Looking back at the chaos of the 2007 college football season

Week 1: August 30-September 3, 2007

The opening week of most college football seasons feels like a long warm-up into the real heart of September. With an ever-extending calendar, games are now pushing further and further into August. But this is hardly a new trend. Given that Week 1 of the college season centers on the long Labor Day weekend, it has long been a tradition to ease into the season.

But in 2017, chaos struck in full force as soon as possible. No loss was bigger than the tumble that preseason No. 5 Michigan took against the two-time defending FCS national champion Appalachian State Mountaineers. We’ll get to that game more in a second. But let’s talk first about the craziness of the rest of the week.

The only showcase battle featuring a battle between preseason Top 25 team came when No. 15 Tennessee traveled to Berkeley to face No. 12 California. In Phillip Fulmer’s penultimate season with the Volunteers, the season began with a survivable 45-31 loss. After all, Cal boasted a backfield of Justin Forsett and Jahvid Best, DeSean Jackson at receiver, and were the higher-ranked team playing at home.

To cap the weekend, the nation watched unranked Clemson topple No. 19 Florida State on Labor Day. This was back when “Clemsoning” was still a thing. Drew Weatherford threw for just 4.2 yards per attempt on 50 percent passing, finishing with 142 yards and a touchdown. The Tigers jumped to a 24-3 lead by halftime, then held on in the second half as the Seminoles mounted a futile comeback bid that dropped them out of the AP and Coaches Polls.

Most ranked teams held serve, though. That, perhaps, is what made the first major upset that much more surprising.

The Big Upset of the Week

But those losses by ranked schools were nothing compared to what happened in Ann Arbor. Appalachian State came to the Big House in Ann Arbor and held stride with what was hypothetically a top-five Michigan team. Gamblers hadn’t even set a line on the game, despite Appalachian State’s proven staying power at the FCS level.

But the Mountaineers, led by Armanti Edwards, immediately opened the 2007 season with a bang. Edwards started immediately at quarterback as a true freshman in 2006 and piloted the Mountaineers to their second straight national title. Against the Wolverines, Edwards committed three turnovers, tossing two picks and losing a fumble.

But he also engineered four scoring drives, and Appalachian State was up 31-20 in the third quarter. Michigan came back against their lower-division opponents, taking a 32-31 lead with less than five minutes remaining. Two failed two-point conversion attempts proved fatal, though, as Edwards drove Appalachian State down the Michigan Stadium field in the closing minutes.

Tyler Rauch kicked a 24-yard field goal with 26 seconds remaining, but Michigan still had one final chance to survive. Chad Henne found Mario Manningham on a long ball for 46 yards, setting up Jason Gingell for a 37-yard field goal attempt. But Mountaineers safety Corey Lynch blocked the the kick, and the first FCS win over a top-five team was complete.

Appalachian State went on to win the FCS national championship for a third straight season. Michigan would go on to win nine games, but Lloyd Carr also became a lame-duck coach after this shocker.