If you are anything like my friends, then you drank three anxiety mimosas before the game, two anger mimosas during the third quarter, and four celebration mimosas after the game. Then you fell asleep and missed the almost the entire day of football and wondering why on earth you were watching the second overtime of Wyoming-Northern Illinois. If you are like my friends, or you simply let silly things like “family” and “a job” get in the way of your football, then I’ve got you covered. This is all you need to know about what happened this week as a GT fan.
General College Football
Alabama scary. The rest of the SEC? Not so scary. Alabama stomped USC 52-3, Texas A&M eked it out against UCLA in overtime, and Georgia had a solid 33-24 win over UNC, but after that it gets ugly. Mississippi State fell to South Alabama after missing a chip shot field goal to win the game while Kentucky gave up 34 unanswered points to fall to Southern Miss 44-35. Tennessee and Arkansas had narrow escapes of their own due to special teams issues. LSU and Missouri showed off their juggernaut offenses which both failed to to score more than one offensive touchdown in a loss. In possibly the most important game of the day, Houston made it’s playoffs case by taking apart Oklahoma. There was never a part in that game when I thought Oklahoma was going to win. On the other side of things, Washington State lost to Eastern Washington, Iowa State lost to Northern Iowa, and Virginia lost to Richmond. Hopefully GT doesn’t join this list of shame next week.
Out of Conference Opponents
Georgia 33-UNC 24
So it looks like Nick Chubb is back. He rushed for 222 yards on 6.9 yards a carry so it didn’t really matter that Kirby Smart was playing musical chairs with his quarterbacks. They are going to be good this year if this is the real Chubb. I didn’t watch much of the game, but it looks like their defense struggled to stop the run, but did a good job of holding Trubisky in check. UGA is going to be a very tough opponent.
Georgia Southern 54-Savannah State 0
Southern smoked arguably the worst FCS team. There’s not much to learn from this game. We’ve got plenty of time to see what GSU is made of.
Mercer 23-The Citadel 24
Mercer lost to the Citadel. That’s all I’ve got for you here.
Vanderbilt 10-South Carolina 13
This game was an affront to offense and I feel sorry for anybody else who was subjected to this game. The Vanderbilt-GT game in two weeks could play out a lot like the Boston College game did, a low scoring defensive struggle. Or Vanderbilt’s defense could be bad too. Who knows?
ACC Atlantic
Wake Forest 7-Tulane 3
Yes this is a real scoreline that happened and people were presumably forced to watch. Thankfully for them this game took less than 3 hours so they did not have to watch any longer. We are not playing Wake Forest this season, even if we make the ACC championship.
NC State 48-William and Mary 13
We don’t play NC State this season and this appears to have been an entirely pedestrian game. At least they won by a lot.
Syracuse 33-Colgate 7
Same as above. Dino Babers’ team looked solid in their first game, but it was Colgate so it could mean nothing.
Louisville 70-Charlotte 13
Louisville smoked Charlotte, who is an FBS team, so that is definitely something. One of the most impressive ACC performances of the week. Lamar Jackson bandwagon status: Still rolling strong.
Boston College 14-Georgia Tech 17
Much will be said about this game on this site throughout the week, so I only have one thing to say. Georgia Tech is number one in the ACC right now. Suck it Clemson.
FSU-Ole Miss
This game hasn’t happened yet because week one is weird. It’s on Monday night so I can’t provide any witty commentary yet.
Clemson 19-Auburn 13
Despite Dabo Swinney’s mind numbing decision to go for it late in the game instead of going for the field goal, Clemson pulled it out against Auburn. Given how Auburn played last season, that’s not how Clemson wanted to start the season. Wide Receiver Mike Williams looked fantastic and gashed Auburn’s defense. Clemson did a great job of limiting the Tigers offensively, but considering Auburn tried out three quarterbacks last night, that might not be impressive. Clemson’s next two are against Troy and South Carolina State so this is our only real chance to see the Tigers in a competitive game before they come to Bobby Dodd Stadium.
ACC Coastal
Virginia 20-Richmond 37
No, that’s not a typo. The Cavaliers didn’t just get beat by an FCS team, they REALLY got beat by an FCS team. The Spiders threw for 337 yards against UVA’s porous defense and somehow held Virginia to negative rushing yards through three quarters. There were some people who thought Virginia might surprise people with Mike London’s talent playing for a better coach, but maybe not. This was an embarrassment in Bronco Mendenhall’s first game.
Virginia Tech 36-Liberty 13
Justin Fuente’s debut went much better than their rivals’ across the state. New quarterback Jerod Evans threw for four touchdowns giving fans hope that they can pair a competent offense with a Bud Foster defense and challenge for the Coastal crown. Their first real test is next week against Tennessee at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Pittsburgh 28-Villanova 7
Pitt looked pedestrian in their win over FCS Villanova. In his first game back from a leg injury and leukemia, James Conner struggled with just 53 yards on 17 carries. Pitt’s passing game also looked rather poor. They are going to need to step up their game offensively if they’re going to win next week against Penn State.
Miami 70-Florida A&M 3
The Hurricanes beat up on one of the worst FCS teams in Mark Richt’s debut. There’s not much to be down on for Miami here, but GT did crush Alcorn State to start last year so it could be nothing. Future Hall of Famer Brad Kaaya threw for four touchdowns on his 21st birthday before he was rested later in the blowout. Miami next gets Florida Atlantic at home which means they get another cupcake to get their kinks worked out.
Duke 49-NC Central 6
Duke was expected to take a big step back this season, especially with the late injury to Thomas Sirk, but they looked good yesterday, albeit against an FCS team. New QB Daniel Jones looked solid with two passing touchdowns and a rushing touchdown. Don’t pencil in the Blue Devils as an easy win if they have an effective dual-threat QB leading the offense. They play Wake next week so they should be joining the Jackets at the top of the ACC.
UNC 24-UGA 33
I already talked about this game above from UGA’s perspective. UNC has to be encouraged offensively. They ran all over the Bulldogs and really could have scored more than they did. Mitch Trubisky was alright under center, but needs to play better if this is what UNC’s defense is going to look like. To be fair to their defense, Nick Chubb could be gashing teams like this all season, but they did give up 222 yards on the ground to him. And that’s without that much of a passing threat from Georgia. They will need to tighten the screws on defense to win the Coastal.