Well, this is one of the best days of the year. Hundreds of football games (at all levels) and everyone is undefeated as of this morning. Let the games; and the journey, begin...
Penn State began the morning with an important win for the program in James Franklin's first game as head coach. Penn State's defense thwarted UCF's offense in the first half; but UCF brought on freshman QB Justin Holman in the second half and he played a great game. He threw the ball well, ran it well and made heady decisions. Impressive start for this young man; but in the end, Penn State got the ball back with about 1:20 to play and down one. Hackenberg drove them to the 20 and Penn State made the field goal as time expired for the win. Fun second half to watch.
I loved this play.
Over on GameDay, clearly my favorite segment was "Coaches read mean tweets". Saban and Hoke were good; but I loved how Muschamp and Mullen responded to theirs.
This keen observation took place about a minute before halftime.
I flinched in my seat when I saw this live.
Big 4th down call for Jim Mora. What's he thinking? Well, have a listen.
So, how'd that work out?
Some observations from the early games:
- Both Penn State and UCF will win a lot of games this year. UCF's QB Holman came out of nowhere and could be special.
- Ohio State struggled to get their offense going and had a challenging time defending Navy's offense. I'm sure Urban is happy to put that game behind them.
- UCLA looked out of sync the entire game. Nothing flowed. No rhythm. They got the W; but we saw more questions than answers. UVA's offense needs to get better fast.
- Pitt just demolished Delaware (62-0).
- North Dakota State hasn't lost anything.
- Youngstown State was in their game against Illinois until they wore down a bit in the 4th.
- UAB looked like a completely different team from last year. They waxed Troy 48-10.
- Kentucky handled their scrimmage against UT-Martin with ease.
- NC State had to fight from behind to get the win over Georgia Southern.
During West Virginia's hyper-efficient opening drive:
N.C. State 24, Georgia Southern 23.
So Auburn is off to a 21-7 lead over Arkansas behind the very strong play of their "backup" QB Jeremy Johnson...