Did we learn anything in the opening week of the college football season? Maybe. We saw Florida State look pretty good against LSU and Clemson look pretty bad against Duke. The world got to know Colorado's Travis Hunter and several Big 12 schools suffered upsets.
Imagine what we'll know after Week 2.
Colorado brings its show home to Boulder to face old rival in Nebraska, but the headline games have Texas teams. After a 20-19 loss in Austin last year, Texas goes to Tuscaloosa to face Alabama. The Tide haven't lost a non-conference game at home since 2007, but a win here for the Longhorns would set them up as College Football Playoff contenders. Texas A&M travels to Miami. This could be called the Coaches Under Pressure Bowl considering the hype and expectations around Jimbo Fisher and Mario Cristobal.
We asked college football insiders Heather Dinich and Adam Rittenberg for insight on the hottest topics of the week, including what we can take away from Week 1's surprises and the coaches who need to show up this week.
Jump to a section:
Week 1 surprises | Colorado's encore
Which coach needs a Week 2 win?
Assistants to watch | Upset picks
Emptying the notebook
What was the biggest non-Colorado surprise of Week 1, and is it sustainable going forward?
Rittenberg: LSU's second-half collapse is going to leave a mark. The Tigers are clearly talented, but coaches were surprised at their struggles along the line of scrimmage against a physical Florida State team. Quarterback Jayden Daniels once again looked like LSU's only rushing threat, and LSU had 75 of its 113 rushing yards on two plays.
"They need help in the running game or he's going to get beat up," a Power 5 defensive coordinator said. "I don't think it's a running back thing. They don't block people great."
Dinich: Ohio State's flat offensive performance was puzzling, even with a new starting quarterback in Kyle McCord. If you didn't follow the Buckeyes closely, you'd never know there was a first-round NFL draft pick out there in wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr., who had just two catches. It's also hard to believe they won't get better over the next two weeks before facing Notre Dame on Sept. 23, but Penn State quarterback Drew Allar looked like the better rookie.
Rittenberg: Allar stood out to me, too. Big Ten coaches expect Penn State offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich to extend the field more in the passing game with him at QB. I was also surprised by the Big 12's shaky opening weekend. TCU, Texas Tech and Baylor all went down. Coaches who watched Texas Tech blow a 17-0 lead at Wyoming were surprised the Red Raiders didn't control the line of scrimmage better. Wyoming had 171 rushing yards and "won on inside zone," a Power 5 defensive coordinator said, referring to Sam Scott's game-winning 2-point conversion.
Dinich: Clemson has now lost four of its past seven games dating back to last season. The Tigers were 66-5 with Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence over the span of six seasons. They just lost to... Duke. I asked one ACC head coach what's wrong with Clemson's offense? One ACC head coach said the offense "didn't look enough like TCU to me," referring to new offensive coordinator Garrett Riley, who was hired from the Horned Frogs. "There wasn't a wide receiver that jumped out to me. QB was shaky, pressed." But, he said, Clemson does have a star in running back Will Shipley.
What are people around the sport saying about Travis Hunter and Colorado?
Dinich: One Power 5 head coach told me this week that Hunter's ability to play both ways "shows he is a dawg! To have the intelligence -- and stamina -- to do that tells you he loves the game. Brings me back to old [high school] days when you played both ways!" As impressed as the coach was, though, he noted the toll it could take on Hunter's body through the length of the season. "How long can he keep that up is the question?"
Rittenberg: Many coaches were aware of Hunter's incredible talent and still marveled at what he did against TCU. But logging 129 total snaps might be hard to sustain. A Pac-12 personnel director said Hunter should focus mainly on cornerback, especially given the elite wide receivers he will see in the Pac-12 this season. "He's a first-round draft pick," the personnel director said. "But Deion [Sanders] can't do that to him all year. He's going to wear him out. That kid is an NFL lockdown corner. A lockdown corner is better than a part-time receiver." Other coaches say offenses should gear their run game toward Hunter or assign receivers to aggressively block him, to try and wear him down. "You put in your fourth- or fifth-team wide receiver and say, 'Look, you block him the whole game. Like, I want him on the bench,'" a Power 5 coordinator said.
Dinich: It's hard not to pick Colorado against Nebraska this week, especially considering how the Huskers struggled against Minnesota in their opener under new coach Matt Rhule last week. Colorado just has so much legitimate talent all over the field, but you can't ignore the history between these programs. Our computers like Nebraska, giving the Huskers a 58.6% chance to win, according to ESPN's FPI, but I'm sticking with Coach Prime. Not just Saturday, but until Sept. 23 at Oregon. Colorado will be undefeated heading there, will lose that game to Bo Nix & Co., but will come home to take on USC in what will be a Heisman Trophy showdown. According to the most recent odds, three of the top-12 Heisman candidates will play in that game -- USC QB Caleb Williams, Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders and Colorado's Hunter.
Which coach most needs a big Week 2 performance?
Dinich: Steve Sarkisian. Look, this is Texas, where patience is as thin as cheap sheets. Alabama has gone on to win five national championships since playing Texas in the final game of the 2009 season, while the Longhorns have finished with a losing record five times in 13 seasons since then. Nick Saban's worst record since then was 10-3; the Longhorn's best record in that span was 10-4. Charlie Strong couldn't bring Texas back. Tom Herman couldn't do it. The pressure is on Sark.
Rittenberg: Jimbo Fisher. Cristobal is only in Year 2 and Sarkisian ultimately will be judged on whether he can win the Big 12 in Texas' final year as a league member. Fisher can't afford a repeat of last season, especially against a team the Aggies actually beat in 2022. Coaches are fascinated to see how the Fisher-Bobby Petrino pairing will work when faced with adversity. The talent is clearly there, including quarterback Conner Weigman. "He was a good player at the end of the year, and I know some people who trained with him this offseason and said he looked great," an SEC assistant said of Weigman. "The big thing will be more of: Do they implode? Because if they don't implode, they should be pretty good."
Dinich: Ritt, I can't argue with any of this, but I'll tell you what Aggies' AD Ross Bjork told me this week. "We don't like what happened last year," he said. "Nobody does. But you can't just judge [the program] on one year. You've got to look at the total picture. The greatest profile of recruiting in the history of the A&M program is happening under Coach Fisher."
Rittenberg: You might not be able to judge Fisher on one year, but how about four? Texas A&M has lost four or more games under him in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022. A former SEC defensive assistant who has worked for Alabama's Saban and others had a more nuanced take about Fisher: "At least, he's got to put up points in the game. He puts up points in the game, they're going to be OK. You can't be an offensive guru and not put up points and expect everybody to be happy." Texas A&M had only 17 points and 264 yards against Miami last year.
Which new assistant coach looks like the biggest game-changer?
Dinich: Notre Dame offensive coordinator Gerad Parker has the offense flying with quarterback Sam Hartman. The Irish have outscored their opponents by 92 points -- their best points differential through the first two games of a season since 1932! It's going to get a lot more difficult, though, this week at NC State. The Pack's defense is stingy, and remember -- Hartman came to Notre Dame from Wake Forest, where he has three career starts against NC State and has thrown six picks in the past two combined. NC State coach Dave Doeren told me this week that what makes the Irish offense so potent right now is a physical run game with a strong, deep running backs room and big, talented offensive linemen. "Hartman is doing a good job managing the new system, playing with poise and using his legs when he needs to," Doeren said. Now he'll have to do it all against a real defense.
Rittenberg: In keeping with the Colorado theme, offensive coordinator Sean Lewis really impressed coaches who watched the TCU game. Lewis emphasized quick passes early in the game to help Colorado's offensive line -- considered the team's biggest concern entering the season -- settle in, and it kept TCU off-balance. He then went to more deep passes as the game went on, and outmaneuvered TCU defensive coordinator Joe Gillespie, who was a second-half wizard last season. "That's exactly what you're going to get with Sean," a Power 5 defensive coordinator said. "He's going to distribute the ball, he's going to have a plan, he's going to protect the quarterback."
What's your upset pick for Week 2?
Rittenberg: Tulane (+7) over Ole Miss. I whiffed big time on last week's pick (Hawaii over Stanford), so it's redemption time. Tulane won 12 games last season and returns one of the nation's most experienced quarterbacks in Michael Pratt, who opened the season with a passer rating of 98 -- the second-highest single-game mark in the FBS since 2014. He completed 14 of 15 passes for 294 yards and four touchdowns against South Alabama. The Green Wave are also hosting Ole Miss for the first time since 2012. Pratt outperforms Jaxson Dart and Willie Fritz's team records another notable win.
Dinich: Baylor (+8) over Utah. This would be a true upset, especially after Baylor lost to Texas State last week, and the Bears also lost their starting quarterback, Blake Shapen, with an MCL injury. The Bears and backup QB Sawyer Robertson are in desperation mode, though, and will bounce back in front of a home crowd against the Utes.
Let's empty your notebooks. What else are you hearing this week?
Dinich:
• If the games seemed faster this week, you weren't imagining it. There were fewer plays, and the games were shorter on average thanks to a handful of new rules. With such a small sample size, though, the NCAA approached two ways of measuring the immediate impact. The first was comparing Week 1 with last season's full results. The second was comparing Week 1 with only Week 1 of 2022 to account for lopsided wins against nonconference opponents.
According to Steve Shaw, the NCAA's coordinator of officials, the Week 1 games averaged 3 hours, 17 minutes, down about four minutes from last season's overall average. The Week 1 games were about 11 minutes faster this year, though, than they were in Week 1 of last season. Shaw said he thinks that ultimately, after more data is collected, it will settle somewhere in-between.
Shaw said there were a little over 175 plays per game in Week 1, compared with 179.34 per game last year. The sport was down about six plays, he said, when comparing the same week.
Rittenberg:
• Ohio State's upcoming games against Youngstown State and Western Kentucky are essential for Kyle McCord to build confidence before the Week 4 trip to Notre Dame. "He can throw, that's not the issue," said a Big Ten coach who watched Ohio State's opener. "It's just the timing. He's a good player, but you can tell they don't have as much confidence in him."
• Iowa State safety Jeremiah Cooper is only a true sophomore, but he's considered one of the older players on a defense that used more than 30 players in the season opener against Northern Iowa, simply to gather experience. Cooper had two interceptions, including a pick-six that provided ISU's first points, and earned Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week honors. "He's got natural instincts," Iowa State defensive coordinator Jon Heacock told me. "He's kind of an old throwback to football of understanding the whole game. That's harder for players now. They play a lot of 7-on-7's in the summer. He has a great handle on the whole big picture."
• Miami offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson once called 89 pass plays in a game, but those days are over. "[Mario Cristobal] wouldn't have hired me if I hadn't evolved as a coach," Dawson told me. "You understand the importance of playing complementary football, not putting your team in a bad situation or the defense in a bad situation." Miami established its run game in Dawson's debut as coordinator, averaging 6.9 yards per carry and nearly four yards before first contact. The challenge increases this week against Texas A&M, but Miami won't shy away from being physical. Quarterback Tyler Van Dyke has bought in, too. Dawson noted Van Dyke checked to a run play on the first snap of the season, and Henry Parrish Jr. scampered for 11 yards. Dawson thinks Miami has four backs who can do damage behind a line featuring senior center Matt Lee, freshman tackle Francis Mauigoa and others. "Matt Lee's the guy," Dawson said. "He's the backbone. People, schemes, different fronts, he's dialed into it all."