After an excruciatingly long off-season where college football analysts and fans have had time to form opinions on each team and how they’ll do this year. Then week one comes along and changes all our pre-conceptions leading us to over-react to a small sample size of results.
The 2014 season was a great example of this as Texas A&M went to South Carolina and tore apart the Gamecocks to open the season. A&M quarterback Kenny Hill was instantly a Heisman Trophy contender for many yet just a year later it seems unthinkable that Hill would be benched mid-season before transferring to TCU. So lets discuss what happened in week one that will have people overreacting:
Overreacting to College Week One
The PAC-12 is suddenly a weak conference
Last year it was the Big Ten getting slated after such humbling losses in week one, some similar results so far this year as well. The PAC-12 is on the same level as the SEC in terms of talent amongst their teams but a 7-5 record on the opening weekend has the doubters suddenly making their case. Colorado lost at Hawaii, Washington State lost to FCS school Portland State and Stanford’s loss at Northwestern was all very disappointing for the conference. The SEC went 12-1 with doormat Vanderbilt losing whilst the likes of Alabama, Texas A&M and Auburn all beat quality power five opposition. But just like one bad bowl season didn’t make the SEC a poor conference in 2014, one bad week in 2015 doesn’t suddenly mean the PAC-12 isn’t an elite conference.
New playoff contenders
Some strong performances from the likes of Texas A&M, UCLA and BYU suddenly have them as potential candidates for the playoff. Every year we do see teams come from nowhere to suddenly be national title contenders like TCU last year who were unranked by the Associated Press. But for every team that does this, there are 3-4 teams who after a couple of good performances are hot picks for the playoff. Auburn was a hot pick last year after a strong win at Kansas State early in the year but quickly fell away as their defense fell apart, the same happening Texas A&M and Notre Dame who fooled many people with a strong start to the season.
Josh Rosen is a Heisman candidate
Josh Rosen’s performance against Virginia was absolutely superb, he made a lot of different throws and barely made a mistake against a team that is renowned for playing tough defense. It’s not like he was picking apart an FCS defense out there. But let’s pump the brakes on him instantly becoming a Heisman candidate as a true freshman. There will be some games where Rosen struggles as he continues to get up to speed with the competition at the collegiate level compared to high school as UCLA faces some tougher opponents than the Virginia team he faced this weekend. Also teams will be better prepared for him over the course of the season as they have more game tape to analyse of him.
