Welcome back, college football! My how we've missed you.
The 2016 season kicked off in spectacular fashion with a slate that at times felt more like the first weekend of December instead of the first weekend of September.
So without further ado, here are my five winners and five losers from week one.
WINNERS
1. ACC
Clemson and Florida State have led the charge of getting ACC football back in the conversation, each playing for a national title in the past three seasons. The Tigers and Seminoles furthered the conference's case this weekend with wins away from home against SEC teams.
Clemson's win wasn't a thing of beauty, especially Dabo's endgame decision to go for it instead of kick that gave Auburn a chance. But Deshaun Watson and company were good enough to control the game against a SEC opponent in one of the most hostile environments of the weekend. The fact that Clemson's biggest concern coming out of that game will be getting its prolific offense going tells you just how good of a job Brent Venables seems to have done with a defense that once again has a new cast of characters.
Meanwhile, Florida State may have had the most impressive performance of the weekend, at least for a half. I thought the Seminoles would challenge Clemson for the ACC title and a playoff berth this year if rookie quarterback Deondre Francois could play up to expectations. Boy, did he. The redshirt freshmen gave fans even more reasons to compare him to Jameis Winston, delivering a sensational debut performance in which he went 33-52 passing for 419 yards and two touchdowns as the fourth-ranked Seminoles erased a 28-6 first half deficit with a 39-6 closing blitz.
I don't know what a hoarse Jimbo Fisher said at halftime, but I'll assume it was better than whatever that was that he said that ESPN featured on its pregame show because FSU showed the same type of resiliency in the second half that was so often associated with Winston's championship-level teams. The comeback marked the seventh straight regular season halftime deficit the Seminoles have overcome to win, and improves Jimbo Fisher's record to an impressive 9-11 in game's his team has trailed at the half.
2. ALABAMA
Florida State's performance was only outdone this weekend by Alabama's 52-6 throttling of USC in Arlington, Texas. Just when you think there's no way the Crimson Tide can just reload at quarterback for a third straight year, Nick Saban turns to a true freshman in the opener and finds a star. Jalen Hurts ran for two touchdowns and threw for two more in the smackdown.
Get this, going back to the College Football Playoff semifinals against Michigan State, Alabama has played two of its last three games in the house that Jerry Jones built. In those two games, the Tide has outscored the Spartans and Trojans 90-6. And those teams were ranked third and 20th at the time. That's why Alabama is the favorite to win a fifth national championship in eight years.
3. COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF
Speaking of the playoff, one of the great revelations of college football's new postseason has been its impact on the regular season.
This was the best opening weekend of college football games that I can remember. You had four showdowns of ranked teams at neutral sites and four other teams ranked in the top 16 that played tough games away from home. In a sport that only guarantees you 12 opportunities to impress the selection committee, you better schedule up.
And if the first two years of the playoff have shown us anything it's that you can overcome an early loss. Ohio State and Alabama both lost in September the past two years and still went on to win the title. So cheer up Oklahoma, LSU and Ole Miss. There's still time.
The rest of us can just enjoy college football's new and improved way of scheduling.
4. SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL
ABC's telecast of the double OT classic between Notre Dame and Texas drew a 7.0 overnight rating, one of the largest opening weekend audiences ever. On a normally sleepy TV weekend with no NFL games on the schedule, the decision to play a marquee game on Sunday night was genius.
And the Fighting Irish and Longhorns delivered. The back and forth affair between two blue bloods was the best game of the weekend, highlighted by a crazy blocked extra point return by Notre Dame to force overtime and then Tyrone Swoopes' game-winning TD in the second OT that sent 100,000 people dressed in burnt orange into a frenzy.
It also feels like a significant breakthrough win for Charlie Strong. After going just 12-14 in his first two years in Austin, Strong found a quarterback and an offense Sunday night. And may have just got a win that can springboard the Longhorns to a big season.
5. FRESHMEN QUARTERBACKS
The Quarterback Strong found was true freshman Shane Buechele, who went 16-26 for 280 yards and two touchdowns, winning over Texas faithful in the process. It's widely considered too difficult for a true freshman to come in and run a college offense, but Buechele was unfazed by the stage or the game and helped deliver the Longhorns one of their biggest wins in years.
And he wasn't the only rookie to impress in week one. Along with Francois, who had the benefit of a redshirt year, and Hurts, Georgia's Jacob Eason also had a stellar debut. The no. 1 ranked QB recruit came off the bench to replace Greyson Lambert and threw for 131 yards and a touchdown as the Bulldogs rallied past North Carolina to give Kirby Smart a win in his first game.
Of course it should be noted that tailback Nick Chubb returned to rush for 222 yards and two touchdowns, seemingly totally unaffected by the horrific knee injury he suffered 11 months ago.
LOSERS
1. LSU
I'll admit it, I was dead wrong about LSU. With 92 percent of their starting lineup back, including a Heisman favorite in Leonard Fournette in the backfield, I thought this was the year the Bayou Bengals would win the SEC East, take the title in Atlanta and head to the playoff. But Brandon Harris is still the Tigers' quarterback and he managed to complete just 12 passes and threw two interceptions in a 16-14 loss to Wisconsin.
LSU has a ton of talent, but just didn't look ready to play at Lambeau Field Saturday. That means Les Miles' seat could get scorching hot if the Tigers don't turn it around quickly.
2. OKLAHOMA
When will we stop being surprised by the Oklahoma letdowns? Every year the Sooners seem poised to make a run at their first national championship since 2000, they have an embarrassing flop. That was the case Saturday in a 33-23 "neutral site" loss to Houston at NRG Stadium.
Most of the credit should go to Tom Herman and the Cougars, who have proven they aren't a fluke by beating Florida State and Oklahoma convincingly in back to back games dating back to the Peach Bowl. Greg Ward is a really good quarterback and the schedule is friendly, so don't be surprised to see Houston fighting for a playoff spot at the end of the season.
The playoff is where the third-ranked Sooners were supposed to be headed. Baker Mayfield's back and the Sooners have arguably the best one-two punch in the backfield of anybody in the country with Samaje Perine and Joe Mixon. But once again "Big Game" Bob Stoops had no answers Saturday. Perine and Mixon never got going and Mayfield spent the day running for his life behind a re-tooled offensive line.
The Sooners are fortunate they basically get a mulligan with Ohio State coming to town in two weeks as they try to recover from another early season flop.
3. JOSH ROSEN
UCLA's highly-touted sophomore quarterback was very vocal about how unaffected he was by Texas A&M's 12th man, but one of the nation's top quarterbacks found himself apologizing for his performance after the game. Rosen threw three interceptions and either missed or had receivers drop three would-be touchdowns in UCLA's overtime loss.
I actually think much of the credit for Rosen's poor day needs to go to Myles Garrett and a stingy Aggies defense, but for a guy nicknamed "the Chosen One" it was a rough way to start the year.
4. DEREK MASON
The Vanderbilt coach spent all summer telling us he'd found his quarterback in Kyle Shurmur and the days of rotating his QB's were done. Then Shurmur went out and led Vandy to 10 points in three possessions against South Carolina and Mason promptly replaced him with Wade Freebeck.
Mason says the move was predetermined to ensure the backup would get some live game snaps in the opener. The two series experiment sent Shurmur to the sideline and the young QB never regained his rhythm. The Commodores were shutout the rest of the night and watched South Carolina score the game's final 13 points capped by Elliott Fry's 55-yard field goal with :35 to play.
After the game, Mason defended the decision, saying it had no impact on the outcome. Maybe he's right, but I sure would be liked to see the outcome with Shurmur in the whole way.
I didn't think Mason was on the hot seat entering the season despite just seven wins over his first two years. But more performances like that will put him on it.
5. AP POLL VOTERS
I am happy to say that I am not an AP voter this year after watching seven of the teams in the preseason top 25 go down on the opening weekend. The polls are great discussion points, but aren't much more than that especially early in the season.
It would make more sense to wait until the end of September's action to start ranking teams, but that's not how it works. So here's my advice to my AP buddies: have a fluid poll early. Reflect what you see on the field more than what you expected entering the season. Because I'm not sure anything we saw this weekend was an upset. They were just unexpected results because the polls told us they were.
