College Football 2015 Week 1 Awards September 9, 2015

The battle for Carolina in Charlotte started the 2015 college football season well.  It was very aesthically pleasing to see North Carolina and South Carolina both wear their home colors, too!(AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

(Note:  All rankings are current AP [week 1] unless otherwise noted.)

COACHES Wish I were him: Kevin Sumlin, Texas A&M

Glad I’m not him: David Shaw, Stanford

Lucky guy: Bronco Mendenhall, BYU

Poor guy: Mike Riley, Nebraska

Desperately seeking a wake-up call: Steve Spurrier, South Carolina

Desperately seeking a P.R. man: Jerry Kill, Minnesota

Desperately seeking sunglasses and a fake beard: Charlie Strong, Texas

Desperately seeking … anything:  Jeff Monken, Army

TEAMS

Thought you’d kick butt, you did: No. 9 Georgia (defeated LA-Monroe 51-14)

Thought you’d kick butt, you didn’t: No. 22 Arizona (defeated UTSA 42-32)

Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you did: Texas State (lost to No. 10 Florida State 59-16)

Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you didn’t:  Central Michigan (lost to Oklahoma State 24-13).

Thought you wouldn’t kick butt, you did:  No. 11 Notre Dame (defeated Texas 38-3)

Dang, they’re good: Ohio State

Dang, they’re bad:  Tulane

Can’t Stand Prosperity:  Stanford

Did the season start?  Texas (Honorable Mention:  Penn State)

Can the season end?  Tulane

Can the season never end?  Notre Dame

GAMES

Play this again:  No. 6 Auburn 31, Louisville 24

Play this again, too:  No. 2 TCU 23, Minnesota 17

Honorable Mention to play again:  South Carolina 17, North Carolina 13

Never play this again: No. 17 Ole Miss 76, Tennessee-Martin 3

Say what? BYU 33, Nebraska 28

WHAT? FIU 15, UCF 14

Huh?  Northwestern 16, No. 21 Stanford 6

Are you kidding me?  Texas A&M 38, No. 15 Arizona State 17

Oh – my – God:  Temple 27, Penn State 10

NEXT WEEK

(rankings are current AP (post-week 1, pre-week 2)

Ticket to die for:  No. 7 Oregon @ No. 5 Michigan State

Best non-Power Five vs. Power Five matchup: Houston @ Louisville; also:  Minnesota @ Colorado State

Best non-Power Five matchup: Marshall @ Ohio U

Upset alert: No. 19 Oklahoma @ No. 25 Tennessee

Must win: Kentucky @ South Carolina

Offensive explosion: No. 22 Arizona @ Nevada

Defensive struggle: No. 14 LSU @ No. 25 Mississippi State

Great game no one is talking about: Minnesota @ Colorado State; also:  No. 20 Boise State @ BYU

Intriguing coaching matchup: Mark Stoops of Kentucky vs. Steve Spurrier of South Carolina

Who’s bringing the body bags? Hawaii @ No. 1 Ohio State

Why are they playing? South Alabama @ Nebraska

Plenty of good seats remaining: Army @ UConn

They shoot horses, don’t they?  NC Central @ Duke

Week 1 Take-aways:

• Ohio State seems to have not skipped a beat during the offseason.  After the occasional hiccup in the second quarter, they made every halftime adjustment one could think of and demonstrated why they deserve to retain the top ranking.
• Had Louisville not made mistake after mistake, the results of the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff game would surely have been considerably different.  That said, Auburn is not a team with which to be trifled.
• Evidence of the Big Ten gaining strength compared to, say, seasons 2005-2013, could not be further on display, and not just with the top dog Ohio State.  Mighty Stanford travelled eastward to take on Northwestern in Evanston, Ill.  They did not return to the West Coast victorious.  Few pigskin prognosticators saw THAT coming.
• Arizona State has potential to be a tough team.  Dropping the ball – figuratively — to Texas A&M did not help their case.  Either the Sun Devils were highly overrated going into the game, or they picked a horrible time to take the night off.
• Either South Carolina is starting to struggle a bit as a program, or North Carolina has greatly improved.  At this point, I suspect the latter.  Larry Fedora has proven to be a capable coach, and Gene Chizik’s influence on the Tarheel’s defense quickly showed itself.
• Jim Harbaugh shall no doubt make Michigan into a respected power again.  Their loss to Utah in Salt Lake City seemed to be a speedbump towards that goal.  The immediate discernment is that the Utes are becomingly an increasingly respected program in the post-Urban Meyer era.  In the meantime, signs that Harbaugh is shaking things up in Ann Arbor is already readily apparent.  For one, their legendary helmet design now has metal flake in the both the yellow and blue parts of the distinct pattern – a first for the program.  Moreover, they were wearing [gasp!] white pants with traditional stripes, which is a far cry from the plain yellow pants they have worn for decades.  That last item alone is proof that Hades has officially frozen over!

Such is the ‘rousing start to the 2015 college football season.  One more week of an excess of body bag games to go, and things ought to be even more interesting!