College Football Favorites Knocked Off by the Underdogs

The weekend in college football proved to be a slippery slope for the handful of teams who went favored to walk away with a win. Some may blame it on Mother Nature or poor planning, they all fell victim to the underdog. Meet the teams who lost this past weekend and will need to bounce back in the coming week if they want to have success this season.

Mississippi Rebels

College football fans should have known this was coming when South Carolina knocked off fourth ranked Mississippi on Thursday night. Favored by some to be a dark horse candidate in the SEC conference, the Rebels entered this game with their highest ranking since 1970.

South Carolina, who only owns one win over a top five ranked opponent, did not back down and took it to Mississippi. South Carolina was able to build a comfortable 16-3 lead by the fourth quarter thanks to a suffocating defense, along with three field goals. Mississippi quarterback Javon Snead attempted to bring his team back and was able to close the lead to 16-10. In the end it was not enough for Mississippi who fell from the ranks of the unbeaten.

PennState Nittany Lions

By the time the game was over, Penn State became the second top five ranked team to loss this college football weekend. While both teams entered the contest with a perfect 3-0 record, none of the college football experts gave Iowa a chance to come away with a win.

Not only did Iowa win, they showed college football fans what they were made of by coming back from a 10-0 deficit to earn the win 21-10 over the Nittany Lions. To add insult to injury, Iowa was able to secure this win on Penn State's home turf.

Miami Hurricanes

Though the Miami Hurricanes loss to Virginia Tech does not rank on the same levels as the others on this list, it still has to be mentioned. The Hurricanes were ranked ninth in the country and we riding the momentum of a solid 3-0 start.

Virginia Tech harassed Miami quarterback Jacoby Harris who ended the game with a 37.5% completion rate for 149 yards and one interception. While Miami was unable to amass any yards on the ground, Virginia Tech ran at will, racking up 271 yards on the ground. Te big key for the Hurricanes will be how well they bounce back when they play Oklahoma.

FloridaState Seminoles

When it comes to Florida State's offense, no one is quite sure what to expect. One week they team looks unbeatable as they seem to score at will, will the next week it seems like they can not get out of their own way. No one expected South Florida to amount much of a threat to Florida State, who was favored by two touchdowns. South Florida also lost their senior quarterback for the year last week.

South Florida pulled off the upset by shutting down Florida State' rushing offense for 19 yards and sacked their quarterback five times. While this loss is the second of the season for the Seminoles, the bigger concern has to be the inability for the offensive unit to be consistent on a weekly basis, no matter who they are playing.

California Golden Bears

The California Golden Bears appeared ready to take the Pac-10 away from a one loss USC team. Though the started the season with a 3-0 record, the Oregon Ducks were not impressed and had no plans on rolling over for them.

Oregon steam rolled over California, outscoring them 42-3 as they won their third straight game of the season. Heisman hopeful, Jahvid Best was held to only 55 yards rushing and did not have a run longer than 11 yards in the contest.

Resources

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football