1. What It All Means: Week 1
We got through it.
There might have been limited fans in the stands, if any at all, but the teams were still able to play despite everything standing in the way of any of this happening.
Conditioning mattered.
Despite the 32-21 win, South Alabama isn’t as talented or as deep as Southern Miss. However, the Jaguars were moving well on the defensive front, and the offense had more spring in its step throughout.
Southern Miss was sucking wind midway through the third quarter against the fresher USA squad.
Army was brilliant from the start against a Middle Tennessee team that looked two steps too slow all game long and got slugged in the mouth on a 99-yard drive that ate up over 12 minutes.
Just when it seemed like the service academies might have had something, BYU played like it was shot out of a cannon against a Navy team that was overmatched and overwhelmed from the opening snap.
Marshall freshman QB Grant Wells got to take target practice on Eastern Kentucky, SMU and Memphis got to work out their respective kinks in wins despite not having their best stuff, and most UTEP got just its third victory since 2016.
No, this wasn’t the weekend of college football that we all wanted, but the programs outside of the Power Five got the spotlight, they got in some work, and now we’re off.
It’s going to be a wild ride.
CFN 1-76 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Ranking Projections AP | Coaches
Recaps, Ranking All Week 1 Games
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