BYU Football Countdown: Player No. 95
By Adam Gibby
No. 95 Andrew George – Tight end – 2005-2009
Jonny Harline was a really special player for BYU football and the call “Rolls right, lets it go, finds his guy TOUCHDOWN!” will always be the famous game winning touchdown catch for a BYU tight end. The following year though, another tight end also caught a game winning pass but because of the circumstances it goes for the most part unnoticed which it really shouldn’t since it was the last time BYU won the rivalry game.
It is sort of weird how a great play can completely overshadow another great play to the point of the second one being forgotten, and yet that seems to be the case of the Hall to George play that ended the Holy War in 2009. Perhaps it was because it wasn’t a 4th down or the clock was about to run out, but regardless BYU needed a touchdown to win the game and George delivered.
To this day, that is the last game winning touchdown that BYU scored against Utah, whereas Utah has had multiple game winning scores late in the fourth quarter.
Rankings
Impact C
As mentioned before, it is really tough to have a huge impact when the guy before you was as dominate as he was. Overall George’s impact was what you could call consistent. During his junior and senior seasons, George caught 53 passes, an average of two catches per game. However, it was consistent. Most games he caught at least one pass and never caught more than five. One of the biggest impacts that he may have had was his seniority on the team. In 2005 George was given a medical redshirt AFTER already serving a mission making him a 25/26 year old senior on the team.
Statistics C-
From a statistics standpoint and only looking at the stats George wasn’t extremely impressive again averaging only two catches per game and not having the big gains that players like Jonny Harline and even Matt Bushman are known for. The longest catch of Andrew George’s career was a 34 yard catch and run against UNLV. One stat that does stick out in his favor quite a bit was his touchdown catches. Of the 53 catches in his junior and senior seasons 11 of them went for touchdowns a 21% touchdown rate.
Memorable Moments A-
If a player scores a game winning touchdown against Utah that memorable moment is going to give huge points to that player, especially when it was the last one for at least the next nine years. George also had the first touchdown catch against Oklahoma that same season. In fact, of Georges 11 touchdown catches, five came in one score games and may have been the difference in the game.
Here is the game winning play against Utah.
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The countdown is starting to get longer! If you have missed any of our coverage of the players in the countdown check them out here!