The college football season arrived with some incredible storylines in Week 1, including some unpredictable wins and unexpected losses. While Stanford, Kansas and Nebraska really disappointed, there were a couple of notable teams that really stole the spotlight with their strong performances. Here is a look at the three teams that really impressed in Week 1 of the college football season.
Bruins Impress In Rosen’s Debut
The Bruins certainly looked good in their 34-16 win over Virginia with true freshman quarterback Josh Rosen throwing for 351 yards and three touchdowns in his college football debut. Rosen completed 28 of his 35 pass attempts and looked very poised, leading the UCLA offense up and down the field.
On top of his physical abilities he really has the intelligence and confidence to excel. The Bruins have a ton of weapons and while Rosen got a lot of hype as the top quarterback recruit, there were still some question marks about how quickly he could adjust to the speed of the game at the college level. It sure helped that he had plenty of support from the ground game, which provided 152 yards on 34 carries. Running back Paul Perkins looks like he’ll help form one of the best backfield tandems in the nation as he totaled 117 yards on 19 touches.
When you combine UCLA’s impressive win with the fact that the rest of the Pac-12 (other than USC) suffered some devastating blows, including Stanford’s loss at Northwestern and Arizona State’s loss to Texas A&M, and suddenly UCLA appears to be a major player in the Pac-12’s South division.
Baylor Keeps On Rolling
SMU isn’t exactly a powerhouse football program but that doesn’t mean Baylor’s 56-21 win wasn’t impressive. The Bears defense still has some work to do but holding SMU to 21 was a good start. As for the offense, they had some major question marks entering this season but did a good job of answering them in Week 1.
Junior quarterback Seth Russell in particular putting on a show and that was a big opening the Bears had to fill after Bryce Petty graduated to the NFL. Russell accounted for 435 total yards of offense including 376 passing yards while finishing the game with six total touchdowns in his first game as the team’s full-time starter.
An excellent performance against the Mustangs isn’t enough on its own to completely convince the college football world that Baylor will be just fine without Petty but it was an incredible start. Baylor’s image was also helped by the fact that TCU didn’t look that great in their opening outing against Minnesota.
Notre Dame Slams Texas
The Fighting Irish handed Texas a lopsided 38-3 beatdown with an absolutely dominant performance on both sides of the football. While the defense was excellent, the offense also deserves a ton of credit with junior quarterback Mike Zaire getting a chance to shine.
Zaire completed 19 of his 22 pass attempts for 313 yards and three touchdowns to prove he can lead the Notre Dame offense not just with his legs but with his arm as a dual-threat passer. This position has been a bit of a concern and a lot of Irish fans were nervous after seeing Everett Golson transfer to Florida State.
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Several experts had the Fighting Irish taking a major step forward this season and their win over the Longhorns sent a huge statement to the rest of the college football world. It might have been just one game but if Zaire can consistently perform at a high level as a passer and the defense can shut down opponents the way they did Texas, this Notre Dame team will be tough to beat this season.
The lone blemish was the season-ending knee injury to running back Tarean Folston. He led the Irish in rushing last season and will be sorely missed – especially after former five-star recruit Greg Bryant was deemed ineligible due to academic reasons.
