If you enjoyed that amazing video of Trinity’s improbable last-play touchdown to beat Millsaps this past Saturday, you can express your appreciation of it in a tangible fashion, according to this email I got from the ol’ bountiful mother:
In a play that brought back memories of the 1982 California-Stanford game, the Division III Trinity Tigers delivered one of the most unbelievable plays of the 2007 NCAA college football season. With two seconds remaining in the game and the ball on their own 39-yard line, Trinity needed an incredible 15 laterals before Riley Curry scored the winning touchdown over the Majors of Millsaps for an improbable 28-24 win and a Pontiac Game Changing Performance nomination.
Now it is up to Trinity fans to determine if the Tigers earned the “Pontiac Game Changing Performance” for the ninth week of the 2007 NCAA Football Season. TU fans can go to pontiac.com/ncaa, where they can view video clips of the four finalists and vote for their favorite play. Voting begins on Sunday morning and ends at midnight on Wednesday. ESPN will announce this week’s “Pontiac Game Changing Performance” winner, on Thursday night, during the Pontiac Performance Halftime Report.
The winning university earns a $5,000 contribution from Pontiac to their general scholarship fund. Additionally, the winning play will be nominated for the “Pontiac Game Changing Performance of the Year” and the chance to win a $100,000 General Scholarship from Pontiac.
“Awarding more than $1 million since its inception, the Pontiac Game Changing Performance program continues to be a great example of how passionate fans can have a positive impact academically and athletically by generating scholarship dollars for university-wide programs,” said Kirk Herbstreit, ESPN GameDay Analyst.
In addition, each week one lucky individual who visits pontiac.com/ncaa will also win a $5,000 scholarship for them self or their family. In total, Pontiac will provide $300,000 worth of scholarships to universities and individuals throughout the season.
For full program details, visit www.pontiac.com/ncaa.
Click away as you see fit.
Turns out, by the way, that the kid who scored the winning touchdown for the Tigers is a local boy.
Exhausted, Riley Curry found an opening, and with it, instant celebrity status en route to one of the most jaw-dropping plays in college football history.
The former Fort Bend Clements wide receiver took part in Trinity University’s miraculous 28-24 win over Millsaps College last Saturday afternoon, scoring the game-winning touchdown after a 61-yard, 15-lateral Hail Mary that has become the talk of the nation.
“All I remember is that I was exhausted, but when I saw the opening (at around the 15-yard line), I was in disbelief,” said Curry, who touched the ball four times during the 60 seconds it took to complete the play. “As I got into the end zone, I remember looking up and seeing the official raise his hands up,” Curry added.
“I looked up and the first thing I looked for was a flag. By then, I had about 15 teammates on top of me celebrating.”
With the touchdown, Curry has been on a whirlwind of interviews and phone calls from media, fans and old classmates. One of the biggest surprises for him came Monday morning, when he turned on ESPN’s First Take to see Skip Bayless and Patrick McEnroe debate whether his play was better than the California-Stanford play of 1982.
Riley is no stranger to last-second miracles, having scored a game-winning touchdown on a Hail Mary to help Clements defeat Fort Bend Austin on his final high school play in 2004.
“He made everything work every time he touched the ball,” said Tigers head coach Steve Mohr. “He found the opening and had the presence to take off and find the end zone.”
The Unofficial Scorer tots up the numbers from the play. The most amazing one to me is that it took one full minute of real time. The average NFL play lasts something like eight or ten seconds – see for yourself next time you watch. Keeping the ball alive for a minute is mindboggling.