This weekend in college football proved to be just as exciting as last week where seven of the top 13 teams lost.
The upset of the week, or the year possibly could be the University of Southern California versus Stanford game. Going into Saturday afternoon the Trojans had a 35-game home winning streak, but after the Cardinals came into town that streak is no more. The last team to beat USC at home was the Cards, in 2001.
Being ranked No. 5 doesn’t guarantee a win either. This spot proved to be just as venerable as the No. 2 spot. The unranked Illinois squad broke Wisconsin’s 14-game winning streak, and their hope for national championship contention.
The No. 5 spot wasn’t so lucky for the Michigan Wolverines either, as I-AA Appalachian State pulled out one of the biggest upsets in college football history.
It’s not easy being No. 1 either. The LSU Tigers played Saturday as their first game ranked No. 1 since 1959. The Florida Gators had only had memories of No. 1 as they traveled to Baton Rouge looking for a crucial win to keep their SEC and National Championship hopes alive.
With a steady lead through most of the game the Gators just couldn’t hold off the powerful offense of LSU and a late score clinched the win for the Tigers.
The most impressing victory this weekend for me was the Tennessee Volunteers over the Georgia Bulldogs. Going into the game, Tennessee was the underdog by one point, but the atmosphere on campus didn’t reflect that.
The memories of the 51 points that Tennessee put up against Georgia at Athens still loomed in the crowd of over 107,000 in Neyland Stadium.
Throughout the first half the band stayed busy playing “Rocky Top” as the Volunteers’ offense scored four touchdowns on Georgia’s defense easily.
Twenty-eight first half unanswered points by the Volunteers made the 51 points of last year look feasible again.
The second half of play was what most expected out of the game. Georgia outscored Tennessee 14-7 in the second half, but that wasn’t enough to overcome the mistakes of the first half.
Late in the third quarter as the crowd began the wave I realized that the No. 12 Bulldogs were leaving Knoxville with a loss, a hard loss.
The team that won this game would still have a chance at a SEC title while the others’ chances would be reduced to miracle status.
The Volunteers pulled out the win over Georgia and redeemed themselves from a losing record.
Overall this week may have not had the number of upsets as last week but the quality of the games were improved as the giants fell, or in some cases almost fell.
This week also will give some teams the reality check that they needed, and for others will keep postseason dreams alive.

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