Week 7 of the college football season finally delivered with a marquee upset of one of the nation’s top College Football Playoff contenders in Athens.
It was difficult to hear the news from the score updates about South Carolina’s visit to Sanford Stadium. The Gamecocks (a three-touchdown underdog) held a 17-10 lead late in the game against No. 3-ranked Georgia, and after the Bulldogs marched down the field to tie it up, the game ended up heading to extra time.
Oh, brother, thought the nation collectively. Surely, Georgia would grind out a the victory in front of its home crowd. Surely, the unranked Gamecocks (who have three losses this season) would succumb to mighty Kirby Smart and the team that some argued should have made the College Football Playoff after a tight loss to Alabama in the SEC title game last year. Surely, Georgia would get lucky and escape in a game in which they had largely been outplayed.
But the college football deities smiled upon us on Saturday afternoon.
A dramatic sequence of events ensued in the first overtime period, as star quarterback Jake Fromm threw one of his three interceptions off a tipped pass — only to be followed by a missed field goal by South Carolina. South Carolina converted on a fourth down play and ended up settling for a short field goal. Georgia didn’t do much with its second possession of the overtime, and its own field goal attempt barely missed the right upright.
Gamecocks 20, Bulldogs 17.
While the loss doesn’t automatically end Georgia’s national championship hopes, it certainly makes things a good deal more difficult for the Bulldogs. They’ll still need to win the SEC East Division, most likely, and they’ll need the right sequence of events to take place with the league’s other top teams (Alabama, LSU, and Auburn).
Here are the rest of Week 7’s upsets, ranked.