Week 1 of the college football season has come and gone, and the slate of games gave us a lot to digest. Let’s look at some of the major takeaways from the weekend of games, and look ahead at the best games for week two.
College Football’s Goliaths Have Shaky Debuts
Two teams that entered 2014 already penciled into the College Football Playoff — Alabama and Florida State — showed Saturday even they have weaknesses, ones that need to be fixed if they want to win a national title.
Alabama entered its matchup as a 26.5-point favorite, facing a West Virginia team that finished 4-8 last year.
But head coach Dana Holgorson hit Nick Saban’s defense with the bane of his defensive philosophy’s existence — an up-tempo scheme. Mountaineers quarterback Clint Trickett exploited the inexperienced Tide secondary all night and threw for 365 yards and a touchdown.
The good news for Saban and offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin is the Tide offense is in capable hands with fifth-year senior quarterback Blake Sims.
He completed 72.7-percent of his passes, and orchestrated two scoring drives in the third quarter to respond to the Mountaineers’ scores to keep it close.
If there’s any bright spot in a Tide defense that Saban called "soft" at halftime Saturday, it’s the front seven. The unit gave up just 28 yards total on the ground.
Alabama would walk away with a ten point victory, and some major adjustments to be made.
Defending national champion Florida State showed vulnerabilities as well. The ‘Noles entered as 19-point favorites, but came out with a shaky, six point victory.
Reigning Heisman trophy winner Jameis Winston threw two interceptions in the second quarter, but he redeemed himself in the second half with a 25 yard touchdown run and a 50 yard touchdown pass to Rashad Greene to put the ‘Noles up 13 in the fourth. That would be his only passing touchdown of the night.
Oklahoma State would score a late touchdown in the fourth to pull within six, but was unable to get its offense back on the field. The ‘Noles defense also gave up 31 points and 364 yards Saturday.
A win is a win, but the ‘Noles showed some vulnerability Saturday against an unranked, rebuilding Oklahoma State team.
Two SEC Surprises
Texas A&M and Georgia are now on everyone’s radar after an impressive opening week.
The Aggies went into a hostile Williams-Brice Stadium to face South Carolina, who was 7-0 in Thursday night season openers since Spurrier took over in 2005.
Sophomore quarterback Kenny Hill knocked the Gamecock defense’s lights out.
He completed 73 percent of his passes, and surpassed Manziel’s single-game passing record with 511 yards in a 52-28 rout of the Gamecocks.
The bottom line here is that A&M coach Kevin Sumlin can flat out coach, regardless of who the personnel is out on the field. If they keep it up, the Aggies could now be a sleeper to win the SEC West.
Those who picked South Carolina to win the SEC East are kicking themselves this week because of one man: Todd Gurley.
The Georgia tailback looked so impressive against the Clemson Tigers that it was almost scary. He racked up a Georgia-record 293 all-purpose yards, including a 100-yard kickoff return.
The ‘Dawg’s defense also looked much improved under new defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt, allowing just 291 total yards and held Clemson to three negative yardage drives in the fourth.
Get Better in Week 2
Two teams that need to greatly improve this week are UCLA and Ohio State.
Both teams did win, but Ohio State needed the fourth quarter to pull away from Navy at a "neutral-site" in Maryland, and UCLA leaned almost entirely on its defense to score. If the Bruins plan to contend in the high-scoring PAC-12, they’ll need to score a lot more points offensively.
Ohio State plays a much more quality opponent in Virginia Tech this week — could the Hokies make the Buckeyes sweat for the second week in a row?
Mad Hatter Does it Again
LSU head coach Les Miles continues to be successful year in and year out in opening week games.
LSU was down 17 points at the start of the third quarter, and the Tigers responded with 21 unanswered points to sneak past Wisconsin in Houston. Tailback Kenny Hilliard capped it off with a 28-yard touchdown run in the fourth.
Perhaps even more impressive, LSU now has 22 wins under Miles when trailing in the fourth.
Week 2 Matchups to Watch
• Michigan State @ Oregon
• Michigan @ Notre Dame
• USC @ Stanford
• Ole Miss @ Vanderbilt
• Virginia Tech @ Ohio State
Follow Morgan Moriarty on Twitter @Morgan_Moriarty
Alabama running back T.J. Yeldon (4) dives into the end zone for a touchdown as West Virginia's Travis Bell (26) and Karl Joseph (8) defend in the first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Aug. 30, 2014, in Atlanta.
