College football Week 1 thread: Chasin’ That Neon Deion Rainbow

"I was takin' him to the bus, Coach Heupel. It was time for him to go home."

 

Oher still isn’t getting any royalties.

 

And we have our first field storming. Have a night Ragtime Cowboy Joe.

 

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Did we ... under-hype Deion's team?

After nine months of chatter about Deion Sanders’ audacious experiment in Boulder, all that mattered in his Week 1 was this: He assembled the superior roster, plus the perfect offensive coordinator, the hyperdrive-tempo Sean Lewis. No wonder Sanders testified before, during, and after Colorado's 45-42 win at No. 17 TCU. The Buffs were three-touchdown underdogs.

His son, Shedeur, threw a school-record 510 yards, while also flying onto Heisman lists is former No. 1 recruit Travis Hunter, who went full Football Ohtani with 120-plus total snaps, 119 receiving yards, and a crucial interception.

Remember, last year’s Colorado was one of the worst power-conference teams ever. One of the 2022 Buffaloes’ best results was a 25-point loss to TCU. (Also remember the Horned Frogs could’ve hired Deion, interviewing him in 2021. Hmm.)

Regardless of whether the Buffs finish 1-11 or 11-1, there’s a chance this (nearly) Big 12 brawl will go down as the season’s most entertaining game. Next week: Sanders has his home debut against perpetually reeling rival Nebraska.

Elsewhere yesterday:

• What a scoreboard full of blowouts, even by Week 1 standards. None was more drastic than Oregon becoming the first FBS team since 2015 to drop 80.
  
  
• Jim Harbaugh’s goofy three-week suspension began with No. 2 Michigan breezing past East Carolina, 30-3.
  
  
• Great week for SMU, huh? A win, ACC membership, rival TCU’s faceplant and an even more gruesome loss by rival Baylor (42-31 to Texas State as a 26.5-point favorite).
  
  
• Wacky finish of the week: Virginia State gifted Norfolk State a likely overtime-forcing field goal, then ran back the flubbed snap for a rub-it-in touchdown at the buzzer.
  
  
• Did Iowa score 25? No. OC Brian Ferentz, who needs 325 points this season to keep his job, mustered 24 against Utah State, maybe the worst defense he’ll face. Gulp.

And we’re not done! No. 5 LSU vs. No. 8 Florida State headlines the weekend’s remaining mini-schedule. The Pulse will be off tomorrow, so be sure you’re subscribed to Until Saturday for takeaways from that one.

 

Heading into today's Oregon State-San Jose State game, the Pac-12 is 12-0.

 

If you fed Rutgers-Northwestern to a house pet, the state could bring you up on charges. But because it has the imprimatur of one of the Two Conferences That Matter, it gets nationwide exclusivity at noon Sunday and a Big 3 network slot. And they wonder why people are calling bullshit on this whole scam.

 

They usually trip over their dick on Labor Day weekend at a "neutral" game at Jerry World or Atlanta.

I almost had a heart attack seeing Florida at Utah.

 

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SMU and Baylor aren’t rivals. They’re in the same state. That’s about it.

 

What was Illinois doing scheduling Toledo? What did they have to gain? Never schedule Toledo if you don’t have to.

 

The new Penn State QB, Drew Allar, could not have looked too much better. And he picked up a couple of quality wideouts in Malik McClain (Florida State) and Dante Cephas (Kent State).

On the other side of the coin, WVU moved their D-line out pretty well. Neal Brown overthought it by getting away from running up the gut.

 

So if the Noles lose tonight and the Buffs win next week is Deion coaching in Talahassee by October?

My favorite nugget from yesterday - JT Daniels has now lost to Texas as a Trojan, a Mountaineer and an Owl.

Also love people complaining about the new GameDay open - you are a college football fan, "tradition" has nothing to do with it any more. Its all about messing up a good thing now.

 

I looked this up. Total scoring and scoring margins (both average and median) are almost identical -- and in fact slightly lower than -- games to this point of last season.
But no Week 1 has had a story like Colorado in recent memory.