Josh Rosen had a tidy little stat line this weekend: 19 for 26, 292 yards, 4 touchdowns. That’s a pretty good game’s worth of work. Thing is, Rosen did it in a quarter. Specifically, the fourth quarter of what ended up being the second-largest comeback in FBS history, a 45-44 UCLA win over Texas A&M in which the Bruins at one point trailed 44-10 late in the third quarter. In the final 19 minutes of the game, UCLA scored on drives of 75, 85, 96, 74, and 66 yards. Rosen finished with 491 passing yards on the night.
You can be forgiven if you looked at the scoreboard and thought Missouri and Missouri State had played basketball instead of football. Mizzou beat the Bears 72-43 in a game that featured 1,307 yards of total offense. Missouri’s 815 yards of total offense is a new school record, and was the most accumulated by an SEC team in a game since 1973. Tigers quarterback Drew Lock threw for 521 yards and seven touchdowns, both new school records as well. Missouri should find things a little more difficult this weekend as South Carolina comes to town.
Believe it or not, there was defense played this weekend, and perhaps the best defensive performance was turned in by LSU. The Bayou Bengals held BYU to 97 total yards, -5 yards rushing, and never allowed them to cross the 50-yard line in a 27-0 whitewashing. It was one of only two shutouts of an FBS team on the weekend (the other was Penn State’s 52-0 win over Akron). Auburn also had a solid defensive performance, as they stymied the Georgia Southern triple-option attack to the tune of 78 total yards in a 41-7 win.
Washington State is off the schneid. The Cougars had lost their last two openers against FCS opponents, and had not won an season-opening game at all under Mike Leach. They broke both streaks with a 31-0 win over Montana State. Other FBS schools were not as fortunate against lower-division teams. Baylor lost to Liberty, 48-45, in the first game of the Matt Rhule era. James Madison knocked off East Carolina, 34-14. At least the Pirates can comfort themselves knowing that they lost to the defending FCS champions. And then, there was the biggest upset in college football history – at least figuring by point spread, as 45-point underdog Howard beat UNLV, 43-40.
Finally, Jake Olson will never win a Heisman Trophy for USC, or be an All-American. But the fact that he played at all in this past week’s 49-31 win over Western Michigan is pretty impressive in itself. Olson, a sophomore, is blind, having lost his sight eight years ago. However, he has loved USC since the Pete Carroll days and learned how to long snap by feel. He made the snap for the final Trojans extra point. He was named the Pac-12 special teams player of the week for Week 1.
Congratulations to Paul Herron, who wins Week 1 in a tie-breaker over Chuck Norris with 274 points! TigerEyes17 was next with 272 points.
What a great first (long) weekend of college football! And week two looks to be awesome as well, with four top-25 games included in the list. The first game this week is Oklahoma State at South Alabama, Friday, September 8 @ 8 ET, so make sure to get your picks in by then!