Washington State 42
Northern Iowa 25
Iowa State 20
These 4 teams have all been here before. The FCS teams have beaten the big boys in the past and the big boys have lost to lowly FCS competition before. Today is more surprising because of Washington State's excellent record last year. Mike Leach is still looking for an opening weekend win.
Maybe Washington State should stop scheduling FCS teams. Last year, they lost to Portland State, which had a 2.4 percent chance to win, according to FPI, this year EW was given a 2.8 percent chance to win. The Cougars have been the victims in two of the five biggest FPI-based upsets in the last five years. Against FBS competition last season, the Cougars were 9-3, with two of the losses coming by a combined eight points. Washington State was supposed to win by over 44 points.
Washington State may have needed a third quarter interception to save its chances against FCS foe Eastern Washington. Marcellus Pippens picked off an end zone fade to give the Cougars new energy, but they still trail 38-28 entering the fourth and are in danger of dropping their home opener to an FCS foe for the second straight season.
Eastern Washington beats Washington State 45-42, and the Cougars lose their opener at home to an FCS team for the second straight year. The story here was the play of Eagles' QB Gage Gubrud, who threw for 475 yards and rushed for 79 more. He accounted for six total touchdowns. Washington State won nine games last year after dropping a similar opener, but Mike Leach cannot be happy with his team's porous defensive play today.
Eastern Washington QB Gage Gubrud, who just torched Washington State to the tune of over 500 total yards and six touchdowns, was the Eagles' back-up QB and field goal holder last year. He even punted 5 times in a game against Weber State.
FCS-level Northern Iowa has beaten Iowa State six times in 28 meetings. Iowa State now has three losses to Northern Iowa since 2007. Iowa State was supposed to win by 19 points.
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