Another week of upsets

It was another weekend of upsets in college football this past weekend, one of the big ones coming in the Pac-10. Following Kentucky’s triple-overtime upset of No. 1 LSU, the No. 2 Cal Bears had an epic clock-management blunder that gave the game to the visiting Oregon State Beavers.

With 8:30 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Beaver’s kicked a field goal to go up 31-21 over the Bears, who were being led by first-time starter Kevin Riley. After throwing for a 65-yard touchdown pass and holding Oregon State to three-and-out, the Bears drove down the field to the Beaver’s 12-yard line with 14 seconds remaining.

Instead of kicking the easy field goal to force overtime, Coach Jeff Tedford sent the team out to take another shot at the end zone. As analyst Kirk Herbstreit noted on ESPN’s College Game Day, it seemed like the Bears were getting a little greedy.

On their last play, as the pocket collapsed, Riley scrambled and decided to run for the first down, which would have stopped the clock, allowing the team to get the field goal unit out. But Riley was tackled short of the marker, time ran out and Saturday became the first time that the No. 1 and No. 2 team lost on the same day since the mid-90s. It’s simply another footnote in what has become the craziest college football season I’ve ever seen.