The college football season has finally, fully, arrived. A week after a four-course Week 0 appetizer helped us warm up our college football watching muscles, Week 1 brings five straight days of action, starting on Thursday night and running through Monday night. We here at Uproxx love college football season dearly, and while the return of EA College Football helped scratch that itch over the last month and a half, we are extremely excited to have the real thing back in our lives.
Each week, we’ll bring you a look at the games we are most excited for, from marquee matchups to under the radar fun and even a best bet (or two).
The Game Of The Year (Of The Week): No. 23 USC vs. No. 13 LSU
The thing about the first week of the college football season is that we don’t actually know that much about the teams that are going out there, especially when they’re two teams like the Trojans and the Tigers, which have to replace the last two Heisman Trophy winners at QB and plenty of other talented players from two of the most dynamic offenses in America last season.
So, why is this here? Easy: Both of these teams are still, probably, going to put up a ton of points and yards, especially against a pair of defenses that have left something to be desired in recent years. Neither QB (Miller Moss for USC, Garrett Nussmeier for LSU) has an easy job in replacing Caleb Williams or Jayden Daniels, but they ended last season with a bang in their respective bowl games and are entering this season with some excitement. And if the Trojan defense hasn’t taken a far enough step forward after an abysmal showing last year, we’re going to see a good, old-fashioned shootout from the rip this season. It does suck that this is happening in Las Vegas on a neutral site and not in the Coliseum or Death Valley, but it still ought to be an awful lot of fun to watch.
Lock Into This One: No. 7 Notre Dame vs. No. 20 Texas A&M
This should be a legitimately fun game, as Notre Dame will bring one of the best defenses in the nation and an offense led by high-profile Duke transfer QB Riley Leonard into Kyle Field, where there is optimism following the firing of Jimbo Fisher (for A LOT of money) and hiring of Mike Elko, who coached Leonard at Duke and spent a year in 2017 as the defensive coordinator of the Fighting Irish. The question at A+M under Fisher was never, ever talent, but getting all the pieces into place, as nine starters return on both sides of the ball. Elko has only spent two years as a head coach, and it’s fair to wonder how he’ll handle the pressure cooker that is College Station, but he went 16-9 at Duke and can coach up a defense with the best of them. This game is going to be tense, and it should be a blast.
Under-The-Radar Banger: North Dakota State vs. Colorado
Listen, absolutely nothing about the Colorado football program under Deion Sanders can be classified as under-the-radar, I get that. At the same time: For some reason, someone thought it was a good idea for the Buffs to start their season by hosting North Dakota State, which went 11-4 and lost in the FCS semis in what can be classified as a down year for them. Colorado should win — for all their question marks on defense and in the trenches, Shedeur Sanders is quite good, while their skill position guys led by Travis Hunter are explosive — but if first-year head coach Tim Polasek has the Bison hit the ground running, this is going to be a legitimately fun football game.
Message Board Meltdown Game Of The Week: No. 19 Miami at Florida
One of the great things about college football is that a lot of fan bases are just one win away from proclaiming themselves title contenders and, at the exact same time, just one loss away from trying to fire their coach. Team message boards are always ready to smash that overreact button after each game, but especially when taking on a hated rival. Week 1 features an absolute banger in the 3:30 slate when Miami goes up the road to The Swamp to take on Florida, where a loss for either coach will put them on an extremely hot seat.
Mario Cristobal was supposed to resurrect the Canes, but they’ve gone 12-13 under the Miami alum and there is a ton of pressure to finally get into contention in the ACC (and for the Playoff) this season. The excuse has been that Cristobal’s best attribute is as a recruiter, but in Year 3 the talent upgrades from recruiting are supposed to show up. He also brought in Cam Ward to finally fill the quarterback hole that’s existed for, uh, 20 years now in Coral Gables, so a loss as a road favorite to Florida would be extremely damning for Mario.
On the other side is Billy Napier, who most Florida fans have already mentally fired. The Gators are still waiting for someone that can get them back to being a legit contender, but Napier hasn’t been able to get recruiting back to where it once was and his strength as a tactician has not shown up on the field as he’s gone 11-14 in his first two years at the helm. The Gators have, by just about any metric, the hardest schedule in college football this season and are projected to win 4 games. That would assuredly get Napier the boot, and if he’s going to save his job, a win at home over Miami is an absolute must. In either case, someone’s message boards are gonna be heating up around 7 p.m. ET on Saturday, and I personally cannot wait for this game that figures to be funny no matter the outcome as a neutral observer.
Who Won The Heisman Last Week?: Jamal Haynes, RB, Georgia Tech
Week 0 didn’t feature any of the Heisman frontrunners and none of the quarterbacks really popped, but Georgia Tech running back Jamal Haynes was the standout of the week. He only toted the rock 11 times but piled up 75 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Yellow Jackets to the stunning upset of Florida State. In the words of Tech coach Brent Key, run the baaawwwwlllll.
Best Bet: Georgia State +21.5
Georgia Tech was great last week against Florida State, putting their full game-planning might into Week 0 to get a huge win in Ireland against a top 10 team in what was one of their biggest games of the year. A week later, they have to fly back across the pond after a huge emotional win and face a Georgia State team that will be putting everything they can into playing their crosstown foes. I think this is a letdown spot for the Yellow Jackets against a Panthers squad that will be treating this like their Super Bowl. Three touchdowns is a lot for a Tech team that wants to run the dang ball, and I think the Panthers can keep this thing inside that number as they throw everything at the wall trying to pull off the program’s second major upset (remember, they went into Knoxville and took down Tennessee a few years ago).