The 2024 college football season opened this week with No. 1-ranked Georgia blasting its way past No. 14-ranked Clemson with a final score of 34-3 in Atlanta. The Bulldogs are on a revenge mission following their “getting jobbed” out of the college football playoffs last season. I use the word “jobbed” to describe what happened, because that’s what the NCAA Selection Committee did as it denied Georgia a chance at a third-straight national college football championship.
Last December, the Bulldogs went into their game against Alabama ranked No. 1 in America, with a 29-game winning streak and back-to-back national titles on their resume. They lost to ’Bama by three points in the SEC championship game in Tuscaloosa. Alabama jumped from the No. 8 spot in the polls to a playoff spot, (No. 4) while Georgia dropped out of the playoff picture (No. 6), finishing with a No. 4 ranking at season’s end.
With only eight teams picked for the four playoff spots, Georgia, clearly one of the top three teams in the country, never got the chance to defend its double national championship status and a chance at an unprecedented modern-day “three-peat.”
Alabama was “gifted” its trip to the playoffs. There has been talk to the effect that the committee got wind of the fact that ’Bama Coach Nick Saban was planning to retire, citing his dissatisfaction with the direction that college football was headed. Saban did indeed retire, following his team’s 27-20 overtime playoff loss to Michigan. (No parting gift for Saban, who is now a television analyst.)
Truly knowledgeable fans knew that the system had to be changed to eliminate the kind of mess that was created last season — a season that saw Michigan win the national championship while under the cloud of a cheating scandal, which is still under heavy investigation.
A new 12-team playoff format is now in place, putting four more teams in the playoff dance. This came a year too late for Georgia, whose current players are still angry over the way they were voted out of their chance at history.
On to a new season
In the Aug. 31 game, following a dismal start that produced only a 6-0 halftime lead, the Bulldogs woke up from their sleepwalking of the first 30 minutes and showed why they are, once again, the No. 1-ranked college football team in America. Many feel that “the real national college football championship” resides in Athens, Georgia, as the Bulldogs recorded their 40th straight regular-season victory.
Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava looks for a receiver downfield. PHOTO: U OF TENNESSEE FOOTBALL
In other college football opening-week action, No. 2-ranked Ohio State demolished Akron, 52-6, in what could only be defined as a “cupcake” opening game for the Buckeyes. Many of the top college football teams still apply the “Cupcake-game equation” to their programs. For the Cupcake teams who take the proverbial beating, they are rewarded with a big payday for their school’s athletic programs. Other lower-ranked opponents include Colorado State, with an embarrassing 52-0 loss to No. 4-ranked Texas; Western Kentucky, annihilated 63-0 by No. 5-ranked Alabama; Furman destroyed by No. 6-ranked Ole Miss to the tune of 76-0; and Chattanooga, 69-3 losers to the No. 15-ranked Tennessee Volunteers. New quarterback sensation Nico Iamaleava threw for 314 yards and three touchdowns for Tennessee, putting his name on the early Heisman Trophy list.
Back to the more competitive side of things…
No. 7-ranked Notre Dame beat back the challenge of No. 20-ranked Texas A&M before a packed house at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas, with a final score of 23-13. No. 9-ranked Michigan beat Fresno State, 30-10, the first win for Sherrone Moore as full time head coach. That game set the stage for the second-week matchup in Ann Arbor against No. 4-ranked Texas. No. 19-ranked Miami took down Florida, 41-17, in Gainesville, Florida, in the renewal of the once-heated rivalry. Colorado edged past a tough (NCAA Division 1-AA) North Dakota State squad in a 31-26 win. Colorado’s dual Heisman Trophy candidates, quarterback Shedeur Sanders, with four TD passes, and all-purpose offensive and defensive star Travis Hunter, with three TD receptions, played major roles in the season-opening victory for the Buffaloes under second-year coach Deion Sanders.
The most entertaining game between ranked teams was turned in by No. 23-ranked Southern Cal and No. 13-ranked LSU in Las Vegas. USC marched 75 yards in eight plays in the final minute and 51 seconds, capping the drive with a spectacular 20-yard reception by Kyron Hudson from quarterback Miller Moss. It was the second superlative one-handed catch by Hudson in the game, despite a targeting penalty by LSU defensive back Jardin Gilbert. A 13-yard touchdown run by Woody Marks sealed the win with eight seconds left in regulation time. This was the first win for USC against an AP (Associated Press)-ranked opponent since 2003 and the eighth straight season opening-game triumph.
BC Eagles opening game
Boston College quarterback Thomas Castellanos heads upfield in win against Florida State. PHOTO: JOE SULLIVAN/BC FOOTBALL
The first week of the new season ended with a Monday clash between the Boston College Eagles and the No. 10-ranked Seminoles of Florida State. When the smoke cleared, it was the Eagles majestically soaring by virtue of their 28-13 domination of the Seminoles in Tallahassee under new head coach Bill O’Brien. O’Brien and his staff of National Football League coaching assistants put together a game plan that produced a 263-yard rushing attack and a pressure defensive scheme that kept Florida State off balance from start to finish.
The BC victory was the first opening-game triumph against a nationally ranked team since the 1976 win against the No. 7-ranked University of Texas Longhorns team led by Heisman trophy-winner Earl Campbell. This time, the Eagles’ offense was skillfully run by quarterback Thomas Castellanos (10-for-16 passing for 106 yards and two TDs and 73 yards rushing with one TD) and running back Kye Robichaux (19 carries, 85 yards, one TD). The Bill O’Brien era of Boston College football is off to a high-flying start, while Florida State, a perennial power in Division 1 college football, is trying to recover from one of the worst starts (0-2 and only the fifth team to lose their first two games while ranked in the AP top 10 in both games) in the history of its storied program.
