will turn to a road win in late September. That victory just happened to come against Alabama, whom the Rebels beat in Tuscaloosa for the first time since 1988. That 43-37 victory paired with the previous season's home win over the Crimson Tide, marking their first consecutive wins in the series.

Despite being outgained, Ole Miss capitalized on five Alabama turnovers and used a little bit of luck to claim victory. That included Kelly's desperation heave into the air as he was falling to the ground, a ball that was deflected before falling into Quincy Adeboyejo's hands for a 66-yard touchdown.

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Art Briles goes old-school in the bowl game

Despite its gaudy passing numbers, Baylor's spread offense has always been firmly rooted in the run game. What it managed to accomplish on the ground normally got overshadowed by the air attack, which during the first half of 2015 was unstoppable behind the combination of quarterback Seth Russell and receiver Corey Coleman.

But after Russell got hurt, as did backup Jarrett Stidham, and the injury bug also got to Coleman late in the season, the Bears had to rely even more on their rushing ability. Nowhere did this stand out more than in the Russell Athletic Bowl win over North Carolina, when they resembled a college program from the 1950s with their old-fashioned formations.

Breaking out versions of the veer and single wing, Baylor ran for a bowl-record 645 yards and seven touchdowns in the 49-38 win. They ran 84 times, throwing on only 18 occasions, its fewest pass attempts in three years.

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The comeback to beat Georgia

Tennessee takes a six-game win streak into the 2016 season, yet it was a victory prior to that run that helped turn last season around. It came after a rash of narrow defeats in which the Volunteers were unable to hold onto second-half leads.

The Vols looked headed to their worst defeat of the year as they trailed Georgia 24-3 late in the first half. This was against a Georgia team that had lost its star running back, Nick Chubb, to a knee injury on the first play of the game.

Tennessee scored a touchdown with 1:04 left before the half, hoping to take momentum with it into the second half, but that wasn't certain until it recovered a Georgia fumble on the ensuing kickoff and converted that into another TD with 27 seconds left in the second. Two more TDs in the third quarter gave the Vols the lead, and after the Bulldogs tied it early in the fourth quarter they got a five-yard TD run from Joshua Dobbs with 5:48 left for the 31-24 win.

It was Tennessee's first win over Georgia in six years.

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Knocking off Baylor in Waco

Oklahoma returned to the national title picture for the first time in six years by winning the Big 12, an accomplishment that involved navigating a hellacious gauntlet of league competition in November. The Sooners' final three conference opponents combined to go 31-8 in 2015, and by beating that trio, they earned a bid to the playoffs.

All three of those late-season wins—at Baylor, versus TCU, at Oklahoma State—were significant in their own right, but the first is the one that signified Oklahoma's return to prominence. Baylor had destroyed Oklahoma the previous two seasons, winning by a combined 63 points, including by 34 in Norman in 2014.

Baylor came in with an 8-0 record, but it was Oklahoma that took control in the second half to turn a 20-20 tie into a 44-34 road victory. That snapped Baylor's 20-game home win streak, which was the longest active streak in the nation at the time.

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Les Miles ^[22]' last-second reprieve

A 7-0 start to the season had LSU smack dab in the national championship conversation, sitting at second in the initial playoff rankings. Then came a three-game losing streak, during which the Tigers' one-dimensional offense got exposed and exploited. And suddenly, a title contender had turned into a disappointment.

And Les Miles' future in Baton Rouge was looking sketchier by the day.

It reached a head in the days leading up to the regular-season finale against Texas A&M, with the Advocate's Scott Rabalais ^[23] indicating that he was likely to be fired after that game. That is, until a late push was mounted to save Miles' job, leading to the school deciding during the third quarter ^[24] of the 19-7 win over A&M to retain Miles, according to ESPN's Joe Schad.

Following the victory, LSU's players carried Miles off the field at Tiger Stadium as if they'd just been led to a national title. Having been out of contention for such a prize in recent years had made Miles' job a tenuous one, despite 112 wins in 11 seasons with the program.

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Three straight shutouts

So much of what Michigan accomplished last season went far beyond most realistic expectations of what Jim Harbaugh could do in his first year as head coach. He inherited a team lacking offensive weapons, needing to turn to a graduate transfer quarterback (Jake Rudock) as a stopgap measure.

Harbaugh's Wolverines didn't need as much help on the defensive side, beyond motivation and scheme. And this resulted in some monster performances during the first half of 2015 that allowed Michigan's offense to develop slowly.

Michigan shut out three consecutive teams in September and October, including Big Ten opponents Maryland and Northwestern. It was the first time since 1980 that the Wolverines had accomplished that feat, which paced a season-long defensive effort that ranked in a tie for sixth ^[25] nationally in points allowed per game (16.4).

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Blowout win over rival Florida

The expectations for 2015 ranged from ambitious to uncertain for Florida State, with its previous two seasons producing a national championship and a semifinal appearance as well as a record 11 players taken in the most recent NFL draft. What remained in Tallahassee was a mix of promising prospects but not many experienced veterans, yet the Seminoles still managed to win 10 games and make a major bowl game.

That final victory was the sweetest of the season, since it came at the hands of in-state rival Florida right before it was to play in the SEC title game.

If not for a fourth-quarter safety, FSU would have earned its first-ever shutout of the Gators, who haven't been blanked since 1988. The 27-2 win was FSU's third straight and fifth in the past six in the series, which it still trails 24-34-2.

Stopping Notre Dame in the rain

Clemson used a unique blend of explosive offense and punishing defense to win its first 14 games, giving itself the opportunity to be the first 15-0 team in FBS history. That wouldn't have been possible had the Tigers not made a critical stop near the goal line back in September.

The Tigers held a 21-3 lead on Notre Dame entering the fourth quarter before the Fighting Irish started its late push. Two touchdowns got the Irish within six, at 24-16, then Kizer threw a TD pass with seven seconds remaining to set up the potential game-tying two-point conversion.

And that's when Clemson's defense rallied for one last stop.

Kizer kept it on a run, looking to turn the corner and find a seam in the line before Clemson's Carlos Watkins swallowed him just shy of the goal line. Clemson would go on to win its next seven games by at least 10 points en route to the national title game.

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The 16th national title

Alabama returned to its familiar spot atop the college football world in 2015-16, shaking off an early loss (as well as another unsure quarterback situation) to win 12 straight, including two in the playoff. A dominant shutout of Michigan State in the Cotton Bowl was followed by the 40-35 win over Clemson in the national championship game in Arizona.

Though the Crimson Tide had to resort to a bit of trickery—a fourth-quarter onside kick in a tied game—and rediscover a forgotten target (junior tight end O.J. Howard, who had a career performance) to get the job done, it doesn't take away form the overall result. Alabama won its fourth title in seven years under Nick Saban ^[28], moving him within one of tying legendary Bama coach Paul "Bear" Bryant for the all-time lead.

Just as significant an accomplishment for the Tide might have been getting several draft-eligible players to return for 2016. Howard, defensive lineman Jonathan Allen and linebacker Tim Williams, among others, opted to forgo the draft to play as seniors and seek a 17th title.

All statistical information courtesy of CFBStats.com ^[29] or SportsReference.com ^[30], unless otherwise noted.

Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP ^[31].