With the first full week of college football in the books, we learned a ton about the direction of this college football season. We saw a couple of double-digit favorites lose outright and we saw the first look at some of the title contenders for this year’s College Football National Championship. There were a lot of games that took place and we saw some things that I have learned about how this season could play out. Here are the five things that we learned from week one of college football.
1. Ohio State’s Offensive Struggles Are A Little Worrying
The Buckeyes struggled against an Indiana defense that looked like they would struggle against a high powered Ohio State offense. Indiana played tough defensively against the Buckeyes offense. Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka struggled (5 receptions with 34 receiving yards combined). Also, Kyle McCord struggled in his first collegiate start (239 passing yards 1 interception). Defensively, the Buckeyes looked super elite and they are going to be a force in 2023. However, the play of Kyle McCord needs to play a lot better if they want to be national title contenders. Luckily for the Buckeyes, they are at home against Youngstown State and that will be a good confidence boost for this offense hopefully next week.
2. Colorado Is Going To Be A Lot Better Than People Thought
The Colorado Buffaloes were talked about being a disaster before the season started. However, head coach Deion Sanders helped his team go on the road and upset the national championship runner-ups to start off the 2023 season. The Heisman campaigns for Shadeur Sanders and Travis Hunter have also started. Hunter was a key contributor on both sides of the footbal and Sanders had a lot of success throwing the football as he eclipsed the 500 yard passing mark.
The Buffaloes have an easy two weeks ahead with Nebraska and Colorado State coming to town. After that, they head on the road to Oregon and host USC the week after to end the month of September. There’s a good chance that Colorado could be 4-1 or even 5-0 at the end of September if they played like how we saw them play offensively this past weekend.
3. Top Pac-12 Offenses Will Be Fun To Watch This Year
USC, Oregon and Washington all put up crazy offensive numbers last week. Oregon put up 81, Washington had 56, and USC put up 66. These three electric offenses are led by three electrifying quarterbacks. Caleb Williams, Bo Nix, and Michael Penix Jr are three of the top quarterbacks in the country.
They have shown how good they are in multiple years of being a starter in college football. With the way that these offenses look when we see two of these three teams matchup in 2023, we should see some fireworks offensively. These three offenses will be top ten in total offense throughout the whole year.
4. Florida State Looks Like A Legit CFP Title Contender
The Florida State Seminoles looked legit in their week one matchup against LSU. After a close back and forth first half, the Seminoles flipped a switch and had a dominant second half. Heisman candidate Jordan Travis had five total touchdowns against a good LSU defense. It was a breakout game for WR Keon Coleman, the transfer from Michigan State.
Coleman had 9 receptions to go along with 122 receiving yards and 3 touchdowns. He is a good complement receiver to Johnny Wilson. This Florida State offense looks like it’s going to be good again in 2023 and might even be a step better than they were last year.
5. Clemson Will Only Go As Far As Cade Klubnik Allows Them To
The Tigers started off the season with a loss at Duke. A 21 point loss was a humbling moment for Clemson. This offense struggled and it was all due to Cade Klubnik having a bad game yet again. Klubnik struggled as he only threw for 209 passing yards to go along with 1 passing touchdown and 1 interception.
This defense is very good but they can only do so much. Clemson’s defense held Duke to 13 points the first three quarters. However, this Clemson offense can’t get going unless they get an improvement from Klubnik. This team will only go as far as Cade Klubnik allows them to go.
