While you were out on Friday night or tucked away comfortable in bed, crazy things happened in college football as two huge upsets happened on Friday the 13th.
We should have seen this coming. Just when you think it’s going to be a relatively quiet week in college football, that’s when all the crazy happens. When you throw in variables like Friday the 13th and all the weird that transpires when ranked teams go on the road and play on a Friday night. But with the ALCS beginning and Friday night being a great night to get away from the TV, I wonder how many college football fans were even watching.when Clemson lost at Syracuse and Washington State lost to Cal on Friday night,
If you missed it, don’t worry, because you’re not alone. How many Syracuse fans were resigned to their fate against the reigning national champions and instead focused on the New York Yankees playing the Houston Astros in Game 1 of the ALCS? A crazy thing happened. Syracuse and Dino Babers figured out the Clemson defense and used a little tempo and their run game to keep the Tigers defense from swallowing them as they were expected. Throw in the fact Clemson quarterback Kelly Bryant was knocked out with a concussion at the end of the first half, and the stage was set for the nation’s longest winning streak to come to an end.
Down goes Clemson.
But wait, Friday the 13th wasn’t done with college football yet.
Washington State was on the road where they played a Cal team that played USC tough earlier this season but played their best game of the year Friday night when half the country was sleeping. The Golden Bears got five interceptions from Luke Falk, seven total turnovers and nine sacks in the 37-3 pasting of Mike Leach’s No. 8 team in the country.
Clemson was a 23.5-point favorite and Washington State was a 16.5-point favorite but the favorites stood no chance when you throw in the wacky variable of playing on the road on Friday night and the unexplainable Friday the 13th factor that is unquantifiable by science or any form of advanced analytics.
Sometimes in college football, the weird, strange and unexplainable happens in this sport we love. And this is a primary reason for the love we have for this great game. Friday the 13th has passed, but these crazy occurrences seem to happen in bunches and I can’t wait to see what the next unexplained phenomena will be on Saturday.