College Football Rankings: 10 Top 25 Teams That Need to Beware of an Upset

In the first week of the college football season, we saw both TCU and Notre Dame fall to
unranked opponents and we watched Auburn come pretty darn close to a disastrous home loss to Utah State, a middle-of-the-pack WAC team.

Now as we head into Week 2, there appears to be a lot more potential opportunities for Top 25 teams to  fall this weekend.

No. 2 Alabama is the highest ranked team that has the chance to go down but there are plenty of other teams that need to be cautious as well.

Here’s a look at 10 ranked teams that need to beware of an upset this weekend.

No. 2 Alabama Crimson Tide

Alabama will travel up to Happy Valley to face off against No. 23 Penn State this weekend, and the Tide will do so with some lingering uncertainty surrounding the quarterback position.

After playing both A.J. McCarron and Phillips Sims in last week’s easy win over Kent State, it appears that McCarron will get the start this Saturday.

McCarron will walk into a hostile environment, and it should be interesting to see how he handles leading the Alabama offense against a tough Penn State defense.

The key for Penn State will be to shut down RB Trent Richardson, who ran for 144 yards in last year’s meeting.

If McCarron struggles, and the Nittany Lions find a way to keep Richardson contained, they could have a shot at getting some revenge after last year’s 24-3 defeat.

No. 6 Stanford Cardinal

Duke?

There’s no way in the world that college football’s golden boy Andrew Luck and the Stanford Cardinal could lose to Duke, right?

While it may seem far-fetched, don’t rule it out.

Yes, Stanford has an obvious talent advantage, but we still haven’t seen new head coach David Shaw take his team on the road yet, let alone take them 2,800 miles across the country to play an afternoon game in the eastern time zone.

Don’t underestimate the effect that type of trip could have on a west coast team.

No. 9 Oklahoma State Cowboys

Arizona QB Nick Foles will be looking for redemption after struggling mightily in an Alamo Bowl loss to the Cowboys last season.

Foles, now a senior, is one of the top quarterbacks in the country and even though he'll be without his top receiver Juron Criner, he has what it takes to go toe-to-toe with Oklahoma State’s deadly passing combination of Brandon Weeden and Justin Blackmon.

This game should be much closer than last season’s 36-10 romp.

No. 11 Virginia Tech Hokies

Virginia Tech and East Carolina have met in each of the past four seasons, and the Hokies have won three of those contests, with the only loss coming in 2008.

This year, Frank Beamer will take his team to Greenville, as they try to stop QB Dominique Davis and the powerful Pirates offense.

QB Logan Thomas and RB David Wilson both looked strong in their starting debuts against Appalachian State last week and the two should be able to put up big numbers against a shaky East Carolina defense.

The only thing Virginia Tech could have problems with is stopping East Carolina’s passing attack, which is led by Davis and top receiver Lance Lewis.

No. 12 South Carolina Gamecocks

In hindsight, maybe Steve Spurrier’s decision to start Connor Shaw was actually the right move.

Sure, South Carolina’s offense looked lifeless under Shaw and the team fell behind East Carolina 17-0 on Saturday night, but Stephen Garcia was obviously motivated by the demotion, as he came in and led the Gamecocks back to a 56-37 victory.

Now that Garcia has his job back, he’ll lead South Carolina into Athens for a crucial contest against SEC East foe Georgia on Saturday.

This could be a make or break game for the Bulldogs, because falling to 0-2 on the season and failing to beat the division favorite would be a major blow to their hopes of making it to Atlanta.

I expect Georgia to either come out really hungry or really lifeless, and if it turns out to be the former, the Gamecocks could have their hands full between the hedges.

No. 15 Ohio State Buckeyes

Luke Fickell’s team looked solid in the coach’s debut against Akron, one of the worst teams in the FBS, but this week, the competition will be a step up when Toledo, the top team in the MAC, rolls into town.

The last time these two schools played in 2009, Ohio State shut out the Rockets 38-0, but this game has a chance to be much closer.

Toledo is an experienced squad that returns 18 starters from last year’s team and the Rockets looked impressive in their 58-22 victory over New Hampshire in Week 1.

The offense is built around a dangerous core of three weapons - QB Austin Dantin, RB Adonis Thomas and WR Eric Page.

All three players could give the Ohio State defense some headaches.

Toledo may go into the game as 19-point underdogs, but remember, this is a team that pulled off a big upset at Michigan back in 2008, so the Buckeyes better not look past them.

No. 16 Mississippi State Bulldogs

Well, the good news for Auburn is, things can’t get much worse.

After avoiding a total disaster by narrowly beating Utah State in their home opener, the Tigers are luckily 1-0 and still have some semblance of their dignity left. 

This is obviously not the same team that won the national championship, though.

Not even close.

Auburn is young and inexperienced in all the wrong places - quarterback, offensive line and defense - and the Tigers will need to play hungrier from here on out.

Efforts like last week’s won’t cut it in the SEC West this year, but that near implosion might have actually woken the Tigers up from their championship hangover.

Auburn still has some dangerous pieces like running backs Michael Dyer and Onterio McCalebb, and it won’t be easy for Mississippi State to go into Jordan-Hare Stadium and waltz around the field like Utah State did last week.

QB Chris Relf and RB Vick Ballard are one of the most dangerous backfield tandems in the country, but if they struggle early, Auburn could capitalize.

No. 22 Missouri Tigers

This week, Missouri will head out to the desert for a Friday night showdown with Arizona State, and the Tigers are hoping that they don’t get caught up in the black hole that is set to engulf Sun Devils Stadium

This will be the first road game for new starting QB James Franklin, who looked solid but not spectacular in his first start against Miami (Ohio) last week.

Franklin better watch out for the swarming Arizona State defense, led by ferocious LB Vontaze Burfict.

The Sun Devils will break out their all-black uniforms for this one and you better believe that they’ll be pumped and ready to make a big statement to a national audience.

No. 24 Texas Longhorns

BYU’s first game as an independent certainly wasn’t perfect, but coach Bronco Mendenhall has to be pleased with coming away victorious over Mississippi on the road to start the season.

Mendenhall will take his team back on the road again this week, this time, the Cougars will head down to Austin for a big battle with Texas.

The last time BYU faced off against a Big 12 team in the Lone Star State, the Cougars beat then No. 1 ranked Oklahoma in the first game of the 2009 season at Cowboys Stadium.

Sophomore QB Jake Heaps will try to write some of his own history, but he’ll have to deal with a menacing Texas defensive front seven that will be coming after him all game long.

After last year’s disastrous 5-7 campaign, Texas can’t afford a loss to a school like BYU this early in the season, so there’s going to be a lot of pressure on coach Mack Brown and QB Garrett Gilbert to make sure the Longhorns get the job done.

No. 25 TCU Horned Frogs

Could TCU really start off the year 0-2?

It’s actually not as crazy as it sounds.

The Horned Frogs are still licking their wounds after getting lit up for 50 points by Robert Griffin III, Kendall Wright and the rest of the Baylor Bears last Friday.

Now coach Gary Patterson will have to try his hardest to get his team regrouped and refocused to go up against QB Tim Jefferson and the unorthodox Air Force offensive attack this weekend.

The Falcons piled up 391 yards on the ground in their opening win over South Dakota, so the TCU defense will have to do a complete 180 after facing Baylor’s aerial arsenal last week.

Jefferson and RB Asher Clark are a dangerous rushing duo, and TCU’s linebackers Tanner Brock and Tank Carder will have their hands full, trying to slow them down.