The first week of college football is in the books and here are the biggest winners and losers from College Football Week1.
College football’s first full week is in the books and there is plenty to talk about. Colorado football shocked the world with its upset of 17th-ranked TCU, while Florida State made a statement, and the SEC sort of struggled.
Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee won. But there were some less-than-stellar moments for the SEC and the Big Ten to be honest.
Looking back at College Football Week 1, here are the biggest winners and losers.
Biggest Winner: Colorado football
This is a no-brainer. Deion Sanders and Colorado shook up the college football world with their win over TCU. Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter looked like Heisman candidates and Coach Prime definitely lived up to all the hype.
Now, the Buffaloes need to back it up with another win over Nebraska, which travels to Boulder on Saturday for the renewal of an old rivalry.
Regardless, Colorado proved that it’s back on the map with Sanders and that one-win seasons are going to be a thing of the distant past as long as he’s around.
Sanders and Hunter also made themselves legitimate Heisman contenders. I don’t know if Hunter can play as many snaps as he did on Saturday but it was a spectacular performance.
That really goes for the entire Colorado football team — the biggest winner of College Football Week 1.
Biggest loser: LSU
The Tigers had College Football Playoff aspirations going into College Football Week 1, but it’s going to be tough to recover from the loss to Florida State.
It’s a game that wasn’t even as close as the final score and that was 45-24 in favor of the Seminoles who led by 28 points at one time in the fourth quarter.
If LSU runs the table, it would still make the College Football Playoff. But with Georgia, Alabama, and probably another matchup with Georgia in the SEC championship game that makes it a really tall order.
Florida State is also going to be in the mix and the head-to-head domination at the hands of the Noles won’t help LSU at all. However, this has been a recent trend for the Tigers. This is the third time in the past four games they have lost by 15 points or more.
Brian Kelly was the toast of the town when the Tigers beat Alabama last season. And to be fair, they lost by 27 points (to Tennessee early in 2022) and essentially controlled their own destiny down the stretch last season, so there is lots of football to be played, but the blowout loss to Florida State makes the Tigers one of the biggest losers in Week 1 of college football.
It showed that the Tigers have no business being ranked in the top five.
Winner: Florida State
Those who have been touting Florida State football as a national title contender were rewarded for their faith on Sunday night as FSU pummeled LSU.
Florida State had a 28-point lead on the No. 5 team in the country. It also helps that LSU was/is viewed as a real contender in the SEC.
It will be hard to deny the Seminoles a playoff berth if they win the ACC championship, especially if the Tigers don’t completely fall apart. There is a road game at Clemson for FSU, which would be another resume builder, but outside of that, the Noles should be favored to win every game left in the regular season.
A win over Clemson and an undefeated regular season would probably be enough for FSU to clinch a playoff berth without even winning the ACC title game.
Jordan Travis was stellar for the Noles and they lived up to the hype. Florida State football fans had to wonder if they could hold up against a top SEC program and the Noles did on Sunday night.
Loser: Nebraska
It was a brutal College Football Week 1 for Nebraska football fans, who had to watch their team play well enough to beat Minnesota on the road, only to fall apart again at the end.
The Huskers lead college football in one-score losses dating back to 2018, as well as blown fourth-quarter leads. Two turnovers in the last five minutes will do that to you. Plus, they got just three points on two separate first-and-goal situations.
That’s not a winning formula.
Matt Rhule was supposed to change all that. Nebraska football played well enough to win in two of the three phases, but not on offense.
Colorado is up next for the Huskers, who are staring an 0-2 start right in the face. There will be plenty of time to recover but if you want to reach a bowl game you can’t squander winnable games on the road.
You just don’t know when the next opportunity will come around. Colorado is the early favorite by 3.5 points according to DraftKings and if the Huskers drop another close game or worse, get beaten soundly, the honeymoon period will be over for Matt Rhule.
Other College Football Week 1 winners: Pac-12/ACC
It was a good first week of the college football season for the Pac-12 and the ACC. Colorado knocked off TCU and Utah beat up Florida in another national TV game.
The perception of the league as weak is changing. I know it’s the final season of Pac-12 football, at least as we know it now, but the conference could go out with a bang and get a team into the College Football Playoff.
The ACC is also off to a great start. The fact that Florida State rolled LSU, sets up the league to have 2-3 potential playoff contenders. North Carolina also won by double-digits against South Carolina
Both conferences were pretty weak in 2022, so Week 1 was a positive start for both, at least until Duke took out Clemson which is still good for the ACC in a way but not for its playoff hopes unless the Blue Devils are much better than we expected.
And after watching TCU go from 5-7 to the College Football Playoff, you can’t rule out anything, especially not after the way Duke looked on Monday night.
Loser: Clemson
Clemson’s blowout loss at the hands of Duke, 28-7, was among the worst of any in college football during the first week.
The Tigers hope of reaching the College Football Playoff and winning the ACC took a big hit. Clemson is going to have to run the table to have any shot of making the playoff.
Beyond that, the Tigers are looking less and less like a college football power with each season. Clemson won the ACC last year, but repeating will be a big challenge and if Monday night was a clue, the Tigers aren’t one of the best teams in the ACC.
Cade Klubnik was average at best. He completed 27-of-43 passes but just for 209 yards. The Tigers turned the ball over three times in the second half. They were also mired with penalties and had two kicks blocked.
It was brutal and Clemson is a clear loser from College Football Week 1.