It happens every year, on random weekends, when least expected -- kingpins fall, pretenders are elevated, and fans hang on every moment.
Chaos in college football is just part of the natural (dis)order of things, and there was no better example of that than this past weekend.
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| Dabo Swinney wears a dejected look after being hit by chaos (Fanbuzz) |
It started on Friday -- the 13th, no less -- as Clemson ventured to Syracuse for what was supposed to be a tuneup game, a warm up for a testing November which would include showdowns with suddenly formidable North Carolina State, ailing but always dangerous Florida State, and a Palmetto State hatefest with South Carolina to close out the regular season. Even though two of the previous three battles with Syracuse were respectable, last year's was a 54-0 demolition, a schoolyard beatdown in which the Tigers showed no mercy.
This year promised more of the same, as Clemson was beginning to gain steam and would prove that it was once again the toughest dog in the yard, that it wasn't going to hand over its crown willingly.
Only it wasn't, and it did.
Syracuse won 27-24, setting off the biggest celebration in the Carrier Dome since the days of Marvin Harrison and Donovan McNabb. This time it was Eric Dungey and Steve Ishmael, players who would no longer be faceless, who would be seen as conquerors.
That was the first part of the chain reaction.
The second came more than 2,700 miles to the west, where wildfires were on the minds and toxic conditions were in the air, where the Cal Bears would send eighth-ranked Washington State into the long night, empty.
It was a mauling, almost from the outset. Cal forced eight turnovers, harassed Luke Falk into five interceptions and made Cougars coach Mike Leach admit, about his own team, "We were pathetic. We were a pathetic bunch of front-runners."
And it was just a harbinger of things to come.
Before Saturday ended, the baker's dozen of unbeaten teams had been whittled down to eight, including losses by Group of Five hopefuls Navy and San Diego State. There were narrow escapes -- USC winning by one at home over Utah -- overtimes -- Michigan fending off a game Indiana squad -- and a Phoenix rising from the ashes at LSU, which beat Auburn 27-23 after trailing 20-0 in the second quarter. You can bet Coach O is having a big laugh at those who wanted him gone mere weeks ago, when his team was a wreck and losing at home to Troy. Now, his Tigers all but knocked the other Tigers out of the race for the SEC West crown.
Well into the wee hours of the morning it continued, until formerly unbeaten Washington saw itself on the wrong end of a 13-7 decision against Arizona State -- Arizona State! -- the same team that had allowed at least 30 points in every game this year. Suddenly, the Sun Devils looked like the '85 Bears reincarnated.
This chaos is nothing new, of course.
One only has to go back a decade or so, to 2007, the mother of all mother-effing years of anarchy.
The season started with Michigan losing to Appalachian State, the first ever FCS over an FBS team in history, and ended with a champion that somehow lost to Arkansas and Kentucky (both in triple overtime!), yet beat Alabama, so maybe nothing should have been surprising.
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| Few believed LSU would win the 2007 national title (Saturday Blitz) |
That was the year when, in a 56-day span, 11 teams No. 2 ranked teams lost football games. It's like that spot was the plague, where teams went to have their seasons die. Included in that bunch was 39-point underdog Stanford (under the guidance of a nascent Jim Harbaugh) knocking off second-ranked USC, at the time the biggest upset in terms of Vegas pointspread in the history of the sport. Eventually, Cal, South Florida and Boston College would all lose as No. 2 teams, and Ohio State would even get into the fray, topping them all by losing as a No. 1 squad to mediocre Illinois. Oregon was the next No. 2 to fall, followed by Kansas. LSU lost to Arkansas as a No. 1 team, and Missouri, obviously unable to handle prosperity, got blown out by Oklahoma in the Big 12 title game, falling out of the top spot.
LSU beat Tennessee in the SEC title game, which supposedly meant little in the grand scheme of things, but ended up meaning everything. Other dominoes fell -- No. 2 West Virginia lost to huge underdog Pitt, beginning Rich Rodriguez's downward spiral, and Missouri had the aforementioned loss to the Sooners.
That left an improbable two-loss LSU going against an equally improbable Ohio State, which went from a ranking of seventh prior to beating Michigan to being the No. 1 team in the BCS standings, vying for the title.
We all remember who won that night -- LSU.
But chaos won the season.
And it returns every year, with an agenda but no forewarning, feasting on unprepared, sloppy teams, teams that believe they just need to show up to win. And it isn't always a boffo matchup of ranked teams that does it, but rather a completely out of the blue -- appropriate, given that blue is a primary color of both Syracuse and Cal -- upset.
It is equal parts frustration and exhilaration, and it's what keeps us coming back week after week.
Saying Goodbye
We can now officially say sayonara to a quartet of teams suffering a second loss -- they will be instructed where to pick up their lovely parting gifts. Please, a round of applause for Georgia Tech, Texas Tech, Utah and Auburn. They will keep playing, it's just that no one will be paying attention.
There no matchups of unbeatens, but there are some tasty games on the docket -- USC (6-1) against Notre Dame (5-1), Michigan (5-1) facing off against Penn State (6-0), new darlings Syracuse (4-3) heading to Miami (5-0), and UCF (5-0) taking on Navy (5-1).
The winless have been whittled down to five, and will go down by at least one as 0-5 Georgia Southern takes on 0-6 UMass.
Until next week.
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