College Football Wrap-Up Week 4 - 7 Upsets Turn Top 25 Poll Into a Scramble With Few Survivors
Copyright © 2009 Ed Bagley
(Editor's Note: The rankings in this article are from the AP Top 25 Poll of sportswriters and sportscasters, and any ratings are from Jeff Sagarin.)
No win in College Football's 4th week of action was any bigger than unranked Iowa's 21-10 upset victory on-the-road over 5th-ranked Penn State in Happy Valley. Iowa is now unbeaten at 4-0.
The Hawkeyes ruined the Nittany Lions perfect 9-0 season last year with a 24-23 victory at home, and proved it was no fluke this year on Penn State's turf. If there are any doubters left in Happy Valley this year, they have to be homers in blinders. The Penn State Nittany Lions are always overrated in the polls because they only play a couple of good teams a year, and Iowa happens to be one of them.
Not far behind for upset-game-of-the-week honors were the unranked South Florida Bulls, who took down 18th-ranked Florida State on-the-road, 17-7, pushing the Bulls' record to 4-0. The third best upset of the week was 11th-ranked Virginia Tech's home victory over 9th-ranked Hurricanes of Miami (FL), 31-7.
Two other not unexpected upsets came at the expense of the 4th-ranked Mississippi Rebels, who were beaten 16-10 at unranked South Carolina, and the 6th-ranked California Bears, who were beaten 42-3 at unranked Oregon. Please stop all of the pre-season hype about Mississippi this and California that; Mississippi remains not that good at the moment, and California always folds, the Bears just may be starting to fold early this year because 42-3, even in an away game, is some whipping.
The last 2 of 7 upsets of AP Top 25 teams this week came with unranked Georgia Tech's 24-7 home victory over 22nd-ranked North Carolina, and unranked Stanford's 34-14 home win over 24th-ranked Washington. The Huskies dropped right out of the Top 25 Poll and Stanford (3-1) never made it in.
So who else among unranked teams is acting like they belong in the Top 25? How about these three 4-0 teams: Missouri beat Nevada 31-21 on-the-road, Auburn beat Ball State 54-30 at home, and Wisconsin beat Michigan State 38-30 at home. Or perhaps the 3-0 Texas A&M Aggies, who beat UAB 56-19 at home.
Eight ranked teams kept moving right on, pushing their records to 4-0. They included 1st-ranked Florida on-the-road over Kentucky 41-7; 2nd-ranked Texas at home over UTEP 64-7; 3rd ranked Alabama at home over Arkansas 35-7; 7th-ranked LSU on-the-road over Mississippi State 30-26; 8th-ranked Boise State on-the-road over Bowling Green 49-14; 14th-ranked Cincinnati at home over Fresno State 28-20; 20th-ranked Kansas at home over Southern Mississippi 35-28; and 23rd-ranked Michigan at home over Indiana 36-33.
Two other ranked teams pushed their record to 3-0 as 15th-ranked TCU won at Clemson 14-10, and 17th-ranked Houston won at home over Texas Tech, 29-28.
Among the 10 ranked teams still with unbeaten records, 5 notched victories by a touchdown or less—Kansas by 7, LSU and TCU by 4, Michigan by 3 and Houston by 1. Compare that to the other 5 who won by 8 or more—Texas by 57, Boise State by 35, Florida by 34, Alabama by 28 and Cincinnati by 8. Now you know who is more focused and who is less focused when it comes to execution.
Five other ranked teams who have already been beaten once continued to stay noticed by winning again. They included 13th-ranked Ohio State at home giving Illinois a lesson in how to score a shutout 30-0; 19-ranked BYU at home over Colorado State, 42-23; 21st-ranked Georgia at home over Arizona State 20-17; 16th-ranked Oklahoma State at home over 1-AA Grambling State 56-6; and 12th-ranked Southern California at home over Washington State 27-6.
There were 5 notable wins that have nothing to do with ranked teams or upsets. They included Boston College at home over Wake Forest 27-24 in overtime; Tulsa on-the-road over 1-AA Houston State 56-3, a score the Golden Hurricane had after 3 quarters; Idaho on-the-road over Northern Illinois 34-31, even though Idaho was outscored 15-6 in the last quarter; Central Michigan at home over Akron 48-21 as the Chippewas scored at least a touchdown in every quarter; Utah at home over Louisville 30-14; and Notre Dame on-the-road over Purdue 24-21.
There was also one notable loss that had nothing to do with ranked teams or upsets—Pittsburgh lost on-the-road to North Carolina State, 38-31, as NC State outscored Pitt 14-0 in the last quarter. In other words, the Pitt defense collapsed and the Panthers lost for the first time this year.
That's it, that's all, Johnny, put a wrapper on it, we're going for a cold brewski.
Read more of my football coverage, including:
Check out "Ed Bagley's Top 25 Poll" for Week 4—you get rankings plus humor.
"College Football Wrap-Up – Week 3 – Dream Season Ends for Southern Cal, Brigham Young, Utah and Georgia Tech"
"Dawgs Show Their Fangs, Washington Upsets 3rd-Ranked USC Trojans, 16-13"
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