Looking back at the chaos of the 2007 college football season

Week 14: November 29-December 1, 2007

Ohio State entered the last weekend of the regular season at No. 3 in the BCS standings. The Buckeyes had already sealed up the Big Ten title after knocking off Michigan the week before Thanksgiving. All Jim Tressel’s team could do is wait and see if either of the teams would fall ahead of them. With only one loss against a top-15 Illinois team on their record, the Buckeyes looked like the surest bet to climb back into a top-two spot if either Missouri or West Virginia lost.

As a result, the Buckeyes had the easiest start to their December of any contender. Another wave of upsets left everything in disarray yet again entering the final month of the year. Week 14 offered a mix of conference championship games and league title races going down to the wire.

For the second straight week in a row, and the third time over the course of the season, the top two teams in the rankings fell on the same weekend. Along with Ohio State, other familiar names reemerged in the battle to nab one of the two coveted spots in the BCS Championship Game.

Big 12 Championship Game

Back in Week 7, No. 1 Missouri suffered its only loss of the season against Oklahoma. The Sooners went on to win the Big 12 South. Up to No. 9 in the BCS standings, Oklahoma faced the top-ranked Tigers in San Antonio in a rematch for the conference title.

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Sam Bradford, healthy again after injuries derailed part of his season, threw for 206 yards and two touchdowns. Allen Patrick and Chris Brown combined to rush for 159 yards and three scores between them. The Sooners defense picked off Chase Daniel twice, and Bob Stoops won his fifth Big 12 title in nine seasons on the job in Norman.

Oklahoma ended the regular season at 11-2. One loss came against Texas Tech in Lubbock, which finished the regular season at 8-4 after taking down the Sooners. The latter came in Boulder against 6-6 Colorado.

Big East Title Race

West Virginia sat at No. 2 heading into the final weekend of the regular season. At least a share of the Big East title had already been sealed up by the Mountaineers. All they needed to do to win the league and a spot in the BCS Championship Game was knock off their rival for the third straight year.

But 4-7 Pittsburgh, already knowing they would not be headed to the postseason, treated the 100th edition of the Backyard Brawl like their bowl game. Mountaineers quarterback Pat White exited the game with a dislocated thumb in the second quarter, stalling West Virginia’s prolific offense. LeSean McCoy rushed for 148 tough yards to put Pitt in position for the upset. The Panthers defense did the rest, holding West Virginia to single digits for the first time in 2007.

West Virginia shared the Big East title with Connecticut after both finished 5-2 in the league standings. The head-to-head win gave the Mountaineers the advantage for the league’s BCS berth. But, coupled with the team’s loss to 9-3 South Florida, the tumble against sub-.500 Pitt was a knockout blow for Rich Rodriguez’s dreams of coaching in a national title game.

ACC and SEC Championships

Down in the southeastern part of the country, things actually went to form in both the ACC and SEC championship games. In Jacksonville, Matt Ryan threw for 305 yards but tossed two picks as No. 11 Boston College fell to No. 6 Virginia Tech 30-16. The Hokies won the school’s second ACC title despite compiling nearly 100 fewer yards of offense. Losses to LSU and Boston College took place when both teams held the No. 2 position in the polls.

In Atlanta, LSU was hovering at No. 7 in the BCS standings as they took on No. 14 Tennessee in the SEC Championship Game. With Ryan Perrilloux at quarterback, the Tigers racked up 472 yards of offense against the Volunteers. Tennessee running back Arian Foster was held to 55 yards on 21 carries, but the Volunteers still held a 14-13 lead in the fourth quarter. But an Erik Ainge interception was returned for the winning touchdown, and a two-point conversion set the final score at 21-14 LSU. The Tigers’ only two losses had come in triple overtime against Kentucky and Arkansas.

Pac-10 Finales

The spiral continued for No. 17 Oregon at home as they fell 38-31 in double overtime against rival Oregon State. Oregon blocked Alexis Serna’s 35-yard attempt with 1:09 left in regulation, and then Matt Evensen missed from 53 yards out with 26 seconds remaining. Each kicker redeemed himself with a field goal in the first overtime. Then freshman receiver James Rodgers ran the ball 25 yards on the first play of the second overtime period, and the Beavers defense stuffed Stewart on fourth and one to end the game. It was the last time Oregon State won the Civil War until taking down the Ducks in Corvallis last year.

Arizona held the Sun Devils running backs Dimitri Nance and Keegan Herring under 100 combined rushing yards in the annual Territorial Cup game. The Wildcats took the lead in the first quarter after Willie Tuitama hit Rob Gronkowski for a goal-line score. But Tuitama was also picked off twice, and Rudy Carpenter’s solid if unspectacular passing led No. 13 Arizona State to a 20-17 victory in the rivalry game. The Sun Devils reached 10 wins for the first time since 1996, but the Thanksgiving loss to USC had already knocked Arizona State out of the Pac-10 race.

The No. 8 Trojans took the conference title thanks to that tiebreaker after beating UCLA 24-7 at home. Patrick Cowan hit Dominique Johnson for a nine-yard score in the final seconds of the first half, but it wasn’t enough against their loaded rivals. The win was fueled by a committee effort in the backfield. Stafon Johson rushed for 89 yards and a score, Chauncey Washington added 66 yards and another touchdown, and Joe McKnight contributed 73 yards. USC won the Pac-10, their two losses coming against sub-.500 Stanford and Oregon before Dennis Dixon was injured.

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The BCS Buster in the Equation

Perhaps the most important game featuring a Pac-10 team was a non-conference tilt off the mainland to cap the last weekend of the regular season. Washington traveled to face No. 12 Hawaii at Aloha Stadium. It was the closest the Huskies would come to a bowl game. Tyrone Willingham’s team arrived in Honolulu with a 4-8 record, and it looked for a moment like Hawaii might finally lose a game.

Washington racked up a 21-0 lead in the first quarter on rushing touchdowns by Jake Locker and Luke Kravitz. Locker, the Huskies freshman quarterback, had a rougher time passing the ball. He finished with 142 yards and an interception in the defeat. Colt Brennan threw for exactly 300 more yards than Locker, and the Rainbow Warriors finished the regular season as the only undefeated team in the country.

But they needed a late touchdown to pull off the 35-28 victory on Brennan’s fifth touchdown pass of the game. It remained to be seen whether they would remain in a top-12 position that ensured an automatic berth in a BCS bowl game for teams from non-AQ conferences.