College football week 1 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 1.
Related: 5 Things to watch in college football week 1
Florida was projected to play a close game against Utah on the road after defeating them at home last season. Before injuries it was expected to be competitive, but even moreso after Utah starting quarterback Cam Rising was ruled out for the game with a knee injury. Even without him, Utah physically dominated the Gators, winning 24-11.
The Gators made a comeback attempt late, but the story of the game was how Utah dominated in the trenches. Florida didn’t get much offense going on the ground, as they averaged 0.6 yards per carry. Graham Mertz didn’t do great through the air either, although the late comeback attempt did allow him to finish with 333 passing yards. For a team with a lot of new faces from last season, the Gators need a lot of work. While some are calling for head coach Billy Napier to be fired, really the Gators need to keep adding talent to their roster.
Heading into the season, Colorado was projected to be one of the worst FBS teams this season by several analysts. They went 1-11 last season and Deion Sanders replaced a lot of players in the transfer portal. There weren’t doubts that Sanders could eventually get the job done, but he has already done a good job at Colorado. The evidence was a 45-42 win on the road at TCU.
TCU lost a lot of talent from their roster that went to the National Championship Game last season. Even so, Colorado still was able to get a good win in the season opener that opens things up for their future. Their preseason over/under win total was 3.5 and after the way they played, they look like locks to hit the over. With Shedeur Sanders playing efficient, smart football and Travis Hunter being a superstar two-way player, Colorado could be competitive in the Pac-12 this season.
Full disclosure: Everyone already knows that upsets make college football great. But every year fans are reminded that anything can happen on a Saturday. In a week 1 that had plenty of lackluster games on paper, the results varied and made for some enjoyable moments.
Colorado started things off by beating TCU on the road as over 20-point underdogs. Northern Illinois went on the road and beat Boston College. Fresno State won their buy-game at Purdue, although that was projected to be a close game. Texas State upset Baylor on the road in head coach G.J. Kinne’s first game. To cap things off, late Saturday night, Wyoming hosted and defeated Texas Tech in overtime.
Last season, Harold Perkins had a great freshman season in large part because of his impact rushing the passer. He finished the 2022 season with 7.5 sacks and it is worth noting that he had to break into the starting lineup during the season. This season, LSU moved him to off-ball linebacker, which took away one big way he impacts the game.
The move may have cost LSU, as the Tigers couldn’t stop the Seminoles in the second half and lost their season opener 45-24. Perkins finished with five total tackles, but a lot of the game was spent with him as a spy on Florida State quarterback Jordan Travis. LSU really came together as a team when Perkins was able to rush the passer last season.
Clemson had struggles on offense in recent years. They turned the reins of the offense over to quarterback Cade Klubnik late last season and hired Garrett Riley to be the offensive coordinator. Things looked hopeful for the 2023 season, but things didn’t play out that way. Clemson lost their season opener on the road to Duke, 28-7.
Now, losing to Duke, who was coming off a nine-win season, isn’t a bad loss. The way things looked was really bad. Clemson scored just seven points. Riley’s offense looked like a shell of what it did at TCU. Receivers couldn’t separate, the offensive line didn’t play particularly well and Klubnik made some mistakes. There were also some frustrating fumbles and missed kicks in the red zone. The Tigers have a lot of things to figure out and better do so quickly.
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