College Football Roundup Week 1: What It All Means, Winners, Losers, Overrated, Underrated
College football Week 1 roundup with the 5 things that matter, winners and losers, overrated and underrated aspects to the weekend, and what it all means
College Football Week 1 Roundup
College Football Week 1 Roundup
CFN 1-131 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Week 1 Scoreboard | Week 2 Early Lines
What 12-Team Playoff Would Look Like
Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak
– Stetson Bennett is for real? One Really Big Thing
– Week 1: Most Overrated Thing
– Power 5 teams: Most Underrated Thing
– Well that was fun: What It All Means, Week 1
Winners & Losers From Week 1
Winner: Arizona
Arizona had gone 1-23 in its previous 24 games before starting the 2022 season at San Diego State, and the only reason it got that one victory was because Cal was hammered by COVID in last season’s meeting.
It was supposed to be a joyous day for SDSU as it opened its awesome new Snapdragon Stadium, but Arizona – complete with a total overhaul of talent and transfers – got up fast and won 38-20.
It helped that Arizona was one of the few teams that could handle the …
Loser: Hot weather
It was over 100 degrees in San Diego, which meant the fan base cleared out of Snapdragon early on with Arizona taking charge right away. Aztec fans were there and left – UCLA fans didn’t even show up to a cavernous Rose Bowl for the win over Bowling Green. The matchup had something to do with it, but the heat was a problem, too.
Winner: Syracuse
Syracuse closed out last season with three straight ugly losses when all it needed was one win to go bowling. It was a home underdog against a dangerous Louisville team in the ACC and season opener, was up 10-7 in the first quarter, and rolled from there on the way to a 31-7 shocker of a blowout.
Loser: Army and Navy
Air Force held up the honor of the military academies with a 48-17 win over Northern Iowa. Army has a team – and a schedule – in place to do big things this season, but it needed to start hot. Instead, Coastal Carolina turned the tables by holding the ball for over 36 minutes in a 38-28 win.
Winner: Big 12
West Virginia lost a fun 38-31 game against Pitt, but other than that the conference got off to a great start. There might have been a slew of games against FCS teams, but TCU won at Colorado, too. In all, the conference went 9-1 – and that doesn’t count wins by BYU, UCF, and Houston – by a combined score of 488 to 158. Or, an average score of around 49 to 16.
Loser: Group of Five team in the New Year’s Six Race
Cincinnati played well against Arkansas, but lost. Houston needed a few overtimes in a shaky win over UTSA, Boise State had problems in a loss to Oregon State, and San Diego State struggled in a rough home loss to Arizona. So where’s the star among the Group of Five programs this year?
UCF and Fresno State had few problems against FCS teams, and Coastal Carolina beat Army, but that’s about it among the realistic options outside of the Power Five the hunt for a spot in a New Year’s Six game.
– Stetson Bennett is for real? One Really Big Thing
– Week 1: Most Overrated Thing
– Power 5 teams: Most Underrated Thing
– Well that was fun: What It All Means, Week 1
NEXT: The really big Week 1 thing was …
The Really Big Week 1 Thing Was …
Is Stetson Bennett a Heisman candidate?
The Georgia veteran was nowhere to be found on the lists of top quarterbacks going into the season, and no one really had a beef with it.
He’s not a pro prospect, he was this close to getting yanked as he was struggling in the College Football Playoff National Championship for JT Daniels – I was right there as Daniels was warming up with a purpose on the sidelines – and the thought was always that he was just along for the ride on a team loaded with NFL talent.
All of that might be true, but he also might be the exact quarterback the 2022 Georgia Bulldogs need.
Once again, Georgia is beyond loaded with NFL talent. It might not have the proven depth it enjoyed last season, but there were more than enough great players left over, more elite talents were waiting in the wings, and there’s a veteran quarterback with a national championship ring and house money to play with under center.
Oregon’s defense is fantastic. It’s full of NFL prospects, the linebacking corps might be the most talented in the country – no, really – and it got its doors blown off as Bennett hit throw after throw after throw in the 49-3 wipeout.
The Dawg D did its work, but Bennett was almost perfect completing 25-of-31 passes for 368 yards and two scores, and he ran for a touchdown.
He wasn’t just a caretaker of the offense, and he wasn’t a game manager. He was making big plays, he was seeing things quickly enough to get the ball in the hands of his guys, and he was dealing with good, tough throws.
With all due respect to the road games at South Carolina and Missouri, and the date against Auburn, Georgia shouldn’t have problems over the next six games before facing Florida.
If Bennett keeps playing like this, Georgia shouldn’t have problems until the College Football Playoff.
– Arizona, Big 12, Weather Winners & Losers
– Week 1: Most Overrated Thing
– Power 5 teams: Most Underrated Thing
– Well that was fun: What It All Means, Week 1
NEXT: The most overrated thing was …
The Most Overrated Thing Was …
Potentially, all of the fun we had watching the other games.
More on all of this in the final blurb, but while we were all watching great game after great game, Alabama was going through a light scrimmage against the defending Mountain West champ, beating Utah State 55-0 only because it didn’t want to score 80.
I’m dumb enough to have actually thought Oregon had a shot to beat Georgia. The defending national champion rolled 49-3, with the ugliness made even worse by the Bulldog twos keeping it all going against the Duck ones as the game went on.
Ohio State might have struggled against Notre Dame, but the defense looked more than fine, and in the end, it was a double-digit win over the No. 5 team in the country.
And then there’s my fanboy team of 2022 – USC. You probably didn’t see it – it was on the Pac-12 Network – but the defense came up with three pick-sixes, Caleb Williams looked like he’s about to be the best quarterback in college football, and …
As a friend put it, “settle down already, it was Rice.” It was 66-14 in a near-perfect performance.
Oklahoma and Oklahoma State looked good – at least until late for the Cowboys against Central Michigan – Michigan steamrolled past Colorado State, and Texas A&M won in a shutout.
Of course, all of the top team besides Georgia that won played a relative lightweight, but they all got a tune-up, they all looked the part, and they all looked like they’re playing for something important while everyone else was having a good time.
– Arizona, Big 12, Weather Winners & Losers
– Stetson Bennett is for real? One Really Big Thing
– Power 5 teams: Most Underrated Thing
– Well that was fun: What It All Means, Week 1
NEXT: The most underrated thing was …
The Most Underrated Thing Was …
For everyone worrying about the division between the haves and have-nots, and the rise of the super-conferences, we’re already here.
1-25.
One win.
Old Dominion stunned Virginia Tech 20-17 in the final seconds on Friday, and that’s it for the Group of Five wins over Power Five programs.
As bad as it has been so far for the American Athletic Conference, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West, and Sun Belt, it gets even worse.
22 of those 26 games were total wipeouts.
Appalachian State gave it a good ride in the wild 63-61 loss to North Carolina, East Carolina HAD NC State finished, and Cincinnati was solid in the loss to Arkansas, but 1) Cincinnati is really a Big 12 program now, and 2) that’s not enough.
The Group of Five hasn’t even been competitive so far against the teams from the bigger conferences.
And why? The matchups haven’t been all that great, the Group of Five programs almost always have to go to the Power Five places, and most importantly, the transfer portal is creating a further imbalance.
The Power Five programs already have Power Five talents in place. When they get a few new parts, they’re filling in the gaps. Group of Five programs almost always get castoffs from Power Five programs or the ones who couldn’t get the gigs in a bigger league.
There will be Group of Five upsets over the Power Five at some point soon – UCF is a Big 12 program soon, but it could beat Louisville this week, Air Force will likely beat Colorado, Fresno State hosts Oregon State, and …
This isn’t going to get better.
– Arizona, Big 12, Weather Winners & Losers
– Stetson Bennett is for real? One Really Big Thing
– Week 1: Most Overrated Thing
– Well that was fun: What It All Means, Week 1
NEXT: What It All Means: Week 0
What It All Means: Week 1
Seriously, have we ever had a start to the season like this?
Georgia annihilating Oregon wasn’t any fun, but game after game after game had something intriguing and some sort of a fantastic finish.
Start with the Big Ten.
The Northwestern win over Nebraska was a fun game if you weren’t a Husker fan, and that wasn’t even close to being the best conference game of the three so far.
Penn State came up with a phenomenal comeback to break Purdue’s heart, only to have Indiana rise up in a dud of a game against Illinois to pull off a thrilling finish in the 23-20 win on Friday night.
Ohio State might have won by 11, but Notre Dame made it a fight.
Florida and Utah came down to the final seconds, East Carolina almost ruined NC State’s season before it started – but missed a few late kicks – Arkansas held off a game Cincinnati, and Houston and UTSA put on a wild three-overtime show.
And none of those were even close to being among the wildest games of the day.
College Football Week 1 Roundup
CFN 1-131 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Week 1 Scoreboard | Week 2 Early Lines
What 12-Team Playoff Would Look Like
If you told Appalachian State it would score 40 points in the fourth quarter and lose … and that’s what happened in the insane 63-61 North Carolina win.
Off the radar, Southern Miss and Liberty battled in a four-overtime thriller, Rutgers pulled out a late win over Boston College, and Wyoming and Tulsa needed two overtimes in their wild shootout.
Even some of the ugly games had a performance art aspect to them. Iowa beat South Dakota State 7-3 on two second half safeties and a field goal. Any win you can walk away from is a good one.
And then came whatever that was on Sunday night when Florida State and LSU did everything humanly possible to give each other the game.
Of course all of that fun was in the midst of a whole lot of disasters, but that’s the beauty of having so many games going at once in an era when we can watch them all.
All of that, and the NFL season hasn’t even started yet.
Welcome back to the best time of the year.
– Arizona, Big 12, Weather Winners & Losers
– Stetson Bennett is for real? One Really Big Thing
– Week 1: Most Overrated Thing
– Power 5 teams: Most Underrated Thing
