The 2023 college football season is officially underway and while we got a little taste of action in Week 0 with teams like Notre Dame and USC picking up big wins, Week 1 was the true entree.
The weekend started on Thursday with Utah taking down Florida in what can only be described as a lopsided win. It was just 24-11, but Florida really never felt like it was in the game and Graham Mertz’s debut was spoiled by, well, Graham Mertz.
On Friday, we saw Louisville and Michigan State pick up wins but neither were AP Top 25 teams to begin the season although the Cardinals may get some consideration.
Saturday was the day everyone had been waiting for as we saw most of the rest of the AP Top 25 take the field with easy wins for Michigan, Georgia, Alabama, USC, Penn State, and Washington. All of those teams looked as good or better than advertised and I wouldn’t be shocked to see all of them in the playoff race by the end of the year.
Ohio State was slightly underwhelming, but hey, Kyle McCord is just getting his feet wet, so we’ll give the Buckeye gunslinger the benefit of the doubt.
On Sunday, we saw Florida State handle LSU behind transfer wideout Keon Coleman’s three touchdown catches and a sparkling performance from Heisman contender Jordan Travis.
Monday will end the long weekend of college football with Clemson traveling to Duke.
What will the AP Top 25 look like on Tuesday afternoon?
For some reason, Tulane wasn’t that heavily-favored against South Alabama in the opener and the Green Wave took that personally. They played a close game for over a half, but the reigning Cotton Bowl champs pulled away late en route to a 20-point victory. For the time being, Tulane is still the top team from the Group of Five.
Jimbo Fisher is entering a critical year that could determine his future at Texas A&M and he got off to a nice start with a 52-10 win over New Mexico. Conner Weigman looked the part of a top-tier SEC quarterback and the Aggies dominated on both sides of the ball. Could this team save Fisher’s job? It’s talented enough to do so.
I’m buying some Jaxson Dart stock after the opener and I get that it’s just Mercer, but a 73-7 win with your starting quarterback tossing four touchdown passes with just five incompletions and 334 yards is darn near perfect. Ole Miss looks dangerous offensively yet again — heck, the backup quarterbacks combined for 190 yards and two scores.
Yes, I actually have Wisconsin dropping a couple of spots to make way for a new AP Top 25 team as well as sliding down for another that played well enough to move up last week. Why after a 38-17 win over Buffalo? The Badgers didn’t look all that dominant and Tanner Mordecai threw two bad interceptions and had less than 200 yards on over 30 attempts. Not great for the start of the Luke Fickell era.
Oklahoma beat a once-proud Arkansas State program by what felt like a million points on Saturday as Brent Venables shook off some criticism from last year with a 70-3 win. Dillon Gabriel was great and so was that defense, holding the Red Wolves to just three points.
Mack Brown and the Tar Heels just continue to impress me. I always think that they’re going to take a step back, but he’s a legendary head coach for a reason. Plus, he has a legit Heisman contender at quarterback in Drake Maye who out-dueled Spencer Rattler to take down South Carolina convincingly in the opener. I expect a slight jump in the rankings.
Taking a tumble in Week 1, Clemson was unable to overcome the Durham atmosphere, some lackluster offensive play, and big turnovers to beat a rising Duke team on Monday night. Cade Klubnik wasn’t nearly as effective as Clemson fans had hoped heading into the season after moving on from DJ Uiagalelei.
One of the games that I was looking forward to this weekend was Oregon State traveling to San Jose State because I wanted to see what DJ Uiagalelei would look like with his new team. And he did not disappoint. He finished with 239 yards and three touchdowns on 20-of-25 passing as he looked like a quarterback reborn. And the Beavers held the Spartans to under 300 total yards of offense.
Did anyone really expect Duke to beat Clemson in the opener? Riley Leonard and the Blue Devils were definitely an interesting upset pick but no one believed that they were ready to take down Clemson. If you’re not buying stock in Mike Elko and the now-ranked Blue Devils, what’s wrong with you?
The team that everyone is talking about after Week 1 is Colorado. The Buffaloes shocked the nation with a road win over the reigning national runner-up. Shedeur Sanders had a Heisman performance with 510 yards and four touchdowns and Travis Hunter looks like one of the most dynamic players in college football. As Deion Sanders said in his post-game presser, “Do you believe yet?”
Will Howard had one heck of a game with two passing touchdowns, a rushing touchdown, and a receiving touchdown. That kind of production from a quarterback is unheard of, but he got his confidence up against a bad Southeast Missouri State team to start the year as the reigning Big 12 champs put up nearly 600 yards of total offense in a shutout win.
Oregon had one of the most impressive showings in Week 1 with an 81-7 win over Portland State. After allowing a touchdown in the first quarter. The Ducks out-scored 59 straight over the final three quarters. Dan Lanning is going to have another title contender in 2023.
No Cam Rising? No problem in Week 1 for Utah. The Utes dominated the Florida Gators on Thursday night to kick off the holiday weekend. This was a revenge game for last season’s loss in Gainesville and Utah dominated from start to finish without their starting quarterback. Yeah, this team is still good.
The Sam Hartman train rolled along on Saturday as he passed for 194 yards and two touchdowns in a 56-3 win over Tennessee State. Eddie George’s team stood no chance as Notre Dame was able to do whatever it wanted all game long.
Joe Milton looked solid in the opener and didn’t miss a beat from Malik Hooker as the Volunteers dominated the Virginia Cavaliers. Tennessee routed Virginia 49-13 on Saturday and it wasn’t ever close. It feels like Josh Heupel has another legit SEC title contender.
Texas didn’t exactly get off to a scorching start to the 2023 season but the Longhorns figured things out quickly to cruise to a 37-10 victory over Rice.
Quinn Ewers looks lighter and more athletic after shedding some offseason weight, but the question is whether the offense will be able to replace Bijan Robinson.
The Longhorns have the right pieces on both sides of the ball but a lot is going to come down to the coaching from Steve Sarkisian. If he can’t lead this Big 12 favorite to the promised land, there’s a chance his future is put in question.
I think we see LSU remain in the top 10 this week even after losing by three touchdowns to underdog Florida State and it’s because the Tigers were legitimately in the game for three quarters before the Seminoles just ran away with the game in the fourth.
Jayden Daniels had a pretty solid game with 347 yards and a touchdown with a pick on 22-of-37 passing and he led the Tigers in rushing with 64 yards. If your quarterback accounts for 411 total yards, your team is winning the game nine times out of 10. Unfortunately, this was that one.
The run game was disappointing overall with just 49 yards between Josh Williams, Noah Cain, and Tre Bradford who combined for 12 carries — Williams had 44 of those yards.
Brian Thomas Jr. was a stud at receiver, though, with seven catches for 142 yards and a touchdown, but his play was overshadowed by a wideout on the other side in Keon Coleman.
Overall, Brian Kelly and LSU have a ton of work to do for the second straight year after a season-opening loss.
What is there to say about Washington other than: wow. The Huskies were a team that some experts believed would take a step back this season after blowing expectations out of the water in 2022, but Michael Penix Jr. and Co. didn’t get that memo in the opener against Boise State.
The Broncos, a popular pick to win the Mountain West, held their ground for about a quarter against the Huskies, leading 6-0 after the first but that was very short-lived. Washington exploded for 28 second-quarter points and took a 28-12 lead into the half and just extended that in the final two quarters with a 56-19 blowout win.
Penix Jr. had himself another huge day (shocker, I know) with 450 passing yards and five touchdowns on 29-of-40 completions, and the trio of Rome Odunze, Jalen McMillan, and Ja’Lynn Polk all went over 95 yards apiece.
The run game wasn’t all that special, totaling 78 yards on 19 carries, which could prove to be an issue at some point this year.
And the defense surrendered over 400 yards.
But hey, when you have an offense that can account for 450-plus passing yards in any given week, you’re dangerous no matter what.
There were a lot of eyes on Happy Valley on Saturday night as Penn State hosted West Virginia while ushering in a new era at quarterback. Drew Allar finally got his first start and he looked unreal.
I think a lot of people felt like Allar was going to be really good, but after hearing James Franklin downplay the fact that he was the QB1, the uncertainty grew. Was he really going to be the next star quarterback of the Nittany Lions? Well, that question was answered on Saturday as he had one of the best games of any Big Ten quarterback.
Allar passed for 325 yards and three touchdowns on 21-of-29 passing and it feels like he’s going to be a problem for the Big Ten for years.
On the ground, the duo of Kaytron Allen and Nicholas Singleton was effective as expected as the two combined for 121 yards and a touchdown on 23 carries. To be fair, they didn’t really need to do much as the Nittany Lions moved the ball with ease.
KeAndre Lambert-Smith is a name to watch as he caught four passes for 123 yards and two touchdowns in the win over West Virginia.
Penn State is legit.
It’s hard not to be high on USC after it just dropped 66 points on Nevada in Week 1 after having an offensive party in Week 0 against San Jose State.
The only question about this team after the first two weeks of play is whether or not Alex Grinch can improve the defense and make it through the entire season. He’s faced two Group of Five teams so far and he surrendered 360 yards to Nevada (311 through the air) and 396 to San Jose State. That’s not ideal. What happens when he faces Colorado, Notre Dame, Utah, Washington, Oregon, and even UCLA?
OK, enough of the negative side of the Trojans, let’s talk about how this offense has not skipped a beat since last year.
Caleb Williams is off to a heck of a start to his Heisman campaign (again), passing for 319 yards and five touchdowns with just six incompletions against Nevada and 14 (!!) different Trojans caught a pass against the Wolf Pack.
MarShawn Lloyd led a solid run game with 76 yards and a touchdown on seven carries and Quinten Joyner had 65 yards and a score on four touches.
This team is explosive.
There may not be a team that I’m higher on after Week 1 than Florida State and the Seminoles had college football fans everywhere buzzing after their performance against No. 5 LSU.
Florida State made a statement in the season opener, dropping 45 points on LSU and winning by three touchdowns.
Jordan Travis looked like a legit Heisman contender, Keon Coleman looked like the best receiver in college football, and the offense just looked like a well-oiled machine that could score at will. If there was any doubt about who the best team in the ACC currently is, there shouldn’t be anymore.
Coleman and Johnny Wilson look to be the best wide receiver duo in the country and Travis is a legit Heisman threat and the offense didn’t even need a huge game from Trey Benson to run up the score on LSU.
Mike Norvell is building an absolute machine down in Tallahassee, folks. This is a top-five team.
I was a little hesitant to put too much stock in Alabama this offseason heading into the 2023 campaign without Bryce Young at quarterback, but after watching the first game against Middle Tennessee, it feels like the Crimson Tide are going to be just fine.
Jalen Milroe got the start at quarterback and completed 13-of-18 passes for 194 yards and three touchdowns while also leading the team in rushing with 48 yards and two scores on seven carries. He could be in the early Heisman conversation.
Tyler Buchner came in and completed 3-of-5 passes for 27 yards and Ty Simpson was 1-for-1 with five yards.
This is Milroe’s job to lose and he looked great.
The offense was very valanced as the run game produced 205 yards on 40 carries with five rushing touchdowns and there were four rushers with over 29 yards on the ground.
Defensively, Alabama was Alabama again with three sacks, seven tackles for loss, an interception, and just 211 total yards surrendered on 61 plays.
The critics were out there early and often regarding Ohio State’s offense and they had a legit point. The Buckeyes just didn’t look as well-oiled in the first half of the opener at Indiana as they did when CJ Stroud was still under center.
You could almost hear fans from Columbus chanting Devin Brown’s name as McCord struggled throughout the first half and went into the locker room with just a 10-3 lead. Yes, the Buckeyes had just 10 points in the first half against the Hoosiers. Wild stuff.
But the second half went much better for the new starting quarterback as he finished with 239 yards and a pick on 20-of-33 passing. Fans are hoping he can get on the same page as Marvin Harrison Jr. who had just two catches for 18 yards and had a touchdown called back for illegal touching in the second half.
Ohio State has all the right pieces and a very solid defense that allowed just 153 total yards, but the offense must catch up.
Michigan will stay at No. 2 this week after downing East Carolina in Ann Arbor and watching JJ McCarthy have one of the best games of his collegiate career.
In fact, McCarthy completed 26-of-30 passes for 280 yards and three touchdowns as he was nearly perfect against the Pirates. He looked better than advertised and continued to make throw after throw. The experts who pegged him as a Heisman candidate before the season looked like geniuses after this win.
Blake Corum got his Heisman campaign off to a decent start with 73 yards and a touchdown on just 10 carries and Donovan Edwards struggled a bit on the ground with just 37 yards on 12 touches.
The Michigan defense seems to have reloaded again as the Wolverines allowed just 235 total yards and did so without Jim Harbaugh on the sidelines.
We all heard the groans from Georgia fans from miles away regarding the new play-calling from Mike Bobo but it didn’t matter as the Bulldogs coasted to an easy victory over UT Martin to begin the season.
Carson Beck got his first start as a Bulldog quarterback and passed for 294 yards and a touchdown and Brock Bowers proved why he’s still the best tight end in the country, catching five passes for 77 yards. And the Georgia defense put the clamps on UT Martin en route to a 48-7 win.
There’s always going to be something to complain about when things don’t go perfectly in the season opener, especially when you’re the two-time defending national champs and perfection is the expectation.
The Bulldogs will remain No. 1 this week despite what you read about Bobo on social media. This team is loaded once again.
Still, can’t tell much from a game against UT Martin.