It was an upset sort of weekend for college football’s elite. Nine of the AP-25 teams awoke with hangovers; the foul taste of defeat in their mouths. Five of the losing teams were previously ranked in the top ten. And to make matters worse only two of the losing teams, West Virginia and Oregon, fell to ranked opponents.
The first domino fell on Friday night when run-heavy #5 West Virginia went down against a more balanced #18 South Florida. This started the chain reaction that would tear through college football’s top-teams. #3 Oklahoma blew a 24-7 lead, succumbing to Colorado in a last minute field goal. The national champion Florida Gators #4 followed suit, upset by a last minute field goal by Auburn, the same team that upset the one-loss Gators last season.
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With the third, fourth and fifth ranked teams taking tumbles, the seventh ranked Texas Longhorns felt compelled to take a dive. The Kansas State Wildcats manhandled #7 Texas 41-21, in the Longhorns largest home deficit in ten years. The Scarlet Knights promptly fell on their swords as #10 Rutgers was defeated at home by a Maryland team that was forced to play an untested second-string quarterback for the entire second-half, after they lost their starting QB to a concussion.
Back in the Pac: #11 Oregon was edged at home by an evenly matched #6 Cal, in a back and forth battle that was no doubt one of the most intense and exciting games of this year’s college football season. With 16 seconds left the Ducks were literally inches from the Bear’s end-zone, when defensive back Marcus Ezeff forced an Oregon fumble to secure Cal’s win.
Georgia Tech scored the only touchdown in a 13-3 upset over #13 Clemson. And Old Joe Pat is feeling the pain, after #21 Penn State had its second consecutive loss, this week to Illinois 27-20. Lastly things aren’t going exactly how Nick Saban planned with his #22 Alabama losing to unranked Florida State 21-14.
That’s a lot of bruises, a lot of headaches, and a lot of film to be watched come Monday.
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