Football Week 1: What to Watch

People…

We made it.

Georgia Tech got us all started on the season last week with a win over Florida State in Ireland, but this is the first full week of college football, so I hope you’ve gotten all your home projects done by now. If not, that’s your fault… and your significant other should be understanding. Whatever’s left can wait until December… or January.

Luckily for us Wolfpack fans, NC State begins Thursday night with a game against Western Carolina. It’s our first look at a rebuilt State offense and a defense that’s seeing some key players swapped out.

Also, Wake hosts NC A&T on Thursday night, while the Orange County team travels to Minnesota to face the Gophers. Go Goldy!

Colorado is a 10-point favorite over North Dakota State, but as you can see from the Sagarin ratings, it should be a fairly even matchup. Colorado will have a clear advantage in some very important positions, but if the offensive line isn’t sorted out, it could be a tough job for the Buffaloes.

There really aren’t many great games on Friday night, but there are a few ACC teams in action – and it sounds weird to say that considering I’m calling Stanford one of them.

There are some really good games on Saturday and a lot of really bad ones. Clemson-Georgia to start is fantastic. Can Dabo get the Tigers back in the national title race? Will Kirby Smart’s all-powerful Georgia team — even if it’s starting to resemble Urban Meyer’s Florida teams in terms of arrest statistics — keep the machine running? We’ll see.

It’s fantastic to have Penn State vs. West Virginia as a second option for the lunchtime.

The name of the game sounds better than it probably will be in reality, but Miami vs. Florida at lunchtime is fantastic. If you’re looking for an underrated game that’s also entertaining, check out Miami (OH) vs. Northwestern. I’d love to see a MAC team beat a Big Ten school in the opening week.

Saturday’s primetime is all about Notre Dame’s journey to Texas A&M. There are plenty of storylines in this one, but the most important one might be Mike Elko’s connection to both programs. Elko was DC at Notre Dame before leaving for a huge raise to take the DC job at Texas A&M. He then used his two years as the head coach at Duke to take the head job in College Station, and this will be his first game there. Excellent material across the board, and it should be a great game.

USC-LSU on Sunday night is must-see TV, especially if you like high scores. But now that I’ve said that, watch the game with a score of 17-14.

On Monday night, Boston College will either hilariously send Florida State to an 0-2 start in the ACC or beat them by 45 points. I don’t see anything in between.

Football is back, folks! Everything is good.

Rankings for SP+ Reviews And Sagarin Reviews are listed before the name of each team.

Thursday

FCS/166 West Carolina @ 29/37 NC State – 7:00 p.m. – ACC Network

FCS/207 NC A&T @ 74/81 Wake Forest – 7:00 p.m. – ESPN+/ACC Extra

40/51 North Carolina @ 47/56 Minnesota – 8:00 p.m. – FOX

FCS/44 North Dakota Condition @ 60/48 Colorado – 8:00 p.m. – ESPN

85/91 Carolina Coast @ 96/104 Jacksonville Condition – 8:00 p.m. – CBSSN

Friday

132/157 temple @ 13/13 Oklahoma – 7:00 p.m. – ESPN

FCS/165 Elon @ 51/74 duke – 7:30 p.m. – ACC Network

110/118 West Michigan @ 26/30 Wisconsin – 9:00 p.m. – FS1

38/28 TCU @ 77/89 Stanford – 10:30 p.m. – ESPN

Saturday

16/21 Clemson Against 1/1 Georgia – 12:00 pm – ABC

6/9 Penn State @ 34/29 West Virginia – 12:00 p.m. – FOX

36/39 Virginia Tech @ 89/107 Vanderbilt – 12:00 p.m. – ESPN

FCS/172 Austin Peay @ 31/26 Louisville – 12:00 pm – ACC Network

130/175 Kent State @ 66/65 Pittsburgh – 12:00 p.m. – ESPNU

FCS/131 Chattanooga @ 15/16 Tennessee – 12:45 p.m. – SEC Network

19/18 Miami @ 23/31 Florida – 3:30 p.m. – ABC

107/116 Ohio @ 67/59 Syracuse – 3:30 p.m. – ACC Network

80/85 Miami (Ohio) @ 75/72 Northwest – 3:30 p.m. – Big 10 Network

FCS/247 Western Illinois @ 98/113 Northern Illinois – 3:30 p.m. – ESPN+

FCS/127 University of California @ 52/49 California – 5:00 p.m. – ESPN+/ACC Extra

FCS/143 Richmond @ 78/79 Virginia – 6:00 p.m. – ESPN+/ACC Extra

82/67 UNLV @ 76/70 Houston – 7:00 p.m. – FS1

9/6 Notre-Dame @ 14/15 Texas AM – 7:30 p.m. – ABC

63/78 State of Fresno @ 7/11 Michigan – 7:30 p.m. – NBC

37/57 University of California @ 109/120 Hawaii – 7:30 p.m. – CBS

106/119 State of Georgia @ 58/55 Georgia Tech Institute – 8:00 p.m. – ACC Network

FCS/223 Houston Christian @ 27/41 SMU – 8:00 p.m. ESPN+/ACC Extra

FCS/163 Nicholls State @ 120/149 Louisiana Tech Institute – 8:00 p.m. – ESPN+

90/84 Wyoming @ 79/64 State of Arizona – 10:30 p.m. – FS1

Sunday

21/19 USC Against 10/8 LSU – 7:30 p.m. – ABC

Monday

73/77 Boston College @ 12/20 State of Florida – 7:30 p.m. – ESPN