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Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
ESPN Chooses The Perfect Pitch As Its Top Play
November 06, 2006 | Football
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It was the first Saturday night in November, and the producers at SportsCenter had a tough call to make. They had to condense a day filled with countless college football games, the Breeder's Cup and a handful of both NBA and NHL contests into a collection of 10 highlight moments. They would put it together with a collection of impressive graphics, call it “Top Plays” and finish their trademark show with it.
The top play of Top Plays was 32 Wham.
Sound exciting? It shouldn't. It really isn't.
In a simplified explanation, 32 Wham goes a little like this. Center snaps to quarterback. Quarterback turns, hands ball off. Running back takes ball, runs straight ahead. Team goes back to huddle.
It makes you wonder what play number two was. A free throw?
Actually, there was a Hail Mary touchdown for upstart
And yet, a run straight ahead is the play of Plays?
Of course, the run straight ahead didn't make the highlight reel. That was simply the prequel. It was the pitch, the run, the score that made the play so memorable. And it was the play that put
Sixty minutes of intense football wasn't enough to settle the 98th meeting between
Senior quarterback Jeff Terrell, who had already thrown a career-best three touchdowns in the game, lofted one of his prettiest passes of the season. It was a deep corner to Brian Brigham, the same play that Terrell just missed one week earlier in the Tigers' only loss of the season. The Bushnell Cup candidate has made few mistakes all season, and he certainly wasn't about to make the same one twice. He put this ball over the outstretched defender's hands and let the athletic Brigham make a spectacular diving grab at the 3-yard-line.
Junior fullback Rob Toresco, the Tigers' premier runner during their 14-4 stretch over the last 14 months, ran to the 1-yard-line on first down. He dove for the end zone on second down and appeared to get the ball over the line, but he was ruled down inches behind the line. Terrell's third-down effort was stuffed at the line, setting head coach Roger Hughes up with a decision to make.
The decision, however, was on the play selection. There was never a thought to kick a field goal.“We felt if we couldn't get the touchdown with under a yard to go,” Hughes said, “we didn't deserve to win the game.”
So in came 32 Wham, the play that Toresco ran behind Paul Lyons and Ben Brielmaier countless times in 2005, including the game-clinching third-down conversion during a 27-24 win at Harvard. Terrell called the play in the huddle, gave a quick pep talk about making the play happen, then headed to the line. He took the snap from center Brett Barrie and handed to Toresco. The junior tailback never saw the gap to“When I got the ball I just remember seeing a bunch of white shirts and the end zone,” Toresco said. “I remember trying to leap forward but then getting pulled back, I then turned and tried to keep my legs pumping.”
Toresco's leap, which was aimed between Barrie and right guard Kyle Vellutato, was met in midair by a diving Kory Gedin. The Penn senior linebacker met Toresco at the 1-yard-line, and with both momentum and 30 pounds on his side, he sent the
That sent the cavalry. Safety Scotty Williams swiped at the ball in the backfield as the crowd of Quakers made an impenetrable wall in front of him. Defensive back Tyson Maugle was heading around the end towards Toresco, and 250-pound defensive end Mike Marinelli was on a full sprint towards the play.
32 Wham was going to turn into 19 Whammed. Maybe even Ivy Championship Dreams Whammed.
And that just wouldn't suffice. “I just saw Robbie wasn't going to score and I thought I would have a shot if I could get it,” Terrell said. “That's when I started yelling to him for the ball.”“I heard Jeff say something,” Toresco said. “I looked for him but only saw the top of his helmet, so I just pitched it to him. I saw him start off to the right and then I got hit pretty good.”
That good hit came from Marinelli, who drove Toresco to the ground one instant after the ball was out of his hand. The runner, as he likely did hundreds of times in the backyards of
Not that this was the typical option.
Terrell caught it at the 7-yard-line and immediately avoided Maugle, who alertly changed direction on the pitch but couldn't arm tackle the nation's 10th-ranked player in total offense. Since it wasn't a play designed to have any receivers sent out, Terrell didn't even bother looking for a pass. “I immediately saw a lane to the end zone and just tried to run as fast as I could to the corner,” Terrell said.His path to the end zone took a slight detour back to the 10-yard-line, as Terrell had to avoid the mess of blockers and would-be tacklers, all of who were trying to comprehend what was happening. As he turned for the pylon, the lone obstacle for Terrell was taken care of by Jordan Munde, the original blocking back for Toresco on the play. He cleared the only defender who could potentially angle Terrell out of bounds, and the quarterback, amazingly, went in untouched.
The touchdown was music to Toresco's ears. And it was his ears that told him the schoolyard play worked, because he was still on the turf at that point and never saw the score.
Hughes saw the score. Not the whole play, though. His disappointment at the apparent tackle caused him to look down for just a second. And on this play, that was enough.“I didn't see him pitch the ball,” he said. “Then I looked up and saw Jeff with the ball and the emotion went to disbelief, then to anxiety waiting to see if there were any flags, and then to elation when I saw the official raise his hands to signal the touchdown.”
The craziness didn't end there. Penn scored with a more conventional 25-yard pass, but a botched snap and clutch defensive plays by both Pat McGrath and Brig Walker ended the game. Both Princeton defenders forced holder Matt Reinert out of bounds as he tried to run the ball in for a winning 2-point conversion. They drove him out on the sideline of the stunned Quakers, who simply couldn't believe what had unfolded.
“We were all sitting there when we saw the recap, and we thought it was awesome,” Toresco said. “Then we sat there and watched the Top 10 Plays. We saw pretty amazing catches by some wide receivers, and a great run by a BYU running back, then we saw #3 was a horse race and #2 was a hockey clip. So we figured it wouldn't be on. Then it came on at #1 and we flipped. It was so surreal ... we watch SportsCenter every day and it is a dream to be on the Top 10, let alone #1. I got tons of text messages and phone calls from friends and family. It was awesome.”
Awesome seems like a fitting term, but should
Yes, there won't come a day when Toresco or Terrell, Munde or Barrie, Hughes or anybody else in
This is the game they needed to get another shot at. This is the game they needed to play with title implications. This is the game they needed to play following a win against Penn, because anything less would have cost
Yes, control is theirs, thanks to 32 Wham, Version 2.0.
Or you can just call it The Top Play.by Craig Sachson, Princeton Athletic Communications