Hail to the Vict...Greatest College Football Upset of All-Time

Surprisingly, actually not all that shocking at all considering who else writes on this blog, the start of the college football season was not only missed, but was not talked about at all before hand either. With three out of the four consistent bloggers going to Union College (a D-III school known for its basketball team, yeah right. Known for it's D-I hockey team, jappy girls, and somewhat laid back greek life) and myself attending UConn (not exactly college football's holy ground). It's not terribly ridiculous that college football hasn't been brought up. On the other hand, this is a sports blog, so actually, it is.

This past week/weekend was college football kickoff and what is normally a very calm weekend, some might even call it the preseason with big, traditional schools inviting/paying smaller schools from around the country to come into their home stadiums so they can have a live game atmosphere while beating down there opponents. The 2007 kickoff weekend was a little different with one big name school in particular.

In case you hadn't heard, the University of Michigan Wolverines, one of college football's most prestigious programs, invited the small D-IAA school from Boone, North Carolina, Appalachian State into the Big House so they could prep their season for Big Ten and National Title runs. The result was anything but predictable. The Mountaineers went into Ann Arbor with back-to-back D-IAA championships, and came out with the greatest college football upset ever, and $400,000 for their troubles.

I don't believe people realize how big of an upset this actually is. Yes, this team has been the best D-IAA team the past two years, but so what? Are you kidding? You could possibly justify this type of upset in basketball, and it has happened, about once every 10 years or so in the NCAA Tournament, but football is different. In basketball, you can get really hot one night and catch a powerhouse in a cold, lazy, and frankly unlucky streak, but in football this just doesn't happen. The talent and size difference in football is just too wide for a D-IAA to compete, let alone win. Numerous of Michigan's players will be vying for draft positions this year and showing their skills in the NFL at the next level, whereas the boys at App St. would be happy if just one of their players gets draft consideration every 5 years. For this to happen, I know I can't really explain it and what makes it worse is that it happened in front of all 110,000 Michigan fans, they all had to watch in disbelief.

A situation like this (and I rarely blame this particular individual for a game) comes from lack of preparation, which comes down from the head coach Lloyd Carr. As joyous as this victory is for the Mountaineers, it's just as embarrassing for the Wolverines.

Other news around the collegiate circuit:

• LSU's defense looks mighty tough
• USC's offense lookED unstoppable in preseason and lookS possibly vulnerable after Week 1
• Meant to add this before but forgot: Notre Dame was close to turning the corner 1 or 2 years ago, didn't, hit their crest, and now they are terrible again and back on the downslope.
• Texas isn't any good, neither is Rutgers or Va Tech
• Oklahoma and WVU are the real deal, are Cal and Florida
• The "who knows?" so far: Louisville, Boise St., UCLA, Wisconsin, Penn St., Georgia and Auburn
• Colt Brennan threw for 416 yards and 6 touchdowns in Week 1...he didn't play the second half.

That's my take on the past week, but I could be completely wrong on all my observations because everyone knows you have to take Week 1 of the college football season with a grain of salt. Everyone except the Mountaineers of Appalachian St.