Iowa State and Kansas State were so excited to both be playing football again that they couldn’t stop giving each other the ball. The first six possessions in the game were: punt, muffed punt, fumble, punt, punt, punt. After an exchange of touchdowns, they ended the half with two more fumbles, a turnover on downs, and two more punts. That left me thinking this could be the end of the Aer Lingus College Football Classic. As the rain seemed to stop for the second half, so did the fumbles, and traditional Big 12 football returned. Becht and Johnson each had two touchdown passes, but the inconsistency of Kansas State’s offense seemed to be their demise. I am not going to put it on red alert, but I want to monitor in this space the idea that Avery Johnson may not be as good as all the experts tell us. All we heard last year was that with a full season we’d see what he could unleash—well, last year was underwhelming, and this year is off to the same start. I won’t conclude anything this early in the year, but it will definitely be something I watch.
Four other FBS games blessed our Saturday, including two P5 teams: Kansas and Stanford. Kansas took care of business as they opened their brand-new stadium to a sold-out crowd of 42,000. Jaydon Daniels looked like his 2023 self, and just this performance alone—even against Fresno State—puts Kansas back into the Big 12 conversation.
In the G5 conversation, dark-horse playoff team UNLV survived with a late rally to beat Idaho State, an FCS school not expected to play particularly well this year. It is still Week 0, and a win is a win, but Dan Mullen starts his UNLV tenure on thin ice already. Anyone want to place bets on when he’ll be back in the ESPN studio doing late-night recaps?
Game of the Week: Hawai’i 23, Stanford 20
2025 seems like it will bring more of the struggles Stanford has been dealing with for the last five years. Traveling to Hawai’i to start the season, they were 2.5-point favorites and looked good early, forcing a fumble and recovering it in the end zone to take a 10-0 lead halfway through the first quarter. Their offense, however, showed glaring holes the rest of the game, with the exception of Micah Ford’s strong running (26 carries, 113 yards, 1 TD).
The biggest weakness was at quarterback. Ben Gulbranson transferred in this year from Oregon State, and he struggled mightily (15/30, 109 yards, 1 INT). His passes were wobbly and usually behind receivers. Chalk it up to early-season rust, but I would expect more from a grad transfer who had some success with the Beavs.
Hawai’i QB Micah Alejado wasn’t much more polished, but his grit was the difference. After injuring his ankle partway through the game, he gutted it out and basically finished on one leg. Completing throws off his back foot and scrambling through the pain of a bum ankle, he set his team up for three second-half field goals made by Kansei Matsuzama—the first college placekicker from Japan. His final 38-yarder as time expired upset Stanford and earned Hawai’i The College Footblog Game of the Week.
Stat Line of the Week: Maverik McIvor (WKU) 33/51, 401 YDS, 3 TD
In his first FBS game after transferring from Abilene Christian, Maverik McIvor balled out and got his Western Kentucky Hilltoppers their first win over conference opponent Sam Houston State.
CFB News
Not much other news from this past week. ESPN did unveil a new scorebug that it looks to be using this year. Still remains to be seen if they will use the same SEC-on-ABC scorebug as last year or if that one has changed as well.
We also learned during the Kansas State–Iowa State broadcast that referees will be putting an emphasis on the delay-of-game penalty for disconcerting signals from the defense this year. This is going to be a problem. There’s nothing clearly written about what is and isn’t a disconcerting signal. I’m sorry, but if you choose to run your offense with a snap count of clapping, that shouldn’t mean every time the middle linebacker claps to get his flat defender’s attention, he gets a penalty. Seems like they need to define it the way targeting was defined years ago (not that it helped much, but I digress).
Games to Watch – Week 1
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Auburn @ Baylor – 8/29, 8 PM EDT on FOX
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Texas @ Ohio State – 8/30, 12 PM EDT on FOX
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LSU @ Clemson – 8/30, 7:30 PM EDT on ABC
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Utah @ UCLA – 8/30, 11 PM EDT on FOX
With Week 0 being small, I’ve added my year-long predictions to the end of this week’s blog.
Conference Champion Predictions
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American: Memphis
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ACC: Clemson
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Big 12: BYU
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Big Ten: Oregon
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CUSA: Jacksonville St
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MAC: Toledo
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Mountain West: Boise St
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SEC: Texas
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Sun Belt: Louisiana
Playoff Projections
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Texas
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Clemson
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Alabama
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Penn St
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Oregon
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Georgia
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Ohio St
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Notre Dame
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LSU
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South Carolina
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Boise St
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BYU
Heisman Winner: LaNorris Sellers
National Champion: Texas
I’d love to hear from readers, too. If you think any of my takes are stupid and want to argue, or if you want my opinion on something I haven't mentioned, feel free to email me at: thecollegefootblog@gmail.com
