Not living up to expectations

Don't wanna hear (or read) about how it was the defenses dominating.

It was poor coaching and poor play on offense.

Pick your poison as to which was worse.

For such an attention-grabbing array of matchups pitting highly ranked teams against one another, with high-profile figures expected to take the spotlight, Week 1 of the 2025 college football season was, frankly, a major letdown.

A resounding dud.

No. 1 Texas at No. 3 Ohio State ... sucked.

No. 9 LSU at No. 4 Clemson ... really sucked.

No. 6 Notre Dame at No. 10 Miami ... well, it didn't suck, but it didn't exactly wake up the echoes of Catholics vs. Convicts, either.

Why? Because of what was initially mentioned here -- poor coaching and poor play. All in the name of fear. Fear of losing.

You know, for all the praise Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian is given for his offensive genius, what, really, has he done -- as a genius -- besides ride the talent at Alabama to a national title as the Tide's offensive coordinator? Seriously. He was intriguing, but nothing more at Washington, and he crashed and burned at USC unfortunately due to his own personal demons.

Yeah, he reinvented himself at 'Bama ... and then parlayed that into a gig with the most overrated program (not just football, but the entire athletic domain at UT) in the country -- by far. And what has he done in Austin? He turned Quinn Ewers, at one time the No. 1 ranked recruit in the country, into a seventh-round draft pick, and, if Saturday's performance means anything, he might do the same for Arch Manning.

Ryan Day and Co. weren't much better in Columbus. They did the play not to lose thing, too, and looked awful in doing so. But the Buckeyes prevailed, 14-7.

The only team out of the two big-time battles on Saturday that actually loosened its collar a bit and let it rip was LSU, which is why it won, 17-10, in South Carolina's Upstate.

QB Garrett Nussmeier was solid (28-for-38, 232 yards, TD) not spectacular.

His counterpart for Clemson? Let's just take Cade Klubnick off the Heisman hopeful list right now. Sorry, he's always been a little "sus." But with Garrett Riley as his OC, he has absolutely no shot to truly show out. Just seen Lincoln's Li'l Bro screw up Clemson's attack, particularly individuals (Exhibit A: Current Philadelphia Eagles backup RB Will Shipley), all too often in such a short order.

The jury is still out on Notre Dame, which lost to a good team in Miami on Sunday night, 27-24. But pretty sure the Irish are not going to get where they want to go with Mike Denbrock as OC.

The Hurricanes? They may wanna work on that fourth-quarter fade that saw a 24-14 advantage evaporate in 6 minutes during the fourth quarter.

GEE, WHAT A SHOCK ... NOT

Perhaps none of us who religiously follow the sport AND don't get caught up in the flow of the hero-worshipping masses weren't surprised that Bill Belichick's virgin voyage into the college head coaching ranks ended up gurgling into the drink of embarrassment, but so many others were. It was almost shocking to the degree.

What wasn't? The memes and comments poking at The Genius, by detractors and supporters (at least former ones) alike, with Tom Brady being the only one who can save him as the primary focus after a 48-14 drubbing at the hands of an OK TCU squad Labor Day night in North Carolina and Belichick's mid-20s girlfriend entering the transfer portal as the secondary.

Lame? Yep.

Cheap? Of course.

But warranted just the same.

WHAT THE DUCK

The near universal genuflecting at the University of Oregon's overflowing collection of uniforms, to me, has been just as astounding as the bowing before Belichick -- actually even more so. But, gotta say, the Ducks looked solid on Saturday against FCS power Montana State -- both on the field and in attire (an old-school-ish yellow-green-yellow ensemble). That being said, they didn't even crack the top 5 among Big Ten schools in style over the weekend -- Illinois, Michigan State, Penn State, Ohio State, Purdue, Nebraska and Washington all dressed out better, and, frankly, so did the Bobcats.

Other teams who were super sharp: Pittsburgh, Navy, LSU, Boise State, Colorado, Coastal Carolina, Florida State, Delaware, Marshall and Appalachian State.

Duds? Any squad that has succumbed to the godawful trend of scrapping cool logos on helmets for scripted names. Here's looking at you, Mississippi State. Oh, and a special "ugh" for Notre Dame, which has somehow fully turned its gold into an olive-toned hue.

KINDA CRAZY

Neither of my alma maters -- Illinois and Temple -- are what anyone would consider national powers, at least not since Red Grange last ran in Champaign and Pop Warner last coached in North Philly, but they got two of my three spots for Heisman-worthy hype. Oklahoma QB John Mateer, who threw for 392 yards in his Sooners debut after transferring from Washington State following a brilliant 2024 season, would be the other.

But back to "my guys" -- Fighting Illini WR-PR Hank Beatty and Owls QB Evan Simon.

Beatty put up 108 receiving yards on 5 catches, including a 59-yarder, for a ranked squad in desperate need of a go-to guy on the outside AND 133 punt-return yards to set a school record previously held by Grange, whose 125-yard effort had stood for more than a century.

Simon merely threw for 6 TDs while completing 19 of 25 passes for 248 yards in a 42-10 victory at Massachusetts, giving K.C. Keeler a rather auspicious start to his Temple tenure.

CANNON SHOTS

Forget the big names who came back this season. The best arms the eyes behind these type-written words saw this weekend were not the most well-known, and, oddly, two of the three played in the same game: California at Oregon State.

In the Bears' 34-15 road victory, freshman southpaw Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele was absolutely electric, slinging the ball with speed, accuracy and touch. He had completions of 35, 35, 26 and 20 en route to a 234-yard, 3-TD night. His counterpart, Maalik Murphy, has been around the block a bit, starting his career at Texas and then throwing for 2,933 yards and 26 TDs at Duke last season. In this one, he was outplayed, but the talent was obviously -- just a rocket arm.

The third guy? Maryland freshman Malik Washington. A virtual clone of Murphy in a physical sense (6-foot-5, 235 pounds) AND arm talent, he threw for 258 yards and 3 TDs in his college debut.

MISLEADING NUMBERS

A pair of LBs at UCLA -- Isaiah Chisom (17) and JonJon Vaughns (15) -- combined for a whopping 32 tackles Saturday, earning spots as the Nos. 3 and 5 tacklers in the country. Here's the rub, they and the rest of the Bruins lost -- at home -- to Utah, 43-10.Cheap?