10 Biggest Upsets of 2009 College Football

While it appears that there were a lot less huge upsets this season than normal, mostly likely due to very suspect officiating and replay work, there were still a number of major upsets.

Some games that looked like upsets early on really were not once the season finished. Games like Houston at Oklahoma State seemed like huge upsets at the time, but sure seem a lot less so these days.

Likewise, BYU over Oklahoma at JerryWorld seemed big at the time, but looks predictable now. Of course, BYU's hard-hitting play had a lot to do with the Sooners' demise for the rest of the season.

At the time, some of these games were real puzzles, but others looked ok, but now look really bad.

So, let's look at the ten biggest upsets of the 2009 regular season.

10. Colorado State (3-9) over Nevada (8-4)

Coming into the season, Nevada was supposed to challenge Boise State for the WAC crown and make some out-of-conference noise. While the WAC championship did come down to Nevada vs. Boise St., Nevada failed in its OOC play, losing to Missouri, Notre Dame, and Colorado State.

At the time, the loss to Colorado State did not look that bad. After all, the Rams had won their bowl game the previous season and started the season with an impressive win over Colorado in Boulder.

Now, looking back at the Rams failure to win a single game in MWC play, this Wolf Pack looks really bad.

9. Wake Forest (5-7) over Stanford (8-4)

Stanford dominated this game, but somehow forgot to play offense in the second half.

WF scored the game winning touchdown on the final play of the game.

At the time, this did not seem like a big deal, but that was before Stanford came on. Now, it looks like a crazy upset that should have never happened.

8. North Carolina State (5-7) over Pitt (9-3)

Pitt, with a solid running attack and a strong defense, appeared to be a real contender this year. The loss to NC State just sticks out as odd.

7. Virginia (3-9) over North Carolina (8-4)

What, another huge upset involving the ACC?!

Parity rules in Average Coast Conference. Virginia, who finally fired their coach after years of struggles, always played better in October.

Butch Davis found the way to lose crucial games, as usual.

6. Iowa State (6-6) over Nebraska (9-4)

Sure, Nebraska ended up on the wrong end of a very questionable call in the Big 12 Championship Game, but Nebraska lived off its great defense all year. It could never find an offense.

The game against Iowa State was a prime example of this. Nebraska could not hold onto the ball and kept giving the Cyclones the ball in easy range of field goals.

Of course, if you have not seen the Cyclones post-game YouTube, you have missed out.

5. UTEP (4-8) over Houston (10-3)

Houston looked like a real contender with its high-powered offense and big wins over Texas Tech and at Oklahoma State.

But Houston lack the depth on defense needed to really contend. So, no matter how many points the Coogs put up, they proved vulnerable to other teams.

Houston actually has one of the absolutely worst defenses in college football, giving up more yards to opponents than their season average.

Maybe Houston will get a halfway decent defense to go with its top-level offense to make the Coogs a real contender.

Losing to UTEP was just a sign of the Coogs' biggest problem.

4. Washington (5-7) over USC (8-4)

Steve Sarkisian went to Seattle and transformed the hapless Huskies into a real troublemaker. While UW did not make a bowl game, Jake Locker and company gave their young coach a great upset win in his first year.

The Huskies demonstrated to the world all the problems that USC had this year and demonstrated why USC fell so far from its lofty platform.

Welcome back UW, and congrats, Steve!

3. Purdue (5-7) over Ohio State (10-2)

Ohio State almost loses games like this. In fact, it is only its third loss to a team with less than seven regular season over FBS competition since 2000, the fewest in among all FBS teams. The Buckeyes only lose to good and great teams, which Purdue was neither.

But Purdue is one of the best of the average teams and far better than teams with weaker schedules but better records. Purdue usually only loses to good and great teams.

Still, one of the best upsets of the year.

2. Maryland (2-10) over Clemson (8-5)

Poor Clemson, they just could not perform away from Death Valley, where the Tigers went 6-1 with only a close loss to TCU. Away from home, Clemson was just 2-4, although one of those wins was at Miami.

Anyway, you can blame this otherwise inexplicable loss to a hangover from the loss to the Frogs the week before. Nothing else makes sense, as Maryland should have gone 0-12....the Terps are just that bad.

1. Florida State (6-6) over BYU (10-2)

This one takes the cake as craziest upset of the season.

BYU was riding high, with a huge win over the Sooners to start the season. People were starting to wonder where BYU would fit into the BCS picture.

FSU was coming off a near loss to FCS Jacksonville State. Expectations for the Noles disappeared.

The loss has been blamed on a number of factors:

1. BYU's poorly installed new field with chunks of grass flying all over throughout the game.

2. Injuries to BYU's defense right up the middle of the team.

3. Bad ACC officiating that somehow forgot to call holding on Florida State for the first half of the game.

4. BYU's players and coaches feeling over-confident.

5. BYU's inability to hold onto the ball.

Whatever it was, neither team played defense that game and BYU almost matched FSU in total yards, even though the Noles had the ball for almost 40 minutes.

Still, it was definitely the craziest upset of the season. Oddly enough, one half of these upsets involved ACC teams.....