Week on is not entirely in the books yet, and we will update this as soon as the final games are completed. If the Montana/North Dakota State FCS Kickoff Classic was a portend of things to come this season, the first full week largely was a letdown outside of a couple of spots. Injuries have already played a key role in the futures of some schools, but none bigger then the lisfranc fracture that will shelve BYU's Taysom Hill for the rest of the season. Despite that tragic outcome to the career of Hill, BYU still pulled off a huge shocker (to just about everyone but me, who picked BYU against the spread and to win), and may have found a replacement that could have the Cougars not missing a beat despite forcing a change to how they play offense. Here's a look at who passed, and who failed in week one of the college football season...these reports will be released by conference moving forward!
American Athletic Conference
PASSED: Navy, Temple, Tulsa, Cincinnati, Memphis, USF, Houston
Temple was likely the biggest winner in the AAC this week, as they defeated Penn State in Philadelphia, the first Owl win over the Lions since 1941. Penn State was largely believed to be a surging power in the Big 10 this season, and the Owls were looking at what could be a long season. The script flipped in a 27-10 win, where the Owl defense came up huge, and now these teams could be going in completely opposite directions.
Tulsa is the second best winner in the league this week, as the Golden Hurricane won in Philip Montgomery's first game as head coach. It took some time, and the defense was shaky at best, but Montgomery has Tulsa moving the needle early in a game that they would have lost a year ago, beating FAU 47-44 in OT.
Navy, Cincinnati, Memphis, USF, and Houston all did what they should have done against weak sister FCS opponents, and every game was the blowout that they were expected to be.
FAILED: Tulane, SMU, UCF, U Conn, East Carolina
Tulane failed to show up against Duke at home in the opener, and got blasted 37-7 in a game in which they largely did nothing right. This team already looks listless, and Curtis Johnson could be in big trouble.
SMU hung with Baylor for a half or so, but then ultimately became SMU again and ended up being blown out of their own building when it was over. Looks like Chad Morris is in for a long first season.
UCF was the biggest loser of the group, as they fell to FIU of all people, 15-14, in a game in which the Knights showed they largely showed no life in the run game or on the line. Justin Holman was the only skill player that seemed to show up, as he had over 240 yards of the 295 that the Knights collected on the day.
U Conn and East Carolina both failed despite winning, as they both creeped out of narrow wins over FCS programs. I picked U Conn to lose to Villanova, but that shouldn't really happen. As it is, the Huskies once again look like an all defense/no offense football team in a 20-15 win. The Pirates lost their projected starting QB the week before the game with Towson, true, but they allowed the tigers to hang in all the way until the final quarter, and ECU was lucky to come out this game with a 28-20 win against a team that was picked in the lower half of the CAA.
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