17 Drives: College Football's 2015 Season, One Game At A Time

Every football game is a Shakespearean drama played out over the course of 60 minutes, with peaks and valleys, good plays and bad plays, in front of thousands - if not millions - of eyes. But in each game there are turning points: moments when the balance of power shifts from one team to the other. They can occur early in a game, in the third quarter, or in the final seconds These moments are often part of a single drive, coming as an offense puts together a string of plays that change the course of a game. These are moments when 11 players, bonded together, see the fruits of their hard work in the spring and summer pay off. The 2015 college football season contained many highs and lows - big upsets, stunning performances, and thrilling games that came down to the final seconds. In this book we examine 17 of these game-changing drives, an unconventional week-by-week recap of the season. These drives reveal not only how their particular contest turned out, but when viewed collectively, tell the story of a season and provide a glimpse into how the game is being played across the college football landscape. The season-long story gives us a window into the schemes, plays and designs that teams are using on the field, and what teams call upon when the biggest play is needed. Each one of the 17 moments contained herein are, in their own way, championship drives. Some, like the Week 4 game-winning drive by the Memphis Tigers against the Cincinnati Bearcats, showed off a potential NFL star like Tigers QB Paxton Lynch, who marched his team down the field in 2 minutes. Others, like Stanford’s short but clutch drive against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, dashed one team’s College Football Playoff hopes. And one - a classic 9-minute, 22-play, 82-yard drive, led by Michigan State’s Connor Cook against undefeated Iowa in the Big 10 Championship Game - helps define the term championship drive. Finally, the CFB playoffs, and Alabama’s execution resulting in the crowning of a National Champion.