Week 1 Recap
Wow what an opening weekend to college football. After a 5 day marathon, week 1 is finally in the books. It’s important to remember week 1 is only 1 game and don’t be fooled by the results of week 1 because the biggest growth for teams usually happens between week 1 and week 2. This is a huge mistake amateur bettors make when placing bets on week 2 games. For instance this happened to me in 2021. In week 1, #23 Texas beat #21 Louisiana 38-18 but it really wasn’t even that close. Arkansas defeated Rice 38-17 but the game was tied in the 4th quarter and the Razorbacks were unimpressive in that game. Week 2 a ranked Texas team was a touchdown favorite at unranked Arkansas and I feel for it big time because I thought Texas looked way better against a way better opponent than Arkansas did against a terrible Rice team. What happened? Arkansas dominated Texas as I had to listen to Jimmy and 80 thousand other Razorbacks call the hogs all damn night. Week 1 does not equal week 2. Here are my thoughts from Week 1:
The Pac-12 was very impressive as expected, going 13-0 (USC won in week 0 also).
Every team in the Pac-12 won, but none caught more headlines than the Colorado Buffaloes with their win over TCU in Fort Worth. I did not know what to expect from Coach Prime and Colorado because 80% of their team was brand new from last year as they added 53 players from the transfer portal! I definitely did not know what to expect from Coach Prime’s son, junior quarterback Shedeur Sanders. Sanders put on a show throwing for a school record 510 yards. Colorado will be a factor in the Pac-12 but so will USC, Utah, Washington, Oregon (scored 81 against an FCS school) and Oregon State all of which had dominating wins. The Pac-12 is loaded, and it is going to be the most exciting conference to watch this season.
The Big XII is probably wide open again.
The last two seasons the Big XII has been wide open and has been the most competitive conference from top to bottom (meaning there is the smallest gap between the top team and the last team). Going in I thought Texas would probably dominate because their roster is so much better than the rest of the conference. That is still true about their roster, their defense absolutely dominated Rice. Rice got their first 3 points because for some reason Steve Sarkisian went for a 4th down and 4 from his own 30-yard line and did not get it. Texas first and second team defense held the Owls to just 6 yards rushing through the first 3 quarters and then Rice scored a garbage touchdown on a bunch of freshmen. Texas offense on the other hand looked out of rhythm for most of the game as Quinn Ewers and the offensive line struggled against Rice’s pass rush. Alabama this week will be a real test to see if they were holding anything back in preparation for the Tide. Oklahoma was dominate in a 73-0 win over Arkansas State. The Red Wolves are not good but scoring that many points in the opener against a FBS school cannot be ignored nor can posting a shutout. The Sooners face a tougher test this week against SMU, but they could be more of a factor to win the Big XII than I originally thought. Kansas and Kansas State are both good and took care of business in their openers. Both have tougher opponents this week. Houston surprised me beating UTSA, but the roadrunners gave that one away with 4 turnovers. UCF scored a lot of points against a team with zero returning starters, we’ll see what they’re about once conference starts. Texas Tech losing on the road to Wyoming is not a good look for the Red Raiders. Just can’t lose that game. Maybe they were looking ahead to their week 2 game against Oregon? I expect them to be better as the season continues. The worst loss of the weekend goes to the Baylor Bears (26.5-point favorites!!!) losing at home to Texas State … ouch. That is a very bad loss for Dave Aranda and the Waco faithful. Not only did they lose, but they were outplayed on the line of scrimmage by a team that had a season win total of 3.5 and breaking in a first-time head coach. Baylor has problems on defense and now their starting quarterback is out a couple weeks. Things only get tougher for the Bears as they host Utah who is the definition of big and tough and they displayed that in a convincing win against Florida.
SEC
Alabama looked good but again face a way tougher test this week against Texas. Texas A&M looked good, especially on offense but New Mexico is a bottom tier team. The aggies go on the road this week to play the Miami Hurricanes. Georgia was Georgia. South Carolina looks like a non-factor as does Florida. Ole Miss scored 73 points against an FCS school but faces a real tough challenge going on the road against Tulane this week (what the heck are they thinking playing this game at Tulane? upset alert!). LSU had opportunities the first 3 quarters against Florida State, but the Seminoles were just too much for the Bayou Bengals. Every other team in the SEC had very convincing wins, this conference has the best teams from top to bottom but there is a huge gap from Vanderbilt (2-0) to Alabama or Georgia.
BIG TEN
Michigan was Michigan. Ohio State and Penn State are breaking in new quarterbacks, and both were decent in the openers but neither lite it up as both had blah wins against power 5 teams. As of right now, this is a 3-team conference as expected. Iowa, Wisconsin and Maryland all won but against bad teams. Everyone else looks to be a long way from competing for a title in this conference. Purdue won the west last year but lost at home to Fresno State, that’s not good and there will most likely be a different team in the BIG TEN championship game from the west this year, but I doubt it matters as either Michigan, Ohio State or Penn State (all in the east) will win this conference.
The ACC is better than most people realize.
Florida State is the real deal. What I watched on Sunday night was a playoff worthy team. Quarterback Jordan Travis made some questionable decisions early but settled in and played well. They have two big receivers who can dominate defensive backs. If their offensive line gets better and they can run the ball better, their offense will be scary. Their defense is legit and can really get after the quarterback. They have a tough schedule, but they looked like the best team in the ACC to me. North Carolina looked like the second-best team to me. Quarterback Drake Maye is pretty good. Clemson, the pre-season favorite and my pick to win the conference, has problems on offense. They got a new quarterback and brought in new offensive coordinator Garrett Riley from TCU, but that offense still looked the same … awful. They only scored because Duke muffed a punt on their own 20-yard line. They host Florida State in week 4, that one could get out of hand. Duke is legit as they beat Clemson by 21 points. Louisville, Pittsburgh, and Miami all looked good as well. Boston College had the second worst loss of the weekend (behind Baylor) as they lost at home to Northern Illinois in overtime. Just can’t lose that game, could be a long year for BC.
It was a great week 1 and glad to have my weekends full of watching football again. Here’s to week 2 and what a slate it is. I’ll have a look ahead to week 2 in a blog I will post tomorrow morning. Cheers - Creta