There have been some shocking early season developments around college football and if the first two weeks of the season are any indication we could be in for a wild season on the gridiron.
Florida State
The Florida State Seminoles were arguably the biggest disappointment in college football in 2024 . Mike Norvell's team had a miraculous, undefeated, 12-0 season that had a painful ending when they were left out of the College Football Playoff and got throttled by Georgia 63-3 in the Orange Bowl.
It was an off-season of change in Tallahassee where Norvell brought in former UCF and Auburn head coach Guz Malzahn to be the offensive coordinator as well as bringing in Tony Wyatt from Nebraska to run the defense.
The roster also endured an intense over haul this off-season where they added 51 players in the transfer portal but none are bigger then former Boston College quarterback Thomas Castellanos.
The Seminoles have gotten off to a spectacular start to the season with an 31-17 upset victory in the season opener over Alabama and a 77-3 stomping over East Texas A&M.
If this truly is Florida State's return to an elite level in college football they have a couple tough challenges in their near future including the rival Miami Hurricanes coming to Tallahassee the first week in October and a road trip to Clemson in November
Mississippi State
Mississippi State was a lot like Florida State in 2024. The two teams had a combined four wins in 2024 and like the Seminoles the Bulldogs came to play early in 2025. Jeff Lebby hopes to build off their miserable 2024 campaign and turn things around in Starkville.
Blake Shapen returned at quarterback after missing the last eight games of last season and he has been excellent. In their first two games against Southern Miss and #12 Arizona State he has thrown for 550 yards and four touchdowns.
If the Bulldogs are able to take down Alcorn State this weekend they will have already surpassed their win total from last season and if they are able win their next two contests it could set up a huge matchup in their SEC opener against Tennessee.
Temple
For our final team I am going to go to a team that has been one of the programs who we haven't really heard from over the last thirty seasons. Temple has had eight winning seasons over the last thirty years but has not been an example of stability over the last half decade.
The Owls had endured four straight (3-9) seasons and it was time for a coaching change. Temple athletics director Arthur Johnson hired K.C. Keeler to be the new head football coach after spending the last 11 seasons at Sam Houston State.
It is still early in the season but the Owls are off to an excellent start to the K.C Keeler era in Philadelphia. Temple is off to their first 2-0 start since 2019 after two victories over Howard and UMASS. Quarterback Evan Simon is off to an excellent 2025 season with nine touchdowns in their first two contests.
Temple has their biggest test of the season this week against Oklahoma but when they get into American conference play starts they could be a team that could make some noise.