One of the more amazing college football finishes in a while came on the last play of the Jacksonville State Gamecocks-Florida State Seminoles game Saturday. With FCS Jacksonville State trailing 17-14 from their own 41 and facing a fourth-and-10 with less than 10 seconds left, Gamecocks’ QB Zerrick Cooper (seen above during the first half) dropped back and found Damond Philyaw-Johnson near the Florida State 20. But the really impressive part came after the catch: with no time left on the clock, Philyaw-Johnson cut back to dodge one defender, got a block from teammate Ahmad Edwards to beat another defender, and then ran into the end zone for the winning score. Here’s that play:
JACKSONVILLE STATE WALK-OFF TOUCHDOWN! #SCtop10 pic.twitter.com/MTxkuRJgp2
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) September 12, 2021
That’s a remarkable play by Jacksonville State, and a great way to cap off a tremendous upset. The Seminoles were 27.5 point favorites at kickoff, but it was the Gamecocks that wound up on the right side of the scoreboard. Cooper completed 17 of 38 passes for 242 yards and two touchdowns, while the Jacksonville State defense held Florida State’s McKenzie Milton to 18 completions on 31 attempts for 133 yards with one touchdown and one interception. And that final pass from Cooper gave the Gamecocks a 20-17 win.
[SportsCenter on Twitter, ESPN; photo from Melina Myers/USA Today Sports]