While Missouri and several Southeastern Conference rivals eased into their season with lopsided victories over patsies paid to lose, Week 1 of the college football season yielded many consequential results.
For instance, the No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs found their legs in the second half and put a 34-3 beating on once-mighty Clemson.
Once again Clemson proved that its refusal to shop the transfer portal has left it far behind the industry curve.
“It doesn't matter what I say, people are gonna say whatever they want to say,†Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said after his program’s latest setback. “We do what's best for Clemson, year in and year out. When you lose like this, they've got every right to say whatever they want to say. So, say whatever you want to say, write whatever you want to write. That comes with it. That's just part of it.â€
People are also reading…
Maybe some day the words analysts are writing will finally sink in and Swinney will adapt. Meanwhile the industry roars on at warp speed.
Here were some of the Week 1 winners:
- Former Mizzou coach Barry Odom is riding high after UNLV stuffed Houston 27-7 with a dominant offensive performance. Somebody from the Group of 5 pile is going to make the College Football Playoff and the Rebels looked like a contender in Week 1.
- Notre Dame gained a clear path to the CFP by slugging out its 23-13 victory at Texas A&M. Between Saturday’s lay-up against Northern Illinois until their regular season finale at USC on Nov. 30, the Fighting Irish have a lot of Ws on their schedule. They get Florida State at home and they must face Georgia Tech at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, but otherwise they should sail.
- Penn State muscled up for an impressive 34-12 win at West Virginia. The Nittany Lions pounded out 222 yards on the ground and balanced that with four touchdown passes while serving fair warning to their Big Ten rivals.
And let’s look at some losers:
- Billy Napier is a Dead Coach Walking after his Florida Gators let Miami come into The Swamp and administer at 41-17 beating. The Gators face a savage schedule ahead with games at Tennessee, Texas and Florida State, at home to Texas A&M, LSU and Ole Miss, and against arch-rival Georgia in Jacksonville. Oof. Gators fans could be ready for heavy drinking at the Cocktail Party.
- LSU always faced a tough path to the CFP this season. Falling to USC 27-20 in Vegas made the road even tougher, although the Tigers do get to face SEC powers Ole Miss, Alabama and Oklahoma at home. It’s no wonder that LSU Brian Kelly literally pounded the table while addressing reporter after the USC game.
- The Atlantic Coast Conference is facing tough times. Standard bearers Florida State and Clemson are trying to litigate their way out of their league. In the meantime, those traditional powers got off to bad starts. FSU coughed up its No. 10 ranking by losing to Georgia Tech and Boston College (!) to open the season. That stunning failure created a path for Virginia Tech to slide into the CFP discussion . . . until the Hokies took a 34-27 pratfall at Vanderbilt. North Carolina State had to scramble to get past Western Carolina. But at least Miami stood tall in Week 1.
THE GRIDIRON CHRONICLES
Here is what folks have been writing about college football:
Connor O’Gara, Saturday Down South: “A prime opportunity was available for the SEC’s taking. Five matchups against Core 4 teams meant that the SEC had something sitting on the table in the first weekend of the 12-team Playoff era. That is, a chance to distance itself from the pack. The SEC had the most noteworthy nonconference slate of the weekend with matchups against 4 preseason AP Top 25 squads (No. 7 Notre Dame, No. 14 Clemson, No. 19 Miami and No. 23 USC). Yes, the 12-team Playoff is more inclusive. Yes, things like that still matter. If anything, it means more now (pun intended) for the selection committee, which could have to determine if a 9-3 SEC team is more Playoff-worthy than a 10-2 ACC team. So no, the SEC didn’t help that cause with its Week 1 showing. A 2-3 mark in those matchups was more of a step back than a step forward.â€
Dan Wolken, USA Today: “Every college football fan has chosen to invest their happiness, their money and their time in following a certain program. Sometimes that choice was merely the byproduct of going to college, or perhaps it was handed down from parents or grandparents. But at some point, everyone who becomes an emotional wreck every Saturday made a conscious decision to care deeply about a sport where 18-to-22-year-olds hit each other and toss around an oblong ball. There’s one problem, though, that they don’t tell you about until it’s too late: As a college football fan, your well-being is going to be disproportionately dependent on the choices that others make. Even worse, most of those choices are going to look very stupid in retrospect. Which brings us to the University of Florida, arguably the home of bad choices. For the last 25 years, no school in the country has taken more wild coaching swings than the Gators. They replaced Steve Spurrier with a completely unprepared Ron Zook, who lasted three mediocre years. They bought the hype on Will Muschamp, who was a great coordinator and terrible head coach. They hired Jim McElwain in a weird way, with a leaked meeting on a private plane intended to pressure him into taking the job, then fired him in a weird way when the university disputed a claim by McElwain that his family had received death threats. Then came Dan Mullen, who won pretty big for three years but got fired at the first sign of trouble. And now here we are with Billy Napier, a fourth Florida coach in the last 11 seasons who is probably headed for Buyout Life.â€
Nick Bromberg, Yahoo! Sports: “Napier . . . is already the first Florida coach to post-back-to-back losing seasons since Raymond Wolf in 1946 and 1947. Patience was already thin among many Florida fans and it got thinner Saturday. Moving on from Napier if things go especially south, however, is not exactly financially feasible. He’s owed $26 million — the guaranteed money remaining on his contract — if Florida wants to make a move at any point during the season. Of course, there’s still plenty of time for Florida to bounce back. And if the Gators do, Napier should get a lot of credit. Navigating that difficult schedule with a winning record would be impressive. It also seems unlikely at this point.â€
Brandon Marcello, : “The ‘adapt or die’ mantra has never been more prevalent in the sport. Still, Swinney remains frustratingly steadfast in his reluctance to adapt. The question of whether his philosophy works in this new era has loomed over his program, which is now four years removed from its last appearance in the College Football Playoff -- the same year the transfer portal took the sport by storm. Kirby Smart served yet another reminder Saturday. Three transfers accounted for the game's biggest plays -- and a pair of touchdowns. In a perfect world, the portal would not be crutch for a coach, but it's part of the job in 2024. ‘It's a forced situation. You have to use it,’ Smart said. Long gone are the days of Trevor Lawrence, Sammy Watkins, DeAndre Hopkins, Travis Etienne and Deshaun Watson. In their place is a stable of loyal but not-quite-elite skill players on Clemson's offense. The defense has been just fine, for the most part, in the portal era -- and it certainly looked the part of a top-10 unit in the trenches Saturday. But what plagues Clemson is the past, when game-breaking receivers and quarterbacks lifted the Tigers to two national championships in only three years. For whatever reason, four- and five-star replacements haven't panned out. Instead of fixing the problem with personnel by snagging a top-tier quarterback or receiver in the portal, Swinney invested in high school players and their development.”
Pete Fiutak, College Football News: “Brian Kelly continues to be a whale of a head coach. You don’t win as many games at Notre Dame like he did without doing a lot of things right, but this is different now under Marcus Freeman. It was time for a change when Freeman took over just over two seasons ago, but everyone new it would take a little bit for a new coach to get past a few rough spots. But Freeman had the personality and style that created a breath of fresh air, it’s working with the recruits - despite what many of the recruitniks might be saying - and now he’s up to speed with the production on the field. It’s just one game against a Texas A&M that’s good, but not Georgia or Ohio State, but College Station has been where elite teams go to die over the last several years, and Freeman had his Irish team ready. He went for it in this, he didn’t coach scared, and he had his team playing with the confidence and toughness to pull this off. There’s still a LOT of work to be done, but in his third year he’s putting his stamp on the program with this one gigantic moment.â€
Bill Connelly. : “Last week, I took a look at the race for the Group of 5’s automatic CFP bid, listing the top 10 teams per preseason SP+ projections, plus five high-upside dark horses. Because of an iffy 2023 defense, UNLV was listed merely in the dark horses category. But if the defense we saw Saturday in Houston sticks around for a while, the Rebels will quickly move to the top of the power ratings. In what seemed it could be an even affair, UNLV outgained Houston 242-59 while building a 14-0 halftime lead, then stretched the lead to 24-0 on Texas transfer Jalen Catalon's 36-yard pick-six in the third quarter. A late, 90-yard drive finally put Houston on the board, but this one was over early. Holy Cross transfer QB Matthew Sluka had a hit-and-miss debut for UNLV, going just 6-for-13 passing for 71 yards and an interception, but he threw two early touchdown passes to Jacob DeJesus and rushed for 62 non-sack yards, and the Rebels offense's main goal was just to get out of the way and kill clock in the second half. They didn't need much out of star receiver Rickey White III. (They will in the future.) Most of the obvious preseason G5 contenders looked solid in Week 1. Memphis, App State and Tulane disposed of FCS opponents with little to no difficulty, James Madison scored the final 27 points in a 30-7 win over Charlotte, Boise State and UTSA suffered second-half hiccups but beat Georgia Southern and Kennesaw State, respectively, by double digits, and Fresno State had No. 9 Michigan on the ropes well into the fourth quarter. Liberty's defense showed familiar signs of frailty in a 41-24 win over Campbell, but only Troy (28-26 to Nevada) and Western Kentucky (63-0 to Bama) suffered damning losses. The list of contenders remains long, but no one produced a more provocative first-week win than UNLV.”
Chris Vannini, The Athletic: “When the CFP expanded to 12 teams, Penn State looked to be the biggest beneficiary: The Nittany Lions finished ranked in the top 12 six times since 2016 but never made the four-team CFP field. That feeling is even stronger after Penn State’s dominant 34-12 win at West Virginia. The defense was its normal physical and stout self, but the offense was explosive, and dare I say exciting, after drawing meme-worthy ridicule for its unwillingness to attack vertically last year. The Nittany Lions had two completions of at least 50 yards on Saturday after having just five all of last season. Quarterback Drew Allar finished 11 of 17 passing for 216 yards and three touchdowns, plus another 44 yards on the ground. He looked composed and sharp on the road in a way he didn’t last year. It’s early, but Penn State looked like a team that might just not make the CFP, but win a game or two.â€
MEGAPHONE
“I'm so angry about it that I've got to do something about it. I'm not doing a good enough job as a coach. I've got to coach them better because it's unacceptable for us not to have found a way to win this football game. It's ridiculous. It's crazy.â€
LSU coach Brian Kelly, after his team faded against USC.