Reliving the Biggest Upsets of the 2014 College Football Season

There wasn't an "Appalachian State over Michigan" or a "Georgia Southern over Florida," but the 2014 college football season was not without its upsets.

They were upsets of the milder variety, sure, but an upset is an upset regardless. And many of this year's upsets proved important on a national scale. Seven of the nine games on this list had College Football Playoff implications as recently as Championship Weekend.

The upsets on the following slides have all withstood the test of time. Boston College beating USC, for example, was a major upset in the moment but doesn't seem all that weird in hindsight. Boston College was slightly better than expected and finished 7-5. USC was slightly worse and finished 8-4.

But instead of in-the-moment upsets, let's relive the games that seem just as curious now as they did when they happened. They are the upsets that defined this regular season.

Sound off below and let us know which game you'll remember best.

Honorable Mentions

Winslow Townson/Getty Images

A few games were omitted because they didn't stand the test of time. Here is a list of those games. In the moment, they might have seemed like giant upsets. But in hindsight? They don't really seem that weird.

• Texas A&M 52, South Carolina 28
• Boston College 37, USC 31
• East Carolina 28, Virginia Tech 21
• Mississippi State 34, LSU 29
• TCU 37, Oklahoma 33
• Ole Miss 23, Alabama 17
• Texas A&M 41, Auburn 38

Virginia Tech 35, Ohio State 21

When: Saturday, Sept. 6

Ohio State's Week 2 loss against Virginia Tech looked bad at the time and worse as the season progressed. The Hokies struggled for much of the season but had their way with Ohio State's offense, pressuring redshirt freshman quarterback J.T. Barrett into mistake after mistake in his second career start (and home debut).

Virginia Tech brought five or more pass-rushers on 34 of Barrett's 43 dropbacks, sacking him on seven on those plays, according to ESPN Stats & Info. Barrett completed six of 20 passes against pressure.

But that wasn't the only place Ohio State struggled. It also gained just 42 yards on 14 runs between the tackles, getting hit at or behind the line of scrimmage on nine of those attempts.

Regardless, Ohio State managed to tie the game at 21 with less than 12 minutes to play after a Joey Bosa strip-sack set up an Ezekiel Elliott touchdown. But Virginia Tech drove 65 yards in six plays to score the game-winning touchdown on a 10-yard pass from Michael Brewer to freshman tight end Bucky Hodges.

Ohio State had one last chance to tie things up, but Barrett was intercepted by Donovan Riley on a 3rd-and-16 near midfield. Riley returned the pick for a touchdown to inflate the final margin.

Indiana 31, Missouri 27

When: Saturday, Sept. 20

Indiana went 1-7 in Big Ten play this season but scored a road upset over Missouri, the eventual SEC East champion.

Missouri took a 27-24 lead with 2:20 left to play after driving 70 yards on 11 plays for a field goal. It started the drive on its own 8-yard line and appeared to have put itself in position to win.

But the Hoosiers had one more chance and took advantage of a 4th-and-6 pass-interference penalty by Kenya Dennis on their ensuing possession. Tevin Coleman caught a 44-yard pass (that became 52 yards after a facemask) on the following play, and D'Angelo Roberts scored the game-winning touchdown from three yards out with less than 30 seconds left on the clock.

Missouri was 3-0 and ranked No. 18 in the country at the time of the upset, making this the fourth time in school history Indiana won a nonconference road game over a ranked opponent, per ESPN Stats & Info. The most recent upset came in 2004 at Oregon, and the one prior to that came all the way back in 1973 at West Virginia.

Arizona 31, Oregon 24

When: Thursday, Oct. 2

Oregon's only loss of the season came against an Arizona team that won the Pac-12 South and finished No. 10 in the CFP standings but still had no business beating the Ducks in Autzen Stadium.

The Wildcats forced Marcus Mariota into the worst game of his Heisman-winning season, taking advantage of absent left tackle Jake Fisher and a mishmash offensive line to dominate the point of attack and make consistent plays in the backfield.

Oregon rushed for a season-low 144 yards, and the passing game suffered in consequent. Mariota averaged just 6.5 yards per attempt on play-action passes, per ESPN Stats & Info. He entered the game averaging more than 13.0 yards per attempt on such plays.

Arizona scored touchdowns on four of five possessions at the start of the second half, driving 80 yards in six plays, 93 yards in nine plays, 80 yards in eight plays and 71 yards in 15 plays, respectively. That final drive was extended by an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Tony Washington, who bowed to the fans after sacking Anu Solomon on 3rd-and-goal from the Oregon 8-yard line.

The Wildcats scored the game-winning touchdown four plays later, then iced the win when Scooby Wright sacked Mariota and forced and recovered a fumble on the Ducks' following possession.

Northwestern 20, Wisconsin 14

When: Saturday, Oct. 4

Melvin Gordon rushed for 259 yards, but Wisconsin nullified his impact with four costly turnovers in a loss at Northwestern.

All four of those turnovers were interceptions, two of which ended drives in the red zone, and one of which set up the Wildcats at the Badgers' 16-yard line. Miles Shuler scored one play later to give Northwestern a 17-7 lead, so it might as well have been a pick-six.

The final interception came on Wisconsin's last-ditch effort to tie the game with less than 30 seconds to play. It was intercepted fittingly by Northwestern safety Godwin Igwebuike, who also recorded both of the interceptions when Wisconsin was in the red zone.

"Nobody saw it coming. I mean, I didn't even see it coming," Igwebuike told reporters of his three-interception performance. "It really goes back to this preparation. I knew it was going to be time to step up this game with the injury to Ibraheim (Campbell). So I had to go back to the drawing board and just prepare myself.

"Prepare like I never prepared before, and it paid off."

Wisconsin finished the regular season 10-2 and won the Big Ten West. Had it beaten Northwestern—a team that didn't even make a bowl game—it likely would have been playing for a spot in the national semifinal when it lost 59-0 to Ohio State in the conference title game. 

So really, this upset might have been a blessing in disguise. 

West Virginia 41, Baylor 27

When: Saturday, Oct. 18

West Virginia forged near-upsets against Alabama, Oklahoma, TCU and Kansas State this season, but the only time it cleared the hump was on a foggy day in Morgantown against Baylor.

The weather was a perfect backdrop for one of the sloppiest games of the season, one in which Baylor committed 18 penalties for 215 yards. According to ESPN Stats & Info, it was the second-most penalties and highest number of penalty yards in school history.

That and an ineffectual showing from quarterback Bryce Petty helped the Bears lose their only game of the season despite winning the turnover battle 3-0. They averaged only 4.03 yards per play and gained 318 yards of total offense, their lowest total since September 2010.

Kevin White caught eight passes for 132 yards and two touchdowns—one of which was a one-handed snag that would prove to be the game-winner—and drew four defensive pass-interference penalties. FCS transfer Shaq Riddick also played the best game of his Mountaineer career, sacking Petty three times, twice on third down.

Baylor's final three drives after West Virginia took the lead ended with two punts and a turnover on downs, so there wasn't any late-game drama. Just a convincing win by a team that finished 7-5 over a squad that would have otherwise made the CFP.

Florida 38, Georgia 20

When: Saturday, Nov. 1

Georgia was coming off dominant road wins at Missouri and Arkansas. Florida was coming off a bye but before that lost a heartbreaker to LSU and got its doors blown off by Missouri.

So how in the heck did this happen?

Georgia took a 7-0 lead into the second quarter but promptly ceded 31 consecutive points. Prior to this game, 11 straight SEC opponents had held the Gators to 30 or fewer points in regulation. But Georgia allowed Florida to score 31 points in 25 minutes.

The running back duo of Kelvin Taylor and Matt Jones finished with near-identical stat lines, the former rushing 25 times for 197 yards and two touchdowns, the latter rushing 25 times for 192 yards and two touchdowns. Florida quarterback Treon Harris completed just three of six passes for 27 yards in the one-sided victory.

Georgia scored a meaningless touchdown with three seconds left to make the final score look better than it was. And it still looks like it nearly got its score doubled by a team that finished 6-5.

This was without a doubt the weirdest outcome of the season.

UConn 37, Central Florida 29

When: Saturday, Nov. 1

Co-AAC champion Central Florida would have been the sole ACC champion if not for a baffling loss at UConn in November.

It was the only conference game the Golden Knights lost all season.

It was the only conference game the Huskies won.

UCF outgained UConn by more than 100 yards but lost the turnover battle 4-1. All four turnovers were interceptions thrown by Justin Holman, three of which were picked off by safety Andrew Adams.

The Knights trailed 37-21 with less than 5:30 to play but cut the lead to eight with a touchdown and two-point conversion. (The only reason the game was within reach was because of a blocked extra point after UConn's final touchdown.) UCF forced a three-and-out on the ensuing possession and got the ball back with 2:33 on the clock.

But an 18-yard gain on 3rd-and-5 at the UConn 38-yard line was wiped away by offensive pass interference, forcing UCF into 3rd-and-20 and eventually 4th-and-16. Obi Melifonwu broke up a pass to Josh Reese to seal the upset with less than 40 seconds left to play.

Oregon State 35, Arizona State 27

When: Saturday, Nov. 15

Arizona State sauntered its way into the playoff discussion with an 8-1 start to the season. It was never the sixth-best team in the country, but it did enter this game No. 6 in the CFP rankings.

Oregon State, however, is good for one big upset in Corvallis each season. And Nov. 15 was its night. The Beavers outgained ASU by more than 130 yards and scored a major upset despite converting just one of 12 third downs.

Quarterback Sean Mannion rebounded from a poor first half to play his best two quarters of the season on a big stage. Arizona State came out hellbent on pressuring Mannion, which was successful for a bit but then backfired. According to ESPN Stats & Info, the Sun Devils blitzed on 23 of Mannion's 35 dropbacks. 

Here were his splits by half:

	First Half	Second Half
CMP-ATT	2-11	7-10
Yards Per Play	-0.3	14.9
TD-INT	0-2	2-0

Oregon State took the lead on a 67-yard pass from Mannion to Jordan Villamin on a 3rd-and-8 in the middle of the fourth quarter. After both teams punted once, Arizona State got the ball back on its own 15-yard line trailing 28-27 with 2:52 left to play.

The Sun Devils manufactured a first down, but star receiver Jaelen Strong was nicked up and had to leave the game. Taylor Kelly promptly threw a pick-six to Michael Doctor that sealed the outcome.

Corvallis magic, baby.

There really isn't anything like it.