September 2 Open Thread

WELCOME TO COLLEGE FOOTBALL SATURDAY!! Finally after a long offseason, college football is back! Yeah, there were a few games that have been within the last week, but college football really and truly starts for real today.

Unfortunately, Georgia Tech isn’t playing today. That means we need to determine which games we’re going to watch today. So let’s get down to it!

Noon/12:30 p.m. EST

Starting with the early games, there’s really not a whole lot going on in terms of highly ranked match-ups. Speaking personally, I’m probably at least going to watch the first part of the Clemson-Kent State game just to see what the Tigers can do this year. After the first couple drives, my main focus will be on my Comm Law test that I have on Tuesday. In the background, I’ll be keeping an eye on the Texas-Maryland game.

Tom Herman is coming into his first year as the Longhorns’ head coach, and that’s the main storyline that I’m watching for in this game. Texas didn’t perform admirably enough under Charlie Strong according to the boosters (personally, I though they should have given him some more time given the mess he inherited), so it should be interesting to see if Herman can do any better. This will be the first opportunity to see what Texas can do.

3:30 p.m. EST

Once Texas has likely put away the Terrapins, it’ll be time to move onto the 3:30 slate, where I see two games that really catch my eye.

The first game up is a 3:00 match-up between South Carolina and NC State. Will Muschamp is in his second year coaching the Gamecocks, but honestly, I’ll be watching this game for NC State. The Wolfpack return a very good experienced defensive line that could cause some serious havoc for the Gamecocks’ quarterback. If you haven’t watched Bradley Chubb, he’s really fun to watch.

While that game might be a little entertaining for a bit, the real game to watch during this time slot is definitely Michigan-Florida. Jim McElwain’s Gators are missing quite a few pieces, so this game won’t be entertaining as it could have been, but the feud between the Jims (Harbaugh and McElwain) has certainly been something to watch so far, and it’ll be interesting to see how that transfers over into the game.

8:00 p.m. EST

There should be no doubt in your mind what game everyone’s going to be watching come 8:00 tonight. That’s right! I’m going to be watching Jackson State-TCU!

But for real, Alabama-Florida State is going to be a phenomenal game, well worth waiting all day through some sub-par college football games for. Coming into this season, it doesn’t really seem like there are as two equally matched teams that could be facing each other in Week 1. This could very well be one of the best games of the season.

What games will you be watching today?