Postgame Tailgating: Week Five

After Friday night's 21-13 win over fifth-ranked West Virginia, USF players and fans celebrated the biggest win in their school's history...

And BR writer Leon Wynn was overjoyed that his decision to rank USF at No. 13 had turned out to be accurate.

For now. 

Not only were the Bulls giddy about the upset—they were also uber-pumped about staying undefeated and climbing atop the Big East standings. 

Needless to say, the USF faithful were confident that they'd just pulled off the biggest win of this young college football season.  

And since their win came on Friday, they'd get to sit back on Saturday and watch the TV personalities rave over their accomplishments. 

Right?

[womp womp]

Sorry...

While USF's win was monumental, it was merely a precursor to an onslaught of upsets.

I hate the word "upset," but there's no other way to describe what went down. It was that crazy. 

Crazy like that time your buddy decided to attempt to eat a whole jar of peppers...and actually did it.

To wit:

#3 Oklahoma fell to Colorado, 24-27.

#4 Florida fell to Auburn, 17-20.

#5 West Virginia fell to USF, 13-21.

#7 Texas fell to Kansas State, 21-41.

#10 Rutgers fell to Maryland, 24-34.

#11 Oregon fell to Cal, 24-31.

#13 Clemson fell to Georgia Tech, 3-13.

It's all right, you can take a second to relax.  I'm excited, too.  We all need to just breathe.

Breathe...

Okay, now that we're all composed, let's look at just who pulled these so-called "upsets".

With the exception of Cal, all the winners here had been overlooked and underappreciated.  

South Florida got a lot of love after their overtime victory against Auburn three weeks ago, but critics had their doubts about the Bulls. After Auburn's loss to Mississippi State, some (including myself) were ready to dismiss the USF "upset" as nothing more than a victory over an overrated team.

I'll admit it— I was wrong. 

Speaking of Auburn—where do the 3-2 Tigers stand after this weekend? 

Neither of their pre-Florida wins was particularly impressive. They were only up 21-20 at the half against New Mexico State before pulling away, and they seemed to struggle with Kansas State in their opener.

But maybe that wasn't such a bad thing. 

After Kansas State handed Texas their worst loss under Mac Brown, Auburn's win over the Wildcats isn't looking so shabby after all. 

People may forget that K-State is now 3-1. Ron Prince has his KSU squad looking mighty fine—almost like that one girl in high school who somehow became hot over a single summer. 

The 'Cats have played well against both Auburn and Texas, and are now heading into the meat of their Big 12 schedule. 

Auburn's win over the Gators speaks well for K-State's chances. 

What about Georgia Tech?  I would classify them as the "Auburn" of the ACC, at least for this weekend. 

Like Auburn, Tech was 2-2 with somewhat mediocre wins. 

The Notre Dame win in Week One was big...way back then. Now we know that the Yellow Jackets may as well have been playing  a juco squad.

Tech's other win was just as meaningless, if not more so.  A 69-14 win over FCS opponent Samford doesn't exactly scream "powerhouse". 

Subsequent losses to Boston College and Virginia had many pollsters, as well as the general public, ready to write off the Jackets. You probably could've seen Auburn fans and Tech fans weeping on each other's shoulders. 

My how things change. 

Next up is Maryland.  Like the Tigers and the Jackets, the Terps were 2-2 heading into the weekend.  Their two wins came in their first two games of the season against the unimpressive likes of Villanova and Florida International. 

While no one blames Maryland for losing to West Virginia, last week's loss to Wake Forest threw the Terps into the same boat as Auburn and Georgia Tech—they were the forgettable losers. 

I have to admit that I didn't expect much from a squad who surrendered a 24-point lead heading into the final 15 minutes of play last week against Wake. 

You have to give it to Maryland, though—they regrouped, went up to Piscataway, and beat a 10th-ranked Rutgers squad by playing smashmouth football.

The Terps handed the ball off over 50 times and never coughed it up. On defense, they forced three turnovers.

Now, that's how you beat a top-10 team.

Or, you could just come back from 17 points down and kick a field goal at the last second to send your school into an absolute frenzy.

Like Colorado. 

The Buffs upset an Oklahoma squad that had been as dominant Hulk Hogan in his prime. Coming into the weekend, Colorado was 2-2, with a last-second field goal against Colorado State and a win over Miami (OH) as the only highlights of the season.

How'd they snap out of their funk?

Maybe they finally realized that they were playing, in the words of coach Dan Hawkins, "DIVISION ONE FOOTBALL!"

Man, that never gets old.   

To their credit, the 'Buffs lost to Arizona State and Florida State—two quality teams. And CU's win this weekend was definitely well-earned—the 'Buffs were down 24-7 at one point before coming back.

Mad props to kicker Kevin Eberhart—two of Colorado's three wins have come by way of his game-winning field goals.

The final tally for the weekend:

Seven losses among the top 13 teams; two last-second, game-winning field goals (AU and CU); one last-minute fumble-turned touchback (Oregon); one rivalry game ruined (OU-UT); one coming-of-age story (USF); and several conference shakeups

A pretty good slate of action, all in all..and maybe the beginnings of lyrics for a cover version of "The 12 Days of Christmas." 

So, too bad for the USF Bulls—they have to share some of that spotlight they were hoping for.  Maybe now they'll have a little extra motivation to keep winning the big ballgames. 

And at least they still have that whole "being ranked" thing still still going for them.

USF photo (AP Photo/ Rick Runyon), KSU photo (AP Photo/ Eric Gay), GT photo (AP Photo/ John Bazemore), CU photo (AP Photo/ Jack Dempsey)