The first week of college football season is ideally to be about renewal, unbridled optimism and remembering why we love this game so much. So let’s check in on how things were going Saturday afternoon in one of the hotbeds of the sport, Gainesville, Fla.
“The Swamp is emptying,” writer Mark Long of the Associated Press wrote. “They’ve checked out on the game and on Billy Napier.”
It was in the only in the third quarter.
In the first game.
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Good people: Each week of the season, we could rank SEC teams according to conventional stats that some people refer to as “wins” and “losses.” We could use a complicated algorithm that our neighbor, a math professor with too much time on his hands, came up with to measure schedule strength, scoring margin, etc.
Or we could rank the vibes. That is what we’ll do.
This ranking, which will be inflicted on you weekly, is not about how good teams are. The vibes ranking attempts to evaluate the feelings around the program, so winning matters, but so does winning relative to expectations, along with style points, the coach’s job security and just generally whether things feel good … or don’t.
Let’s vibe:
Vanderbilt led early, trailed late and then won in overtime in its season opener on Saturday against Virginia Tech. (Steve Roberts / USA Today)1. Vanderbilt
Beat Virginia Tech 34-27 (OT)
Whoa! It’s not just that the Dores won, beating what was supposed to be an upper-tier ACC team. It’s how they did it, jumping out to a lead, falling behind and then rallying back to win in overtime. Quarterback Diego Pavia looked exciting and could be a problem for SEC defenses. It was an uplifting win for Clark Lea, who needed one. Will this last once SEC play begins? Maybe not, but Vanderbilt fans have suffered a while. Let them cook.
GO DEEPER
Georgia smothers Clemson: Has anything changed for either program?
Beat Clemson 34-3
There’s going way beyond low expectations, like Vanderbilt, and then there’s meeting high expectations, maybe even surpassing them. It would have been one thing for Georgia to beat Clemson, close or somewhat convincingly. The way the Bulldogs did it, looking dominant on defense again and able to turn it on offensively, gave off a lot of 2022 vibes.
GO DEEPER
Emerson: This Georgia team has the key trait of the program’s two recent national champions
Beat Western Kentucky 63-0
Kalen DeBoer eventually may have trouble following the legend — the legend who is constantly on television now — but so far, the transition looks seamless. Jalen Milroe looked great in DeBoer’s offense, and Alabama was flawless against the team picked second in Conference USA. Oh, and you better get to know Ryan Williams.
GO DEEPER
What’s next for Alabama’s Ryan Williams after superstar debut?
4. Ole Miss
Beat Furman 76-0
Furman was picked to finish … eh, it doesn’t matter where Furman was picked to finish. It also doesn’t matter where Middle Tennessee, next week’s opponent, was picked to finish. It matters a little more when Ole Miss goes to Wake Forest in two weeks. What matters most is nothing has changed: Ole Miss looks like a real College Football Playoff contender, but we won’t know for sure until its truly big games.
Beat Murray State 51-0
The 51 points were almost a given. But what about notching the program’s first shutout in four years and only giving up 85 total yards, even if it was just Murray State? It’s too soon to tell, but it keeps the vibes at preseason level, and that was high. (If you feel Missouri should be higher than Ole Miss, that’s fine.)
Beat Colorado State 52-0
Things went the way that were needed. Perhaps just as encouraging was seeing how much trouble Michigan, minus Jim Harbaugh, J.J. McCarthy and all those others in the NFL, struggled to beat Fresno State. Still, the preseason ended with simmering backlash to the idea of Texas being truly back, whether it would survive the SEC grind and if some key running back injuries would be a problem. That remains to be seen, but Quinn Ewers and the receivers look very good. (If you feel Texas should be higher than Missouri and Ole Miss, that’s also fine.)
Beat Chattanooga 69-3
Let’s review: Nico Iamaleava threw for 314 yards, then rested in the second half, while NC State had, per a fan website’s headline, “three quarters of placid effort” before pulling away from Western Carolina 38-21. The vibes were better for one team, but we’ll see if that matters when they meet in Week 2. (If you feel Tennessee should be higher than Texas, Missouri and Ole Miss, that’s also fine.)
8. Auburn
Beat Alabama A&M 73-3
Our friend Justin Ferguson of Auburn Undercover points out that this was Auburn’s biggest margin of victory since 1932 and most passing yards since 2014. Does it mean anything until SEC play? Probably not. But first, here comes a classic ACC matchup with Cal, fresh off a 31-13 win over UC-Davis. So … yeah. (If you feel Auburn should be higher … nah, not yet.)
Lost 27-20 to USC
It’s hard to indict the Tigers too much after a game that could’ve gone either way, and down the line, this could prove an acceptable loss. But it was a game LSU could have put away and instead lost to Lincoln Riley and the Big Ten. Not a great look and not a great start for Brian Kelly’s third year.
Beat Temple 51-3
It was a proper thrashing, but the Sooners lost another receiver, Jalil Farooq, for a couple of months with a foot injury, after losing Jayden Gibson for the season. At least Nic Anderson, the team’s leading returning receiver, is expected back after missing the opener. Still, if the transfer portal were open during the season, Brett Venables would be on the horn.
Beat Southern Miss 31-0
The game started late, then the final 10 minutes were canceled because everyone just wanted to go home. (Also the weather.) In between, Brock Vandagriff had a nice starting debut (204 total yards, three touchdowns), but judgment will be reserved until playing South Carolina this week — oh and then Georgia the week after that.
12. Texas A&M
Lost 23-13 to Notre Dame
The sting is mitigated by the possibility Notre Dame is pretty good and that Mike Elko gets latitude due to being a new coach. Still, the game was at home, Conner Weigman did not look like a good QB, and there needs to be a lot of improvement to be respectable in SEC play.
Beat Arkansas-Pine Bluff 70-0
This was either the high-water mark of Arkansas’ season or the first indication that not enough credence was given to the offseason additions: Bobby Petrino’s return to call plays caused rolled eyes given the circumstances of his departure. Taylen Green’s transfer in from Boise State was overlooked because of the other quarterback moves. And in the end, it may all prove not enough to save Sam Pittman’s job. This first week, however, things looked very good. Now let’s see how things go at Oklahoma State.
Beat Eastern Kentucky 56-7
it was a good debut for head coach Jeff Lebby, in a continuing theme of SEC teams having no problem with FCS and Group of 5 opponents this week. Well, almost every SEC team. …
15. South Carolina
Beat Old Dominion 23-19
Sometimes near-escapes in these games aren’t red flags. But when teams in your conference are easing by in their guarantee games, and you need to rally and hold on to beat a team picked to finish sixth in the Sun Belt East Division, well, that’s not very encouraging. But at least you’re not …
Lost 41-17 to Miami
Look, there’s an argument to be made for Florida to stop cycling through coaches, that stability would do the program some good. There’s also no point pulling the plug right away — like, this week — when the team has to let some games play out. Maybe Miami is really good! (Cam Ward certainly looked good.)
But Florida’s showing was atrocious. A loss in a competitive game could’ve been excused but not a blowout at home with a lot of the same mistakes. It also showed that with the right hire, a once-proud program with years of mediocrity can get back to relevance, as Mario Cristobal and Miami seem to be doing. (Albeit in a weaker conference.)
GO DEEPER
Billy Napier beware: Florida has not historically been patient in rebuilds
Napier, along with his school, is being sued by former recruit Jaden Rashada for the NIL deal that fell apart. Rashada is now at Georgia, and it has been a curiosity whether he and Napier will interact before or after the game on Nov. 2. As things stand now, we probably won’t get that visual.
(Top photo: Doug Engle / USA Today)
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Publish date : 2024-09-01 22:00:00
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