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Note: This article was updated Monday night to include Sunday's USC-LSU game and Monday night's BC-FSU contest that wrapped up the Labor Day weekend.
Did the weekend give us any real insight as to what we can expect for the rest of the year? We'll take a hard pass on that one as it's difficult to glean how schools will do against real competition when most debuted against vastly inferior opposition. 133 FBS schools participated in 96 games over the Labor Day weekend, but 59 of those games were against FCS programs.
It's safe to say that three of the biggest winners in gaining 2024 College Football Playoff clout off of their weekend performances were Notre Dame, Miami and Texas.
We can also confidently say that Florida State has no chance at making the playoff after an 0-2 start over-all, and a "slim-to-none" chance of winning the ACC as both contests were conference battles. The 'Noles have now opened with two losses three times in the last five seasons. After falling to Georgia Tech in Ireland, very few thought FSU wouldn't rebound and take care of business at home against Boston College. But the Bill O'Brien era opened with aplomb at BC with an emphatic 28-13 win in Tallahassee. It was the first time the school opened a season with a victory against a ranked opponent since 1976. To be fair, we did not check to see how many times BC opened the season against ranked opponents in those nearly 50 seasons. Nonetheless, it's a great start for the men from Chestnut Hill and a shocking start for a Florida State program that was the preseason pick of virtually everyone to win the ACC and represent the conference strongly in the new 12-team playoff.
The win for Boston College hasn't yet ignited into a ACC Championship betting frenzy, but that could change. This morning, the Eagles had only tied Florida State (+4200) for the 8th-best odds out of 17 teams in the conference, alongside North Carolina. BC was picked to finish 14th in the 17-team conference in a polling of league media members in late July. One person gave the Eagles a first-place vote.
The college football weekend saved the best for Sunday night as Southern California scored with 8 seconds left to beat LSU 27-20 in Las Vegas. The Tigers had just tied the game with 1:47 to play on a 31-yard field goal that answered USC's go-ahead touchdown with 5:44 to go on Miller Moss's 28-yard connection with Ja'Kobi Lane. The winning drive went 75 yards in 8 plays with the big down coming on 2nd-and-15 at the LSU 47. A 20-yard pass to Kyron Hudson had 15 more tacked on for a clear helmet-to-helmet hit from Jardin Gilbert who was ejected. It moved the ball to the 13-yard line where the Trojans called a run play to center the kicker between the hashes, but Woody Marks wouldn't go down until he crossed the goal line. Moss finished 27-of-36 for 378 yards and the one TD with no INT's. Garrett Nussmeier had similarly great game for LSU as he went 29-of-38 for 304 with 2 TD's and an interception on first down after the final USC score.
The weekly picks at CollegeFootballPoll.com, based on the Congrove Computer Rankings, had USC outright by 3.32 points against a spread that closed at 3.50 in favor of LSU.
Saturday was a beautiful day in most of the football neighborhoods as college football has returned. But there were more than a few odd moments, like watching Oregon State and Washington State play on fields with the PAC-12 logo when they are the only two left. Or Minnesota sending up fireworks after their team missed the game-winning field goal.
The Catholics (Notre Dame) went to College Station and kept Texas A&M winless against AP-ranked Top Ten, non-conference teams since 1989. The Irish took a 23-13 win to spoil Mike Elko's debut as head coach of the Aggies. Elko's former QB at Duke, Riley Leonard, led Notre Dame 85 yards in 8 plays to put the game away as Jeremiyah Love capped the drive with a 21-yard burst.
Miami went Gator huntin' in "The Swamp" and the south Florida city boys took home a 41-17 prize. It was the first meeting between the schools since 2019, and only the fourth since 2004.
The win, combined with other early ACC results, makes the Hurricanes look poised to finally capture their first ACC Championship after entering the league in 2004 with Virginia Tech.
The Hokies immediately won the title that year, and three more followed, but none since 2010. And it doesn't look good this year after a 34-27 overtime loss at Vanderbilt. We know it wasn't a conference game, but an offseason of hype and hope went sour quickly with the loss.
Virginia Tech battled back from a 17-0 deficit to take a 27-20 lead in the closing minutes, but immediately gave up the tying score with a prevent defense. More horrendous coaching followed through the end of the 34-27 overtime loss as the visitors snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
There was absolutely no pressure put on Vandy on the game-tying drive, and in overtime, the Hokies' offense was all out of sorts as QB Kyron Drones was gassed and suffering a leg cramp. So backup Collin Schlee came in and ran 16 yards for a first down. Then, a gimpy Drones was re-inserted for a called run which was asinine. And Schlee returned on the next play. In the end, he rifled a 4th down uncatchable pass out of the back of the end zone (with no attempt to extend the play) and the Commodores had an opening week upset win in their own stadium that was taken over by Virginia Tech fans who ultimately left with hat in hand.
Just like we hoped the FSU faithful enjoyed everything else in Ireland, we hope the Hokie fans had fun on the rest of their stay in the Music City. Something tells us that TicketCity will be busy getting a lot more inventory to re-sell to next Saturday's home opener vs. Marshall. Maybe the coaches will get it right by the time the ACC opener hits after three more weeks of non-conference play, but they looked like they had no clue for most of this game and gave no indication that Virginia Tech is finally ready to return to prime time. Brent Pry has to take the blame as the head coach, but both of his coordinators, Tyler Bowen (OC) and Chris Marve (DC) let him down. We won't even get into the special teams coach sending in a player who was incorrectly numbered and cost the Hokies 3 points by giving the 'Dores a 52-yard FG attempt (made) instead of forcing a punt.
It is somewhat ironic that Pry was a former assistant at Vandy under Jim Franklin when the 'Dores were pretty dang good, and Marve was an all-SEC linebacker.
Seriously, folks. This Hokies team is, perhaps, the most talented its been since the Frank Beamer stretch from 1995-2011. It is a team that should blow away a Vanderbilt or an upcoming Marshall, or a looming Old Dominion and Rutgers by 20, 40, 60 and 20 points, respectively. Unfortunately, they spent most of this game suffering from poor sideline leadership. They even looked un-prepared for the humid weather. Pry has done an excellent job restoring the school's traditions and in-state recruiting to get the fan base and players to buy-in, but time is ticking at restoring the three most important aspects - (1) winning (2) winning big and (3) winning a lot.
Maybe Dabo Swinney needs to rethink his position on the transfer portal. On Saturday, Georgia's 34-3 win in Atlanta should have sent a clear message that the Tigers are getting further away from the powerhouse they used to be - back when no one had a transfer portal to recruit the talent necessary to upgrade the team, or immediately fill gaps.
Kalen DeBoer left Washington for Alabama. Jedd Fisch left Arizona for Washington. Alabama won 63-0 over Western Kentucky. Washington won 35-3 over Weber State. Same old, same old.
Dan Lanning stayed at Oregon and many think his team leads the list of B1G title contenders, but the Ducks only managed to eke-out a 24-14 win over FCS member Idaho. Next up for Oregon is a Boise State team at home that just saw RB Ashton Jeanty run for 267 yards and 6 TD's in a 56-45 win at Georgia Southern.
Brett Brennan, by the way, is the new guy at Arizona in place of Fisch. The former San Jose State head coach saw his team win 61-39 over New Mexico as Tetairoa McMillan caught 10 balls for 304 yards and 4 TD's.
Well, it didn't suck everywhere. It was contrarily nice in Seattle which had a sunny day preceding a game played under nighttime clear skies. But weather stretched out the day in Lexington, Charlottesville, Morgantown, Columbia and other places as the Ohio Valley and mid-Atlantic states saw storms roll west-to-east through the day.
The interruptions stretched back to Thursday in Des Moines, Iowa where Drake's opener against D2 opponent Quincy was ruled a no-contest after Mother Nature turned ugly at halftime with the defending Pioneer League champions up 10-0.
On Saturday, the other interrupted games managed to finish with Kentucky blanking Southern Miss 31-0, Virginia downing Richmond 34-13, West Virginia falling to Penn State 34-12, and South Carolina surviving Old Dominion 23-19.
Arch Manning ran for a score and threw a TD pass, going 5-of-6 for 95 yards. He relieved Quinn Ewers in the 3rd quarter who certainly remains the starter. The 52-0 win over Colorado State was a good beginning for Texas, but proved nothing. We will learn a lot more on the trip to Michigan this coming Saturday
Ewers was 20-for-27 for 260 yards with 3 TD's and a pick.
Ewers will tell you he doesn't need a backup, whether he's playing QB for Texas or a deputy in Fansville.
Last season had 117 of the 133 FBS schools facing one FCS opponent, and Army played two such games for a total of 118 FBS-FCS matchups.
Of the 16 FBS schools that did NOT play a FCS program, 7 were in the B1G (Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Purdue, Wisconsin). 6 more are evenly split between the Big 12 (Houston, Oklahoma, Texas) and Pac-12 (Colorado, USC, Washington). The other three were Liberty (CUSA) , UTSA (American), and Virginia Tech (ACC).
The FBS programs are 60-1 against the FCS schools in 2024. They finished 114-4 last year. Over-all, the FBS is a collective 1,860-153 (.924) since we began tracking this in 2003.
Abilene Christian came close to a win on Saturday, bowing 52-51 in overtime at Texas Tech on a failed two-point conversion in the first overtime.
These were the FCS wins in 2023:
September 9: Idaho 33, Nevada 6
September 9: Southern Illinois 14, Northern Illinois 12
September 9: Fordham 40, Buffalo 37
September 16: Sacramento State 30, Stanford 23
In 2024, there are 121 scheduled scheduled matchups between FBS and FCS schools with 119 schools playing one such game, while Hawaii and UMass each play two.
This year, 15 schools do not play a FCS opponent and 5 are in the B1G (Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, USC and UCLA). Texas is the only school in the SEC that will not play a FCS program. The same is true for Virginia Tech in the ACC. In fact, Texas and Virginia Tech, along with Michigan and Houston, are repeats from last year's list of schools that played all FBS programs.
2024 FCS wins vs. FBS:
August 24: Montana State 35, New Mexico 31
GEORGIA - Won 40 straight regular season games, 25 straight at home, and 15 straight true road wins.
Last: Won 34-3 vs. Clemson in Atlanta.
Next: Hosts Tennessee Tech (FCS) on Saturday, September 7
MICHIGAN - Won 16 straight over-all, 26 straight conference games.
Last: 30-10 win at home over Fresno State on Saturday, August 31 (first of five straight home games)
Next: Hosts Texas on Saturday, September 7
VANDERBILT - Had lost 10 straight over-all.
Last: 34-27 OT win over Virginia Tech on Saturday, August 31
Next: Hosts Alcorn State (FCS) on Saturday, September 7
KENT STATE - Lost 10 straight over-all
Last: 55-24 loss at Pittsburgh on Saturday, August 31
Next: Hosts St. Francis, AP (FCS) on Saturday, September 7
ULM - Had lost 10 straight over-all. Has still lost 10 straight conference games.
Last: 30-14 win at home over Jackson State (FCS) on Thursday, August 29
Next: Hosts UAB on Saturday, September 7
STANFORD - Lost 10 straight home games.
Last: 34-27 loss at home to TCU on Friday, August 30
Next: Hosts Cal Ply (FCS) on Saturday, September 7
TEMPLE - Lost 15 straight true road games.
Last: 51-3 loss at Oklahoma on Friday, August 30
Next: Visits Navy on Saturday, September 7