Boston College's "mean machine" huddle sets up an underhand touchdown

ESPN's highlight catches Bill O'Brien's unusual goal-line design, with viewers asking why Florida State followed the linemen out wide.

Channel: ESPN Story of November 8, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 106,105 views a day, 11 times a normal first day on this channel (9,316).

Boston College FOOL Florida State with a 'gutsy' mean machine huddle! | ESPN College Football

The offensive linemen head out wide, but the ball has somewhere else to go. Boston College's unconventional goal-line formation ends with an underhand toss to Green in the end zone, turning a circular huddle into a touchdown against Florida State.

ESPN's clip drew roughly 42,000 views in its first six hours, already well beyond the channel's usual full-day audience for a Short. The play gives readers something worth replaying: the initial huddle, the strange alignment and the misdirection before the short toss delivers the points.

The touchdown puts Boston College ahead, and the extra point makes it 24-21. On the sideline is Bill O'Brien, whose play call prompts the commentator's verdict: "What a gutsy play call by Bill O'Brien." The replay also earns a reference to Burt Reynolds and the Mean Machine, bringing a little football-movie history into the broadcast.

College football supplied several other unusually busy ESPN uploads, including Utah's Trey Reynolds intercepting Bear Bachmeier at the goal line and the closing moments of Arizona's win over TCU. Here, though, the formation itself becomes the talking point. Viewers ask why Florida State's defensive players lined up opposite the linemen when the ball was elsewhere. One self-described Seminoles supporter admits the trick play still brought a smile.

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Boston College's "mean machine" huddle sets up an underhand touchdown The full story on Trari: https://trari.com/en/story/espn-30140/?from=kit

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The numbers

Boston College's trick-play highlight had already exceeded ESPN's usual first-day Short views within six hours. Other college football highlights also drew unusually large audiences.

the video's first day

usual first day here

9,316

this video

106,105

subscribers

14,600,000

no significant change in the last 7 days

total views

20,931,481,944

views per day

4,628,005

typical day: 4,429,069

the video

views

42,105

likes

178

comments

25

days online

1

subscribers: this channel and similar channels

ESPN

14,600,000

NBC Sports

5,420,000

Bleacher Report

5,080,000

MaxPreps

3,500,000

Whistle

3,220,000

The Pat McAfee Show

3,000,000

As of November 8, 2026 · Data source: Trari Social News, Trari Traffic Trends and Ranking Platform, Google YouTube

Subscriber, view, like and comment counts are YouTube's. Rates, usual days, rankings, comparisons and categories are Trari's own calculations.