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Chaos reigns in college football COMMENTARY Sports Writer Don't look ahead. Don't take anyone for granted. These are tried and true cliches that are spoken by coaches and media every football season.
And yet they are words that Florida, Oklahoma, Texas, Rutgers and West Virginia should've taken more seriously. Not since 2003 have so many top-10 teams have lost in one weekend.
Auburn, left for dead with losses to South Florida and Mississippi State, took the initiative over defending national champion Florida and survived a late surge to win on a last-second field goal.
The Tigers, with nothing to lose, were able to defeat the Gators by minimizing their offense and putting pressure on their defense early. Auburn stopped Florida's offense from making big plays and first downs.
In the other Saturday upsets, Texas and Rutgers showed their true colors as paper tigers, but Colorado shocked Oklahoma.
With the Sooners showing no signs of weakness, including a dominating win over the Miami Hurricanes, it looked like Colorado would just be a speed bump before facing Texas. Instead the Buffaloes rallied from 14 points behind in the fourth quarter and won on a last-second field goal. Oklahoma will rue the collapse of its special teams late, including a fumble on a punt return and the inability to pin Colorado back on a punt of its own.
Oklahoma's chances of making the BCS title game are now in serious jeopardy. The Sooners still have a solid team that should defeat the reeling Longhorns, but will need to win out, including the Big 12 championship game, to have a shot at a berth. The Big 12 South is still the Sooners' to lose.
Despite having struggled through Arkansas State, TCU and Central Florida, the Longhorns matched up well against Kansas State. They were to be surprised however by the Wildcats as quarterback Colt McCoy threw four interceptions. In all likelihood, the Longhorns will have to regroup and wait until next year.
Rutgers entered the top 10 last week with a favorable schedule. Facing Maryland, which had lost earlier to West Virginia, the Scarlet Knights were looking for a solid non-conference win. Instead, Maryland refused to let another Big East team beat them. Backup Terrapin quarterback Chris Turner came in as an injury substitution and was the man of the hour.
South Florida's Friday victory over West Virginia wasn't a total surprise. The Bulls had won earlier this season against Auburn on the road and had defeated the Mountaineers last season.
On paper, West Virginia had the better talent, better resources and supposedly better coaching than South Florida, but Bulls coach Jim Leavitt and his defense neutralized the vaunted Mountaineer offense.
It's hard to fathom, but South Florida has the national title momentum that had been previously allocated for Big East teams West Virginia, Rutgers and Louisville. The Bulls though will have to go undefeated and need someone like USC or LSU to lose.
Ranked No. 9 in the USA Today Coaches' Poll, the Bulls visit Florida Atlantic next week, which should be an easy task.
As for the other top-10 teams:
Contenders
The Washington Huskies gave the Trojans a battle in Seattle. Despite repeated Trojan attempts to pull away, the Huskies refused to die. Eventually time ran out on Washington and USC escaped with a win. Taking on Stanford next week, the Trojans should look to shore up offensive deficiencies.
The Tigers almost suffered the same fate as Florida by looking ahead to the Oct. 6 rivalry game instead of worrying about the task at hand. Tulane kept itself in the game far longer than expected before second-half adjustments by the Tigers made the difference.
While LSU becomes the SEC favorite with the Gators' loss to Auburn, don't expect Florida just to roll over. The LSU Tigers will need to take a page out of the Auburn Tigers' game plan by making it a defensive game against Florida's high-flying offense.
Part 2 of Trevor's college
football column will run
later this week
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