After just the first week of the regular season, it is clear to see the college football world is set for another exhilarating season.
Fans need to understand that the first few weeks always consist of the powerhouse schools competing against teams that sound like spaces on Monopoly, but there is also the craziness that ties into the early AP Top 25 matchups.
The madness began during the usual college football ritual of College GameDay when Lee Corso put the elephant mascot head on to predict an Alabama victory over Wisconsin.
The almighty SEC will be one of the most talented and stacked conferences by far, especially after the Crimson Tide dismantled Wisconsin.
Let’s not forget about Pac-12 Conference favorite ASU losing to Texas A&M. Kyle Allen and Christian Kirk, a pair of key contributors in the Aggies’ win over the Sun Devils, grew up five miles away from Tempe.
ASU gave up 21 points in the fourth quarter and appears to be a work in progress. At this point, it’s safe for Kirk Herbstreit to scratch the Sun Devils off his preseason list of teams in the College Football Playoff.
It wasn’t just the Sun Devils that took a hit for the conference Saturday.
Washington State was defeated by Portland State, 24-17, at home. You read that right. Washington State head coach Mike Leach was hired to change the football culture and compete with Oregon for the Pac-12 North. Winning the conference is the last thing on Leach’s mind, considering the Cougars lost to an FCS team.
Chris Petersen and his Washington team lost to Boise State in a nail biter. Petersen, now in his second season with Washington, was head coach at Boise State for eight seasons.
Sure, there were bright spots for the conference, but most of them were down south and included the Los Angeles schools.
UCLA beat Virginia and freshman quarterback Josh Rosen threw for 351 yards and three touchdowns. For a teenager debuting as the starter for UCLA, Rosen proved why he could make a case for freshman of the year.
Across the way in South Central Los Angeles, USC and Cody Kessler appear to have the swagger of a national champion after the Trojans beat Arkansas State 55-6.
The biggest story out of the Pac-12, though, could be that of Arizona’s star linebacker, Scooby Wright III. Wright suffered a knee injury in the Wildcats’ season opener, and his timetable to return is still unknown. Arizona’s estimation has been anywhere from a couple of weeks to an entire month.
The Wildcats defeated UTSA Thursday, but the postgame thoughts weren’t on the win. With Wright being absent, there isn’t a defensive force like him in the Pac-12.
The conference is once again weak with teams losing to cupcake schools, and the injuries are stacking up quickly. Many Pac-12 schools are predicted to be competing for a bowl game, but week one has said otherwise.
There was an interesting sequence of events in college football this week, and now the madness will continue until the first week of January.
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