College Football delivers drama and upsets...again

There were a plethora of big-time college football games yesterday...and a plethora of big-time upsets. Should we have expected anything less?

Let's begin by looking at the Red River "Shootout." I put shootout in quotes because the new technical name is Red River Rivalry, but I dont know how anyone could call yesterday's game anything less than a good old fashioned shootout. For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past 24 hours, #5 Texas beat #1 Oklahoma 45-35.

Since 1997, these two rivals havent play a game decided by less than 7 points. The ironic thing is that neither team has dominated the rivalry (Texas victories in '99, '05, '06, '08; Oklahoma victories in 2000, '01, '02, '03, '04). Texas QB Colt McCoy was great when he needed to be, passing for 277 yards and one TD, while rushing for 37 more yards. Although his numbers weren't gaudy, the question now is whether or not he has planted himself as the Heisman front-runner.

Speaking of Heisman front-runners, Chase Daniel and the #3 Missouri Tigers fell to the hands of #17 Oklahoma State, 28-23. Daniel completed 39 of 52 passes for 390 yards, but threw 3 critical second half interceptions that ultimately led to Missouri's first loss. Lucky for Chase, he has a chance to rebuild his big-game credentials when the Tigers travel to Austin next week for a heavyweight matchup against Texas.

In 2007, LSU bottled up Tim Tebow, holding him to his lowest statistical output of the season (12-26 passing for 158 yards and 2 TD's; 16 carries, 67 yards and a TD). Tebow got his revenge last night by leading the #11 Gators to a 51-21 mashing of the #4 Tigers. His numbers weren't superhuman (210 yards passing, 3 total TD's) but they didn't have to be. Freshman Jeffrey Demps rushed for 129 and a TD, while Percy Harvin caught 6 passes for 112 yards and 2 scores, taking a significant amount of pressure off of Tebow.

So lets recap: the #1, #3, and #4 teams in the AP poll lost. The #2 team in the country, Alabama, was idle this week. #17 Oklahoma State and #11 Florida had big wins, but #5 Texas takes the cake by beating the top-ranked Sooners. The AP poll has just been released, and the fallout shapes up like this...

Before I end my CFB recap for the week, let me give a big shoutout to the Penn State Nittany Lions. Wow, demolishing Wisconsin 48-7?! This team is a legit national title contender. Sure, Wisconsin has fallen quite a bit in the past few weeks, but I doubt anyone expected the Badgers to get crushed like they did last night. Hats off to Joe-Pa and company for a very impressive win.

(^photo taken from http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/photos?photoId=2058533&gameId=282850201)