Looking back at College Football Week 0, here are the biggest winners and losers as college football returned to our living rooms.
College Football Week 0 is in the books and to be honest, it went about as expected. USC and Notre Dame both rolled to big wins, while each of their quarterbacks was stellar.
There weren’t really any major upsets to think of on Saturday outside of UMass over New Mexico State, although folks who bet on Hawaii to cover the spread against Vanderbilt will be pleased with Saturday night’s result as the Rainbows lost 35-28 (to cover on the road) after losing 63-10 last season.
That was the one pick I missed in my three best bets for College Football Week 0. But as a whole, here are the winners and losers from the first weekend of the 2023 season.
Winner: Sam Hartman/Notre Dame football
Hartman exceeded expectations in the opener. The Wake Forest transfer was expected to be good, but he was nearly perfect. Notre Dame football scored on its first five drives and it didn’t take Irish fans long to fall in love with their new quarterback.
Hartman completed 14-of-17 passes for 197 and two scores in the first half and finished the game 19-of-23 with four touchdowns and 251 yards.
Yes, Navy doesn’t have a great defense and is probably going to struggle to a be .500 team. That doesn’t matter though. Hartman made a big impression and he launched his 2023 Heisman Trophy campaign with a head-turning performance that even had Joe Montana impressed.
The Notre Dame football offense has been held back by average quarterback play for years and it seems like that will finally stop with Hartman, who is anything but average.
The Irish are winners too. Notre Dame football dominated Navy and looked impressive on both sides of the ball doing it. With a legit quarterback, this team could be a true playoff contender.
Losers: College football fans
It was great to have college football back, but College Football Week 0 could definitely use an upgrade in the future.
There are so many quality games set for next week, I don’t see why there couldn’t be at least one marquee matchup in Week 0. The primetime game on ESPN was New Mexico State and UMass.
The game of the day wound up being San Diego State’s 20-13 win over Ohio. It’s nice to have college football a week early and I probably sound like a complainer, but I just wish there was one game to get excited about.
Still, it’s better than the NFL preseason and we did get to see some exciting things such as Sam Hartman’s debut or this incredible touchdown pass by USC football quarterback Caleb Williams.
Yet, I’d love to see games of more consequence. Maybe it would be a great time to showcase a stellar HBCU matchup or even some more high-profile FCS games. I just feel like College Football Week 0 could be better, although it’s college football, so it’s still great.
Winner: Caleb Williams
It’s hard to win consecutive Heisman Trophy awards. Only Archie Griffin has been able to do it, but on Saturday night against San Jose State, Caleb Williams got his 2023 campaign off to a pretty good start.
Not only did Williams put up stellar numbers in a 56-28 win for USC football over San Jose State, but his highlight-reel touchdown pass where he mishandled a snap and had the ball bounce back into his hands before throwing a perfect pass for a 77-yard touchdown, is the perfect moment to jumpstart another Heisman Trophy campaign.
Williams could have been sacked. It could have been a turnover — having the ball on the ground is the worst possible thing — but Williams still turned it into a touchdown.
It’s just San Jose State, but it’s still a play that will stick out and give Williams an early boost of Heisman Trophy momentum as if he needed it.
Loser: USC football defense
As good as Caleb Williams was, I still came away from the USC football win over San Jose State wondering if the defense has improved.
The Spartans are a bowl team and won the Mountain West a couple of years ago, so they have a solid program and a talented quarterback. But they also rushed for over 100 yards and the score was 21-14 going into the half.
USC eventually pulled away but Chase Cordeiro averaged 9.4 yards per attempt, was sacked once, and tossed three touchdowns. He also ran for 52 yards. SJSU ran for 198 total and had 396 yards of total offense in addition to 28 points.
USC football also didn’t force a single turnover, so even though Caleb Williams and freshman Zacharias Branch were spectacular, the defense wasn’t which was the big question mark heading into the 2023 season.
Winners: Former Michigan football coaches
Two former Michigan football coaches got big wins on Saturday. Rich Rodriguez led Jacksonville State, which is transitioning from the FCS to FBS to a 20-17 victory over UTEP.
The Gamecocks won’t be eligible for a bowl game this season and won their conference a season ago, so it shouldn’t come as a huge shock. Still, it had to feel good for Rich Rod to win another FBS game as a head coach after failed stints at Michigan and Arizona.
Another former Michigan football coach, defensive coordinator Don Brown, and his UMass Minutemen might be the biggest winners from College Football Week 0 as they went on the road, and won on ESPN against the Aggies by a score of 41-30 as a touchdown underdog.
Brown’s defense was able to force three takeaways, while the offense racked up nearly 500 yards of total offense (468) in a convincing win.
UMass hasn’t had many wins of any sort lately with just three in the past four seasons total, so kudos to Dr. Blitz Don Brown for a huge win in College Football Week 0.