Bold predictions for the first full weekend of college football
The Paste BN Sports college football staff — Nicole Auerbach, Paul Myerberg, George Schroeder and Dan Wolken — weighs in with some bold predictions for Week 1 of the college football season:
Nicole Auerbach
Texas A&M's quarterback does not become a Heisman front-runner after Week 1. For once.
I don't mean this as a slight against Trevor Knight, but rather as praise for the collective college football community for not overreacting to the Aggies' signal-caller like it has each of the last two years — with Kenny Hill two openers ago and then both Kyle Allen and Kyler Murray last season. All three of those quarterbacks have since transferred out, and Texas A&M went 8-5 both seasons.
Hopefully, we've learned our lesson about small sample sizes. (Playing against Josh Rosen and UCLA should also help dampen any potential Aggies excitement, too, by the way.)
Paul Myerberg
It’ll be a rough weekend for the Pac-12 Conference.
Kansas State gave Stanford a game on Friday night. Southern California should lose to Alabama. Brigham Young has a good shot at knocking off Arizona.
Most of all, I can’t shake the feeling that Texas A&M is going to knock off UCLA, which would both cripple the Bruins’ hopes of making the College Football Playoff and do additional damage to the league’s national reputation.
George Schroeder
Just a few weeks ago, not many would’ve given Texas much shot at upsetting Notre Dame. But it’s exactly what could unfold on Sunday. Notre Dame brings the better team into Austin. But Brian Kelly insists he’ll play both quarterbacks. Malik Zaire and Deshone Kizer are terrific, but those kinds of situations rarely resolve cleanly. Add arrests, suspensions and dismissals in August, and there are legitimate questions about this team.
Meanwhile, no one outside of Texas’ football offices knows who the Longhorns’ quarterback will be. And no one, period, knows whether either veteran Tyrone Swoopes or true freshman Shane Buechele will play winning football. But Texas’ best game plan might be to simply hand the football to D’Onta Foreman and Chris Warren III in the power run game.
A win reduces the pressure on Charlie Strong, at least for the moment, and provides hope for the (immediate, anyway) future.
Dan Wolken
Clemson will win at Auburn but struggle enough for the media narrative next week to be, "What's wrong with Clemson?" That probably would suit Dabo Swinney just fine.
Opening games are hard especially on the road against teams that have legitimate talent. The media have been totally overlooking Auburn and anointing Clemson. It smells like a trap.
Clemson won't be as sharp offensively as people remember them from the end of last season and it will set off a panic. Don't believe it; Clemson will be fine in the long run. But I don't expect a pretty win at Auburn.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE WEEK IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL