The list of all-time great college football games is too large to ever come up with a definitive "best." Millennials will jump to Vince Young's heroics in the 2006 Rose Bowl. Californians will forever remember the day Stanford's band jumped on the field. The Kick Six probably still haunts Nick Saban's dreams.But for the game itself and all the storyline power that came with it, it's hard to top the 1988 regular-season matchup between Miami and Notre Dame.Let's start with nickname of the game itself,Catholics vs. Convicts, which doubles as the title of Saturday night's ESPN 30 for 30 documentary that will air directly after the Heisman Trophy presentation. The name was born after two Notre Dame students,Joe Frederick and Michael Caponigro, created and wore shirts depicting the slogan.Though not 30 years have passed, the nickname feels culturally ancient. Notre Dame's association with being the good boys of college football has long since passed. Its program now measures up similarly to nearly every major collegiate programwarts and alland likely did back then.Meanwhile, deeming the Miami football players to be criminals would and should be seen as problematic in today's culture. Those who have seenThe U know of the Hurricanes' checkered culture in the 1980s and 1990s. Players were brash, bold and often subject to unfair racial epithets simply because of their on-field exploits.Yes, the Hurricanes had their host of off-field trouble. But to categorize nearly any program as convicts in 2016 would be at worst extremely problematic and at best be throwing stones in a glass house.But in 1988, the film showed there may have been no better slogan to describe the national perception of the two programs.Miami entered as the defending national champion, having built itself into a powerhouse under Jimmy Johnson. The Hurricanes were early in their third season of what would be seven straight Top Three finishes in the final polls. They were the unquestioned No. 1 team, built around a brash, young coach and a roster filled with future NFL stars who somehow surpassed their coach in terms of flamboyance.Quarterback Steve Walsh, running back Cleveland Gary and defensive end Bill Hawkins became first-round picks. Defensive tackle Cortez Kennedy would follow them a year later. Johnson was in his last year steering the Hurricanes ship, later moving on to build a ring-filled NFL legacy.Notre Dame was the fallen power building itself back up. Lou Holtz, in his third season as Irish coach, had led them to their first eight-win season since 1980 in the previous campaign. The game was something of a litmus test for Holtz, who two years earlier had lost 58-7 in a romp against the Hurricanes. Now Holtz had Notre Dame back in the Top Five and a chance to build a national championship contender on the back of an upset win.Spoiler alert: He would do just that in one of the most thrilling and controversial regular-season games in college football history. The two teams went into the halftime break tied 21-21, but Miami scored 10 points in the third to take a two-score lead into the final 15 minutes.Miami got a field goal early and then seemingly put itself in position to tie the game on a fourth-down pass from Walsh to Gary. The Hurricanes running back coughed up the ball, however, and Notre Dame recovered inside its own 5-yard line. Replays later showed officials made the incorrect call and that Gary was down by contact.The Hurricanes would recover from that setback to score a touchdown with 45 seconds remaining. Down a single point, Johnson chose to go for the two-point conversion rather than tie the game. Walsh's pass attempt fell incomplete, and Notre Dame walked away with a 31-30 victory that served as a prelude to an Irish national title.The film features commentary from Johnson, Holtz and a host of players and broadcasters attached to the game. Running two hours (with commercials), it provides the full spectrum of the game itselfincluding the creation of the eponymous controversial shirts.
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