The beauty of college football is that there are so many teams, and so many bad coaches, that inevitably, a play that would otherwise have a one in a billion chance of happening actually has quite a good chance of turning into reality. For proof let’s go to Nashville, where the NC State Wolfpack committed an all-time boner yesterday. Roll the tape:
WHEN THE INTENTIONAL SAFETY GOES WRONGNC STATE FUMBLES AND VANDY RECOVERS AND WINS AS TIME EXPIRES
— Sickos Committee (@sickoscommittee.org) 2026-09-19T20:23:52.968Z
A bit of background. The Wolfpack led Vanderbilt 24-7 at one point in the third quarter of this game, only for Commodores quarterback Jared Curtis to stage a furious rally that brought his team back within a field goal. There was just over a minute left on the clock when Curtis had first down at the NC State 16. Vandy had never led in this game, but it sure as shit looked like they were about to go up when WHOOP DEE!, Curtis threw a pass that Wolfpack safety Brody Barnhardt picked off at the two-yard line. Comeback bid sniffed out. Game over.
Or not.
Vanderbilt still had two timeouts left in their holster, which meant that NC State didn’t have quite enough time to kneel the game out. The Vandy defense held firm on three straight running plays to force NC State into a fourth-and-7 with :06 left. This is a highly specific late game situation, one that left the Wolfpack with a limited number of strategic options. They could have punted the ball, which risked a potential block. They could have taken an intentional safety, which would have cut their lead to 1, but also would have bled the clock down to either nothing or essentially nothing. Or, they could have had quarterback CJ Bailey get the clock to zeroes by running around a bit back there and then throwing the ball away.
That last one would have been my call, but NC State head coach Dave Doeren opted to take the safety. Still a perfectly good choice, but there’s more than one way to take a safety. The simplest way is to have your QB simply walk out of the back of the end zone, Dan Orlovsky-style. Doeren, soon to his eternal regret, opted for a different method:
The plan, Doeren said, was for Bailey to roll out, burn time, fall on the ground and protect the football.
Now, tell me if you can spot the potential flaws in this plan. Yes, it sounds easy to roll out into an open stretch of the end zone and then simply fall on the ground. But what if the Vandy defense sends a zero blitz, because why wouldn’t they, and gets penetration everywhere? And what if your QB loses his mind for one critical moment and invites contact as he falls to the ground? And what if a Vandy defender, say edge rusher Miles Capers, spots an opportunity to punch the ball out? And what if another Vandy defender, let’s say cornerback Cayden Daniels, falls on the loose ball for what would be the winning touchdown? Can you envision such a preposterous and thrilling set of circumstances potentially occurring?
Well Dave Doeren didn’t, and so he had to stand there and watch his offense commit the diametric opposite of a Hail Mary. I have never seen anything like this happen in a football game. Never even imagined I would, frankly. So god bless college football, and god bless idiot Dave Doeren, for making something as impossible as a last-second, game-winning fumble return for a touchdown feel like, in the end, the most logical thing that could have possibly happened.
