College football week 0 is in the books. After every week fans can take away things from what happened on the field. Here are five things learned from college football week 0.
1. Florida’s Pass Rush is a Force to be Reckoned With
Going into the season, a lot of people expected the Florida defense to be good, but they registered 10 sacks in the opener against Miami. While this says a little about Miami’s offensive line, Florida’s defensive line deserves a lot of credit.
The Gators were led by Ventrell Miller’s two sacks. Jabari Zuniga, Jonathan Greenard and Trey Dean III all chipped in with 1.5 sacks each. With the offense struggling, the defense had to step up for the Gators to win the game and the pass rush helped deliver the win.
With a tough schedule ahead this season for Florida and the offense struggling, the pass rush will have to take over games in the future for the Gators.
2. Jarren Williams is the Quarterback; Tate Martell is the Wide Receiver
Eyebrows were raised when Miami named redshirt freshman Jarren Williams the starting quarterback. While he did fumble twice, Williams handled the relentless pressure decently well, as he threw for 214 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions on 65.5 percent completion. If he can handle Florida’s pressure this well, Williams should be able to play solidly in the ACC.
Tate Martell transferred from Ohio State to play quarterback at Miami, but was beaten out for the job by Williams. Martell had reportedly been contemplating a change of position and ended up lining up at wide receiver against Florida. He did not register a catch, but it seems Williams doesn’t have to look over his shoulder and Martell will give wide receiver a shot.
3. Florida’s Offense has Some Work to do
After they scored 35 points per game last season, there were some high expectations around Florida’s offense this season. It was week 0, but they looked really sloppy against Miami. Feleipe Franks was one player in particular who had a rough start. He threw two interceptions and lost a fumble. If he protects the ball, the Gators have a chance to really improve.
The offensive woes don’t all sit on Franks though. He had no running game to lean on, which made things more difficult. Florida averaged just 1.9 yards per carry. That will have to improve if they truly want to challenge Georgia for the SEC East.
4. Cedric Byrd is a Star
Hawaii lost John Ursua to the NFL this offseason and needed a wide receiver to step up. They got just what they needed in Cedric Byrd, who finished with 14 catches for 224 yards and four touchdowns to help Hawaii defeat Arizona. Byrd accomplished all this with two different quarterbacks playing, as Cole McDonald struggled with four interceptions and Chevan Cordeiro stepped in.
In the Warriors’ pass-happy offense, Byrd has a chance to really shine this year and could have the most receiving yards in the FBS by the end of the season. The win over Arizona, in large part thanks to Byrd’s performance, sets up Hawaii to have a successful season, even with some tough games on their schedule.
5. Arizona has a Long Way to go if they Want to Make a Bowl Game
Arizona was favored in the game against Hawaii, but couldn’t outscore the Warriors. Khalil Tate ran the ball well, but completed just over 50 percent of his passes and threw two interceptions. The running game averaged 5.6 yards per carry, but they had to throw to keep up with Hawaii and were unable to take the lead when it mattered.
The Wildcats are in a Pac-12 South that has some winnable games, but dropping their first makes things difficult. They have another tough nonconference game against Texas Tech coming up before conference play. If they lose that game, their uphill battle will be even harder.
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