Week 1 Thoughts/ Reaction
Written by: Campus Pigskin
After a long offseason week 1 has finally come and gone as we were all reminded why we love college football so much. Top 10 upsets, sluggish performances and a new kid in town will be the talking points going into week 2.
Miami vs Florida
Miami owns the state After Florida States upset loss, and Miami’s beat down of the Gators, the Hurricanes look to not only be the best team in Florida, but the ACC as well. Cam Ward was all that he was hyped to be for the season opener in the swamp completing 26/35 for 385 yds and 3 touchdowns to 10 different receivers. The Canes had what appeared to be a very workable schedule preseason and after week 1, it’s hard to find a loss judging by the way they played. The poor game management that plagued the team for the last two seasons was no where to be found week 1.
Georgia v. Clemson
Georgia showed themselves to be the clear number 1 team in the country after dominating Clemson. The Dawgs defense is once again a contender to be top 5 in the country and the offense didn’t seem to miss their top targets from 2023 too much. Clemson has a quality defense but once again a lackluster offense that is still missing some quality receiving targets. Ultimately, the dawgs wore them down and ran up the score in the second half cementing a quality week 1 victory.
Notre Dame @ Texas A&M
This game already appears to be producing overreactions from both sides. The Irish are expected to be playoff bound as the rest of their schedule doesn’t show much challenge, Florida State and USC being the toughest competition remaining. Their defense played lights out at Kyle Field only giving up 1 rushing touchdown on the night. The offensive performance however was far short of spectacular against the Aggie defense. I’d expect them to improve throughout the season enough to be competitive in the playoffs. The Aggie quarterback never settled in and had the worst performance of his career completing only 12 passes for 100 yds and 2 INTs. A combination of elite secondary play on the side of Notre Dame and an offense that lacked playmakers at receiver ensured this. The Aggies defense played well enough for the game to have gone their way, but the offense couldn’t do its part. I expect the quarterback play to improve quickly however with the new coaching staff. If they can’t figure things out, we’re in for another tough season in College Station.
Nervous Energy
Oregon and Michigan both started the season with far inferior competition. Both teams however failed to impress as Idaho and Fresno State were able to keep things close. Michigan was expected to take a step back offensively, which they did. Fortunately, their defense played well enough to give the offense time and the final score doesn’t show how close this game really was. Davis Warren will have to be better than he was next week if Michigan expects to beat a Texas team that checked all the boxes against their G5 opponent. Looking at the stat line for Oregon, it’s hard to see how this game was only 24-14 as the final seconds ran out in the 4th quarter. Dillon Gabriel completed 41 passes for 380 yds and 2 touchdowns. With 10 receivers catching balls and 487 yds of total offense. The ducks need to find the end zone with more efficiency if they expect to compete in the B1G. Penn State Not much to talk about here after the win over West Virginia. Drew Allar was incredibly efficient completing 11 passes for 235 yards and 3 touchdowns. West Virginia was simply overmatched. The lions face some quality competition throughout the rest of the season with Ohio State being their most difficult opponent. With Michigan missing from the schedule and consistent QB play, Penn State will likely find themselves to be one of the 12 teams remaining at the end of the year.
USC v. LSU
This was a fascinating game as I really didn’t know what to expect. Both teams played very similar to each other with the passing game being the strength of both offenses. On the other side of the ball, both defenses were less than impressive in the secondary. LSU & USCs lingering issues from the previous season defensively showed some marginal improvement but both teams have a lot of room for growth. Going forward, neither team looks to have a defense capable of defending against the best in their respective conferences. In the case of LSU, worst case scenario is definitely in play here. Judging this off of this game, they definitely won’t have anywhere near the offense they had last year, but that was somewhat expected. The marginal improvement on defense was not enough to instill promise in the fanbase. For USC, it’s still easy to find losses on their schedule judging by their defense. They played well enough to pull out a win week 1, but the meat of their B1G schedule may not be as forgiving.
