Spotlight: USC, Alabama and Wisconsin make the Award-Winning Plays
MCSPoll.com Staff (December 31, 2005)

The streak was on the line ... and so were USC’s national title hopes.

But on fourth and nine from the 26, with his team trailing Notre Dame 31-28 late in the fourth quarter, Trojan quarterback Matt Leinart called an audible at the line of scrimmage that would change the outcome of the game. And, quite possibly, history.

"He checked out of the play and said he's coming to me," said USC split end Dwayne Jarrett, who ran down the left sideline, hauled in Leinart's pass near midfield and sprinted toward the end zone for a 61-yard gain to the nine-yard line.

"I would imagine this will go down as one of the greatest games ever played," said Leinart, who ultimately scored on a keeper with three seconds remaining to give top-ranked USC a crowd-stunning 34-31 victory over the ninth-ranked Irish.

The Leinart-to-Jarrett pass play extended USC's winning streak to 28 games and kept the Trojans on track for an unprecedented third straight national title. It also was voted as the Master Coaches Survey Offensive Play of the Year for 2005.

"It was an unbelievable call in the first place because a fade route is not the easiest to complete," said former BYU head coach LaVell Edwards, one of the Master Coaches who voted on the end-of-year awards. "It was a gutsy call, and it was extremely well-executed under the circumstances at the time."

The Master Coaches also named Alabama free safety Roman Harper's ball-jarring hit on Tennessee fullback Corey Anderson as the MCS Defensive Play of the Year, while the MCS Special Teams Play of the Year went to Ben Strickland's end-zone recovery of Wisconsin teammate Jonathan Casillas' blocked punt to lift the Badgers to a come-from-behind victory over Minnesota.

"A player almost has to have an inate feel or instinct to make those plays at those times," Edwards said. "They have to be in the right place at the right time to make those kind of plays."

That certainly turned out to be the case with Harper in Alabama's game with bitter SEC rival Tennessee. The score was tied, 3-3, but Tennessee was driving late in the fourth quarter when Vol fullback Anderson caught a swing pass and was headed toward the end zone for a go-ahead score. Unfortunately for Anderson and Tennessee, however, Harper was awaiting his impending arrival.

Harper jarred the ball loose near the goal line before it bounced out of the end zone, resulting in a touchback, with 5:08 left to play. Alabama took over at their own 20-yard line and promptly drove down the field to break the tie on Jamie Christensen's 34-yard field goal, thus ending a decade of frustration for the Tide against the hated Vols.

In the MCS Special Teams Play of the Year, with the Golden Gophers leading 34-31, Justin Kucek lined up to punt at the Minnesota 5. Kucek dropped the snap, picked up the ball and tried to get the punt off, but Casillas raced through for the block. Strickland then recovered it for the winning score with 30 seconds left.

The ball nearly trickled out of bounds for a safety, which would have kept the Gophers in front, but Strickland pounced on it just in time to complete a stunning rally and lift No. 23 Wisconsin to a 38-34 victory over No. 22 Minnesota.

“When you think you’ve seen it all,” Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez said after the game, “you haven’t seen it all.”