Vanderbilt pulled off one of the strangest finishes college football has seen in a long time on Saturday, turning a near-certain NC State win into a 35-31 Commodores victory on a fumble recovery in the end zone.
NC State had the game in hand, leading by three with six seconds left and facing a fourth-and-5 from inside its own 10-yard line. The Wolfpack could have punted and trusted its defense, but instead quarterback CJ Bailey ran around to burn the clock before taking a safety. The idea was simple: give up two points, still leave with a 31-30 win, and avoid the risk of a disastrous punt return.
That plan unraveled in the most chaotic way possible. As Bailey tried to go down, Vanderbilt forced the ball loose in the end zone and recovered it for a touchdown, flipping the game in an instant and sending Nashville into a frenzy.
The sequence came after Vanderbilt had nearly taken the lead earlier, only for NC State to intercept Jared Curtis at the 1-yard line. From there, the Wolfpack looked ready to close it out and claim a nonconference win, but the final seconds delivered a brutal reversal.
The result ended Vanderbilt’s 66-game losing streak when trailing by double digits in the fourth quarter, according to ESPN Insights. It also burned anyone who had NC State +3, since the touchdown and extra point pushed the final margin to four.
NC State’s collapse also dropped it into some very rare company. Over the last 20 years, teams had been 1,046-1 when leading and possessing the ball in the final 10 seconds of a game.
The only other loss in that situation came from Michigan in 2015, when a botched punt snap led to Michigan State recovering a fumble in the end zone for the win. The other loss may have played into Dave Doeren’s decision to take the safety rather than risk a punt, but it still ended in one of the wildest finishes imaginable.
In Other News...
Vanderbilt Just Got The Kind Of SEC Shoutout Fans Never Expected
The SEC Nation crew had plenty to discuss during Auburns primetime meeting with Florida at Jordan-Hare Stadium, especially with the Gators making their first trip there since 2011 and new coach Jon Sumrall getting his first SEC test. But the broadcast briefly took a turn Vanderbilt fans probably never expected, when former quarterback Chase Daniel brought the Commodores into the conversation while laying out a possible path for Florida.
Tim Tebow pushed back right away, and Daniel quickly clarified he meant Vanderbilts surprising 10-win season last year, not some low-end comparison. The exchange stayed light, with the panel laughing it off, but it was still the kind of offhand shoutout that says plenty about how far Vanderbilt has come and how noticeable that rise has become around the league. [Read more 🡒]
Vanderbilt Stunned NC State With A Finish Nobody Saw Coming
For much of the night, Vanderbilt was chasing NC State, waiting for a break that never seemed to arrive. The Commodores had to fight through a late deficit before the game turned on a sequence no one in the stadium likely expected, and the result pushed Vanderbilt to 3-0 while sending NC State to 1-2.
C.J. Baileys late decision to try for an intentional safety turned into a fumble that Vanderbilt recovered, and the Commodores made it count by taking the lead for good in a 35-31 finish. NC State coach Dave Doeren later explained what the play was supposed to be and made no secret of how costly the loss felt, but for Vanderbilt the bigger story was simple: a game that looked close to gone was suddenly theirs. [Read more 🡒]
Vanderbilt Just Pulled Off A Finish College Football Rarely Sees
NC State had the game in hand, the ball and the lead with the clock bleeding down, and still walked out of Vanderbilt with a loss after a fumble recovery in the end zone with six seconds left. For the Commodores, it was the kind of finish college football almost never delivers, one that turned a tight game into an upset before the Wolfpack could even absorb what happened.
The rarity of it only sharpens the backdrop. In the last 20 years, it has happened just once before under similar circumstances, when Michigan fell to Michigan State in 2015. For NC State, the defeat left it at 1-2, while Vanderbilt got a win it will be talking about for a long time, even if the play itself will be replayed and argued over for even longer. [Read more 🡒]