College Football's Most Surprising Game Results from 2008

Navy 24, Wake Forest 17

Navy had been 0-5 against ranked teams since 2003. Wake Forest was 3-0 and ranked No. 16 in the nation. The game was a home game for the Demon Deacons, and they were 16 point favorites. The Midshipmen were 2-2 with a win over Towson and a loss to Duke. The Demon Deacons were primed to walk all over Navy, but as fate would have it, Wake Forest lost. The two met for an end-of-year rematch in the EagleBank Bowl, which WF won 29-19.

Maryland 14, Delaware 7 | Middle Tennessee State 24, Maryland 14 | Maryland 35, California 27

What a rollercoaster ride.

Maryland opened the season at College Park against a FCS team without their hero, Joe Flacco. There wasn’t even a line for the game. And win Maryland did, but not in a usual fashion. Despite Delaware finishing as the FCS runner-up in 2007, it is always difficult to grasp a BCS school losing to a FCS school.

The following week, Maryland lost a game to MTSU. The Blue Raiders were coming off a tough loss to fellow Sun Belt native Troy. For the Terrapins to lose to MTSU would be almost as bad, if not worse, as losing to Delaware. MTSU had previously been 0-7 against BCS schools under Rick Stockstill. Maryland finished the season 8-5, and MTSU went on to a 5-7 season, and without another impressive victory.

After almost losing to a FCS school at home and dropping a game to a Sun Belt team, Maryland was in position to be made a fool of by California. The Golden Bears scored 104 points in their first two games, while giving up 34. They entered 14 point favorites and the No. 23 team in the nation. Although the game was played at 9:00 am PST, the Golden Bears were still favored. Maryland torched California's defense for 35 points, and sent them home losers.

East Carolina 27, Virginia Tech 22

Despite the game being played in Charlotte, Virginia Tech was 9.5 point favorites, and had been 11-1 in season openers (13-24 loss to No. 1 USC in 2004) the past twelve years. The Hokies were No. 17 in the country, the Pirates unranked. East Carolina played solid defense and good special teams, their strongest units, and put the Hokies down, one of only 4 losses during a solid 10-4 year. East Carolina went on to beat No. 8 WVU handily the following week, 24-3 in another shocking game.

Oregon State 27, USC 21

This game kept USC from being in the BCS National Championship. The Rodgers brothers broke onto the national scene in this stunning upset. Favored by 25 points, USC was ranked No. 1 at the time, having outscored Virginia and Ohio State 87-10 in their first two games. OSU went up 21-0 at half, and barely escaped with the victory.

BYU 59, UCLA 0

The previous week, UCLA came off an improbable 27-24 victory against then No. 18 Tennessee in OT. Unranked, they traveled to new No. 18 BYU, looking for another upset win. Max Hall felt different. BYU absolutely clobbered UCLA, with Hall tossing seven touchdowns in three quarters of play. The 59 point difference was the most for UCLA since 1929. Ouch.

UNLV 23, Arizona State 20

At the beginning of the 2008 season, many people felt Arizona State could give USC a run for their money, and challenge for the Pac-10 title. They won their first two games by a combined score of 71-30, were ranked No. 15 in the nation and were 24 point favorites over UNLV.

Omar Clayton was fantastic for the Rebels last season, and ASU was no exception. UNLV prospered in OT in Tempe, knocking the wind out of the Sun Devils for the year. ASU went on to lose their next five games.

Stanford 58, Washington State 0

Stanford hadn’t scored this many points since they played San Jose State in 2002. They hadn’t shut out a team since the 1996 Sun Bowl against Michigan State. The Cardinal was 4-4 at the time, and were actually 30 point favorites over Washington State.

The cougars were having arguably one of the worst college football seasons in recent memory. They had given up 60+ points four times already on the season, with their lone victory coming against Portland State. No one doubted Stanford would win, but by 58 points…come on.

Bowling Green 27, Pittsburgh 17

Pittsburgh had recent success in season openers (10 of 12 were wins). They were ranked No. 25 to start the year, with Bowling Green coming to town. As 13 point favorites, Pitt dropped the game 17-27 prompting many questions regarding Wannstedt’s hiring, mainly because he finally had all his recruits starting. The Panthers had all-world back LeSean McCoy, and BGSU’s defense gave 208 yards per game on the ground in 2007. Naturally, Pittsburgh only mustered 17 points at home against a very week MAC defense.

Kentucky 27, Louisville 2

With the loss of All-SEC quarterback Andre Woodson, as well as six other offensive starters, UK didn’t know where to turn. Louisville was 7-2 against the Wildcats since 1999. The Cardinals had what most people thought was one of the better passing games in the country. But at home, they couldn’t manage any offensive points. Neither team was ranked, but UL was 3 point favorites. Kentucky topped 27 points only three more times last year.

Houston 70, Tulsa 30

At 8-1, No. 25 Tulsa was favored over 5-4 Houston. Everyone knew this was going to be an incredible display of offense (the two starting quarterbacks in Case Keenum and David Johnson combined for 100 total touchdowns on the year), but no one figured it would be so lopsided.

In 2008, the teams had combined to top 35 points per game fourteen times prior to their meeting. The 30 points scored by Tulsa was actually the lowest amount they had scored so far on the year, and only one more time did they drop below 38 (their loss to East Carolina).

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