College football week 0 is in the books. After every week fans can take away things from what happened on the field. Here are 5 things learned from college football week 0.
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1. Florida State Underperformed in the Trenches
Florida State matched up with Georgia Tech in Dublin, Ireland to kick off the college football season. They were upset by the Yellow Jackets, losing 24-21. It was a disappointing performance for several players, but the play in the trenches was particularly shocking from the Seminoles. Florida State has plenty of future pros on both sides of the line of scrimmage, but they failed to control the trenches.
On offense, Florida State only averaged 3.2 yards per carry. This was against a Georgia Tech rushing defense that wasn’t very good last season and wasn’t projected to be great this season. Defensively, they failed to make an impact, as they had no sacks and three tackles for loss. Rebounding from this loss starts with improving the play in the trenches.
2. Georgia Tech’s Backfield Duo can do Some Damage
Georgia Tech’s offense was good last season. There were some improvements that could be made, including limiting turnovers and they did that in week 0. Haynes King didn’t throw an interception and showed his dual-threat abilities. He passed for 146 yards and rushed for 54 more. His backfield mate Jamal Haynes had 75 rushing yards, 16 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
King’s ability to run and throw can lead to more success this season. He’ll have to keep protecting the football this season for the Yellow Jackets to improve on their seven wins from last season. Haynes proved how elusive he was and how he can impact the game in a few different ways. He is a versatile running back that could help Georgia Tech compete in the ACC.
3. SMU’s Season Might be Tougher Than Expected
SMU was favored to beat Nevada by more than three touchdowns. Things didn’t go according to plan. They trailed early, but finally came back to win on a go-ahead touchdown with 1:18 left in the game. Quarterback Preston Stone was benched in the first half, then came back into the game to help lead the SMU comeback. The benching made it one of the more quirky games of the weekend.
Stone was unable to get in a rhythm in the first half, but found himself in the second half.
4. FCS Teams Are Still Winning FBS Games
Big upsets are seemingly becoming less prevalent in college football. Teams at the group of five level or even the FCS level lose their good players to the transfer portal to schools with more resources. Although they will likely slow down, an FCS team, Montana State, defeated an FBS team, New Mexico, this weekend.
Montana State is one of the best FCS teams heading into the season. They didn’t play well early against New Mexico, but stuck with it and were able to come back and win in the final seconds. The Bobcats were favored by over 10 points and New Mexico has a new regime with Bronco Mendenhall leading the charge, but it is still impressive when a team can go up a level and get the win.
5. Hawaii Still has Some Work to do on Offense
When Hawaii hired Timmy Chang as head coach, there was hope he could revitalize the offense to be much like the ones he played in at the school. It has only been two years, but that hasn’t happened quite yet. The Warriors scored just 35 points against a Delaware State team that they were favored by 40 over.
The Warriors will likely figure things out and improve on offense this season, but it wasn’t a good start for an offense that ranked 106th in scoring last season. Chang is in year three and will need to show these signs of improvement in a Mountain West Conference with some tough defenses.
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