Top Takeaways from the Opening Week of College Football

While there is no need to jump to conclusions after the opening week of football that featured mostly out-of-conference match ups, there are some things we learned throughout the weekend about various teams. There were also some top-ranked games that shed light on what to expect going forward, as well as a few players showing their early Heisman hunger. Time to dive into the first week.

Minnesota Golden Gophers 

The offense looked out of sync after the first quarter, and the battle for starting signal caller is headed into next week between Conor Rhoda and Demry Croft. The quarterback battle was overshadowed, however, by how dominant the defense was for the Gophers, with Antoine Winfield Jr. having a huge night flying all over the place. He made tackles, blocked kicks, sacked the quarterback and came in on multiple blitz packages. The secondary as a whole was impressive, with Kiondre Thomas sticking on the No. 1 receiver and Jacob Huff snagging a late-game interception.

The linebackers also flew around the field, with Jonathan Celestin and Thomas Barber both playing oppressive defense against the Buffalo running game, keeping it to 51 yards on the ground and recording seven tackles for loss. The Gophers defense is a force to be reckoned with.

The Top Teams Are Back

The Alabama Crimson Tide, Michigan Wolverines, Ohio State Buckeyes and Clemson Tigers all had significant losses in the offseason. Each team needed huge holes to be filled, and many doubted that they all would come back at the same strength this season. The weekend helped silence some of those worries.

Alabama sent seven starters to the NFL draft and still stomped Florida State, 24-7. The defense blocked a pair of kicks and recorded two interceptions, pounding the Seminoles offense into submission and holding the ground attack to 40 yards. Clemson also looked good, with new quarterback Kelly Bryant throwing for 236 yards and looking comfortable in the Tigers offense.

Michigan and Ohio State started out shaky but ended their games in dominant fashion, with Ohio State winning 49-21 after being on the ropes with Indiana and Michigan roaring back for a 33-17 win over Florida after throwing a pair of early pick-sixes.

The moral of the story: When a coach can recruit well year after year, whether they lost their star quarterback or stud defensive end, they will be alright.

Early Heisman Candidates 

Saquon Barkley was a big part of Penn State’s 52-0 slaughter of Akron, running for 172 yards and a pair of touchdowns. The running game is a big part of the Nittany Lions offense, which gives Barkley a lot of opportunities for big numbers. The same goes for LSU Tigers running back Derrius Guice, who ran for 122 yards and two touchdowns. The LSU offense lives on the running game, and Guice will be given all the opportunities in the world to put up monster rushing numbers this season. Another dark horse is USC’s Ronald Jones II, who ran for 159 yards and three touchdowns. This is the first time he will not share the running back load with Justin Davis and faces far less apt running defenses than either Barkley or Guice.

Big Ten Game of the Weekend 

The Big Ten went 10-2 over the weekend against out-of-conference teams with strong showings from Michigan and Purdue against Florida and Louisville, respectively. The best game, however, featured the Maryland Terrapins toppling the Texas Longhorns in a 51-41 shootout.

The Maryland squad rolled into the Longhorns’ house and put up 50 points. Quarterback Tyrrell Pigrome had three total touchdowns and helped keep the offense balanced as the Terrapins had 219 passing yards and 263 rushing yards. Shane Buechele threw for 375 yards, but the Texas running game only gained 98 yards on 31 carries. Maryland came out strong and put up a lot of points, forcing the game to fit their style and winning the shootout.


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