College Football Awards, Week 1 (2025) September 2, 2025

COACHES
Wish I were him:  Ryan Day, Ohio State

Glad I’m not him: Steve Sarkesian, Texas

Lucky guy: Brent Key, Georgia Tech

Poor guy: Deion Sanders, Colorado

Desperately seeking a wake-up call: Chris Klieman, Kansas State

Desperately seeking a P.R. man: Mike Norvell, Florida State

Desperately seeking sunglasses and a fake beard: Jeff Monken, Army

Desperately seeking … anything:  Kalen DeBoer, Alabama

TEAMS
Thought you’d kick butt, you did: Illinois (defeated Western Illinois 52-3)

Thought you’d kick butt, you didn’t: Kansas State (defeated North Dakota 38-35)
Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you did: Marshall (lost to No. 5 Georgia 45-7)

Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you didn’t:  Toledo (lost to Kentucky 24-16)

Thought you wouldn’t kick butt, you did:  Temple (defeated UMass 42-10)  

Dang, they’re good: Ohio State
Dang, they’re bad:  UMass

Can’t Stand Prosperity:  N/A

Did the season start?  Kansas State
Can the season end?  Army

Can the season never end? Florida State

GAMES
Play this again:  No. 3 Ohio State 14, No. 1 Texas 7

Play this again, too: No. 9 LSU 17, No. 4 Clemson 10

Never play this again: BYU 69, Portland State 0

What?  No. 3 Ohio State 14, No. 1 Texas 7

Huh?  No. 9 LSU 17, No. 4 Clemson 10

Are you kidding me??  Florida State 31, No. 8 Alabama 17

Oh – my – God:  Tarleton State 30, Army 27 (2OT)

NEXT WEEK

rankings are current AP (week 2)
Ticket to die for:  Michigan @ Oklahoma

Best non-Power Four vs. Power Four  matchup: James Madison @ Louisville

Best non-Power Four matchup: North Texas @ Western Michigan

Upset alert: UConn @ Syracuse

Must win: UCLA @ UNLV

Offensive explosion: Kansas @ Missouri

Defensive struggle: Miami (OH) @ Rutgers

Great game no one is talking about: Iowa @ No. 22 Iowa State

Intriguing coaching matchup:  Frank Reich of Stanford vs Kalane Sitake of BYU

Who’s bringing the body bags?  San Jose State @ Texas

Why are they playing? Florida International @ Penn State

Plenty of good seats remaining: Bryant @ UMass

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?  Eastern Washington @ Boise State

Week 1 Thoughts:

The 2025-’26 college football season has launched for real, and a few good games have helped the season launch more than respectfully.  Indeed, in one of the greatest opening games in living memory, No. 1 Texas came to Columbus to play No. 3 (and defending national champ) Ohio State.  Adding even more drama and poignancy to this already-historic matchup was the fact that this was legendary ESPN football commentator Lee Corso’s last appearance on the network’s College Gameday show.  In a very classy farewell gesture, Corso, 90, wore a tuxedo for his farewell appearance.  The Ohio State band formed the letters “CORSO” on the field right before kickoff, and he was joined by the Gameday crew a the 50 yard line of Ohio Stadium to deliver his final “headgear” stunt.  Appropriately, he donned the Brutus Buckeye head.  How could he not?  Twenty-nine years ago, his first ever big-game outcome prognostication vis-à-vis donning the team’s mascot head was born at Ohio State, where he likewise put on Brutus’ head.  It was more than fitting that he bookended his legendary body of work at ESPN by doing the same thing, in fitting tribute to the place where the cherished tradition began.

The game itself was incredible, with huge defensive plays abounding throughout the game.  Ryan Day’s overall strategy of bringing in Matt Patricia from the NFL paid off handsomely.  Patricia used his vast NFL experience to call up defensive schemes to make inexperienced Texas QB Arch Manning uncomfortable, and it showed in the Longhorns’ lack of offensive output throughout all but the last drive of the game.  Still, Manning managed to exploit the occasional crack in the Buckeyes’ defense, and Texas was thus one pass completion away from taking the game into overtime.

In a larger sense, this loss on the part of the Longhorns shall not tank their season.  Should Texas effectively regroup and make the playoffs come season’s end, surely their path shall cross that of Ohio State yet again.  Should they do so, it is almost always impossible to beat the same formidable opponent again in the same season, as the Buckeyes demonstrated with devasting effectiveness against Oregon in the most recent Rose Bowl.

The Broader Line-up of Games

In what might become an annual tradition for the first week of college football awards each season, it is worth noting the many poor matchups among a few really great games.  Once again, most of the matchups scream “[W]hy are they playing?”  To wit (final scores indicated in parentheses): 

Louisville vs EKU (51-17); Arizona State vs Northern Arizona (38-19); SMU vs East Texas A&M (42-13); BYU vs Portland State (69-0); Tulsa vs Abilene Christian (35-7); North Texas vs Lamar (51-0); Ole Miss vs Georgia State (63-7); Texas Tech vs Arkansas Pine Bluff (67-7); USC vs Missouri State (73-13); Florida vs Long Island University (55-0); Arkansas St. vs SE Missouri State (42-24); W. Kentucky vs North Alabama (55-6); Oklahoma vs Illinois State (35-3); Iowa vs Albany (34-7); James Madison vs Weber State (45-10); Memphis vs Chattanooga (45-10); Arkansas vs Alabama A&M (52-7); Oregon vs Montana State (59-13); Penn State vs. Nevada (46-11); Georgia vs Marshall (45-7); Iowa State vs South Dakota (55-7); Air Force vs Buckness (49-13); Boston College vs Fordham (66-10); West Virgina vs Robert Morris (45-3); UConn vs Central Conn. St. (59-13); Pittsburgh vs Duquense (61-9); Navy vs VMI (52-7); Illinois vs Western Illinois (52-3); Kansas vs Wagner (46-7); Florida International vs Bethune-Cookman (42-9); SDSU vs Stony Brook (42-0); Houston vs Stephen F. Austin (27-0); Missouri vs Central Arkansas (61-6); Oklahoma State vs Tennessee-Martin (27-7); Duke vs Elon (45-17)

I would add other games as well to the above litany, except that the intended punching bags managed to make the games somewhat respectable, such as Indiana vs Old Dominion (27-14); Wisconsin vs Miami (OH) (17-0); Minnesota vs Buffalo (23-10); Wyoming vs Akron (10-0); UNLV vs Idaho State (38-31); Kentucky vs Toledo (24-16) and Michigan vs New Mexico (34-17).  The joke was truly on Army, who lost to lowly Tarleton State in the second overtime, 30-27.

As far as college football has evolved (e.g., the new playoff format), further evolution is clearly in order.  To be sure, these absolutely atrocious lineups are likely a holdover of the recent time when one loss could potentially tank a team’s entire season.  That is no longer the case, however, so going forward, it is not unreasonable for us fans to expect more marquee matchups such as the aforementioned Texas vs Ohio State, or Virginia Tech vs South Carolina, or Alabama @ Florida State, or Miami (FL) vs Notre Dame, and especially LSU @ Clemson, a memorable game in its own right.  Likewise with Notre Dame @ Miami (Fla.), which turned out to be another fantastic game.  More of these top-ten matchups, please!  Moreover, Monday night matchup of TCU @ North Carolina, which happens to also be Bill Belichick’s college coaching debut, holds much promise as well.

Just do not expect to see such needed evolution take place next week, which shall deliver too many “why are they playing?” matchups as well.