- Georgia (+3.5) defeated Clemson in a defensive standoff.
- Penn State (+5.5) took the dub over Wisconsin and overcame their set odds to do so.
- UCLA (+3.5) made Ed Orgeron of LSU eat his words as they dominated the trenches en route to a win.
LAS VEGAS - With the return of college football, there were plenty of high-powered games to watch during the long weekend.
However, the return of college football means the return of upsets including betting upsets, and here are the top three upsets of the first week of 2021’s college football season - games where underdogs not only covered the spread but won the game.
Georgia (+3.5) Defeats Clemson, 7-3
The Georgia Bulldogs put on a performance for the ages against the Clemson Tigers, who seem fairly far removed from the team they’ve been the past few years.
The Tigers were unable to protect quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei, as he was sacked seven times and the Clemson offense was responsible for all of Georgia’s points, as a pick-six ended up being the only touchdown of the game.
This is to take nothing away from Clemson’s defensive unit, which has been stellar under Brent Venables and continued to be during this game.
The under obviously hit as well but online gamblers should be wary of expecting this kind of offensive performance out of both teams going forward.
It’s highly likely that both teams just played against the best defense they’ll see all year, and they could be more functional on offense than this game indicated.
Penn State (+5.5) Defeats Wisconsin, 16-10
This was an absolute barn-burner of a game if you happened to be a huge fan of red zone ineptitude.
Wisconsin saw star running back Mo Ibrahim go down for the season partway through this game and were only able to put 10 points on the board as their red zone execution throughout the game was putrid.
The Badgers ended up with two red zone turnovers to their name, along with one blocked field goal attempt. Any of those plays going the other way could have swung the game in a different directions for fans and sports bettors.
Penn State did just enough to win the game, which they seem to manage to accomplish fairly often against Wisconsin.
This victory means that the Nittany Lions will now have won seven of the last eight meetings against Wisconsin.
UCLA (+3.5) Defeats LSU, 38-27
LSU head coach Ed Orgeron had words for a UCLA heckler at the Rose Bowl on Saturday night that was later tweeted.
"Bring your a** on, in your sissy blue shirt!"
As it turned out, they were some famous last words.
UCLA came to play against LSU, and it felt like the Tigers did not expect this level of resistance from an unranked team.
By the end of the game, they looked ground down, with players like Derek Stingley missing tackles in the fourth quarter.
UCLA RB Zach Charbonnet had his second straight 100-yard game, which is made all the more impressive by his limited usage.
UCLA’s defensive line held up well against the rushing attack of LSU, allowing only 48 yards on the ground, and Orgeron called out the rushing differential in his post-game presser.
“I felt good about this football team going in. But you look and we had like 50 yards rushing and they had 200-something yards rushing," Orgeron said after the game.
Nothing sissy about that.