Top CFB Moments of 2006 #1: Statue Of... Hook And... BOTH!

The Scene: Boise State has just finished blowing it all to hell. The biggest game in program history and they zip ahead 28-10 against the Big 12 champs without resorting to anything in the multivariate calculus depths of the Bronco playbook. But they can't hold off the Sooners, ceding a late touchdown and then a triple-shot two point conversion that seemed surreal... at the time. On the very next play from scrimmage Jared Zabransky throws a pick-six. They've blown it. They've blown it all to hell. Trailing 35-28 with under a minute left, Boise scrapes out to around the 50, but a series of mishaps sets them up with a 4th and 18, just :18 seconds left.

Zabransky drops. He throws short of the sticks, but the receiver can get there! NO, NO WHERE ARE YOU GOING YOU STUPID--

The Event: Drisan James pitches the ball to Jerard Rabb on a brilliantly conceived hook-and-ladder. The Sooners, drawn to James like moths to a fatal flame, are caught out of position. Rabb runs and runs and runs, diving for the sticks and a touchdown no one in Idaho will ever forget.

The Video:

The Aftermath: Overtime. Adrian Peterson gallops in from 25 yards out on the first Oklahoma play. Boise converts a fourth and goal with by having a wide receiver throw a three-yard touchdown (natch). Then... this:

Aftermath of the Aftermath: Ian Johnson gets married. Flowers across Idaho spontaneously bloom months early. Cynical grinches of college football find their hearts grow by three sizes.

Boise State's hook-and-ladder and Statue of Liberty, for being completely indistinguishable components of the most outlandish, outrageous, outstanding game of the season, for verve and derring-do, and especially for that one moment when it looked like inexplicable stupidity had ended it all, you are the best moments of college football's 2006 season.