Watch: SC college football team wins playoff game on wild last-second lateral
Benedict football won its playoff opener in viral fashion Saturday.
Trailing Wingate 24-19 with three seconds left in their NCAA Division II playoff opener, the Tigers scored a walk-off 86-yard touchdown on a cross-field lateral that resembled the Tennessee Titans’ famous “Music City Miracle” play.
Benedict, an HBCU from Columbia, was facing a 4th and 10 at its own 14-yard line and needed an improbable touchdown to win on the road. Quarterback Jackson Jensen threw a pass to receiver Tre Simmons, who ran for about 15 yards.
Then Simmons, who was Benedict’s starting quarterback last year, heaved a backward pass roughly 30 yards across the width of the field to another receiver, Malik Mullins, who caught the ball in stride and outran multiple Wingate defenders down the right sideline for the game-winning touchdown.
“Being who I am, I felt that if it (came) to me, I had to either score or ... well, I had to score,” Mullins, a senior receiver from Florida, said postgame. “I did all I had to do to get into the end zone. That’s what it was.”
The play capped off a wild comeback in which Benedict trailed Wingate (located outside Charlotte) 19-0 14:46 remaining in the third quarter. Benedict outscored Wingate 24-0 from that point forward and 18-0 in the fourth quarter to win its first playoff game in school history.
Clips of the play went viral on social media, and Benedict appeared on major sports platforms including ESPN. The win was the first in postseason history for Benedict, which moved to 10-2 under second-year coach Ron Dickerson Jr.
After upsetting Wingate, the No. 4 seed in the bracket, Benedict advances to a second-round game at conference foe No. 1 Albany State (Ga.) on Nov. 29. It will be the third meeting the two teams this year. Albany State has won both games, including 22-16 in the SIAC championship game on Nov. 15.
Dickerson has been in coaching for nearly 30 years and said he’d never seen a play like what Benedict pulled off in the final 19 seconds on Saturday.
“But they do call me Riverboat Ron,” Dickerson said, referencing an old nickname for former Carolina Panthers coach Ron Rivera. “And when you believe in your guys, whether it’s defense, special teams or anything else, if we have to, we’ll draw something up. ... We’re gonna put them in a situation to win.”
Probably the closest instance to Benedict’s play was the “Music City Miracle” during the 2000 NFL playoffs. The Tennessee Titans trailed the Buffalo Bills 16-15 with 16 seconds left but scored a touchdown when a tight end threw a cross-field lateral to receiver Kenny Dyson for a 75-yard TD on the ensuing kickoff return.
Dickerson said that Benedict “put themselves in a great situation” by rallying from down 24-0 to even having a chance to win the game in the first place.
“They believed,” Dickerson said. “And that’s what it comes down to: Belief.”
This story was originally published November 23, 2025 at 12:26 PM.
