College Football Upset Alert 2021: Championship Week edition

10. No. 19 San Diego State (-6 vs. Utah State)

Of all the games this week, this is the upset that would shock me.

Utah State has had a great season. They were a popular pick to finish last (or second to last) in the Mountain West and surprised everyone with a nine-win season. San Diego State has been one of the most consistent teams in the country, lead by their stifling defense which is among the tops in the nation. The Aztecs aren’t great on offense, but they rarely turn the ball over and rank 21st in the nation in time of possession.

San Diego State’s elite run defense will make the Utah State offense one-dimensional which is bad news against a defense like the Aztecs. The X-factor is San Diego State quarterback Jordon Brookshire, who lead the Aztecs to a comeback win against Boise State last week.

9. App State (-3 vs. No. 24 Louisiana)

App State has played much better late in the season, but I just can’t get that 41-13 disaster from Oct. 12 out of my head. App State played just as bad as Louisiana did well. It was a Wednesday night where weird things do happen, but the Mountaineers turned it over three times and struggles to even hit 200 yards of offense.

And takeaways are a huge part of Louisiana’s success.

I was really impressed with their road trip against Liberty, where a lot of people had written off the Cajuns. All they did was force six turnovers: three interceptions and three fumble recoveries. That’s part of the ten turnovers the Cajuns have forced over their final three games.

In other words: the defense has heated up at the right time. Now you have a red hot defense that’s confident because they don’t think — they know — they can take it to App State? The Mountaineers could be in for a long day.