Five Takeaways from Week 1

Arch Manning struggles, the ACC has some new top dogs, and Lee Corso goes out on top.

College football finally returned in full force this past weekend, as from Thursday to Monday, there was at least something to watch on our televisions.

Months and months of preseason hype and speculation preceded this season, and now that actual football games are being played, we have some answers about some of the burning questions that rattled through our minds all offseason. There’s obviously always something to take away from a full weekend of college football, but Week 1 feels different. It’s the first time we all get to see the teams actually step foot on the gridiron, and while conclusions can’t necessarily be drawn from this inaugural batch of games, observations definitely can.

Below are five of my biggest takeaways from Week 1 of the 2025 college football season. I promise that I tried not to overreact. If I did, I’m sorry, I couldn’t help it.

---

Throw Out All Your Expectations

Anticipation is human nature. Just as I instinctively expect a car ahead of me to hit the brakes on the highway, I also anticipated that certain college football teams would look sharper than they did. Like many of you, I entered Week 1 with convictions about who would shine and who would stumble. And like many of you, I was wrong. That’s the beauty of the sport—it humbles us quickly.

Week 1 detonated the top 10 of the D Poll, along with pretty much every other ranking out there. The established order didn’t just wobble, it crumbled.

Texas, the team I and countless others pegged as the nation’s best, played one of the sloppiest games I’ve seen in a long time. Against Ohio State, the Longhorns’ offense, Steve Sarkisian’s pride and joy, looked disorganized and flat. The quarterback situation (more on that later) compounded the mess. It’s rare to say Sark’s side of the ball looked unprepared, but Saturday afternoon in Columbus left no other conclusion.

Ohio State, meanwhile, was supposed to be overrated. At least, that’s how the D Poll labeled them. Instead, the Buckeyes walked into the spotlight and flexed. Their defense, despite heavy turnover from last season, remains ferocious. A 14–7 final score might suggest offensive issues, but I chalk that up to opening-week jitters and Texas’ defense rather than systemic flaws. Still, redshirt freshman quarterback Julian Sayin looked his age. He’ll need to iron out those early wrinkles quickly before Ohio State’s schedule toughens.

Notre Dame, third in my D Poll, joined the list of disappointments by falling to Miami, a team I had serious reservations about. And yet, of the many quarterbacks who debuted this weekend, CJ Carr was the one who impressed me most. He wasn’t flawless, but he showed poise and command. Given the Irish’s manageable schedule, my outlook on their season hasn’t shifted dramatically. Their playoff road remains clear, provided they seize it.

Then there’s Clemson. Oh, Clemson. My national title pick stumbled out of the gate against LSU, and it wasn’t pretty. Brian Kelly’s Tigers, with second-year defensive coordinator Blake Baker calling the shots, suffocated Cade Klubnik and the Clemson offense. Whether that says more about LSU’s ceiling or Clemson’s mediocrity remains to be seen. Thankfully, 11 games remain to sort out the truth.

But no team flopped harder than Alabama. Year two under Kalen DeBoer began with the same troubling signs that marred 2024. The most glaring issue? A lack of physicality. I’ve never loved that buzzword, but it fits here. A Nick Saban team never looked this soft. Never. That was what stood out most about Saturday’s loss to Florida State in Tallahassee.

Consider this: DeBoer has already lost four games to unranked opponents in just 14 tries. It took Saban 235 games to reach that number. DeBoer isn’t Saban, and no one should expect him to be. The championship-every-year standard is unrealistic in today’s game. But losing to Vanderbilt one week after beating Georgia? Not acceptable. Getting blown out by a middling Oklahoma squad? Not acceptable. Being out-schemed by a Florida State team that went 2–10 last year? Absolutely not acceptable. The winds of change blow fast in college football, and DeBoer better pray he doesn’t get swept away.