You either love college football or you don’t; but if you love it, it rarely disappoints. For evidence, I submit to you Week 1. From 7-3 with no touchdowns scored, to 63-61 with 62 combined points scored in the 4th Quarter alone. From triple-overtime, to a game-winning blocked extra point. Week 1 had something for everyone.
If you think the problem with college football is that the same teams are always in the playoff, or the playoff isn’t big enough, or the players change schools too much, you’re looking in the wrong places. If you are strictly locked-in on the likely playoff contenders when you pick games to watch, then you often miss the best the sport has to offer. College football is a game you watch with remote-in-hand and as many screens in front of you as you can muster, because you never know where the great moments will come from. Sometimes you find them in the unlikeliest of places.
Competitive sports in the United States is all about who is crowned champion in the end. It’s how we’re wired. College football is unique in that what makes it great usually doesn’t involve the postseason or determine who will win a title. While everyone would love to be #1, only 3% of FBS teams currently have that opportunity at the end of the season. (more on that below) It should be noted that none of those games I referenced in the first paragraph above involved teams that have a realistic shot to make the playoff. Games like those, and other transcending moments like Appalachian State blocking a last-second FG attempt at Michigan or Boise State’s 2-point Statue of Liberty against Oklahoma, are what make this sport special; not the CFP semifinal beatdowns. If you don’t think it should be that way, that’s fine; but college football probably isn’t for you and I’d advise sticking to Sunday football.
So with that, here are some random thoughts on what we saw over the previous five days.
The chaos in the state of North Carolina on Saturday was unmatched. It was noteworthy even before kickoff that the two major Power Five, state schools – UNC and NC State – would both hit the road to play a couple of G5 schools – Appalachian State and East Carolina, respectively.
After being down by 14 in the 2nd Quarter, the Tar Heels appeared to have things well in hand as the 4th Quarter started, having reeled off 34 unanswered points. Then all hell broke loose. The Mountaineers ripped off 40 points, with the Tar Heels scoring 22 themselves, all in the final stanza. The difference came down to two unsuccessful 2-point conversions by App State. My words will never do justice to this game, so just enjoy the highlights. (WARNING: Those of you who love defense may find this video disturbing; I recommend viewing the the Iowa-South Dakota State highlights instead)
#13 NC State didn’t have an easier time of it than their Triangle rival. While it wasn’t the end zone festival in Boone, a very game East Carolina squad had the ‘Pack on the ropes and nearly dealt the knockout blow. Owen Daffer, the Pirates kicker, had a day he would love to forget. The Pirates scored the potential game-tying touchdown with 2:58 left, but Daffer missed the extra point. Unfortunately, fate wasn’t finished with poor Owen. Given a shot at redemption via a 42-yard FG attempt that would have won it with 9 seconds on the clock, Daffer pulled it left, and the Wolfpack escaped Greenville with a 21-20 win.
Many had low expectations for Iowa’s offense headed into the season. As it turns out, that’s too optimistic. Luckily for the Hawkeyes their defense and special teams are among the nation’s best. Otherwise they are likely on the wrong end of an upset against South Dakota State, a solid FCS program. “They at least scored a touchdown,” you say? Nope. Their 7 points came on two safeties and a 46-yard field goal. That’d be fine if they were playing craps in Vegas. This is football in the Big Ten. The Hawkeyes managed just 166 yards of offense. QB Spencer Petras was 11-of-25 for 109 yards and a 1.1 rating, the lowest QBR ever for a winning quarterback in the existence of the stat (2013). Like last season, Iowa’s top offensive weapon looks to be Tory Taylor. He’s their punter. Taylor averaged 47.9 yards on 10 (ten!) punts. Insomniacs may wish to DVR Iowa possessions as a sleep aid.
#24 Houston had to go to penalty kicks (a.k.a. 3OT+ two-point conversion attempts) to defeat upstart UTSA at a raucous Alamodome. It looked like the Cougars had the game sealed when a FG with 23 seconds left put them up 24-21. But the Roadrunners struck on two big pass plays to get into position for a 37-yard FG of their own as regulation expired. Overtime was a back-and-forth affair that ended when UTSA couldn’t respond to Houston’s successful 2-pointer in the 3rd OT. This was a great South Texas matchup that will feature a rematch next season in Houston; where the Cougars will have been promoted to Power Five status upon joining the Big 12, while the Roadrunners will actually move up and replace them in the AAC. Hopefully this matchup gets on the schedule in future years, as it would seem to have the potential for a nice non-conference rivalry between two schools separated by 200 miles on Interstate 10. (That might sound like a long distance, but this is Texas we’re talking about)
Special teams matter. A detail-oriented coach like LSU’s Brian Kelly knows that. His new team hasn’t figured it out yet. Maybe the heartbreaking loss to Florida State Sunday night will be the learning moment. The Tigers turned the ball over twice on muffed punts, had a field goal blocked, and had the potential game-tying extra point blocked on the last play of the game. It wasn’t exactly pretty for the Seminoles either. That end-of-game TD for LSU came on a 99-yard drive that was set up by an FSU fumble near the LSU goal line when the Seminoles seemingly just needed to kneel down and run the clock, the kick a chip-shot FG to go up by 10 and put the game out of reach. The game was both exciting and ugly at the same time. For the Seminoles, a 2-0 start is just what they needed, even with much to work on. It could be a rough year for LSU, but Kelly should have that program back to national prominence soon.
That was some questionable play-calling Thursday by Purdue’s Jeff Brohm late 4th Quarter up 3 against Penn State. I know they aren’t a good running team, but they weren’t so bad that night that they needed to spare PSU so much time with incomplete passes the way they did. They left Penn State so much time at the end the Lions didn’t even need the two timeouts they had left. The Boilermakers let that one get away.
Don’t bury Utah’s playoff hopes yet. Like I said in my Week 1 preview, The Swamp is a very tough place to play, and the Utes deserve credit for going there and nearly winning in early September (they will get a return visit to Salt Lake City from the Gators next year). Meanwhile, Anthony Richardson is your early dark horse Heisman candidate, and showed why Dan Mullen needed to be let go considering how poorly utilized the talented QB was in 2021.
No more evidence is needed to illustrate how wide the gulf is between the elite teams and the merely good teams than the Georgia-Oregon slaughterfest. I knew the Ducks were overrated at #11 (I had them at #20 in my own preseason rankings), but I still think Oregon will be a Top 25 team by the time the season is over. Truth be told, whoever is actually the 11th best team right now (check out my rankings below to see my pick) would be blown out by Georgia too. They’re so loaded that there is likely only two or three teams that can compete with them.
There might be panic in Columbus that #2 Ohio State’s 21-10 win over #5 Notre Dame was too close for a title-hopeful. I think that’s premature. First, the Buckeyes’ biggest concern headed into the season, their defense, looked much improved over last year. Second, they ran the ball very effectively with TreVeyon Henderson and Miyan Williams combining for 175 yards and 6 yards per carry. CJ Stroud and the passing game were a little off – Jaxson Smith-Njigba sitting out most of the game with a leg injury that is not believed to be serious didn’t help – but they’ll be fine. Ohio State should still be one of your final four until proven otherwise.
Speaking of final four, Friday brought word that the CFP will in fact expand to 12 teams no later than 2026, and possibly as soon as 2024. There are a lot of detail to work out, especially if it is to happen early. I still contend this will not satisfy the crowd that wants more parity in college football. In fact, it could have the opposite effect by giving teams like Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State a chance when they lose 2-3 games in a season. But it should create some fun games between the #5-12 teams and spread some more money around, so let’s make the most of it.