College football Week 0 roundup with the 5 things that matter, winners and losers, overrated and underrated parts of the weekend, and what it all means.
College Football Week 0 Roundup
Week 0 Roundup
CFN 1-130 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Week 0 Scoreboard | Week 1 Expert Picks
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– The Super Seniors: One Really Big Thing
– Nebraska’s loss: Most Overrated Thing
– UCLA’s win: Most Underrated Thing
– Learn from this already: What It All Means, Week 0
– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak
Winners & Losers From Week 0
Winner: Bret Bielema
When we last saw Bielema as a head coach, he was in Year Five at Arkansas and it wasn’t going well. He went 4-8 overall, 1-7 in conference play, and that was it – he couldn’t replicate the Wisconsin magic. He also went winless in the SEC in his first year.
There’s no issue with getting skunked in conference play in his first season as the head man at Illinois after a 30-22 win over Nebraska.
Loser: Scott Frost
While he’s not going to get fired yet – Nebraska loves him too much and everyone is desperate for this to work – with this loss to the Fighting Illini he’s now 12-21 as the Nebraska head coach and 9-18 in the Big Ten. He really, really, really needed this win, and now there’s zero margin for error the rest of the way.
To take the Illinois win even further …
Winner: Bret Bielema vs. Illinois
Bielema’s 2012 Wisconsin team lost a 30-27 heartbreaker to Nebraska early in the season, but the two would meet again in the Big Ten Championship.
Wisconsin 70, Nebraska 31.
After the win in Champaign on Saturday, Bielema is now 3-1 against Nebraska by a combined score of 175-100, or an average of 44-25.
Loser: Nebraska vs. Illinois (lately)
Nebraska had won four in a row against Illinois and was 9-1-1 in the series since a 9-6 loss to kickoff the 1924 season, and up until last year was 12-2-1 overall with the series starting in 1903. The 2020 Fighting Illini won 41-23 in Lincoln and followed it up with the win on Saturday.
Winner: UTEP
How rare was UTEP’s 30-3 win over New Mexico State? It was the program’s largest margin of victory since beating North Texas 52-24 at the end of the 2016 season, and it was the largest road win since beating UTSA 34-0 in 2014. It’s also just the third win over an FBS team since that victory over the Mean Green in ‘16.
Loser: UConn
2020 was supposed to be UConn’s first season as an independent, but it chose not to play during a global pandemic. In its first game back, it came up with just 107 yards of total offense in a 45-0 loss to Fresno State.
– The Super Seniors: One Really Big Thing
– Nebraska’s loss: Most Overrated Thing
– UCLA’s win: Most Underrated Thing
– Learn from this already: What It All Means, Week 0