Best. First. Weekend. Ever.

What a spectacular weekend of football! Where do I start???

Thursday

I already talked about Thursday's games, but let's recap real quick:

•  2 FBS teams lost to FCS teams. Granted, Eastern Washington is a damned good FCS squad. But...Tulsa losing to UC Davis? If you recall, Tulsa gave OkSt and Cincy fits last season, and beat UCF and SMU.
• Ohio State beat a very determined Minnesota who came in with 20 returning starters. OSU had a first time starter redshirt QB in Stroud who only threw for 4 TDs and nearly 300 yds. Their starting center was a first timer, sophomore Wypler, along with new starters at RG and RT. And of the back 7 on D, 6 were first time starters with RS frosh WIlliams and true frosh Burke on the corners. The D line did "ok", but I wonder how that game goes if Ibrahim doesn't get hurt. Get well soon, dude.

Friday

Friday I went to the movies with my son to see Shang-Chi - great movie! But I missed the Implosion of Sam Howell. It's not the end of his darkhorse Heisman run considering how the rest of the weekend went, but it sure didn't help. Here are some stats:

9/29, 219yds, 1 TD, 3 INT, loss to VaTech

17/32, 208yds, 1 TD, 3 INT, loss to VaTech

Which line belongs to Sam Howell in 2021, and which to JT Barrett from 2014? Hmm?

And MSU beat Northwestern pretty convincingly. That game was not as close as the score.

Saturday

I went car shopping, looking for a used C4 or C5 Corvette, so if you know anyone selling a C4 ZR1 or C5 Z06...?

Anyway, I got to watch enough Penn State v Wisky to know that neither team looked great. While the result was similar to the UGA/Clemson game, the paths were very different. PSU/Wisky looked like inept offenses vs normal B1G defenses. I was not at all impressed with either team, and I really expected more from Clifford.

Speaking of expecting more, boy did Miami stink up the joint! Bama looked great, as usual. That said, Bryce Young looked human, not that I expected anything less. But the 'Canes looked really just bad and completely over-matched. I had hoped for a more competetive game. Fortunately, when that became a snoozefest there were other games on!

I tried to watch Iowa and Indiana. Ugh. Penix Jr with 0 TD and 3 INT is not the guy we saw and enjoyed last season. Iowa played Iowa football: 158yds rushing, 145yds passing, and 20pts scored by the offense, 14pts by the defense. I expect Iowa to do very well this season, and Penix will probably get it figured out.

I missed the Oregon game, but their struggles with the Bulldogs of mighty Fresno State does not bode well for traveling to the Shoe without Thibodeaux and facing OSU.

So, how about the surprising games from Saturday?

#1 has to be Oklahoma. I had the Green Wave ranked 70th in 2019 and 76th in 2020. How does OU's vaunted and highly praised new-found Big 12 defense give up 464yds to Tulane? And they needed a 4th down stop to preserve the win. At home. The Chosen One had 1 TD and 2 INTs and was outperformed by Tulane's Pratt. I am not impressed, but apparently Joel Klatt feels that OU only deserves to drop one place in his rankings. I'm not buying it.

#2 for sure is UGA and Clemson. 10-3 might seem very similar to the PSU/Wisky 16-10 score, but this was a different game entirely. JT Daniels and DJ Uiagalelei are among the cream of the crop this season, and they had awful games, DJ especially. In this case, I will give credit to the respective defenses. Seriously, the UGA D line and LBs spent as much time on the Clemson backfield as DJ did. The Bulldogs had 7 sacks. Seven! No way was DJ having a good game. And while Daniels was misfiring all night, Clemson's D was also playing lights out. I usually prefer more scoring, but I truly enjoyed watching this game.

#3 Please see my Week Zero Thoughts post: "I'm calling it now: UCLA over LSU by 7+." Yup, nailed it.

Meaningful games at every turn is what made this a fun weekend. They should all be like this! Too bad next week all we have is Oregon-OSU. Pretty much everyone else is playing the Little Sisters of the Poor. 

Ray's Heisman Watch:

QBs

1. Ridder
2. Stroud
3. Young
4. Rattler
5. Daniels
6. Uiagalelei

RBs

1. Zach Charbonnet
2. Kenneth Walker III
3. Mohamed Ibrahim (but this will not last)

WRs

1. Chris Olave
2. Jameson Williams
3. Garrett Wilson
4. Kayshon Boutte

Defense

1. No idea yet - need someone to dominate.

I'll have new rankings out tomorrow after Notre Dame v Florida State.