Saturday Recap - Top Teams Roll, But Upsets Were In Abundance

September 15, 2019 by Dave Congrove

The college football world on Saturday was filled with upsets, but the top teams avoided the carnage.

Thirteen Vegas favorites lost outright.

Perhaps the table was set the night before when Kansas went to Chestnut Hill and defeated Boston College 48-24. It was the first time the Jayhawks had won an away game against a FBS foe since 2008, and they did it in the school's first road game under new head coach Les Miles. Kansas had lost 48 such contests in-a-row. (See Friday night recap).

On Saturday, another Sunflower State Power 5 team, Kansas State, went to Starkville and pulled off the 31-24 upset over Mississippi State as an 8-point underdog.

Air Force scored a 30-23 upset win over Colorado in Boulder. The Buffs rallied from 13 down in the 4th quarter, but couldn't quite pull it off like they did last week vs. Nebraska. Colorado forced OT on a 2-yard run by Laviska Shenault with 28 seconds left, but after Kaden Remsburg ran 25-yards on the first play of overtime for the Falcons, the Buffaloes final play was an incomplete pass near the goal line. Air Force was a 3-1/2-point underdog.

West Virginia was a 7-point home underdog to NC State but broke open a tight game in the 4th quarter to win 44-27.

Eastern Michigan got the upset win at Illinois, 34-31. The 8-point underdogs led 31-17 in the 4th but the Illini fought back and tied it at 31-31 with 1:44 to play. EMU then drove 68 yards on 8 plays to set up Chad Ryland's 24-yard walk-off field goal.

Temple upset Maryland 20-17 in Philadelphia. The Terps entered the game averaging 71 points per contest in routs of 79-0 over FCS member Howard and 63-20 versus Syracuse.

Arizona State won both halves of the home-and-home series with Michigan State with a 10-7 upset win in East Lansing on Saturday. The 12-point underdog Sun Devils were kept out of the end zone the entire game until Eno Benjamin's 1-yard TD run with 50 seconds left capped a 13-play, 69-yard drive. The Spartans answered and quickly drove to the 25 where Matt Coghlin hit a 42-yard FG to force overtime - but they had 12 men lined up for the kick and, after a 5-yard penalty, Coghlin missed badly from 47 when it appeared ASU should have been flagged for hurdling the line. That penalty was not called and the Sun Devils celebrated the win. Last year, ASU scored 13 unanswered points in the 3rd quarter to defeat Michigan State 16-13 at home. The Spartans were a 6.5-point road favorite in that contest.

USC was a 4-point favorite at BYU and fell 30-27 in overtime. The Trojans forced overtime with Chase McGrath's 52-yard FG with 1:43 left in regulation. But BYU's Jake Oldroyd hit what became the 43-yard game-winner when USC's ensuing possession ended with an interception. It's the first win for the Cougars over the Trojans in three tries. The only previous encounters between these teams came in 2003 and 2004.

Liberty chalked-up a 35-17 home upset of 4.5-point favorite Buffalo. It was an offensive explosion for the Flames who were shutout by Syracuse in the opener and fell 35-14 to Louisiana's Ragin Cajuns a week ago. Head coach Hugh Freeze has been recovering from a life-threatening staph infection after back surgery and coached the first two games from the press box in a hospital bed for the opener and a dentist chair for the trip to Lafayette. This week, he was on a rolling platform on the sideline.

Southern Miss scored a 47-42 upset at 3-point favorite Troy.

TCU was only a 2-point underdog at Purdue, but the Horned Frogs took out the Boilermakers with relative ease, 34-13.

Arizona was a 3-point home dog to Texas Tech, but ran the Red Raiders into submission in the 4th quarter of a 28-14 win. The Wildcats' final, game-clinching drive went 99 yards without throwing a single pass.

Other teams were taken to the precipice of being upset.

Virginia Tech survived FCS member Furman 24-17. Tech trailed 14-3 at the half before building a 24-14 lead. A Furman field goal late in the game was followed by a perfectly executed onside kick that was recovered by the Palladins, but they were penalized for initiating contact with the receiving team within 10 yards and had to re-kick. The Hokies recovered the ensuing onside kick attempt and ran out the clock.

Georgia Tech did not survive FCS member The Citadel, losing 27-24 in overtime on Jacob Godek's 37-yard FG. Godek had given the Bulldogs a 24-21 lead in regulation by striking a 47-yard FG with 1:51 left, but Brenton King tied it at 24 on a 34-yard boot as time expired. The Jackets' initial OT possession ended with King missing from 46 yards to set up Godek's game-winner.

Tennessee used a FCS team, UT-Chattanooga, to get its first win of the season in a 45-0 rout. Georgia State, which defeated the Vols in Knoxville two weeks ago, was whipped 57-10 at Western Michigan as the Broncos rolled up nearly 700 yards on offense.

Cal tried to jump on the train marked 'upset victim', but escaped the bid from 14-point underdog North Texas, 23-17. Cal was coming off an upset win of its own at Washington last week.

Minnesota also did its best to come derailed at home versus 15.5-point underdog Georgia Southern. The Golden Gophers won the 35-32 see-saw battle on Tyler Johnson's 2-yard pass from Tanner Morgan with 13 ticks left on the clock.

There was no upset in Happy Valley as favored Penn State won the 100th meeting with state rival Pitt, 17-10. The Panthers drove to the Nittany Lions 26 in the final seconds, but failed to score.

No upset in Orlando either as UCF dumped Stanford 45-27. The Cardinal fell behind 21-0 in the first quarter and trailed 38-7 at halftime.

The top teams performed as expected as Oklahoma won 48-14 at UCLA, Georgia blanked Arkansas State 55-0, LSU trounced FCS foe Northwestern State (La.) 65-14, Ohio State plastered Indiana 51-10 in Bloomington, Alabama prevailed 47-23 at South Carolina, Notre Dame flattened New Mexico 66-14, and Clemson took a 41-6 win at Syracuse. Michigan was idle.

Florida scored 19 points with backup QB Kyle Trask at QB as the Gators overcame a 21-10 deficit and won 29-21 at Kentucky. The Wildcats missed a 35-yard FG with 54 seconds left that would have put them back on top 24-22. Then Josh Hammond ran 76 yards for Florida while the Gators were simply trying to run out the clock.

Florida State prove once gain that it is a terribly undisciplined team. The 'Noles had 5 personal foul penalties in the 4th quarter of a game they could have won, but lost 31-24 at UVa. The Cavaliers weren't much better down the stretch, giving FSU 59 yards on penalties on a final drive that ultimately ended at the Virginia 4-yard line. Even Bronco Mendenhall, the Cavaliers' head coach, was assessed a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct while protesting an interference penalty.

The day's feature game - because ESPN was there for GameDay - was Iowa at Iowa State. After a pair of weather interruptions totaling nearly three hours, the two schools fought tooth-and-nail to an 18-17 finish with the visiting Hawkeyes taking their 45th win in 67 meetings.

FBS vs. FCS

114 games this year pit FBS teams against FCS schools. That's two more than a season ago when FBS teams won 105 of 112 games.

There were 20 such games this past weekend with The Citadel giving the FCS its third win of the season. The FBS won the other 19 games.

FBS schools are 85-3 (.966) for the season  Since we began tracking this in 2003, the FBS schools are 1,409-127 (.917).

FCS victories over FBS teams in 2019:
August 29: Central Arkansas 35, Western Kentucky 28
September 7: Southern Illinois 45, Massachusetts 20
September 14: The Citadel 27, Georgia Tech 24 (OT)

FCS victories over FBS teams in 2018
August 29: UC Davis 44, San Jose State 31
September 1: Villanova 19, Temple 17
September 1: Northern Arizona 30, UTEP 10
September 1: Nicholls State 26, Kansas 23 (OT)
September 2: North Carolina A&T 28, East Carolina 23
September 8: Maine 31, Western Kentucky 28
September 22: Illinois State 35, Colorado State 19

Streaks

CLEMSON - Won 18 straight over-all (FBS longest). Won 20 straight regular season games.
Last: 41-6 win at Syracuse on September 14.
Next: Hosts Charlotte on September 21.

UCF - Won 18 straight conference games including consecutive AAC titles (FBS longest). Won 25 straight regular season games (FBS longest).
Last: 45-27 home win over Stanford on September 14.
Next: Visits Pittsburgh on September 21.

ALABAMA - Won 27 straight home games (FBS longest).
Last: 47-23 win at South Carolina on September 14.
Next: Hosts Southern Miss on September 21.

OKLAHOMA - Won 21 straight true road games (FBS longest).
Last:: 48-14 win at UCLA on September 14.
Next: Hosts Texas Tech on September 28.

RUTGERS - Lost 13 straight conference games (FBS longest).
Last: 30-0 loss at Iowa on September 7.
Next: Hosts Boston College on September 21.

USF - Had lost 8 straight overall (FBS longest).
Last: 55-16 win over FCS member South Carolina State on September 14.
Next: Hosts SMU on September 28.

Akron - Lost 8 straight overall (now FBS longest).
Last: 45-24 loss at Central Michigan.
Next: Hosts Troy on September 21.

CONNECTICUT - Lost 17 straight vs. FBS teams (FBS longest).
Last: 31-23 home loss to Illinois on September 7.
Next: Visits Indiana on September 21.

RICE - Lost 14 straight road games (tied FBS longest).
Last: 48-13 loss to Texas at NRG Stadium on September 14.
Next: Hosts Baylor on September 21.
(Note: San Jose State has a 13-game road losing streak.)