We have an early favorite for this year's category of Most Fun College Football Upset. Michigan State may not have been ranked, but they were big favorites over in-state opponent Central Michigan. And the CMU Chippewas escaped East Lansing with a 29-27 victory thanks to a last-second field goal.
Even if you missed the first 59 minutes, all the goofy action pretty much occurred after that:
• Down 27-20, Chips quarterback Dan LeFevour found Paris Cotton for the touchdown, but with 32 seconds left, they went for two and failed. The game appeared fini.
• The onside kick, however, was recovered by CMU wide receiver Bryan Anderson (whose touchdown catch earlier in the game nullified by his offensive pass interference). Two timeouts and 32 seconds was enough to get into modest field goal range.
• With eight seconds left on the ticker, senior placekicker Andrew Aguila had a 47-yard opportunity and shanked it.
• But! Michigan State was offsides on the kick, and Aguila was given a Get Out of The Doghouse Free Card, plus five yards.
• In what seemed like three hours after the previous play, Aguila's kick hugged the inside of the left post for three points and the inevitable lead.
• And as inconsequential as it was, Aguila's kickoff with three seconds left beaned a Michigan State special teams player right in front of him, and CMU recovered. If nothing else symbolized the lucky breaks that the Chippewas took advantage of, perhaps head coach Butch Jones found a parking space right in front of Spartan Stadium.
It feels good to yell at the TV again. Must be football season.
Article comments
1 - R.P.M.
I think Houston and BYU rank right up there too. I saw Central Michigan play Georgia last year and they got smashed. Sadly, there is a longstanding tradition and delusion at MSU that they are or belong in Top tier. The Big Ten has been soft since the early 90's and MSU will hire and fire a coach and then pin their hopes on glory from 1966 or whenever it was that they tied Notre Dame for the National Championship. Until they start recruiting outside of Michigan they have no chance in the Big Ten or even against teams like Central Michigan.
Ohio State played well against USC, I will give them that, but their first game, was it Toledo? They should have lost. The media loves USC b/c that is where a lot of the "media" is located. I think the closeness of that game shows more how mediocre USC is rather than how good Ohio State is, time will tell :).
Nice report.
R.P.M.