The first month-plus of the college football season is now behind us. So I take this time to reflect on what happened in the first month of the season. In the coming days, I will highlight the upsets of September, the surprise teams, the disappointments, and the best players. All in top five lists.
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This first one is on the upsets we saw in the first month. You won’t see North Dakota State beating Iowa State on this list. Since they have beaten a FBS school for five straight years, I’m not sure how much of an upset that actually was. These will focus on games that few people saw coming.
1. (9)USC at Boston College, September 13: The Trojans were just coming off of a tough win on The Farm, and were back into the top ten. Then came the trip to Chestnut Hill, where the Eagles ran all over them. Literally. BC ran for 432 yards!
2. Akron at Pittsburgh, September 27: Akron hadn’t beaten a team from a “power” conference in six years. With the nation’s leading rusher, Pitt’s James Conner, coming at them, on paper this looked like it would be no different. Then the game happened. Akron’s defense held Conner to just 92 yards on 25 carries. They also held talented receiver Tyler Boyd to just 72 yards on six catches. You can’t say that the Zips didn’t earn this, but it was sure surprising.
3. Indiana at (18)Missouri, September 20: The Hoosiers were fresh off of a track-meet loss to Bowling Green at home. Beating the defending SEC East Champs on the road seemed impossible. Especially when star RB Tevin Coleman kept having problems related to dehydration. He still managed to rack up 132 yards and a score on the ground, but it was the Indiana defense that was torched against Bowling Green that came up big here. They had a stunning 14 tackles for loss. The stat of the game had to be Indiana’s third down ineptitude. They went just 1-14 on third down. How on earth do you win a game when that happens?
4. (21)Texas A&M at (9)South Carolina, August 28: I’m not saying that A&M is not a good team, but we really didn’t know what to expect to open the season when they were visiting the team with the longest home winning streak in FBS. What we got was Texas A&M’s Kenny Hill bursting on the scene and breaking school records in a rout of the Gamecocks. What a start to the season!
5. Virginia Tech at (8)Ohio State, September 6: This looks like more of an upset now than it did then. The Hokies have looked surprisingly average, while Ohio State has turned into a tornado and destroyed everything their path.
Honorable Mention: Mississippi State at LSU, September 20; Northwestern at Penn State, September 27; Colorado State at Boston College, September 27; Georgia at South Carolina, September 13; Indiana at Bowling Green, September 13
What are your thoughts?
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