College Football Rewind: 5 most important games from 2008 season

5. Iowa 24, (3) Penn State 23

One of the forgotten storylines of 2008 was that Penn State was undefeated and ranked third in the polls heading into November and the Nittany Lions had their eyes set on the Big Ten championship and a possible national championship berth.

But first, they had to take a trip to Iowa to take on the Hawkeyes and every college football fan knows how hard it is to get a victory at Kinnick Stadium.

Iowa had a very stingy defense and a powerful running game led by Shonn Greene and the Hawkeyes had the weather on their side. Penn State took a 23-21 lead late in the game but Iowa would drive down to get in field goal range to secure the 24-23 upset victory and therefore knock Penn State out of the national championship race.

This game would rank higher, but I actually think that there is a chance that Penn State gets jumped by Oklahoma at season’s end because of how dominant the Sooners were and the Nittany Lions were skating by against some weak competition.

Nonetheless, this was a huge missed opportunity for the Nittany Lions to make some national noise and play on the biggest stage.