Winners and Losers of Week 1 of CFB

Winners and Losers of Week 1 of CFB

An exciting opening weekend of College Football gave us all of the entertainment we needed to kick off the Southerner's favorite time of the year.

We saw several ranked opponents in tough matchups, some high-scoring affairs, some low-scoring affairs, some LED lights and more drama than necessary for the first week of September.

Let's recap the opening weekend winners and losers.

Winner: Billy Napier

Florida's 2021 campaign was an absolute trainwreck. After a 3-1 start, Dan Mullen's Gators went completely off the rails dropping embarrassing losses to overwhelming underdogs such as South Carolina and Missouri. They ended second-to-last in the SEC East with a 6-7 record and entered the 2022 season unranked.

They came into this season with a new Head Coach, Billy Napier from UL-Lafayette. Saturday Napier and the Gators came in with a chip on their shoulder facing the 7th ranked Utah Utes in The Swamp and they absolutely delivered.

A 29-26 victory capped off by a Game-Winning goalline Interception by Amari Burney and a standout dual-threat performance by Anthony Richardson gave the Gators an upset, and a #12 ranking preparing to host #20 Kentucky next week.

Loser: UNC's defense

Yes, the Tar Heels did win in an absolute shootout game where they entered as the betting underdogs. Yes, they are now 2-0 on the season and look as if they could contend in the ACC. But boy did they give their fans a heart attack.

UNC was up 41-21 to start the 4th quarter, and somehow allowed FORTY points in one quarter to Appalachian State. A successful two-point conversion stop prevented them from entirely choking, but Drake Maye and his 5 TD performance is wiping the sweat from his brow thankful that they escaped this game.

Next week they face a stout Georgia State running unit and that'll be another test for the Tar Heels D.

Winner: Jackson State

Jackson State obliterated FAMU in their season opener. And I mean it was absolutely brutal. They ended up winning 59-3, and Quarterback Shedeur Sanders put up a RIDICULOUS stat line of 29/33 for 323 yards and 5 TDs, defanging the Rattlers.

Coach Prime comes into this season with a lot of doubters following a Celebration Bowl loss to South Carolina State, and he seemingly shut a lot of that doubt up with this statement win.

After landing top recruit Travis Hunter, and with Shedeur Sanders landing a major NIL deal, all eyes are on the Tigers to perform.

Loser: College Football Playoff Expansionists

#3 UGA beat #11 Oregon by 46 points. FORTY-SIX. Now sure, Georgia should've been #1. Sure, Oregon might've been too low. And yes, I'm a firm advocate for the expansion of the college football playoff and am a HUGE fan of the 12-team proposal. But seeing a #3 thrash a #11 in this capacity is sending the anti-expansion crowd into an absolute frenzy. It doesn't matter to them that a 3-11 first-round matchup simply wouldn't happen. This dominance by the defending Champs was just very poorly timed.

Winner: Cade Klubnik

Clemson had a dominant 41-10 performance Monday night against Georgia Tech. DJ Uiagalelei has been (and according to Head Coach Dabo Swinney, will continue to be) QB1 under center for the Tigers.

Uiagalelei posted a decent stat line of 19/32 for 209 yards and 1 passing TD, but Klubnik shined in his second-half reps, putting up 50 yards on 4 completions for a TD.

Uiagalelei may be number one on the depth chart, but it seems that Klubnik is already number one in the hearts of the Death Valley faithful.

Loser: Kickers

You can't go a week without heartbreaking, nail-biting, last-second thrillers that go down to one final kick. We saw a pair of these on the Saturday slate.

Coming back from a 21-7 deficit, East Carolina had the #13 NC State Wolfpack on the ropes scoring a game-tying TD with 3:02 left. However, Sophomore Kicker Owen Daffer went left on the PAT, leaving the score at 21-20.

The Pirates got the ball back for a two-minute drill, getting all the way down to the 24-yard line. Unfortunately, Owen Daffer went right and The Pack survived.

Then there was the Primetime game on Sunday night, LSU vs Florida State, a battle of unranked teams who have had a fall from grace in recent years.

Jayden Daniels drove the Tigers 99 yards down the field for the potential game-tying TD following a fumble at the goal line.

Sadly, Damian Ramos' PAT attempt was blocked and the Seminoles were victorious.

Overall this was a very fun opening week of college football, and we have some entertaining Week 2 matchups to look forward to:

#1 Alabama @ Texas - Saturday at noon on FOX

Tennessee @ #17 Pittsburgh - Saturday at 3:30 on ABC

#20 Kentucky @ Florida - Saturday at 7 on ESPN

#10 Baylor @ #25 BYU - Saturday at 10:15 on ESPN

Who do you think were the winners and losers this week? What games are you looking to next week?