You had to see it to believe it. But many still couldn’t believe it, even after seeing it.
Unranked Penn State seemed poised for the upset of the year, as they had the visiting #2 Indiana Hoosiers on the ropes and down 24-20 with just under two minutes to go. The Hoosier drive began quite inauspiciously after quarterback Fernando Mendoza got sacked on the first play.
However, the Heisman hopeful settled in and guided his team down the field, gobbling up chunks of yardage in the passing game, with completions of 29 and 17 yards, along with other, shorter, but crucial completions.
The improbable drive seemed to stall, though, once the Hoosiers got to the 7-yard line. There, the Nittany Lions dialed up some serious pressure that got to Mendoza and factored heavily into two straight incompletions.
Penn State would call for pressure again, and once again, the pass rush would get through. Although this time, Mendoza fired true toward the back of the end zone with a defender draped all over him and connected with wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr.
The referee, who was right on the spot, immediately ruled it a touchdown. Though at first glance it appeared as though Cooper’s toe had come down on the line. A review showed, however, that his right toe didn’t come down in the field of play at all, and his left foot clearly came down in bounds.
An exasperated Gus Johnson shouted, “Touchdown! Wow!” on the Fox broadcast. He was soon joined by his equally exuberant partner, Joel Klatt, who exclaimed, “Oh my gosh! That is the best catch I’ve seen all season long!”
Had Penn State managed to hold on, Indiana would have taken a tumble from its lofty perch near the top of the college football mountain, and Penn State would have had an extremely satisfying moral victory in what has been an unmitigated disaster of a season.
But that wasn’t to be.
