EagleOutsider.com

Talks a little bit about the 2007 season. Good listen.

The 2007 season

It was the happiest moment in any of our BC football fandom lives

he has created a foundation in ATL and denoted $500,000 to help improve communities in need. the response from the fanbase has been overwhelmingly positive.

innocentbystander {l Wrote}:The 2007 season

It was the happiest moment in any of our BC football fandom lives

I'm old enough to remember Thanksgiving weekend with Doug Flutie. I'd also put the Foley years up there with Ryan. But I'm also second generation BC football fan.

Agree that the Flutie years were better than the Ryan years. Flutie was a phenomenon in a way current BC fans cannot comprehend.

Portnoy did one of his pizza reviews with Flutie as a guest and it's obvious that Portnoy was completely star struck. Portnoy is the right age for a Boston kid to have viewed Flutie as a god. Bill Simmons has also talked about how Flutie games were MUST SEE events in those days.

Irishriviera {l Wrote}:Agree that the Flutie years were better than the Ryan years. Flutie was a phenomenon in a way current BC fans cannot comprehend.

Portnoy did one of his pizza reviews with Flutie as a guest and it's obvious that Portnoy was completely star struck. Portnoy is the right age for a Boston kid to have viewed Flutie as a god. Bill Simmons has also talked about how Flutie games were MUST SEE events in those days.

• 1983 and 1984 was awesome! We loved Flutie. Hail Mary! But at no time in his career was anyone talking national championship.
• 1992 and 1993 was awesome! Watching Foley play football was just amazing. The team just gelled perfectly and Coughlin was the man. But November 7th 1992 showed just how incomplete a Big East team that never played Miami was and no one ever mentioned national championship in 1993.
• Game day coaching incompetence allowed 3 frosh QBs to prevent what should have been an undefeated season in 2006 and a hurricane in early November did the same in 2007.

Ryan played on two different teams that had a legitimate shot at a national championship. Its not just that Matt Ryan was a better quarterback than BC's Heisman trophy winner or Glenn Foley (even though Matt was/IS better than both of them.) It is instead that (for all his faults and 2006 gameday incompetence) surrounded Matt with a team of players fast enough, athletic enough, and strong enough that could challenge ANY college football team in the country. And that was a year and two years AFTER Kiwanuka, Al Washington, and Jeremy Trueblood graduated. Doug and Glenn never had those kind of teams around them.

The 2006 and 2007 teams, they were NOT going to lose 54-7, to anyone. They had too many weapons on offense and were both far too strong defensively (particularly on the defensive line.) That is why I say it was the best of BC football times. The team was truly nationally relevant.

he'll be in the hall of fame

claver2010 {l Wrote}:he'll be in the hall of fame

I was glad they bought that up, that he has top tier numbers but doesn't get mentioned with the Bradys, Brees, Rodgers crew. He is already in the top ten all-time, or very soon will be (#11) in every major QB category.

BCMurt09 {l Wrote}:

claver2010 {l Wrote}:he'll be in the hall of fame

I was glad they bought that up, that he has top tier numbers but doesn't get mentioned with the Bradys, Brees, Rodgers crew. He is already in the top ten all-time, or very soon will be (#11) in every major QB category.

He's a Hall of Famer. Winning that Super Bowl would have eliminated the question.

Two things: (1) As usual, IB doesn’t know what he is talking about—this in regards to Flutie. There is no comparison between the season Flutie had in 84 and either of Ryan’s great seasons—Ryan wasn’t close to Flutie. The schedule Flutie played was harder and Flutie’s three great road wins—over a top 10 Alabama, and #11 Miami, and SWC champion Houston (who won the SWC by beating a top 5 SMU team that was probably the best team in college football that year. Ryan’s win over Va Tech was great—probably the equal of the Alabama game, his win over #21 Clemson was not in the same league as Miami and his bowl game win over Michigan State was not the equal of the Cotton Bowl win. Flutie’s two losses—to a top 20 WVU was infinitely more acceptable than the Maryland debacle and Flutie’s loss to Penn State was the same as the Florida State loss.

But aside from that, while Ryan’s last second heroics against Va Tech and Clemson were great, Flutie’s moment in Miami is one of the two or three greatest plays in college football history. Finally, 1984 BC finished 4th in the coaches poll, 5th in the AP and would have almost certainly been in the CFP if it had existed at the time. 2007 was nice—great and highly entertaining by the historical standards of the program, but not even a Top 10 finish.

(2) While Ryan has hall of fame numbers, as the author of the biggest choke in NFL Super Bowl history, unless he finally wins the big one he may have to wait a while.

Dick Rosenthal {l Wrote}:Two things: (1) As usual, IB doesn’t know what he is talking about—this in regards to Flutie. There is no comparison between the season Flutie had in 84 and either of Ryan’s great seasons—Ryan wasn’t close to Flutie. The schedule Flutie played was harder and Flutie’s three great road wins—over a top 10 Alabama, and #11 Miami, and SWC champion Houston (who won the SWC by beating a top 5 SMU team that was probably the best team in college football that year. Ryan’s win over Va Tech was great—probably the equal of the Alabama game, his win over #21 Clemson was not in the same league as Miami and his bowl game win over Michigan State was not the equal of the Cotton Bowl win. Flutie’s two losses—to a top 20 WVU was infinitely more acceptable than the Maryland debacle and Flutie’s loss to Penn State was the same as the Florida State loss.

But aside from that, while Ryan’s last second heroics against Va Tech and Clemson were great, Flutie’s moment in Miami is one of the two or three greatest plays in college football history. Finally, 1984 BC finished 4th in the coaches poll, 5th in the AP and would have almost certainly been in the CFP if it had existed at the time. 2007 was nice—great and highly entertaining by the historical standards of the program, but not even a Top 10 finish.

(2) While Ryan has hall of fame numbers, as the author of the biggest choke in NFL Super Bowl history, unless he finally wins the big one he may have to wait a while.

What would be the other 2 plays in top 3 greatest cfb plays ever?

p.s. I put that loss on the coaching staff not Ryan (17-23, 284, 2-0, 144.1). I think they could have run the ball more once they got up 28-3.

The Hightower sack was a game ending TD if he had a half a second more time. Dumb play call would have looked like a dagger then and we'd be talking about what a genius call it was. Its the same as the Seahawks call, the hindsight on that one was ridiculous. Stats actually backed Lynch being a bad short yardage back. Butler doesn't jump the route and Bevell is a genius.

The Ryan season was also fun in an outsized way because it felt like the beginning of a new post Tobias era

hansen {l Wrote}:What would be the other 2 plays in top 3 greatest cfb plays ever?

I don’t know if these are the greatest plays, per se, but I would consider them the most iconic:

1. Flutie-Phelan
2. Vince Young races to the corner at the Rose Bowl
3. Desmond Howard’s “Hello Heisman”

Los {l Wrote}:

hansen {l Wrote}:What would be the other 2 plays in top 3 greatest cfb plays ever?

I don’t know if these are the greatest plays, per se, but I would consider them the most iconic:

1. Flutie-Phelan
2. Vince Young races to the corner at the Rose Bowl
3. Desmond Howard’s “Hello Heisman”

agree that Howard’s run is definitely one of the most memorable plays in college football along with Flutie.
But I mostly remember it for the audacity of him doing that heisman pose before winning it. no idea if it was a great play or not though.

1. Flutie Phelan
2. Cal Stanford the band is on the field
3. Auburn “kick 6”

Honorable mention to Boise for the Fiesta Statue of Liberty and Nebraska’s failed 2 point conversion that launched Miami to greatness.

Kordell Stewart on Ty Law is top 5.

twballgame9 {l Wrote}:Kordell Stewart on Ty Law is top 5.

I had forgotten this play but another great play... pass was caught by Michael Westbrook.

Irishriviera {l Wrote}:Cal Stanford the band is on the field

This is a good one too. Not necessarily a great play, but one that is seared into college football's collective psyche.