I’ve been wanting to write an article about this season so let’s just give a very vague description. If you didn’t know 2007 was the craziest year in college football. In 2007 there were incredible upsets, underdog teams at incredibly high rankings, and an unlikely National Champion.
First off is Michigan who doesn’t have much on this list, but one game. Michigan was #5 in the country and played Appalachian State. Michigan was supposed to win by 33 points according to the betting spread. In the 1st quarter Michigan was up 14-7, then Appalachian State put up 21 points in the 2nd quarter, and took the lead 28-17. This is the point in the game where the better team comes out at halftime and then turns on the jets. Though this is the 2007 season, and so in the 3rd quarter Michigan put up 9 while Appalachian State put up 3 and went into the 4th quarter down 26-31. In the 4th quarter Michigan scored a 54-yard touchdown and elected to go for two and got stopped. The score now is 32-31 with 4 minutes and 36 seconds, but then Michigan intercepted the ball and then went for a field goal which got blocked. Then Appalachian State had the ball with 1 minute and 37 seconds. Then Appalachian State marched down the field and hit a 24-yard field goal with 26 seconds left. Then Michigan attempted a 37-yard that got blocked and finally Appalachian State defeated Michigan and Michigan had fallen out of the rankings completely, and completely ruined their season. This was also the first and only time a team went from the top 5 to unranked.
Next up we have Florida State who in the preseason was expected to win the ACC Atlantic Division. But the whole season came crashing down on them with a loss to a division opponent, which was Clemson, and then they went from #19 to a fall out of the rankings. Then they went on a four game win streak including a win over #22 ranked Alabama. They were finally ranked again at #21 and then the rest of the 2007 season schedule struck as they lost two in a row. And then they had a two game win streak including beating the number 2 ranked team in the country, but I will keep that name anonymous until later. They suddenly lost to #11 Virginia Tech, beat an unranked Maryland and lost to #12 Florida and unranked Kentucky. They ended their season 3-5 in the ACC and were 7-6 overall.
Now we have Notre Dame with another fail, and trust me I am very happy about this. Notre Dame was named a top 15 recruiting class in the preseason and I’m willing to bet they had high hopes for the season. To start of the season Notre Dame played Georgia Tech an unranked team and so was Notre Dame, but I mean that recruiting was really good, so Georgia Tech beat them 33-3, then they lost to Penn State who was #14 31-10, then unranked Michigan 38-0, and then Michigan State, then Purdue. Well that’s a great way to start off a season with five losses. And then, oh my goodness…they beat UCLA 20-6, but then they lost four straight games including losing to Navy who ended the season 8-5, and finally Notre Dame pulled off two straight wins to end their season after a loss to Air Force.
Now we have Nebraska who made it to the Big 12 Championship the year before. Yes, Big 12 they were not in the Big 10 yet. Nebraska started the season with 2 straight wins against 2 unranked teams Wake Forest and Nevada. Then they lost to #1 ranked USC, which is like “Okay they lost to the best team in college football, it’s fine.” So they won their next two games against Ball State and Iowa State, again two unranked teams. Then they lost their next five games to a team who I will keep anonymous, but they were ranked #17. Then they lost to unranked Oklahoma State and Texas A&M. Next, they would lose to that week’s #17 Texas and then they were beat by a team that I will keep anonymous. Next they beat an unranked Kansas State, and then finished off their season with a loss to Colorado. That left Nebraska 2nd to last in the Big 12 North Division.
Now USF will be on this list, and bonus if you don’t know who USF is, it is University of Southern Florida. Only if you watch lots of college football you might see these guys pop up on a Friday night game, or get a terrible kickoff time on Saturdays. In their first game USF played Elon, and I do not know where they are from, and do not care enough. Then they played Auburn who was ranked #17. Then they went ahead and beat them in overtime. The next week they were ranked at #23 and played North Carolina who was unranked. They beat them and had to play 5th ranked Virginia, and then they somehow pulled that out. Then they beat two unranked teams and they were now the 2nd ranked team in the country. After that they went on a three game losing streak, all to unranked teams. All the sudden they fell out of the ranking totally. They then beat 3 unranked teams to move into the rankings only to lose to unranked Oregon in the Sun Bowl.
Now we have a team that has historically had a terrible football team, the Kansas Jayhawks. The Jayhawks had an extremely pretty easy schedule, but an impressive season nonetheless. Kansas went 4-0 in their first games, and then they played their first ranked team which was Kansas State at the rank of 24. Kansas won that game and then won 6 more games against unranked teams including Nebraska, and they were . Then they reached 2nd and they played another team that I will keep anonymous, but I will tell you that they were ranked 3rd in the nation. And lost their last game of their regular season. Then they beat #5 ranked Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl.
Boston College is now the topic team in this paragraph. Boston College started off the season with 8 straight wins, and had notable wins against 15th ranked Georgia Tech and 8th Virginia Tech. Then they got to 2nd in the nation, and then lost to two straight to unranked teams. Then they beat 15th ranked Clemson and an unranked Miami team. Then they had to play 6th ranked Virginia Tech in the ACC Conference Championship, and lost to them. Then they played unranked Michigan State in the Citrus Bowl and were able to defeat them.
Missouri is now the team to talk about, and they started off with 5 wins, including a win to 25th ranked Nebraska. Then they lost to 6th ranked Oklahoma. Then they played 22nd ranked Texas Tech and beat them, and then went on a 4-game win streak not including that game. Then they ran into 2nd ranked Kansas and this was huge. Whoever won this game would go to the Big 12 Conference Championship, and then if they won that game, they would go to the National Championship. First Missouri was up 7-0 after the first quarter, and then 14-0 after the 2nd. Then came halftime, and after the 3rd Missouri was up 28-7. Then Kansas scored 3 touchdowns in the 4th, but Missouri scored 8 points, and so Missouri won, and was heading to the Conference Championship to play Oklahoma. And so this was huge, 1st ranked Missouri played 9th ranked Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship, and if Missouri won they would go to the National Championship. In the 1st quarter Missouri was up 3-0, and then in the 2nd Oklahoma put up 14 points, while Missouri put up an unusual score of 11 points. Going into halftime it is 14-14. In the 3rd quarter Missouri didn’t score, and Oklahoma put up 14 more. Then in the 4th Oklahoma put up 10 points while Missouri only put up 3. This ended up putting Missouri out of the talk for the Championship.
Now I’ll go over LSU’s season, and it was a good and bad record that they were able to break. LSU had a very tough schedule as the madness made them play a total of 6 ranked teams in the regular season. That means half their games were played against ranked teams, and that was just the regular season. LSU started off strong with a 6 game win streak, including wins over #9 Virginia Tech, #12 South Carolina, and #9 Florida, and they stayed at #2 until week 6 when they finally went to 1. Then they played 17 ranked Kentucky and lost in a game that went to triple overtime. Then they beat 18 ranked Auburn and 17 ranked Alabama, and over 2 unranked teams, and thy were back at #1. Then they played Arkansas and they lost in triple overtime, again! Luckily for them they were in the SEC Conference Championship, where they beat 14 ranked Tennessee to go from 5th to 2nd. (They did not have a four team playoff, just a single game) Then they played 1st ranked Ohio State to beat them and become the first and so far only two loss National Champions.
I would usually end the article right here, but I had the idea of writing something extra. So you might have noticed all the losses from the 2nd place team in 2007, this is known as the “Curse of the No. 2.” Bonus: No. 1 and No. 2 have not lost in the same week since 1996, but in 2007 it happened 3 times. In the span of 9 weeks the #2 team lost 7 times! The first to make the dominoes fall is when Stanford beat USC 24-23. Then Oregon State defeated Cal or California 31-28. Then Rutgers beat South Florida 30-27. Then Florida State beat Boston College 27-17. Then Arizona defeated Oregon 34-24. Then Missouri beat Kansas 36-28, huh that game sounds familiar, doesn’t it. Then Pittsburgh or Pitt beat West Virginia 13-9. The thing is that only 1 of the teams that beat a #2 team were ranked, and that team was Missouri.