Life comes at you quickly in college football.
In Week 1, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish were the center of attention around town. Marcus Freeman's team traveled to College Station, Texas, and earned a prime-time road win against the Texas A&M Aggies. The Irish were hailed as playoff favorites.
A week later, Notre Dame's fortunes could not have been more reversed. The Northern Illinois Huskies came to South Bend, Indiana, and defeated the fifth-ranked Irish.
The Huskies' big road win wasn't the first upset of the season, but it was certainly the biggest. We're keeping track of all the biggest upsets of the 2024 college football season throughout the fall.
September 7: Northern Illinois 16 – Notre Dame 14
The Huskies' defense won the day at Notre Dame Stadium. Notre Dame was limited to just 286 yards of total offense when Northern Illinois finally scored the decisive field goal late in the fourth quarter.
The win was the Huskies' first in program history against a top-10 opponent. NIU had gone 0-14 in all of its previous attempts, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
August 24: Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 24 – Florida State Seminoles 21
College football is back with a vengeance, as the Yellow Jackets pulled off an immediate upset in Dublin, Ireland. Florida State began the 2024 season ranked No. 10 in the AP poll but couldn't find any momentum after an undefeated regular season in 2023.
The contest came down to the leg of Georgia Tech kicker Aidan Birr. The redshirt sophomore kept his cool and drilled the game-winning field goal between the uprights as the clock ticked down to zero.
Ice in her veins š§#Picalos š image.twitter.com/ppAs6EWbjq
ā Georgia Tech Football (@GeorgiaTechFB) August 24, 2024