Vanderbilt's fumble turned into this Notre Dame recovery for a touchback.

College football always produces some strange plays, and the Vanderbilt-Notre Dame game Saturday had one that certainly lived up to that description. In the second quarter, Vanderbilt quarterback Kyle Shurmur hit receiver Donaven Tennyson at the Notre Dame 1, but Fighting Irish safety Alohi Gilman forced a fumble straight up at the air. Gilman and another defender jumped for it and missed it, and Commodores’ running back Khari Blasingame almost recovered it for a touchdown, but couldn’t corral it in the end zone; instead, Notre Dame cornerback Julian Love fell on it for a touchback, giving the Irish the ball back. Here’s the clip:

That’s quite the sequence of events, and it was further proof that it just wasn’t Vanderbilt’s day. What looked like a massive gain and a possible touchdown on not one, but two occasions instead only led to a touchback. That’s gonna be on SportsCenter.

The Commodores wound up trailing the eighth-ranked Irish 16-3 at the half.

[SB Nation]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.