Overreaction Tuesday: Carla's Week 1 Superlatives
Because the fate of college football is determined after every team plays one game ...
What. A. Weekend. Five straight days of college football that began with an emphatic win by a Pac-12 team on Thursday and ended with a field storming in Durham from a bunch of students wearing blue basketball jerseys on Monday night.
This means only one thing: It’s time to overreact. Because that’s what we do after we’ve seen 60 minutes of football from every team in the country.
Here are my superlatives from what I managed to see this weekend.
Most impressive win: Colorado and Florida State (tie)
Coach Prime, you have our attention. I’ve been pretty skeptical of the whole timeline of events in Boulder. I didn’t think that hitting the refresh button on an entire roster would lend itself to any sort of team chemistry or cohesion or, well, to be frank, winning season. I was wrong. What we saw in Fort Worth on Saturday was impressive. This week, we’ll see if the Buffs can keep that momentum rolling.
Meanwhile, on Sunday night, we didn’t get the instant classic that we got last year between FSU and LSU, but what we did get was an incredible performance from the Noles, particularly in the second half. Enough so that Brian Kelly called the game “a total failure.” (Overreaction much?) It’s worth noting that some of Florida State’s success was also due to portal-ing; Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde pointed out Monday that FSU’s top two WRs are transfers.
Needs to hire an exorcist or something: Nebraska
Oh, Nebraska. Oh, oh, Nebraska. Not again. This was not the way the Matt Rhule era was supposed to begin. In fact, it might have been the worst possible outcome. To drop a one-score game in the fourth quarter … again? With a new coach? In what was supposed to be a new timeline for Huskers football? And with a red-hot Colorado team on the agenda for Week 2? (We might have a little something to say about that on the show this week.)
Best win that too-few people saw: Wyoming
I did it, AJ. I caffeinated and I stayed up late. One small caveat: I didn’t watch a Pac-12 game. I got hooked into the weather-delayed Texas Tech at Wyoming game in the second half and stayed with it through all of its 2OT, field-storming glory. It was a spectacular game … that ended in Laramie just before 1 a.m. ET Sunday morning. Totally worth all of the coffee I required on Sunday just to function.
Getting pointsy:
Teams that scored 65 points or more this weekend:
Syracuse 65, Colgate 0
Cincinnati 66, Eastern Kentucky 13
USC 66, Nevada 14
Oklahoma 73, Arkansas State 0 (Fun fact: The Red Wolves are now coached by Butch Jones. Yes, that Butch Jones.)
Ole Miss 73, Mercer 7
Oregon 81, Portland State 7
Reopening the dictionary: Clemson
Clemsoning is back, baby! Give loads of credit to the Dukies, though. They were clearly the better team all night.
Road warriors: Fresno State, Northern Illinois, Texas State
Three Group of Five teams went on the road, played Power Five opponents … and won. These three teams beat Purdue, Boston College, and Baylor, respectively. This is why we love college football.
Big Ten musings:
Was I impressed by the Penn State offense? Yes. Drew Allar lived up to the hype: 21-of-29 for 325 yards and three TDs. However, I was less impressed by the Nits defensive efforts. Some work needs to be done there, particularly against the ground game.
I was underwhelmed by what I saw from Ohio State on Saturday, but I’m sure Crappy will have much more to say about that on the show this week.
Ditto, Michigan.
Wisconsin had an 89-yard play from scrimmage for a touchdown against Buffalo. Big offense from those pesky Badgers? That’s going to take some time to get used to.
And finally …
Congratulations to the Pac-12, which survived Week 0 and Week 1 unscathed. Yes, that’s correct. The teams in the conference that’s likely dissolving in just a handful of months have a combined record of 13-0 after the first 10 days of the 2023 season.
We’re gonna miss you, Pac-12.