The Week 1 college football roundup. The 5 things that matter, winners and losers, overrated and underrated, and what it all means.
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College Football Week 1 Roundup
CFN 1-130 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Coach Hot Seat Rankings | Heisman Trophy Race
– Early Week 2 Line Lookahead & Projection
– 10 Quick Thoughts On Oklahoma 49, Houston 31
– Projecting The Polls: AP | USA Today Coaches
3 Quick Thoughts On Every Game
ACC | Big Ten | Big 12 | SEC
5. Winners & Losers From Week 1
Winner: The Big 12. Okay, so the league didn’t exactly extend itself with a whole host of cupcake games, but it went 10-0 to kick things off. That’s better than having a slew of mid-level teams lose (SEC) or seeing your torch-bearer collapse (Pac-12).
Loser: Almost all of Florida. UCF did just fine in its 62-0 scrimmage against Florida A&M, but Florida State suffered a painful collapse to Boise State, FIU got destroyed by Tulane, Florida Atlantic was ripped apart by Ohio State, and USF got steamrolled at home by Wisconsin.
Winner: Wake Forest 38, Utah State 35. Arguably the best game of the weekend, with Aggie QB Jordan Love and Wake Forest QB Jamie Newman combining for 817 passing yards in a wild shootout.
Loser: ACC Network. You probably didn’t see that Wake Forest-Utah State game – or Clemson rip apart Georgia Tech – because you either don’t have the ACC Network, don’t want to pay for the extra sports tier, couldn’t stream it, can’t get it, don’t know where it is, or it wasn’t top-of-mind as you were scrolling through your guide.
Winner: Some Pac-12 quarterbacks. Washington’s Jacob Eason was brilliant in his four touchdown day against Eastern Washington, and Washington State’s Anthony Gordon went off on New Mexico State for 420 yards and five scores.
Loser: Other Pac-12 quarterbacks. Stanford’s KJ Costello took a shot to the head and missed a chunk of the win over Northwestern. USC’s JT Daniels suffered a torn ACL and is out for the season, and UCLA’s Dorian Thompson-Robinson hit just 8-of-26 passes in the loss to Cincinnati.
Winner: Nevada PK Brandon Talton. Forget the 56-yard field go to stun Purdue 34-31, and forget the other made field goal. The walk-on freshman kicked his way into a scholarship.
Loser: Memphis 15, Ole Miss 10. Neither team has much of a defense, but it was the Rebel offense that had a lot to do with this dud under new offensive coordinator Rich Rodriguez. Ole Miss managed 173 yards of total O in the loss.
Winner: Eastern Michigan QB Mike Glass. The Eagles aren’t exactly known for their high-powered passing game, but the senior completed 20-of-22 passes for 188 yards and three scores in the fun 30-23 win over Coastal Carolina.
Loser: Army’s offense. Yeah, it ran for 231 yards in the 14-7 win over Rice, but it was a grind. The Knight schedule is light and breezy, but the O has to be a whole lot sharper.
NEXT: The really big thing was …
4. The Really Big Thing Was …
The play of the freshman quarterbacks.
Not everyone can be the next Trevor Lawrence, but a slew of freshmen changed the college football world before September even started.
It all kicked off with Boise State’s Hank Bachmeier. He went from being in a tight battle for the starting quarterback job, to getting beaten up by Florida State for six sacks and a slew of big hits, to pulling out the stunning comeback win after throwing for 407 yards and a touchdown.
The Seminoles had Sam Howell all ready to roll in this year’s recruiting class … right up until he switched to North Carolina. Instead of veteran South Carolina quarterback Jake Bentley playing like the seasoned pro in UNC’s 24-20 win, it was Howell who slung it around for 245 yards and two scores as he led the team to 15 unanswered points in the fourth quarter.
CFN 1-130 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Coach Hot Seat Rankings | Heisman Trophy Race
– Early Week 2 Line Lookahead & Projection
– 10 Quick Thoughts On Oklahoma 49, Houston 31
3 Quick Thoughts On Every Game
ACC | Big Ten | Big 12 | SEC
Arizona State’s Jayden Daniels was great with his 284-yard, two touchdown day against Kent State, Nevada’s Carson Strong pulled out the shocker over Purdue with a gut-check 295-yard, three-score day, and Oklahoma State’s Spencer Sanders went off in the win over Oregon State, completing 79% of his throws for 205 yards and three scores to go along with 109 rushing yards.
Of course, all of that was fun, but it was Auburn’s true freshman Bo Nix who trumped them all, coming through when needed to take outduel Justin Herbert and Oregon.
Nix was awful for most of the game and finished hitting just 13-of-31 passes for 177 yards with two score and two touchdowns, but no one cares about that …
NEXT: The most overrated thing was …
3. The Most Overrated Thing Was …
The FCS.
There were a slew of amazing games across the college football landscape between FBS teams, proving once again that it’s more interesting when the smaller guys at the big level get their chances, especially at home.
Nevada (Purdue), Wyoming (Missouri), Cincinnati (UCLA), Memphis (Ole Miss), and Hawaii (Arizona) all showed what can happen if a Group of Fiver gets a shot to host the party.
Boise State (Florida State) and Georgia State (Tennessee) played the spoiler role on the road, and Fresno State (USC), Louisiana (Mississippi State) and Utah State (Wake Forest) battled hard in losses.
Which once again proves how much of a waste of time it is for FBSers to fatten up on FCSers – even if it is a smart move to tune up.
Central Arkansas beat WKU 23-20. That’s it.
40 FCS vs. FBS games. One FCS win. Yippee.
Okay, okay, so the South Dakota State-Minnesota and Northern Iowa-Iowa State games were among the best of the weekend, but wouldn’t it have been better if the Gophers and Cyclones played each other instead?
Again, 1-39.
NEXT: The most underrated thing was …
2. The Most Underrated Thing Was …
Just how shockingly inept the mid-to-lower level of the SEC was.
Losing games is fine – it happens – but what happened on Saturday to the best conference in college football was totally inexcusable.
South Carolina came into the game against North Carolina with the talent, experience, and supposed desire to get over last year’s brutally ugly Belk Bowl loss to Virginia and start out rocking. Instead, it played ultra-conservative and didn’t press, and it held the honor of being the most maddening Power Five program going.
Wyoming hasn’t done anything interesting offensively since Fennis Dembo was averaging 18 a game for the hoops side back in the late 1980s, but all of a sudden, the running game was good enough to rip apart Missouri for a 37-31 win.
There was no O in Ole Miss as it clunked against Memphis, and, of course, there was the Tennessee 38-30 whiff against Georgia State, which would be considered the low point of Volunteer football if only it didn’t seem like there’s a whole other level the program might get to.
Throw in the lousy performance by Arkansas in the 20-13 win over Portland State, Mississippi State’s underwhelming win over Louisiana, and the ugly Florida win over Miami in Week 0, and this wasn’t a good look for the league …
Right up until Auburn saved the conference’s bacon.
NEXT: What Is All Means: Week 1
1. What It All Means: Week 1
After all the upsets, all the craziness, and all of the dust settling after Oregon vs. Auburn and the Jalen Hurts show came through with a game the opening weekend needed to have …
Nothing all the dramatic happened to the big boys.
For all the excitement and focus on the upsets, collapses, and crazy battles throughout the weekend, Clemson won a laugher. Alabama rolled at will. Georgia had no problem with Vanderbilt, and Oklahoma, Ohio State, LSU and Michigan all won in blowouts.
Oregon was the one ranked team in both polls that lost, and it lost to another ranked team.
Northwestern lost, but it was 25th in the Coaches Poll and it lost to a higher-ranked Stanford team. Take out the Cardinal and Cats, and Oregon and Auburn, too – and for now, take out Notre Dame, because this is written before it plays Louisville – and out of the 19 other ranked teams this weekend, only Iowa State failed to win its game in a double-digit blowout.
The great teams did what they were supposed to do, and they all looked amazing doing it. But all that did was set the stage …
It’s time for Week 2. It’s time for Texas A&M at Clemson and LSU at Texas to really get this whole thing rolling.
CFN 1-130 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Coach Hot Seat Rankings | Heisman Trophy Race
– Early Week 2 Line Lookahead & Projection
– 10 Quick Thoughts On Oklahoma 49, Houston 31
3 Quick Thoughts On Every Game
ACC | Big Ten | Big 12 | SEC
