Week 12: Upset Saturday!!!

And we’ve reached… UPSET SATURDAY!!!

Well well well… the BCS just got a whole lot more interesting. With Oklahoma State, Oklahoma and Oregon falling out, all the other one loss teams can start lining up and making a case for why they should be able to play in the National Championship Game.

Speaking of the BCS, if you want to read an interesting article on how they whole system maybe getting changed check out: http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7248953/bcs-proposes-only-handling-national-championship-game-sources-say

Next week is my favorite week of the year: Rivalry Week! So be sure to tune in because I’ll have all the trophy presentations and a few laughs as well. (A couple of rivalry games were played this week, so we’ll get to those in a minute). Also, this week I’m going to replace (for one week only) Biggest Loser with Biggest Winner.

But, before we get to this CRAZY week in college football, let me first be a fan for a second and congratulate my Georgia Bulldogs for ripping off 9 straight wins and clinching the SEC East title this weekend. It was an ugly win over KY but a win nonetheless. The Dawgs had to play with their third string RB, but it didn’t really matter since Georgia’s defense is, in a word, awesome!

Toss a coin, grab a seat and let’s get on with this week…

GAMES OF THE WEEK:

Unranked Iowa State UPSETS #2 Oklahoma State 37-31 in Double OT
I woke up on Saturday morning to watch the end of this game thinking I would just catch some stats and see what the games on Saturday were looking like. I turned on my ESPN player just in time to see Iowa State score to tie it at 24 and force OT. What? What? What? The first OT was normal enough but as OKS snapped the ball to start the second OT a linebacker flew in tipped the pass and got an INT. What? Iowa State then handed the ball off four times and from the 25, found themselves in the end zone. Game over, National Championship hopes over. Just an overall lack of defense and 5 turnovers killed the Cowboys on Friday night. Now next week’s OSU vs. OKS matchup isn’t quite as interesting. However, with all the one loss teams lining up for a shot at the National Championship game, Oklahoma State can stick a dagger in the heart’s of Oklahoma fans with a win. #22 Baylor over #5 Oklahoma 45-38
Bob Stoops got Greeeeedy! Oklahoma drove down and tied it up at 38 with 51 seconds left. They kicked off to Baylor who was content to let the clock run out and play in OT. Stoops saw the decent field position and took a timeout. Baylor thought, ‘well, ok, now that the clock has stopped, we’ve got some time here, so let’s see what we can do.’ Robert Griffin III (Baylor’s QB) is awesome and one of the better athletes in college football. 4 plays, 80 yards 43 seconds and a 34-yard TD pass put the Bears up 7. They kickoff and then recover the kick! Oklahoma stunned, out of any National Title shot and it was the first time OU has EVER lost to Baylor. EVER! By the way, Griffin went 21/34 for 479yds and 4TDs while also rushing for 72 yards in this game.

Unranked USC over #4 Oregon 38-35
If you have a legitimate claim at playing for the National Championship, why would you leave it up to your kicker to force OT in a game you should have won easily at home? Blame the coach here Ducks fans. USC was up 38-14 late in the 3rd before Oregon’s offense even woke up. It took a USC fumble inside the Oregon 10 for the Ducks to even have a shot. They drove down the field having all their timeouts and got to the 25 before stalling out. Now, they only used 1 of those timeouts and the play calling and execution were highly suspect. So, the kicker’s career long is 40. The attempt was about a 37-yard try. And, he hooked it wide right. Goodbye National Championship shot.

Honorable Mentions this week go to:

#8 Virginia Tech hangs on to beat Unranked North Carolina 24-21. Up 24-7 going into the 4th VT fell asleep and almost let this one get away from them.

#9 Stanford survives Cal 31-28 to win the Stanford Axe. Well, at least somebody won today. This was a close game and is HUGE for Stanford; especially this week.
UPSETS OF THE WEEK: (as if there weren’t enough already)

Unranked North Carolina State over #7 Clemson 37-13 and winner of The Textile Bowl Trophy
Oh Clemson. You were already going to the ACC Championship game, you had a chance to fly up the rankings with a win and all those teams ahead of you losing and then you got tripped up by the Wolfpack of NC State. Oops. This is the wrong time of the year for Clemson’s offense to go to sleep and their defensive holes to start showing up. Clemson turned the ball over 4 times and gave up 27 points in the 2nd quarter. This is the best the ACC has to offer? Wow.

Unranked UAB over #20 Southern Miss 34-31
I made a joke a few weeks ago about Southern Miss getting into the top 25 and was shocked when they climbed as high as 20 in the rankings this week. This game proves my point. Then 9-1 Southern Miss just got upset by then 2-8 UAB. Oh C-USA… who cares? Southern Miss is now 5-2 in conference play and will get either #11 Houston or Tulsa in the title game. I’m thinking I need my conspiracy hat here and promote the theory that Southern Miss was just a ‘little’ overrated in the hopes that Houston would get a ‘quality’ win the title game. Here’s hopping Tulsa upsets Houston at home on November 25th.

PILLOW FIGHT OF THE WEEK: (By request)

Tennessee over Vanderbilt 27-21 in OT
Oh Vandy. I know you wanted to become bowl eligible over the hated Volunteers of Tennessee, but… you’re Vandy. If you were something other than Vandy maybe you wouldn’t blow leads in the 4th quarter and then throw pick-6 INTs in overtime. Vandy was favored by 1 1/2 points in the game, but Tennessee has now won 28 of the last 29 in the series. The Commodores had a chance to become bowl eligible against Tennessee and now must beat Wake Forest next week for a chance to go bowling for just the fifth time in history. The Vols needed the win over Vanderbilt coupled with a victory at Kentucky next week to keep from missing out on a bowl for the second time in the past four seasons. Even the SEC can provide us with a pillow fight from time to time.

BEAT DOWN OF THE WEEK:

#15 Michigan State over Indiana 55-3 and winner of The Old Brass Spittoon!
Love those Rivalry Trophies, but… Ouch. Indiana only has 1 win this year and that was all the way back in week 3 against South Carolina State. The Hoosiers managed just 236 total yards and threw two INTs. Michigan State was just toned up for this game and now has clinched the Big-10 “Legends” Division with Michigan beating Nebraska.

I wanted to put LSU here since they started taking knees inside the 10 with 5 minutes left in the game. 4th down? Knee. We’ll turn it over, who cares? Wow.

BIGGEST WINNER:

The SEC!!!
Yeah, so LSU, Alabama and Arkansas are all laughing their asses off right now. Next week will determine who will play (and probably beat) Georgia in the SEC Championship Game. However, whichever team doesn’t win will probably have a legitimate claim at still having a shot to play for the National Championship.

I’ve also got to put Virginia Tech and Stanford in this category as well. Here is how I think the
Top 10 should look this week:

1. LSU
2. Alabama
3. Arkansas
4. Virginia Tech
5. Stanford
6. Oklahoma State
7. Stanford
8. Oregon
9. Boise State
10. Oklahoma

Wow. Next week is going to be AWESOME!!!