Looking back at the chaos of the 2007 college football season

Week 13: November 20-24, 2007

Thanksgiving weekend officially started on Tuesday night with Troy’s 45-7 win over Middle Tennessee. But the real start of the weekend’s bounty came on Thanksgiving night as No. 6 USC visited No. 11 Arizona State. The Trojans recovered from their losses to Stanford and Oregon to climb back up into BCS contention. John David Booty threw for 375 yards and four touchdowns in a 44-24 win. The loss knocked the Sun Devils out of a chance at the Pac-10 title.

It was a fairly straightforward prelude that delayed for a day the chaos after Thanksgiving.

Black Friday

Friday offered a slate of rivalry games and high-ranked contests. The biggest upset of the week came as Arkansas toppled No. 1 LSU in Baton Rouge. LSU had recovered from its earlier triple-overtime loss at Kentucky to return to the top spot in the BCS rankings. All they needed to do was win at home against the Razorbacks and then in the SEC championship game for a clear path to the title game. They were already guaranteed to play in the latter. Winning the former, however, proved more challenging.

Darren McFadden rushed for 206 yards and three scores to power the Razorbacks to a stunning road win. Peyton Hillis chipped in another 89 yards and two touchdowns in the upset at Tiger Stadium. LSU needed a last-minute touchdown in regulation just to force overtime. Then, after matching scores in the first two overtime periods, Arkansas converted its two-point attempt in triple overtime. The Tigers matched the Razorbacks touchdown but could not convert their two-point try. The 50-48 loss dropped to seventh in the BCS standings before the SEC championship game.

With an outside shot of inching into one of the BCS-affiliated bowls, No. 13 Texas instead fell to rival Texas A&M. The Longhorns gave up 362 passing yards and four total touchdowns to Aggies quarterback Stephen McGee. Jamaal Charles rushed for 92 yards and a touchdown, but the Texas comeback attempt ran out of time after they pulled within eight points. As a result, Mack Brown’s team tumbled to No. 20 after the 38-30 defeat.

The WAC offered a national showcase game as No. 15 Hawaii bolstered its BCS Buster claim with a 39-27 win over No. 19 Boise State. Three different Rainbow Warriors players had over 100 receiving yards as Colt Brennan finished with 495 passing yards and five touchdowns. The win pushed Hawaii up into the No. 12 spot and over the threshold to earn an automatic qualifying spot. The win sealed the WAC championship for the Rainbow Warriors, who had one more game on the schedule against 4-8 Washington to close out the regular season.

Thanksgiving Saturday

No Border War game between Missouri and Kansas ever carried quite as high stakes as the 2007 edition between the No. 2 Jayhawks and the No. 4 Tigers. Chase Daniel threw for 361 yards and three touchdowns, Tony Temple rushed for 98 yards, and Missouri prevailed on the road. Two Todd Reesing interceptions proved costly for Kansas, which lost its first game of the season as well as the Big 12 North title.

Losses to both of the top two teams opened the door for No. 3 West Virginia to take over one of the BCS championship positions. The Mountaineers responded with a 66-21 blowout of No. 20 Connecticut to go into the final weekend at 10-1. Pat White and Noel Devine each rushed for over 100 yards in the rout, and UConn was the only team to drop out of the Top 25 in Week 13.