The 2008 college football season welcomed its first Cinderella team as No. 8 West Virginia called the Pirates’ den of East Carolina and the Pirates defeated the Mountaineers easily, 24-3, controlling both sides. of the line and registering his 3rd. consecutive win over a ranked team in their last 3 games.

East Carolina defeated No. 24 ranked Boise State 41-38 in last year’s Hawaii Bowl. The Pirates opened this season by defeating then-ranked No. 17 Virginia Tech 27-22. Skip Holtz, the coach of East Carolina, is the son of the legendary Lou Holtz, who is now a sportscaster. Skip Holtz has officially started building his own legacy.

Last season there were enough Cinderella teams to play musical chairs. Missouri moved up to number 1, Oregon moved up to number 2, Boston College moved up to number 2, South Florida moved up to number 2, Kansas moved up to number 2, and Arizona State moved up to number 6. None of them were in the Top 25 in the poll after the first week of play.

Some pundits said East Carolina had the surprise in the bag after leading 17-3 at the half. Pirates quarterback Patrick Pinkney was 22 of 28 for 236 yards and a touchdown, while running back Jonathan Williams scored twice on the ground. East Carolina had 386 yards of offense to the Mountaineers’ 251; the defense held West Virginia to one field goal.

The victory propelled East Carolina to No. 14 this week in the AP Top 25 Poll. No. 24 California also entered the Poll this week as UCLA and South Carolina exited.

The Gamecocks did the unthinkable, losing their second straight game 24-17 to Vanderbilt. The win was Vanderbilt’s first home win over a ranked team in 16 years.

Adding insult to injury, last season Vanderbilt traveled to South Carolina and defeated the Gamecocks 17-6. South Carolina was ranked #6 when Vanderbilt came to town. Two weeks later, South Carolina wasn’t even in the Top 25 Poll, that’s what an unexpected loss can do to a higher-ranked team. Life is not looking up for South Carolina this week as it hosts No. 2 Georgia.

The upsets of West Virginia and South Carolina were the only two misses among the top-ranked teams.

Business as usual was the byword for the first week of the season and continued this week when the other 19 of the 21 teams that competed won.

They included No. 2 Georgia 56-17 over Central Michigan, No. 3 Ohio State 26-14 over in-state Ohio, No. 4 Oklahoma 52-26 over Cincinnati, No. 5 Florida 26-3 over Miami ( FL), No. 6 Missouri 52-3 over in-state rival 1-AA SE Missouri, No. 9 Auburn 27-13 over Southern Mississippi, No. 10 Texas 42-13 over UTEP at No. 11 UTEP Wisconsin 51-14 over Marshall, No. 12 Texas Tech 35-19 over Nevada in Nevada, and No. 13 Alabama 20-6 over Tulane.

No. 14 Kansas 29-0 over Louisiana Tech, No. 15 Arizona State 41-17 over Stanford, No. 15 Brigham Young 28-27 over Washington in Washington, No. 17 South Florida 31-24 in overtime over Central Florida in Central Florida, No. 18 Oregon 66-24 over Utah State, No. 19 Penn State 45-14 over Oregon State, No. 20 Wake Forest 30-28 over Mississippi, No. 22 Utah 42-21 over UNLV and No. 24 Illinois 47-21 over in-state rival 1-AA East Illinois.

Four of the winners — Ohio State, Brigham Young, South Florida and Wake Forest — weren’t impressive but remained on the AP A 25.

No. 1 Southern California, No. 21 Fresno State and No. 23 UCLA (since dropping out of the AP poll) did not play this week, and No. 7 Louisiana State’s game with Troy was postponed due to the threat of a hurricane.

Eight other unranked teams declared victories. They included California 66-3 over Washington State (moving the Bears into the AP Poll at No. 23), Florida State 69-0 over 1-AA Western Carolina, Iowa 42-0 over Florida International, Arkansas State 83- 10 over 1-AA Texas Southern, TCU 67-7 over 1-AA Stephen F. Austin, Kansas State 69-10 over 1-AA Montana State, Baylor 51-6 over 1-AA Northwest State and Indiana 45- 3 out of 1-AA Murray State.

The winner of Apologize While I Limp week was Connecticut, outscoring Temple 12-9 in overtime.

Following the new AP Top 25 poll released Sunday (7-9-08), key matchups set to spark this week include No. 5 Ohio State traveling to No. 1 Southern California, No. 10 Wisconsin traveling to No. 21 Fresno State, No. 13 Kansas traveling to No. 19 South Florida, and No. 18 Brigham Young hosting former No. 23 UCLA, who was inactive over the weekend.

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley