Best Fiesta Bowl moments ever

Talk about a debut. The first Fiesta Bowl played may have been one of the most exciting ones, with the Arizona State Sun Devils and Florida State Seminoles combining to score 83 points, the most ever in a major bowl game at the time. Arizona State prevailed on a two-yard run from Woody Green with 34 seconds to go to give college football a preview of the history of close games this bowl would produce.

Ohio State had 2:39 to drive down the field to win the Fiesta Bowl. The Buckeyes went on a 13-play drive starting at the team’s 11-yard line to top the Pittsburgh Panthers. Wide receiver Thad Jemison had the 39-yard score with 39 seconds left to secure the win.

With 827 yards, 76 points and six lead changes, the 1985 edition of the Fiesta Bowl was a doozy. When it was all said and done, UCLA was the team on top when the clock hit triple zeros, topping Miami 39-37.

Nebraska was marching toward the end zone, getting closer every successful play to a game-winning touchdown. Cornhuskers quarterback Steve Taylor threw a pass to the end zone, but it went right into Michigan's Garland Rivers’s waiting arms with 28 seconds left. The Wolverines would hold on to their 27-23 lead to win the game.

The battle for No. 1 featured top-ranked Miami and a Penn State team looking for its second national title in five years. With nine seconds left on fourth down, Hurricanes quarterback Vinny Testasverde threw a game-losing interception, handing the national championship to the Nittany Lions. It was the fifth interception he threw that day.

The Seminoles were down 28-24 with 3:07 left to play, staring down the barrel of a 4th-and-15 to go. Bobby Bowden decided to keep his offense on the field instead of sending out the punt team and got the first down on a 15-yard slant from Florida State quarterback Danny McManus to Ronald Lewis. The Seminoles would go on to win by a score of 31-28.

Notre Dame came into the 1989 Fiesta Bowl as the No. 1 team in the country, and it played like it. The Fighting Irish jumped to a 23-6 halftime lead and never let the Mountaineers into the game.

1996 was the first year a No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup was featured at the Fiesta Bowl. Both teams were undefeated and untied, but the game unfortunately did not live up to the hype. Nebraska was head and shoulders better than Florida that day, destroying the Gators, 62-24, to win its second straight national championship.

It’s appropriate that the player of the game was named Peerless Price because there was no one on his level this game. With just four catches, Price gained 199 yards, including a 79-yard catch-and-run that won the game in the fourth quarter for the Tennessee Volunteers over Florida State.

Miami was on a 34-game winning streak, including a national championship-winning season the previous year. Still, the Hurricanes found themselves in overtime against Ohio State. At the end of the first overtime, the Hurricanes seemingly stopped the Buckeyes on fourth down to win their second straight national title, but a holding call kept Ohio State in the game, forcing a second overtime. No matter — even after Miami gave up a pair of scores to Ohio State, the Hurricanes found themselves at the 1-yard line with a chance to tie. They were never able to get that yard. The Buckeyes stopped them three times to secure the win and national championship.

Who can forget what was one of the best college football games ever played? The Broncos and Sooners combined to score 22 points in the final 1:26 of regulation, including a hook-and-lateral play from Boise State to tie the game before overtime. The Broncos' best trick was saved for overtime, when they used a fake wide receiver screen, Statue of Liberty rushing play that secured the game in one of the most shocking finishes in college football history.

Texas barely missed out on the National Championship Game, but that didn’t affect its resolve in the Fiesta Bowl. The Longhorns found themselves down late in the game 21-17 when quarterback Colt McCoy led the team on an 11-play, 78-yard drive to a touchdown with 16 seconds left to secure the victory.

Three years after their Statue-of-Liberty winner against Oklahoma, the Broncos reached into their bag of tricks again with a fake punt in their own territory in the fourth quarter to keep a drive alive. That possession ended in a touchdown that would be the game-winning points for Boise State.