College football is back, and so is this weekly collection of random thoughts and observations. Here are my week one Midweek Musings.
Week One Midweek Musings
Boise State 36, Florida State 31
Let’s take a look at all the things working against Boise State in this game and the lead-up. First of all, Hurricane Dorian necessitated a time change, from 7:00 pm ET to noon. Then, the location had to change. Jacksonville, technically a neutral site, was potentially too dangerous as Dorian approached. The best solution was to move the game to FSU’s home field in Tallahassee. All of this is happening as Boise prepares to fly cross-country for an opener to be played in heat and humidity they’re not accustomed to. Finally, they start the game by going down 14-3. In the second quarter, they trailed 31-13.
Did I mention that their quarterback is a freshman making his first start?
The Broncos’ defense rallied in the second half. The touchdown that gave Florida State the 31-13 lead was the end of their scoring for the day. And the freshman quarterback, Hank Bachmeier, played well (30/51 for 407 yards with one TD, one INT). Running back Robert Mahone contributed 142 yards and two touchdowns. It’s debatable what the bigger story is from this game, the fact that Boise State looked pretty good, or the way Florida State collapsed.
Michigan 40, Middle Tennessee State 21
Michigan is a team to keep an eye on the next few weeks. This game was not nearly the blowout I think most people were expecting (myself included), and the defense did not look great. Our Lukas Weese covered this game here.
Nebraska 35, South Alabama 21
This was another game that was closer than expected. Expectations for Nebraska are obviously lower than those for Michigan, but this is still a team that’s supposed to be taking a big step forward this year.
SEC
Not the greatest opening weekend for the conference where “it just means more”. Auburn’s last-second win over Oregon couldn’t take the sting out of several upsets, some of them embarrassing. Ole Miss lost to Memphis, South Carolina to North Carolina, and Missouri to Wyoming (!), but obviously the biggest head-scratcher was Tennessee losing to Georgia State. The Vols have a second-year head coach in Jeremy Pruitt and a lot of last year’s starters back. Georgia State is a Sun Belt team coming off of a two-win season in 2018. You can read our Dylan Dozier’s article about the game here, as well as Lauren Beasley’s coverage of the Gamecocks’ loss.
If nothing else, it will be worth keeping an eye on some of these losing teams in the next few weeks to get a sense of their mental toughness.
Highlight of the Week
I covered it in my postgame article, but this Rashod Bateman catch in the Minnesota-SDSU game was really something.
Next Week’s Games To Watch
LSU-Texas and Texas A&M-Clemson are the only matchups of ranked teams in Week Two. In other action, can Old Dominion make it two in a row against Virginia Tech?
Those are my week one Midweek Musings. I promise my thoughts will get more interesting as the games do!
