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Entering Saturday’s tilt with mighty Alabama, questions remained about whether Florida State had washed the stench off of last year’s 2-10 season. Neither a can of Febreze nor an open window could’ve done a better job clearing the air in Tallahassee. 

Behind a bludgeoning rushing attack and swarming defense, last year’s laughing stock handed No. 8 Alabama its first season-opening loss since 2001. 

Florida State offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn deployed a high school playbook, and quarterback Tommy Castellanos did his best Nick Marshall impression to unleash a special kind of hell onto the Crimson Tide’s defense. After an offseason spent poking the bear, Castellanos swung a mighty big sword to slay big bad Bama.  

Perhaps the most glaring issue with Alabama was just how mortal the Crimson Tide looked. Ty Simpson didn’t look special. The defensive line got pushed around and looked like it severely lacked any capital-D Dudes. But more than anything, it just feels like the aura that Alabama possessed under Nick Saban is gone. 

With the win, Florida State suddenly looks like a team that could be a real factor in the ACC. For Alabama, questions remain about whether Kalen DeBoer is the right man for this job. His seat just got hotter.

What was supposed to be a sizzling main course turned into an undercooked entrée, with the Texas offense failing to heat up in a 14-7 loss to No. 3 Ohio State. 

Arch Manning Madness was arguably the most prominent storyline of the offseason, but in his first career start, he looked uneasy, unsettled, and wholly underwhelming. Manning struggled mightily for three and a half quarters, failing to hit short passes and keep the offense moving. I can’t remember a player with this much hype playing this poorly on a national stage. 

Ohio State deserves a ton of credit, though. New defensive coordinator Matt Patricia called a great game, and the secondary locked up the Texas wideouts all afternoon. The Buckeyes’ offense wasn’t without its own struggles, but freshman quarterback Julian Sayin did enough to extend drives and just not screw anything up. 

Ultimately, both of these teams will be fine. Both have good defenses. Both have young and inexperienced quarterbacks. And both need time to hit full gear. Give ‘em a few weeks, and I bet these teams look much more refined than they did on Saturday.

If season-openers were restaurant reviews, LSU would have a track record of “one star, do not recommend.” The Tigers have face-planted in five straight season-opening games, three of which have come with head coach Brian Kelly in charge. 

After a half of football Saturday night, it looked like LSU was headed for the same fate. The Tigers had just three first-half points. The offense couldn’t break explosive plays. And Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik had just engineered a 13-play, 75-yard drive to put the home team up 10-3 at the break.

Then everything changed. Clemson’s offense dried up. LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier got in a rhythm with his ultra-talented stable of wideouts, all while defensive coordinator Blake Baker dialed up a nasty combo of blitzes and coverages. The result? LSU’s defense took over in the final two quarters, holding Clemson to zero second-half points and capping off a pronounced 17-10 victory on the road in Death Valley.

Brian Kelly desperately needed to exorcise the season-opener demons—and he did just that. After Texas and Alabama’s shaky starts to the season, LSU looks like a worthy, early-season SEC contender. For Dabo Swinney and Clemson, this is now a disturbing trend of bad offense against top-tier teams. Beating up on bad teams is one thing. Scoring against good ones is another. Something has got to give.

For better or worse, Sunday night was the full Miami Hurricanes experience: jaw-dropping talent, undeniable swagger, and a near full-blown Cristoballin’ with the game hanging in the balance. 

In a Top 10 clash with national title pedigree, Miami won where it mattered most—on the lines of scrimmage, in the middle eight, and in the turnover battle, resulting in a cathartic 27-24 victory over the sixth-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish. It was the Hurricanes’ first win against a top-ten opponent since they beat Notre Dame back in 2017. 

Grizzled veteran Carson Beck looked like a different young man than the one we saw a year ago. Young Padawan CJ Carr grew into the game, showing flashes of serious moxie. And that Miami defense looked bigger and badder than we’ve seen them look in a long, long time. 

But more than anything, I walked away from this game convinced Miami had found its identity, while Notre Dame was still searching for one.

The start of the Chapel Bill era was disastrous, devoid of fun, and so demonstrably demoralizing that calling it a disappointing debut doesn’t quite do it justice. 

Outside of a well-scripted opening drive, nothing went right for the Tar Heels in their 48-14 season-opening loss. The offense looked disjointed. The defense couldn’t get off the field. Even the special teams unit looked sloppy and out of sorts. Simply put, nothing about this debut should inspire confidence in the direction of this program.

TCU deserves a ton of credit. The Horned Frogs dominated in every facet of the game and completely took the crowd out of it. In a few weeks, we might look up and say that TCU looks primed to make a run in the Big 12. Even with what appears to be a soft schedule, North Carolina might be in for a lackluster season. 

It took three quarters for 13th-ranked South Carolina to hit top speed against Virginia Tech, but when the Gamecocks did, the points came right on time.

Up 10-8 early in the fourth quarter, South Carolina forced what looked like a routine punt, only for the Hokies to line up in an illegal formation. Smartly, Shane Beamer forced Virginia Tech to rekick, and then the magic happened. 

On a play that felt like as much like a wink from the college football gods as it did skill and strategy, South Carolina return man Vicari Swain house-called an electric 80-yard punt return, flipping the game on its head and making Shane Beamer’s father, former legendary Hokie coach Frank Beamer, one proud papa. Later in the fourth quarter, South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers uncorked a 64-yard bomb to track star Nyck Harbor, hopefully providing a glimpse as to what’s to come for this offense.

Sellers took a while to defrost, but when he did, he reminded the country just how much of a big play magnet he truly is. If you’re a Gamecocks fan, you’ve got to feel good about how your defense played all game and how the offense came alive in the 24-11 season-opening win. 

Virginia Tech is a work in progress, which might spell trouble for head coach Brent Pry. Kyron Drones was erratic at best. The offense failed to finish drives. And the special teams unit fell apart at the wrong time. It felt like an all too familiar scene for Hokies fans.

It may not have been traditional, and it wasn’t always pretty, but Auburn transfer quarterback Jackson Arnold delivered in the Tigers' first big test of the season. Arnold went for a career-high 137 rushing yards and two touchdowns and the Tigers walked out with a 38-24 victory over a high-powered Baylor team.

Auburn dominated at the line of scrimmage, and it set the tone for the entire game. Despite having a trio of flashy receivers out wide, Freeze and company elected to ground and pound their way to 307 yards on 52 carries.

Baylor deserves credit for hanging around, thanks in large part to the passing game. Gunslinger Sawyer Robertson finished with 419 yards and three touchdowns, with Baylor needing every bit of them.

Plenty of questions remain about both teams, but it’s hard not to feel good if you’re an Auburn fan. This team could be a tough out in an SEC that might not be as top-heavy as we once thought. Baylor fans will understandably be asking questions about this reworked defense. But it’s important to remember the Bears have their full Big 12 slate ahead of them.

Georgia Tech tried its hand at a kitchen disaster of its own against Colorado on Friday night. The Yellow Jackets had a grease fire of a first quarter, turning the ball over three times in eight minutes and falling behind early to Coach Prime’s bunch.

But like any good chef, Brent Key stuck with his tried-and-true recipe: deploying the Haynes King headbutt offense. King was a menace, dragging defenders for hard yards and keeping Georgia Tech in the ballgame. 

With under two minutes to go in the fourth quarter, King kicked it into high gear, scampering for the game-winning touchdown to cap off a 19-carry, 156-yard, and three-touchdown game on the ground. 

The more I watch Haynes King, the more I think he is the quintessential college quarterback. He’s rowdy, rambunctious, and flawed in all the best ways. I wouldn’t change a thing about him.

Mark my words, Georgia Tech will be a huge pain in the rear end in the ACC this season. For Colorado, this game was a good measuring stick. The Buffaloes looked flawed, but also showed enough good stuff to make me think they could knock off one of the better Big 12 teams on the right night. 

Tampa is a long way from Pamplona, Spain, but on Thursday night, if you didn’t know any better, you might’ve thought the two places were one in the same. Led by a rejuvenated Byrum Brown, Alex Golesh’s Bulls gored 25th-ranked Boise State 34-7 in particularly brutal fashion. 

The offense broke chunk plays. The defense laid the wood, jarring loose a pair of critical fumbles. And Brown, less than a year removed from suffering a broken left leg, ran like a Toro Bravo seeing red. 

This is just one game, but it’s difficult not to be tantalized at the prospect of what this USF team can do in an American Conference that appears to be in a bit of flux. For Boise State, this was a cruel reminder of just how important Ashton Jeanty was to this team’s success last season. On Thursday evening, quarterback Maddux Madsen looked like a player with far too much dip on his chip. Boise State is now probably out of the College Football Playoff race after one week. Life comes at you fast.

Little-known FCS Tarleton State shocked our nation’s finest in Army on Friday evening, taking the Black Knights to double overtime before drilling a walk-off 37-yard field goal to notch the school’s second-ever win over an FBS team. FCS over FBS upsets will never not be cool.

Speaking of cool, a massive tip of the cap to Fresno State for destroying Georgia Southern 42-14 Saturday night in new head coach Matt Entz’s second game in charge. By the numbers, this was arguably the second-biggest upset of the weekend (outside of FSU over Bama), with Bill Connelly’s SP+ rankings projecting Georgia Southern as three-point favorites.

After months away from a full slate of college football games (and our Saturday night live streams), we burned the midnight oil and reveled in the exact kind of chaos that makes the sport special. We dove deep into the biggest storylines, starting with Ohio State's defensive masterclass against Texas in a 14-7 slugfest that left more questions than answers about Arch Manning's readiness for the spotlight. And of course, we had a lot to say about Florida State, which pulled off the upset of the day, dismantling Alabama 31-17 behind Tommy Castellanos and a Gus Malzahn offense that looked nothing like last year's disaster.

We also broke down LSU's statement win at Clemson, Auburn's ground-and-pound victory over Baylor, USF's shock blowout of Boise State, and all the smaller storylines that instantly obliterated our preseason expectations. Plus, we shared the weirdest moments from a beautifully bizarre opening weekend, including Joe Tessitore's top buttons and the Oregon Duck's wardrobe malfunction.

Then, just this morning, we dropped another episode discussing Miami’s statement win over Notre Dame, South Carolina’s knife fight with Virginia Tech, and some leftover thoughts from Week 1. Plus, an early lookahead at the Cy-Hawk game in Week 2 as well as the big non-con showdown between Michigan and Oklahoma.

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