5. South Carolina 35, Alabama 21. The defending BCS champs were coming off a rousing fourth quarter comeback at Arkansas and an ugly beatdown of undefeated Florida, sealing the Crimson Tide's status as the undisputed national kingpin. South Carolina had just blown a fourth quarter lead at Auburn, nearly knocking the Gamecocks out of the top 20. Unless you actually thought there was something to the preseason complaints about all the pre-Alabama bye weeks, the end of the Tide's 29-game regular season winning streak was nearly inconceivable.
Instead, the Gamecocks raced out to a 21-0 lead on three early touchdown passes by Stephen Garcia and the Carolina front seven made life miserable for Alabama's vaunted backfield all afternoon, initiating weeks of chaos at the top of the polls before Oregon and Auburn emerged with staying power.
4. Iowa State 28, Texas 21. The Longhorns had already looked a little worse for wear after back-to-back losses to UCLA and Oklahoma, but had just been readmitted to the top 25 and seemed on track again in the wake of a potentially season-saving, 20-13 upset over undefeated Nebraska in Lincoln. It was against Iowa State that the veneer was mercilessly ripped away for good, by a Cyclone outfit that arrived in Austin off 41 and 52-point losses against Utah and Oklahoma, respectively, leaving the rotten core of Texas' season exposed to the world.
The loss was the first of a five-game UT losing streak at the hands of a lineup of perennial victims – ISU, Baylor, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M – en route to an unthinkable last-place finish in the South Division and a major staff shakeup at the end of the year, which still may not be over.
3. Jacksonville State 49, Ole Miss 48. The Rebels, desperately in search of a spark that would keep the momentum of consecutive Cotton Bowl wins from dissolving in a backslide to last place in the SEC West, spent the final weeks of the offseason scrambling to get exiled Oregon quarterback Jeremiah Masoli into school and eligible to play in time for the opener. They succeeded, but only as a prelude to a massive FAIL against the I-AA/FCS Gamecocks:
The winning throws in overtime were completed by a 6-foot, 180-pound true freshman, Coty Blanchard, coming off the bench in hostile territory in his first college game. But at least it wasn't …
2. James Madison 21, Virginia Tech 16. Even at the time, it didn't seem too soon to call the Hokies' sloppy letdown against a I-AA/FCS patsy in a home opener the Upset of Year – the Dukes were only the second I-AA team in history to knock off a ranked team, joining Appalachian State in its epic stunner at Michigan in 2007 – or to label it the single worst loss of Frank Beamer's 23-year tenure. Like all the greatest upsets, it still makes no sense whatsoever: Virginia Tech went on to win 11 in a row, finish off the first perfect ACC season since Florida State won the national championship without a blemish in 1999 and punch its ticket to the Orange Bowl by pounding the 'Noles in the ACC Championship Game. James Madison finished in eighth place in the Colonial Athletic Association with losses to Delaware, New Hampshire, Villanova, UMass and Richmond.
1. Nevada 34, Boise State 31 (Overtime). Boise wasn't an insurmountable favorite according to Vegas, and nobody mistook 10-1 Nevada – ranked 19th in every major poll coming into the game, with one of the nation's most prolific offenses – for another random WAC pushover. But it may be forgotten in the wake of their fourth quarter collapse for the ages just how foregone a conclusion it was that the Broncos would win and subsequently leap TCU in the BCS standings.
This was perfectly reasonable, given Boise's track record: Twenty-five straight wins overall, 37 straight in the regular season, 22 straight in-conference. BSU had never lost a WAC game it was favored to win, and had successfully finished off three perfect regular seasons in Chris Petersen's first four years. Even most of the older players on the field had been a part of one loss in their entire careers, by one point in the 2008 Poinsettia Bowl. Boise State never loses this kind of game, especially not to a team that had been pantsed by Hawaii, and especially not with a 24-7 lead in the fourth quarter.
Even as Kyle Brotzman was lining up to kick the game-winning chip shot with one second to play in regulation, the story was shaping up a harrowing escape by the nation's most reliable winner, courtesy of Titus Young's diving grab to set up Brotzman's would-be clincher a few seconds earlier. Instead, the triumph was replaced by (and there's no nice way to put this) an all-time choke job, made exponentially worse when Brotzman pulled his shot at redemption wide left in overtime, officially ending the Broncos' hopes at the national championship, the Rose Bowl, the BCS and sealing Brotzman's place as his generation's version of Gerry Thomas: Even if you don't remember the name in 20 years, you'll remember the choke.
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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.
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