Although this past Saturday’s college football games looked boring on paper, offering no matchups between top-25 teams, the second week of the 2008 college football season provided a ton of excitement for NCAA fans. 

Number 8 West Virginia and #24 South Carolina lost to unranked teams, East Carolina earned the #14 spot in the AP Poll, and an idle USC retained their #1 rank in both polls while awaiting their huge game against Ohio State this weekend.
 
The top ten in the AP and USA Today polls are identical, with Georgia, Oklahoma, Florida, and Ohio State rounding out the top five.  Ohio State fell two places because of their struggles against in-state opponent Ohio, needing a come-from-behind win to preserve any hopes of returning to the title game for a third consecutive season.  Freshman standout quarterback Terrelle Pryor looked great in limited playing time, sealing the win with a few first-down scrambles, and there is a ton of speculation about how much playing time the top high school recruit will get in next week’s marquee matchup in California.  If Heisman hopeful Beanie Wells is not at 100%, Jim Tressel and the Buckeyes could use Pryor’s speed in the backfield.

Number 11 Wisconsin had an early scare, down 14-0 to unranked Marshall, before coming back and winning handily. After their smackdown of Clemson in week one, Alabama’s defense shut down Tulane 20-6.  Tulane had a much better Sunday, though, with alum Matt Forte running all over the Indianapolis Colts’ defense for over 120 yards and a score in the Bears road victory.

Perhaps the best - and most controversial - game of the weekend was BYU / Washington.  0-1 Washington scored a touchdown with two seconds left on the clock to presumably tie the game against #15 BYU; however, quarterback Jake Locker was flagged for an excessive celebration penalty, backing up Washington 15 yards on the extra point try, which ended up being blocked, and BYU held on for a 28-27 win.

Stay tuned for next week’s article, with a recap of what should be another awesome week of college football!