Week 1 of the 2016 college football season is officially in the books, and what a week it was.
The introduction of the College Football Playoff, which has placed a greater emphasis on tough non-conference schedules, played at least some role in the high number of intriguing games on the opening week’s slate, and we the fans reaped the benefits. With marquee matchups and upsets as far as the eye could see, college football’s “best opening weekend ever” somehow found a way to live up to the hype.
Plus, seeing so many teams with playoff aspirations face stiff competition right off the bat gave players plenty of lessons to learn from and allowed the rest of us to draw all sorts of conclusions after just one week.
The weekend kicked off Thursday with an inauspicious start for Tennessee. The prohibitive favorite to win the SEC East nearly lost at home to Appalachian State on the ninth anniversary of the Mountaineers’ historic upset of Michigan. But thanks to Appalachian State’s Andy Reid-esque clock management at the end of regulation and a fortuitous fumble that led to a touchdown in overtime, the Volunteers survived and Butch Jones barely avoided being run out of Knoxville by an angry mob.
Still, given Tennessee’s struggles and Georgia’s solid 33-24 win against North Carolina, the race for the SEC East looks like it could once again be wide open in 2016.
On Saturday, all of college football learned that Houston is for real and that head coach Tom Herman will get to pick whatever job he wants at the end of the season. The Cougars, led by Heisman hopeful quarterback Greg Ward Jr., looked dominant in a 33-23 win over No. 3 Oklahoma and now face the real possibility of being in the College Football Playoff discussion if they can run the table. Not to mention, beating the conference favorite is quite the audition tape for Houston as it looks to be included in a potential Big 12 expansion.
USC learned that if you unceremoniously fire Lane Kiffin in a Los Angeles International Airport terminal, he will disembowel your football program and piss on its grave on national television (seriously Lane, there were kids watching that game).
Fueled by an offensive coordinator hell-bent on revenge, Alabama methodically ground the Trojans into a fine dust en route to 52-6 win. Hyper-perfectionist Nick Saban still tried to downplay his team’s sensational performance, but it remains quite evident that the Crimson Tide dynasty is showing no signs of slowing down.
Meanwhile, the hype train is full steam ahead for both Wisconsin and Texas after their Week 1 wins, as they catapulted from the legions of the unranked to No. 10 and No. 11, respectively, in the latest AP poll.
The Badgers outlasted No. 5 LSU 16-14 at historic Lambeau Field to gain a little revenge for the Tigers’ 28-24 win over Wisconsin in 2014. For LSU, preseason dreams of a national title are looking bleak and head coach Les Miles, who barely survived a coup from university boosters last November, is squarely back on the hot seat. As it turns out, bringing in Dave Aranda as defensive coordinator doesn’t make Brandon Harris a serviceable quarterback or turn Cam Cameron into a halfway decent offensive coordinator.
On the flip side of the coin, Texas head coach Charlie Strong felt his seat cool significantly after the Longhorns bested No. 10 Notre Dame 50-47 in double overtime on Sunday night, in what could end up being the best game of the season. With Sterlin Gilbert calling plays and Shane Buechele under center, Texas looks like it could have a dynamic offense for the first time since the days of Colt McCoy.
Ending the weekend on Monday night was No. 4 Florida State, who rallied back from a 22-point deficit to beat No. 11 Ole Miss 45-34 in the biggest comeback win in school history. Over the span of just four quarters, the Seminoles went from a favorite to make the College Football Playoff to clearly being overrated and then back to a national championship contender.
Of course, the true beauty of this sport is that in two or three weeks essentially everything we thought we knew after an opening weekend for the ages will probably be completely turned on its head. But the one question we’ll still never be able to answer is how the hell we survive eight months without the transcendent bliss of college football.
