College Football 2021: Ranking the top upsets from Week 1

3. Northern Illinois takes down Georgia Tech

Northern Illinois did not have a good season last year, losing all six of its games. However, the Huskies came into the 2021 season with higher expectations, a new starting quarterback, and confidence.

Georgia Tech didn’t have as many wins that they had hoped for last season but they showed flashes of improvement and playing at home against Northern Illinois to open the year was supposed to result in a victory for the Yellow Jackets.

Michigan State transfer Rocky Lombardi and freshman running back Harrison Waylee would end up playing well and leading the Huskies to a big upset victory, however. To be fair to Georgia Tech, starting quarterback Jeff Sims suffered an injury early in the game and even though backup quarterback Jordan Yates came in to lead the Yellow Jackets to three unanswered touchdowns, it wasn’t enough to guarantee a victory.

Lombardi led the Huskies to a late fourth-quarter touchdown and Northern Illinois decided to go for a two and the win. The gamble paid off as Lombardi completed a pass to Tyrice Richie to put the Huskies up by one with 38 seconds left. A last-ditch field goal by Georgia Tech was blocked and Northern Illinois pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the week.

2. ETSU stuns Vanderbilt

No one is saying that Vanderbilt is a powerhouse program or that because it’s a member of the SEC that it should never lose to an FCS opponent. However, at home against East Tennessee State, the Commodores were expected to easily beat the Buccaneers.

East Tennessee is a good FCS program, having won four of its six games last season and its two defeats were by single digits. The Commodores lost all nine of their games last season but they lost on the road to No. 10 ranked Texas A&M by only five points, were defeated by Kentucky on the road by only three points, and lost by single digits to Mississippi State on the road.

Head coach Clark Lea is in his first year as the head coach of the Commodores and he did not expect this result in Week 1. He had success as the defensive coordinator at Notre Dame but he and his team did not play well against the FCS opponent that they faced at home after the first quarter.

Many college football fans were not shocked but surprised that even though Vanderbilt is more than likely will be the worst team in the SEC this season — it was expected to defeat ETSU.

Give credit to the Buccaneers as they not only won but they defeated an in-state SEC opponent by 20 points which is not an easy task.

1. Montana shocks Washington

No one outside the state of Montana saw the possibility of the Grizzlies from the Big Sky going on the road and defeating No. 20 ranked Washington from the Pac-12. Granted the Big Sky had teams from their conference with huge wins in Week 1. However, Montana defeating Washington was a historic win and an FCS team going on the road and defeating a ranked FBS is very rare.

The Grizzlies’ defense played spectacularly, forcing three interceptions and limiting Washington to only 53 total rushing yards. The Huskies had a 7-3 lead heading into the fourth quarter before Montana’s Camron Humphrey ran four yards for a touchdown to give the Grizzlies the lead. Then Montana kicker Kevin Macias made a 22-yarder which was his second field goal of the game to give the Grizzlies a 13-7 lead late in the fourth quarter.

Washington’s offense, which struggled all game, failed to answer with a touchdown, resulting in the most shocking upset in Week 1 play.

Week 2 may bring more upsets but Week 1 was filled with more shockers than many college football fans could have imagined prior to the start of the week. Some conferences played well and some, well, not so much but it is a long season of football still ahead of us and much more is still to come.