Week 1 is coming to a close, and we've seen many strong starts and some very weak ones.
A new-look Oklahoma State team under Eric Morris lost an embarrassing opener to Tulsa, and Michigan needed more than its share of good luck to scrape past Western Michigan.
Meanwhile, LSU rolled past Clemson in a statement win to begin Lane Kiffin's tenure, and Oregon got what might be a résumé-boosting victory over Boise State.
Will the Wolverines put their struggles behind them? And will the Cowboys finally win a Big 12 game?
Our college football experts break down key takeaways from Week 1 performances.
What team made the biggest statement of the weekend and why?
It has to be LSU. So much of the conversation before Saturday night focused on whether Lane Kiffin would play guys who spent time on NFL rosters that almost nobody talked much about what his team would look like against Clemson. Five minutes into the game, Kiffin and the Tigers had already made their statement: Forget about future additions. The roster as currently constructed seems good enough to make a College Football Playoff run.
LSU dominated Clemson so thoroughly that alums who played under Dabo Swinney called the performance "soft" in social media posts during the game. What impressed the most was LSU's reconstructed offensive line and the emergence of running back Dilin Jones, a transfer from Wisconsin who had two career touchdowns before Saturday. Against Clemson, he matched that total while rushing for 113 yards.
LSU set a program record with 38 first downs and had 644 total yards of offense, its most in a season opener since 2000. Paired with a defense that held Clemson to eight first downs and 145 total yards, while racking up four sacks and 11 tackles for loss, LSU should now be taken seriously as a contender for the SEC title and a spot in the CFP.
Over the past decade, Kiffin has gotten his teams at Florida Atlantic and Ole Miss to buy in and win. It was easy to question whether he could get it done in Year 1 at LSU, but no more. With one of the highest-paid rosters in the game and the No. 1 portal class, LSU has entered the chat. -- Andrea Adelson
Who was the unsung hero of the weekend and why?
He didn't throw for seven touchdowns like Pitt's Mason Heintschel, and he didn't throw for 400 yards like Miami's Darian Mensah. But Indiana's Josh Hoover did exactly what the Hoosiers needed in a weird but eventually easy 52-16 win over North Texas. The Mean Green hogged the ball with four drives of eight or more plays, and through three quarters, they had taken 55 snaps to IU's 31. They were still within 15 points (31-16) late in the third, and IU's running game wasn't producing as much as expected.
Every time the Hoosiers needed Hoover to produce, however, he did.
His first pass as a Hoosier was a touchdown to fellow newcomer Nick Marsh. After North Texas scored its first points of the game, Hoover completed a 22-yard pass, then a TD to Charlie Becker. When UNT cut the lead to 24-13, Hoover completed a 25-yarder, then another score to Becker. UNT made it 31-16? Touchdown bomb to Davion Chandler.
All in all, it was a ridiculously tidy performance: Hoover completed 13 of 16 passes for 231 yards and four scores, no interceptions and no sacks. His only messy moment of the day involved blood, not a turnover. In that regard, he was part of a perfect opener for head coach Curt Cignetti. Cignetti was given plenty of things to yell at his team about, but the most important position on the field was perfectly handled. -- Bill Connelly
What under-the-radar result do we need to pay attention to?
What a dismal debut for new Oklahoma State coach Eric Morris and the Cowboys, who lost to Tulsa for the second straight year.
Oklahoma State fired Mike Gundy, the winningest coach in school history, immediately after last year's loss to the Golden Hurricane, but Saturday, the Pokes didn't look any better in their 24-10 defeat, even with all the standouts from Morris' former school, North Texas.
Quarterback Drew Mestemaker, who had been getting buzz as a potential NFL first-round draft pick, was especially disappointing, throwing two interceptions. But he didn't get much help from his offensive line, which lost left tackle Jacob Sexton to injury on the opening drive.
It doesn't get any easier for Oklahoma State, which has lost 20 straight to FBS opponents, as second-ranked Oregon visits Boone Pickens Stadium next weekend.
Obviously, this was only one game and Morris will have the opportunity to get the revamped Pokes, who have an unprecedented number of new players on the roster, on track.
But if the opener was any indication, it could be another long year in Stillwater. -- Jake Trotter
Which game will matter most to the CFP?
Much as it did in 2024, I wonder if we will look back on Oregon-Boise State as a matchup of not one, but two playoff teams. In that year's season opener, Oregon escaped with a 3-point win on a last-second field goal before putting together an undefeated regular season and a Big Ten title. The Broncos, aided by Ashton Jeanty, also didn't lose a game the rest of the regular season and became the Group of 5 representative in the CFP.
On Saturday, Boise once again gave the No. 2 Ducks a scare, holding a 17-7 lead at one point before the Ducks did enough to win 34-27. The game's effect was twofold: On one hand, it showed Oregon needs work to get up to the standards of not just the second-ranked team in the country but a potential national title favorite. It also exhibited that Boise State might have another potential playoff team.
"I would bet a lot of money that team wins a lot of games this year. I've got a feeling that's a really good Boise State team," Lanning said. "They were well prepared. They're well coached. They executed really well. So, no, I wouldn't be surprised to see their team have a lot of success before the season's over."
By December, this might be the kind of performance that, despite being a loss, gets used to make the case for Boise State. Simultaneously, the Broncos' potential success the rest of the season might help Oregon's CFP case. Instead of Saturday's result being a juggernaut struggling against a lesser opponent, it could become a hard-fought win against a playoff team. -- Paolo Uggetti
What's the most eye-popping stat of the weekend?
Oh, what a historic upset nearly occurred in Ann Arbor.
According to ESPN Analytics, Western Michigan had a 99.9% chance of beating No. 16 Michigan with 26 seconds to play Saturday night before Bryce Underwood and JJ Buchanan flipped the script with their last-gasp, 47-yard touchdown connection. There's almost certainly more to come surrounding the controversial walk-off at the Big House, but the history the Broncos and Wolverines flirted with in Week 1 is striking enough to consider anyway.
Per ESPN Research, if preseason MAC favorite Western Michigan had held on to the 12-7 win, it would have been ...
Michigan's first loss to a directional school from the state of Michigan. After Saturday's Hail Mary, the Wolverines are 24-0 all time against Western (9-0), Central (5-0) and Eastern Michigan (10-0).
The first time Michigan dropped a season opener at the Big House since a 25-23 loss to Utah in 2008. The Utes' head coach that day? Kyle Whittingham, the former longtime Utah coach who left his Wolverines debut with a narrow victory Saturday.
The first time a Michigan team ranked in the AP Top 25 lost a season opener to an unranked opponent since, of course, Appalachian State upset the fifth-ranked Wolverines on Sept. 1, 2007.
The end of a 29-game win streak for AP-ranked Michigan teams over unranked nonconference opponents. The Wolverines won those games by an average margin of 29.1 points per game.
Instead, Michigan leaves Week 1 at 1-0. The reward waiting for Whittingham, Underwood and the Wolverines on the other side of the miraculous escape? A Week 2 visit from No. 10 Oklahoma. -- Eli Lederman
