10 Biggest Surprises from 1st Month of College Football

From the Clemson Tigers' ascension to the Texas A&M Aggies' fall, the first month of the 2011 college football season has provided plenty of shocks.

With so many headlines in the first few weeks, it's to time to separate the biggest and most unforeseeable. Here are the 10 things that have been most surprising to us after a month of college football.

10. Russell Wilson's Improvement with the Wisconsin Badgers

Former North Carolina State Wolfpack quarterback Russell Wilson was good last year. Good enough to earn second-team All-ACC honors.

So far this season, he's been almost perfect. His solid statistics a season ago (58.4 percent completion percentage, 28 touchdowns to 14 interceptions) are dwarfed by his 2011 numbers after just four games: 74.8 percent completion percentage, 14 touchdowns to just one interception.

After a flawless performance against the vaunted Nebraska Cornhuskers defense, Wilson is the favorite in the Heisman race. Fourteen-of-20 for 255 yards and two touchdowns is certainly nothing to sneeze at against the "Blackshirts."

9. The Struggles in Southern California

The USC Trojans and UCLA Bruins both have had disappointing starts to their seasons.

Some picked the Bruins to advance to the Pac-12 Championship Game this season with USC ineligible to do so, but UCLA followed a surprising opening loss to the Houston Cougars with a Week 3 thumping at the hands of the Texas Longhorns and this Saturday a 45-19 loss to the Stanford Cardinal.

USC may not be 2-3 like its rivals, but it started the season ranked No. 25. After barely squeaking by a weak Minnesota Golden Gophers team in the opener, the Trojans were pounded 43-22 by the Arizona State Sun Devils a week ago.

8. The Robert Griffin III Show

Despite the fact that he threw an untimely interception this Saturday against the Kansas State Wildcats, Baylor Bears quarterback Robert Griffin III has been nothing short of phenomenal this season.

Through just four games, Griffin has completed 93 of 113 passes for 1,308 yards and 18 touchdowns, with just the one interception. Coming into the Kansas State game, he had more touchdowns than incompletions.

Griffin didn't find himself on many Heisman ballots before the season, but now he is present on just about all of them, and most of the time near the top. Throwing five touchdowns in one game is impressive enough. Griffin has done it in three out of four.

7. Notre Dame's Loss to South Florida

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish have provided plenty of spectacle thus far in the 2011 college football season, with a heartbreaking last-second loss to the Michigan Wolverines, a throttling of the No. 15 Michigan State Spartans and a come-from-behind win against the Pittsburgh Panthers.

However, the biggest surprise they've provided in their wacky, roller-coaster start to the season is the opening loss to the South Florida Bulls. It's truly amazing when a team outgains its opponent two-fold (508-254 in total yards) and still manages to lose.

Notre Dame came into this season ranked No. 16, then immediately lost to an inferior opponent. Add in all those turnovers that day in the red zone, the two rain delays and Dayne Crist's starting spot being abruptly taken, and you have anything but a normal season opener for the Fighting Irish.

6. The Florida State Seminoles' Mediocrity

This is the year the Florida State Seminoles return to national prominence, right? Wrong. Despite starting the season ranked No. 6, the Seminoles now sit at 2-2 and just barely in the rankings at No. 23.

While the loss to the Clemson Tigers could be excused as a hangover from the loss to the Oklahoma Sooners and quarterback EJ Manuel's absence has been tough, the fact of the matter is the dominant Seminoles of old rarely lost one, and never let one loss become two.

Also, the defense cost them the Clemson game, not Clint Trickett. This is not a 1990s-caliber Florida State team yet.

5. The Kansas State Wildcats in the Rankings

One of the under-the-radar teams that has been making noise recently is the Kansas State Wildcats. While everyone is talking about the runs that the Clemson Tigers and LSU Tigers have had, Kansas State has had one of its own.

After traveling to beat the Miami Hurricanes (who were feeling good after their domination of the Ohio State Buckeyes) in Week 4, the Wildcats came from behind to beat Robert Griffin III and the Baylor Bears this Saturday.

Kansas State now finds itself 4-0 and ranked No. 20 after five weeks of the college football season. I don't think many people saw that one coming.

4. The Auburn Tigers' Upset of the South Carolina Gamecocks

It's really hard to figure this Auburn Tigers team out. The first week it looked terrible in a miracle comeback against the hapless Utah State Aggies. The next week it looked solid in a 41-34 victory over the No. 16 Mississippi State Bulldogs.

Then Auburn blew a 14-point lead against the Clemson Tigers, and we again thought it was awful as Mississippi State simultaneously fell out of the rankings.

But this week the Tigers earned a very impressive victory on the road against the South Carolina Gamecocks. When you hold the No. 10 team in the country to just 289 yards in its own house, you've really done something, especially if that team boasts the likes of Alshon Jeffery and Marcus Lattimore.

3. The Texas A&M Aggies' Inability to Hold a Lead

After this weekend, the Texas A&M Aggies may be well advised to move to an easier football conference like the Big East, instead of the powerhouse SEC.

Just a week after blowing a 20-3 halftime lead over the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Aggies blew a 35-17 halftime lead this weekend against their former and future conference foe, the Arkansas Razorbacks.

Texas A&M could easily be 4-0 and ranked in the top five right now, but instead it finds itself 2-2, with undoubtedly low morale. How a team could be so stellar in the first half and so pitiful in the second in two marquee games in a row is beyond me.

2. The Ease of the LSU Tigers' Victories

The LSU Tigers have been the most impressive team of the 2011 college football season thus far. While that in and of itself is not particularly surprising, the way in which the Tigers have been winning big games is.

After running away from the No. 3 Oregon Ducks 40-27 (the lead was even bigger for most of the second half) in Cowboys' Stadium in Week 1, the Tigers shut down the No. 25 Mississippi State Bulldogs 19-6 and then beat the No. 16 West Virginia Mountaineers 47-21 in Morgantown.

For those of you counting, that's one neutral-site game and two away games in hostile, cowbell-ringing, couch-burning environments against ranked teams. The Tigers won all three by a combined score of 106-54. That is quite a good start to the season.

1. The Clemson Tigers' Success

The Clemson Tigers, the perennial underachievers of the ACC, finally look ready to seize the moment and actually have a successful season. It's not just that they've beaten three straight ranked opponents; it's the manner in which they've done so.

They beat an Auburn Tigers team that just proved its worth by winning at No. 10 South Carolina. They put up 35 points and 443 yards on a Florida State Seminoles team that held the Oklahoma Sooners to just 23. And they beat the Virginia Tech Hokies in one of the toughest places to play in the country.

Clemson hasn't won an ACC title since 1991, and it's had significant disappointments in big games in recent years, namely the 2009 ACC Championship Game and 2008 opener against the Alabama Crimson Tide. But in winning these three in a row, the Tigers seemed to have turned a corner.