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    • College Football Week 1 Winners and Losers: Georgia and Clemson Lead
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    College Football Week 1 Winners and Losers: Georgia and Clemson Lead

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    It will have to take at least another week before there is evidence that Clemson’s offense is finally moving in the right direction.

    Facing No. 1 Georgia, the No. 14 Tigers managed just 188 yards on 3.6 yards per play in a 34-3 loss. After spending just two snaps in the opposite zone in the first half — one ended in a loss, the other in a penalty — Clemson’s only points came on a 26-yard field about halfway through the third quarter, by which point the Bulldogs had built a 13-0 lead. Georgia would respond to the Tigers’ field goal with a touchdown on the ensuing possession to erase any sense of momentum.

    After narrowly missing out on the College Football Playoff last season, Georgia seems built to smother teams en route to a third national championship in four years. For the Tigers, even short wins felt like accomplishments; every long win felt like an absolute miracle.

    Sophomore starting quarterback Cade Klubnik completed 18 of 29 for 142 yards, just 4.9 yards per attempt, with one interception. His receivers struggled to generate any separation against the Bulldogs’ secondary, while Clemson’s offensive front failed to move, resulting in just 46 rushing yards on 23 carries. Overall, the performance would have been shocking had we not seen it time and time again over the past three seasons — a crippling stretch of unrealized production that coincided with Clemson’s disappearance from the national stage.

    Of course, Georgia is going to do this to teams. The Bulldogs were not only dominant defensively, but also, unsurprisingly, effective on the offensive end: Carson Beck was 23 of 33 for 278 yards and two scores to start his Heisman Trophy campaign in style, while seven runners combined for 163 yards and two touchdowns on 6.3 yards per carry.

    Even if the Bulldogs are the No. 1 team in the country, the fact that Clemson was completely dominated shows how far the Tigers are from true title contention. When these two teams met in 2021, a 10-3 victory for Georgia, you could have argued that Clemson was just a step or two behind the eventual national champions. A few years later, that gap has grown to miles and miles of seemingly unbridgeable space.

    That makes Georgia the biggest winner and Clemson the biggest loser of Week 1 of the 2024 season. Here’s the rest of the list:

    Winners

    Penn State

    The new-look offense of the No. 9 Nittany Lions generated 457 yards on 7.6 yards per play, led by quarterback Drew Allar’s 216 passing yards and three touchdowns on 13.1 yards per throw, in a 34-12 win at West Virginia. It’s a quick validation of James Franklin’s decision to hire coordinator Andy Kotelnicki, who previously worked wonders at the same position at Kansas. The turning point was a late touchdown drive to end the first half, a 73-yard haul in just three plays to put Penn State up 20-6 at halftime. After a lengthy weather delay, the Nittany Lions added a pair of touchdowns in the second half for a convincing win over a visiting Power Four opponent. After one week, the Nittany Lions look like a very legitimate Big Ten threat and a top contender for the playoffs.

    Dylan Raiola

    The five-star true freshman started his college career at Nebraska with a bang, completing 19 of 28 throws for 238 yards and two scores without an interception as the Cornhuskers opened with a breezy 40-7 win at home to Texas-El Paso. One of the Big Ten’s biggest midseason additions, Raiola is a definite upgrade over what Nebraska used in Matt Rhule’s first season and one of the few reasons the Cornhuskers are a trendy pick for eight or more wins.

    Tennessee

    It’s only Chattanooga, so let’s not get too excited. But the 69-3 win for No. 15 Tennessee was highlighted by a stunning 2024 debut for redshirt freshman Nico Iamaleava, a former five-star prospect who got his feet wet in four appearances last season. Iamaleava connected on 22 of 28 throws for 314 yards and three touchdowns, including a 59-yard score to Dont’e Thornton Jr., before being benched for most of the final two quarters. All but one of his 314 yards came in the first half to set a new program record for a single half, breaking the previous record set by Tyler Bray against Troy in 2012 by one yard.

    Ohio State and Texas

    These two playoff favorites went at it right away. Ohio State’s new quarterback Will Howard had 246 yards of total offense and several freshmen made an immediate impact as the No. 2 Buckeyes went on a second-half run to beat Akron 52-6. One rookie, five-star receiver Jeremiah Smith, led Ohio State with six grabs for 92 yards and two touchdowns. Freshman running back James Peoples had 30 yards and a score in six carries behind co-starters TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins, who combined for 120 yards on 21 touches. Texas steamrolled past Colorado State 52-0 behind 545 yards of offense to set up next week’s huge non-conference matchup against No. 8 Michigan. The win included the first career touchdown pass for redshirt freshman Arch Manning, who finished with 95 passing yards.

    Losers

    Florida

    The clock is ticking for Billy Napier after an ugly, hard-to-watch 41-17 home loss to Miami showed just how far the program has fallen in his third season. In a must-win game against a bitter rival, the Gators were barely competitive. The schedule was always going to be an issue: Florida is scheduled to play eight ranked teams, including five ranked opponents in a row to close out the regular season. While the Hurricanes have clearly taken a step forward thanks to additions like new quarterback Cam Ward, who threw for 385 yards and three scores, the fact that the Gators were trounced in the Swamp is the strongest hint yet that Napier’s time is numbered and that this year’s team could become only the second since 1980 to lose eight or more games.

    Virginia Technology

    At the very least, an overtime loss to Vanderbilt would evaporate any optimism surrounding the Hokies after a very strong finish to last season and immediately knock the Hokies out of the Top 25. Trailing 17-3 at halftime, Tech rallied to take a 27-20 lead before the Commodores tied the game with under two minutes left in regulation. While not significant in the grand scheme of things — any path to the playoffs must include an ACC title — a loss to the Commodores is the kind of loss that can define a season, or cut short a promising year before September even hits.

    ACC

    Miami may have looked good, but that result was an outlier amid a poor start for the ACC. Clemson got blown out by Georgia. Virginia Tech lost to Vanderbilt. No. 21 North Carolina State struggled to beat Western Carolina. A week ago, No. 10 Florida State opened the ACC with a loss to Georgia Tech. It was a particularly poor start for the conference, already losing a public perception battle to the Big Ten and SEC. Down the road, poor losses in non-conference play and sloppy showings from the league’s best of the best could have a major impact on the playoff selection committee as they consider a dozen or more options from the Power Four for the seven at-large bids.

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