College Football Rewind: 5 most important games from 2007 season

2. Stanford 24, (2) USC 23

In the year of the upset in 2007, this might be the most shocking of all and yes, I’m fully aware that Appalachian State beat Michigan at the beginning of the season.

USC came into this game as a 41-point favorite, the Trojans were riding a 35-game home winning streak, Stanford was playing with a backup quarterback and the Cardinal had been outscored 141-51 in Pac-10 play to this point in 2007.

The Trojans out-gained the Cardinal 459-235, but five turnovers would undo the Trojans. Stanford faced a 4th-and-20 near the end of the game and it looked as if USC would avoid an abject disaster and survive the upset. Backup quarterback Tavita Pritchard found Richard Sherman for a huge first down and then would throw the game-winning touchdown.

USC would later go on to lose to Oregon, but if they had survived this game, the Trojans could have shaken off a loss to the Ducks and still made the title game with how the season wound up playing out.

One of the only things that you can hold against Pete Carroll and his dynasty at USC was that he lost head-scratching games to teams that he should not have and it wound up costing him more opportunities for national championships and this was the most baffling loss of all, as Stanford would finish the season 5-7.