NCAA 2004: BYU-SMU 1980

[Poli]

I wish I wasn't, umm, 3 years old when this game was played. I wonder if ESPN ever shows it on Classic. If they do, I'm going to watch it when I get home!

Who has beat it so far?

I did, but only after so many tries I couldn't count. I beat all the others in less than five tries, but this one absolutely had me.

The way I finally beat SMU is I quit kicking onside kicks...it was killing me to give them such good field position and I recovered one kick the whole time I did it...which I'm talking days of gaming went into this.

That said, BYU's kicker can't kick a deep ball into the endzone and I don't want to kick out of bounds either, so what I did was kick the ball deep to the middle with my team in an onside formation.

Obviously, SMU counters with a recover formation, leaving the middle open. The first time I did this, SMU's returner actually touched the ball, it rolled around, and he finally picked it up. I had placed the fastest athletes on the field for kickoff teams, and we stopped the return literally at the 9.

From here, I got lucky, as they'd run the ball twice, and I would call T.O. after each. An incomplete pass forced a clock stop and the punt was to my fastest player. Couple of jukes later and a good wall get me into the endzone...but I'm still down 11 I think at this point (it's been about a week since I did this).

I try that squib kick again, and this time it went into the endzone. No worries, no time off the clock, and their at their 20.

First play, a run and I call T.O. Second play, I've no choice but let them run and eat the clock. I do stop them repeatedly as I sell out to stop the run with a goal line "blitz all". Third down and long and another pass, and it's incomplete again. This time the return wasn't so great.

I got points anyway when McMahon hit a receiver in stride at the 10...the receiver gets hit by the safety, but pitches the ball off to another receiver who coasts in.

About 1:30 left in the game, I've no timeouts, and I'm kicking off. I do the squib one more time. Conventional wisdom has you kick onside and hope for the best. The reason I squibbed was the results of the previous two. Once again, it rolls through the endzone. SMU eats up the clock with runs on all three downs, and I jump offsides intentionally to force them to punt on fourth, rather than running the clock out.

I didn't try to be fancy with the return, and immediately called fair catch, somewhere along the BYU 45 to 40 yard line. I have about 6 seconds and 60 yards to go. Hail Mary once again, and McMahon hit his receiver who beat the coverage (how the heck a receiver beats coverage in that situation, I'll never figure...although the safety did make a leap to try and swat the ball away, it wasn't close to getting the ball) and I win the game.

Any other success stories with this BYU-SMU game? I found it by far to be the most challenging.

The next challenging one was the Buffs and Michigan. I couldn't get Kordell to throw the ball into the endzone once. I finally beat that when the receivers turned back to Kordell. I hit a receiver at the 15, who juked one defender as he turned around, and received a great block from a fellow WR and went into the endzone.

[VPI97]

That was the last one I could complete, as well. After trying (and failing) to get a third possession a couple of dozen times, I got frustrated and turned off penalties...without the 10 yard requirement, onsides kicks are automatic

I actually completed the Kordell challenge in my first two or three tries. I put Westbrook in the game as the RB and called the middle (I think) Hail Mary play. Then you send Westbrook in motion and he just flies down the center of the field, beating a linebacker in the process.

[Poli]

Originally posted by VPI97
That was the last one I could complete, as well. After trying (and failing) to get a third possession a couple of dozen times, I got frustrated and turned off penalties...without the 10 yard requirement, onsides kicks are automatic

I actually completed the Kordell challenge in my first two or three tries. I put Westbrook in the game as the RB and called the middle (I think) Hail Mary play. Then you send Westbrook in motion and he just flies down the center of the field, beating a linebacker in the process.

Never thought of those tricks, that's cool, though. Automatic onside kicks, how cool.

[digamma]

At what point do you get to start playing the challenges? Do you have to earn them as pennants or did I completely miss this part of the game?

[Poli]

you may have missed this part of the game, go to "game modes" and then "college classics".

[digamma]

Got it. I figured those were just playing the whole game over, which is cool, but doesn't interest me much. What do I care that I can beat Miami 42-7 with Doug Flutie.

So, is it like a scenario that you have to play? I may have to check it out tonight.

Thanks.

[Poli]

It puts you in the 4th quarter of the game, usually very late.

[tucker342]

For the Colorado Vs. Michigan game, I called a half back pass

It worked to perfection