Virginia, East Carolina provide early upsets in college football

Oh, what a beautiful … morning?

At first glance, the early batch of Saturday games looked like a reason to sleep in, but thank goodness we set the alarm.

The action was so surprisingly compelling that even Mother Nature wanted to watch by weather-postponing the 12:30 PT start of the Georgia-South Carolina game on CBS.

A few teams definitely missed their wake-up calls.

Virginia 23, No. 21 Louisville 21: Remember that lousy, lackluster game UCLA played at Virginia to open the season? UCLA’s preseason credentials were questioned when the Bruins stumbled out of Charlottesville with a 28-20 win.

Some of us who were there thought Virginia might be better than last year’s 4-8 record suggested.

Saturday, Virginia proved it by defeating Louisville.

East Carolina 28, No. 17 Virginia Tech 21: We’ve seen this student union movie before. Last week, Virginia Tech scored a big upset win at Ohio State. Virginia Tech players returned home to hear, for a week, how great they were.

East Carolina didn’t care, jumping out to a 21-0 first-half lead. By the time Virginia Tech woke up, it was too late. The Hokies rallied to tie the game in final two minutes, but East Carolina won it in the final seconds.

Vanderbilt 34, Massachusetts 31: Could you imagine the SEC’s embarrassment of having to explain Vanderbilt losing, at home, to Temple and Massachusetts before Sept. 15?

Vanderbilt avoided an epic defeat by scoring 14, fourth-quarter points on a blocked punt return and Ralph Webb’s game-winning, four-yard run with 1:08 left.

Afterward, players ran over to the student section to sing the reworked alma mater titled “Whew!”

Bowling Green 45, Indiana 42: The Big Ten’s Misery Index continued to soar as a two-yard scoring pass from James Knapke to Roger Lewis, with nine seconds left, lifted Bowling Green to a big upset win at home.

West Virginia 40, Maryland 37: Newcomer Maryland tried valiantly to cheer up the Big Ten, but lost on Josh Lambert’s 47-yard field goal as time expired.

Somewhere, Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said: “You have got to be kidding me.”

Georgia Tech 42, Georgia Southern 38: Georgia Tech tried to give this one away, blowing all of its 35-10 halftime lead. The Yellow Jackets, though, avoided an embarrassing home loss when Justin Thomas hit Deon Hill with the game-winning touchdown pass with 23 seconds left.