2017 College Football: The Real Week 1: Deep Dive

A little deeper look at week 1 now. We’re going to be previewing the weeks with highest and lowest average ranks for matchups, and biggest and smallest spread. On both accounts, we’re excluding FBS-FCS matchups. Without further ado, my highest ranked matchups of week 1.

Home	Away	Home Rating	Away Rating	My Spread	Date	Ave
Alabama	Florida State	30.62	21.7	8.92	9/2	26.16
USC	Western Michigan	17.3	9.75	11.52	9/2	13.53
Colorado	Colorado State	18.28	6.23	12.05	9/1	12.26
Georgia Tech	Tennessee	11.64	12.06	-0.42	9/4	11.85
Indiana	Ohio State	0.25	21.83	-18.36	8/31	11.04

The top one is a no brainer and doubles up any other matchup on average. And why not, these might be the two best teams in the nation. You’re going to watch it, you want to watch it, and you don’t need me to sell you on it. The second and third matchups are more of a surprise. They both feature surprise teams from last season and considering that my preseason rankings lean fairly heavily on last year’s results that’s not much of a surprise. Of the two, Colorado-Colorado State is the easier sell. Colorado State blew the doors off of Oregon State in week 0 and another big result against rival Colorado would be a statement that couldn’t be ignored by Boise State and the rest of the Mountain West. Colorado was the darling last season, and they deserve all of the recognition, but McIntyre and company will need to continue to surprise to make sure that those gains weren’t fluky. Western Michigan is an enigma. There is legitimate NFL talent on the roster, but P.J. Fleck and a lot, for a MAC team, NFL talent walked out that door this offseason. Add that to USC looking like one of the best teams in the country this year and I personally have my doubts about how good of a game this will be. Although that’s not really the point of this segment so maybe I convinced you on the average rating/talent in this game. Ga Tech-Tenn surprises me. Georgia Tech returns a lot from last year, and Tennessee gets healthier, but lost some key pieces to attrition, both draft and graduation. Lastly, Ohio State carries this match-up in average rank and well they’re going to be really, really good and are very, very talented, and will destroy, destroy Indiana. There we are, my top-5 average rated games.

Home	Away	Home Rating	Away Rating	My Spread	Date	Ave
Illinois	Ball State	-7.81	-15.61	10.78	9/2	-11.71
Coastal Carolina	UMASS	-6.5	-15.02	11.01	9/2	-10.76
Michigan State	Bowling Green	-8.14	-12.5	9.03	9/2	-10.32
UCF	FIU	-6.25	-13.79	10.33	8/31	-10.02
Marshall	Miami (OH)	-13.61	-5.21	-6.15	9/2	-9.41

Now, onto something that’s certainly not that. I’ll try to never insult these teams on a personal level so we’ll just run a quick synopsis. Two bad B1G teams vs bad MAC teams. Independent vs new FBS member. Mid-Major Florida teams that have work to do, and lastly a MAC vs boy I really though Marshall was in the MAC matchup.

Home	Away	Home Rating	Away Rating	My Spread	Date
Boise State	Troy	0.7	3.66	0.26	9/2
Georgia Tech	Tennessee	11.64	12.06	-0.42	9/4
South Carolina	NC State	5.76	7.24	-1.47	9/2
Florida	Michigan	8.83	10.92	-2.09	9/2
Texas	Maryland	-1.39	1.48	2.29	9/2

Now to the most enticing games of the week. First, the game you should watch but definitely won’t… Boise State vs Troy. These are two of the best G5 teams, and Troy has a chance to be the best in the country. They return literally their entire offensive production from last season. It’s not hyperbole, they return literally 100% of their production from last year. Now they need to replace 3 of 5 starting linemen and that could derail them, but it’s still insane to think about. Boise is what Boise is. They aren’t at their peak anymore but they’re still a good football team and one of the best in the conference. The game is on ESPNU at 2:45 on Saturday. Don’t forget to tune in. Georgia Tech and Tennessee are in different spots this season. Georgia Tech is in one of their, almost everybody is back swings and Tennessee needs to replace key players but there’s young talent to be excited by. This game would be intriguing without my system pointing us that way, but that’s just an added bonus. South Carolina-NC State is a sneaky one this week, and much like Boise-Troy it’s stuck midday in the mishmash. SC has Jacob Bentley the young up-and-comer at QB and NC State is gaining serious hype as a team to challenge the top teams in the ACC. I’ll have a lot more to say after the UF-UM game, but right now it’s a game that should be barometer for the year ahead, or maybe ND-UT for 2017. Which brings us to our last game, Texas-Maryland. I think Maryland takes a step forward in year two under D.J. Durkin, and they provide a tricky test for Tom Herman in year 1 at the helm for the Longhorns. Now, Texas should have better talent, but it’s a job that hasn’t had the best transitions in recent memory.

Home	Away	Home Rating	Away Rating	My Spread	Date
Penn State	Akron	20.33	-12.73	38.36	9/2
Oklahoma	UTEP	14.96	-17.62	37.71	9/2
Clemson	Kent State	21.87	-10.2	37.07	9/2
Auburn	Georgia Southern	19.37	-10.85	35.26	9/2
Wisconsin	Utah State	15.57	-11.45	31.78	9/1

Outside of my personal Wisconsin fandom, and Georgia Southern having a dangerous reputation, there are too many good games on this week to waste your time on any of these five games.

Well, that’s my deeper look at week 1 in the books and it should be a good one. There’s a lot of crap out there with FBS-FCS games, but there are some great matchups, some intrigue, and as always there will be surprises and upsets. So, find something that intrigues you in each time slot, and welcome the return of college football with open hearts and arms.