Winners, losers: Big wins for Georgia, UCLA
Five games featuring teams in the USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll. A preseason College Football Playoff contender put on the ropes by a team from the Group of Five. A matchup in prime time between two of the best teams in the country.
The 2021 college football season is already at top speed after a Week 1 slate full of implications for the College Football Playoff and the national championship.
For one, No. 1 Alabama’s brutal rout of No. 16 Miami (Fla.) showed a team in midseason form. But for the Hurricanes, the loss shows the gap between being in contention for the New Year’s Six and taking the step into true playoff contention.
No. 3 Oklahoma cruised into halftime against Tulane but barely held on for a close win. In the Big Ten, a throwback game between No. 20 Penn State and No. 15 Wisconsin wasn’t settled until the final minutes.
Those games and others lead the winners and losers from the first full Saturday of the 2021 season:
Winners
Georgia: The Bulldogs’ defense dominated Clemson and carried Georgia to a 10-3 win with meaningful down-the-road implications for the playoff. There are questions about the health of the Georgia offense, especially given quarterback JT Daniels’ inability to push the ball downfield against the Tigers’ secondary. But those struggles may be a testament to Clemson, which has real issues up front on offense but could ride this defense to another ACC title.
UCLA: Beating LSU 38-27 is the moment UCLA has been waiting for since Chip Kelly’s return to the Pac-12. All offseason, the chatter around the Bruins was that this was by far the deepest and most solidly built roster of Kelly’s tenure. By gaining 476 yards of total offense and holding the Tigers to 48 rushing yards on 25 attempts, the Bruins proved they’ve turned a corner in
Kelly’s fourth year.
Penn State: While not a masterpiece, the 16-10 win against Wisconsin reflects Penn State’s internal optimism that last year’s 4-5 finish was far more the product of the pandemic than any downturn from James Franklin’s program. There are still issues to address, beginning with the health of an offense still working out the details under new coordinator Mike Yurcich.
Texas: The Steve Sarkisian era got off on the right foot with a 38-18 win against No. 23 Louisiana-lafayette, the preseason favorite in the Sun Belt and one of the best teams in the Group of Five. The Longhorns got a good performance from first-year starting quarterback Hudson Card, who finished with 224 yards and two scores.
Losers
Clemson: The good news is Clemson won’t face a team of Georgia’s caliber again during the regular season. The bad news: To win the national title, Clemson’s going to have to beat a team as good or better than Georgia in January. Does that seem possible based on what we saw Saturday night? Not if the offensive line doesn’t improve.
Vanderbilt: Welcome back to Vanderbilt, first-year coach Clark Lea. A fullback for the Commodores in the early 2000s, Lea’s return to Nashville was an utter dud: Vanderbilt lost 23-3 to East Tennessee State, a member of the Football Championship Subdivision.
Wisconsin: The missed opportunities against PSU will force the Badgers to play from behind in the race for the West division. Not that the loss is fatal by any means: Wisconsin has plenty of chances to rally back into Big Ten and playoff contention with future games against Notre Dame, Michigan and Iowa.
Indiana: Last year’s Cinderella story in the Big Ten, No. 17 Indiana’s 34-6 loss to No. 18 Iowa splashes a bucket of cold water on the Hoosiers’ hopes of putting another scare into Ohio State in the Big Ten East.
Connecticut: The Huskies are an easy pick for the worst team in the FBS after losing to Holy Cross 38-28 to fall to 0-2 on the young season.