The Sunday Blog returns after the first Saturday of college football that included more weather delays than a golf tournament and a new level of tailgating at Florida. Or so I’ve heard.
1. I know. I know. We know better than to overreact after the first Saturday of the season. If we did, we’d be ready to crown the SEC and dismiss the Pac-12. The SEC had three very nice wins. The Pac-12 had three very bad losses — Stanford at Northwestern, Washington State to Portland State and Arizona State to Texas A&M. It’s week one and we know it’s a long season.
2. Or we could just bash the Big 10, which is always fun. Nebraska’s heartbreaking loss was one thing but Penn State being outplayed by Temple was stunning. I thought all summer that there was too much hype for quarterback Christian Hackenberg. It seemed to be based on his measurables rather than his play. On Saturday, Temple sacked him 10 times. I could look this up, but I’m guessing there hasn’t been a Heisman winner who lost to Temple on opening day.
3. There was a lot of love for LSU as the season neared and it will be interesting to see if losing the first game affects the Tigers. Lightning forced a cancellation, just as it did with Florida a year ago, and losing that “preseason” game is never a good thing. Especially with Mississippi State and Auburn coming up the next two weeks.
4. Texas was already looking up at TCU and Texas A&M before Saturday. It only got worse. The Longhorns have been outscored 117-20 in their last three games. Charlie Strong thought he would have a better team but it was seal-clubbed by Notre Dame. Maybe the Irish are just that good. Maybe Jeff Driskel found the perfect landing spot in Louisiana Tech (threw for four touchdowns, ran for one). Maybe Tennessee’s secondary is horrible. Maybe Florida has two legit quarterbacks. Maybe Kansas will never recover from the Charlie Weis disaster. Or maybe it was just week one.
