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| Saturday, October 14 Surprising Teams By John Crowley ESPN.com | |||||
| There's a certain romance to rooting for the underdog. It's easy to align yourself with a perennial favorite and claim you've been in their corner for years. The following teams got to where they are without any support from the bandwagon. If you want to get on, you'd better hurry up. Seats are filling up fast.
1. East Carolina Say hello to the Pirates, this season's Tulane -- a talented club from a second-tier conference that rightly earns a place as a fan favorite. At the season's outset, ECU could have been considered a dark-horse in the conference race, but not a candidate for a secure spot in the top 25. Today, the Pirates are thinking about much more than the Liberty Bowl, which reserves a place for the Conference USA champion. Coach Steve Logan's team is a scrappy, athletic and well-coached bunch that has ridden a wave of emotion (both the highs and the lows) to emerge as one of the heartwarming stories of the season. Unless, of course, you're among the five victims to date or a team with ECU remaining on its schedule. David Garrard has proved himself to be a weapon at quarterback and new defensive coordinator Tim Rose has fashioned a unit that doesn't take no for an answer.
2. Vanderbilt The Terrapins aren't exactly back to the days when they dominated the ACC under the stewardship of Bobby Ross, but football has become more than a reason to blow off the library, or a place-holder before the beginning of basketball season. Coach Ron Vanderlinden's team was 1-7 in conference play a year ago, and just 3-8 overall, but the team perenially picked as the ACC doormat is starting to think about a bowl game. At 4-2, Maryland is one win away from matching its combined victory total for the last two seasons, and an offense ranked third in the conference is a big reason why. Quarterback Calvin McCall and tailback LaMont Jordan are potent weapons and a defense that ranked sixth in the conference a year ago, averaging 361 yards allowed per game, has muscled up considerably to hold opponents to just 346 per contest (third-best in the ACC). Of the Terps' remaining five games, three and possibly four, are winnable. 4. Mississippi A loss to Alabama cost Ole Miss a place in the latest edition of the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll, but the No. 22 ranking it held entering the weekend speaks volumes about the reversal of fortunes in Oxford. First-year coach David Cutcliffe got off on the right foot by coaching the team to victory in the Independence Bowl. He opened the year with back-to-back wins, then strung together another three in a row following an overtime loss to resurgent Vanderbilt. A loss is never a popular measuring stick, but Saturday's 30-24 defeat by Alabama might just show how much improvement has taken place on a team that hasn't won a league title since 1963. That isn't likely to happen this year, but players like junior Romaro Miller throwing the ball, classmate Deuce McCallister running it, and linebacker Armegis Spearman preventing teams from doing the same, the fight has really returned to the Rebels. 5. Michigan State The Spartans dropped out of the top 10 after breaking through with the win over then-No. 3 Michigan, but the setback that came in the form of Saturday's loss to Purdue isn't enough to keep this team down. OK, OK, the Big Ten title talk might have been a bit unfounded, but it's easy to forget that this team was 6-6 a year ago. Nick Saban's teams had developed a reputation for underachieving, but the latest edition is breaking that mold. With an explosive offense triggered by QB Bill Burke and WR Plaxico Burress, a hungry defense buttressed by the addition of true freshman linebacker T.J. Duckett and a schedule that sees Ohio State and Penn State come calling, another .500 record would be classified as a huge disappointment. Six weeks ago, few would have suggested as much for a team that was, on paper, probably sixth-best in the crowded-at-the-top Big Ten. | ALSO SEE
Chalk Talk: Who will be No. 1?Midseason Report: Top 10 games Midseason Report: Top Moments Midseason Report: Games to watch Midseason Report: Top Upsets Midseason Report: Surprising Players Midseason Report: Disappointing Teams Midseason Report: Disappointing Players Midseason Report: Herbstreit's fabulous freshmen Midseason Report: Conference highs and lows  Harig: Halftime showVideo Plays of the Season | ||||
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