September 19 Crowd Reacts

The Bulldogs are down by 6 with just 9 ticks of the clock remaining, it's 4th and 26. Here's the snap to Stallworth, who is filling in for Rattay. Stallworth, surveys throws to the endzone and.... Hold on there a second! We are not giving away yhe story in this early...listen on for the roar of the crowd!

It was September 1, 1999 and the college football world was on the edge of their seats. The Number 18 ranked team in the nation, the Alabama Crimson Tide , were in a close battle in Tuscaloosa with the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs. It looked as if Goliath had won the game as Bama was up 28-22 with just seconds remaining. Add to this that the starting quarterback for LA Tech, Tim Rattay was injured just two plays earlier. The national leader in passing the year prior, Rattay took a costly sack from the swarming Tide defense and injured his ankle, having to be assisted off of the field. Out trotted his replacement Number 7, Brian Stallworth with little experience however after an other sack and loss of yardage, he was facing a fourth down and 26 yards to go situation against a sack happy bunch in crimson.

Stallworth surveyed the defense and took the snap, stepped back, paused a moment and then launched a perfect spiral to the front right corner of the endzone to a small window where receiver Number 81, Sean Cangelosi took it in for the tying score. The crowd was going wild as all it would take would be a successful extra point kick by LA Tech to complete the comeback, upset win. That is just what occurred when Bulldog kicker Number 28 Kevin Ponds drove the ball through the uprights for the dramatic victory.

This would drop the Tide out of the top 20. They would suffer a second loss in the regular season to rival Tennessee and then a third loss, by just one point to Michiigan in the Orange Bowl on New Years Day to finish at 10-3 finishing 8th in the final AP poll of the season.

The win for the Bullldogs steadied their record at 2-2 on the young season as the realed off 8 straight wins before losing the season's finale against USC in LA, and failing to gain a Bowl bid. One thing they did was hear the roar of the crowd that Saturday afternoon in Alabama.

A Very Special thanks to information obtained from the following article and the above YouTube viideo of the play.

19 Sep 1999, Sun The State (Columbia, South Carolina) Newspapers.com

The banner photo is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and is a cropped version of 

2019 Walk-On's Independence Bowl (6035575).jpg
Opposing teams, the University of Miami football team (left), home of the Hurricanes, and the Louisiana Tech University football team (right), home of the Bulldogs, line up before the snap at the 2019 Walk-on’s Independence Bowl hosted at Independence Stadium in Shreveport, La., Dec. 26, 2019. Established in 1976 during the nation’s bicentennial celebration, the Independence Bowl is the 11th-oldest college football bowl game and celebrated its 44th year. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Lillian Miller) U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Lillian Miller