Elms' Essentials: Week 1

That’s right! He’s officially back!

Yours truly is officially back, which means that college football is officially back too! Week 1 of the 2024 season has officially come and gone, and it makes sense that it was a little longer than a normal weekend of college football, given that it is the first week of the season and all.

There were all the usual suspects during this week: blowouts, great teams beating up on lesser competition, things like that, but there were also some surprises, like some teams with high expectations sputtering a little out of the gate.

There’s also the elephant in the room that I know everyone is dying for me to talk about, but let’s save the best for last, shall we? Anyway, enough yapping. Away we go in Week 1!

Georgia is still the best team in the country

What else is new?

A year after narrowly missing out on the College Football Playoff, the No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs got their 2024 season started off on the right foot as they destroyed then-No. 14 Clemson by a score of 34-3.

This was a bit of a strange game through the first two quarters as offense was rather tough to come by for both teams. There were five consecutive punts from both teams before Georgia split the uprights to take a 3-0 lead. Another Clemson punt ensued before the Bulldogs added on another field goal to take a 6-0 lead heading into the halftime break.

However, when the second half hit, Georgia really got things going and looked like the juggernaut we’ve seen over the past few years. Carson Beck threw his first touchdown pass of the new season to Colbie Young, true freshman running back Nate Frazier punched it in from a yard out, and Beck then threw his second touchdown pass on a 40-yard connection to London Humphreys to increase the lead to 27-3. All of a sudden, in the matter of about a quarter, this was a blowout. Malachi Starks picked off Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik and Georgia running back Cash Jones (yes, that is his real name) ran in another score, and that was all she wrote.

Once the offense picked up some steam in the second half, Georgia looked precisely like the dominant force we’ve seen over the last few seasons, and there is absolutely no reason to think anything will be different this year. With the new 12-team College Football Playoff, a berth feels like a foregone conclusion for this team. Clemson, on the other hand, looks like it could have a solid defense but the same offensive struggles that doomed them last season. And it looks more and more plausible that Dabo Swinney’s stay as lead skipper of the Tigers may not last much longer.

Oregon was visibly underwhelming against Idaho

This easily made the list of weirdest games of the afternoon.

Look, it’s the first game of the season, and Oregon is in a new conference (the Big Ten, for those who don’t know), so a part of me wants to give them the benefit of the doubt. I really do. But even though new quarterback Dillon Gabriel passed for 380 yards and two touchdowns, the Ducks looked pretty darn underwhelming against…Idaho?

A few things jumped out at me when I watched this game. Why was the game tied at the end of the first quarter? Why did Oregon have zero points on the scoreboard, which is the exact same amount of points that Idaho had at that point of the game too? Why did it take Oregon until about halfway through the second quarter to score their first points of the game? How did Idaho manage to get within seven points halfway through the third quarter?

When you’re one of the top three teams in the country and you’re in a situation like this, the expectation is obvious: you’re supposed to blow these teams out and take care of business. No disrespect to the Vandals, but Oregon is simply that much better. So what I take away from this game is that even though Dillon Gabriel played well statistically, Oregon should not, by any stretch of the imagination, be comfortable with how this played out. There’s a reason the Ducks dropped to No. 7 in the newest AP Poll.

And keep in mind that the Ducks are remaining at home and welcoming the Boise State Broncos into Eugene this upcoming Saturday. And the Broncos are one of the favorites to win the Mountain West in 2024 and are a pretty far thing from a non-Power 4 pushover. This will be a test for Oregon. And after how underwhelming they looked this past weekend, I’m a little bit less convinced they’ll be able to pass with flying colors.

The Kalen DeBoer era in Tuscaloosa started with a bang

Seems like the transition from Nick Saban to DeBoer is going just fine so far.

Now, before I say anything else, yes, I am aware that the Crimson Tide played Western Kentucky, and the Hilltoppers do not exactly qualify as a college football powerhouse. Sorry, Hilltopper fans. However, unlike a certain team I just covered in the previous section, Alabama took care of business and did so very convincingly. Jalen Milroe looked like his usual self, throwing for 200 passing yards and three scores while adding 79 rushing yards and two touchdowns on the ground. Justice Haynes ran for over 100 yards and a score. Ryan Williams, who is a 17-year-old true freshman and apparently still supposed to be in high school, racked up 139 receiving yards and two touchdowns. 

I was curious to see DeBoer’s new offensive system as opposed to Saban’s previous one and how it would be incorporated into game action. And yes, I know that they were playing Western Kentucky, but everything seems to be going according to plan for the Tide so far.

Contrary to popular belief, ‘Bama hasn’t gone anywhere. They are still more than a threat to win the SEC again and contend for the expanded postseason.

Michigan apparently has a quarterback…situation

Speaking of championships, the defending national champs have a bit of a question to answer after the departure of former starter J.J. McCarthy to the NFL.

Who is going to be the starting quarterback long-term?

Remember that thing I said about the Idaho-Oregon game and how it made the list of weirdest games of the day? Well, we can likely slot Fresno State-Michigan up there as well, because for about three-fourths of the game, Michigan was only up by as many as 13 points. That might seem like a lot, but the expectation was that the Wolverines would be running away with this one. And it got even weirder when Fresno State scored a touchdown to trim the lead to six at the beginning of the fourth quarter.

But right around that time, Michigan remembered that they were the defending national champions, and they scored 14 unanswered points to put the game away for good, punctuated by an 86-yard pick-six from star cornerback Will Johnson.

But the quarterback situation was strange in this game. Junior Alex Orji was widely expected to be named the starter, but he completed one out of two passes for three yards (granted, the one he completed was a touchdown pass) before he was taken out and didn’t throw another pass in the game. Senior backup Davis Warren came in and played okay, as he completed 60% of his passes for 118 yards and a score, but he also threw an interception and posted just a 33.0 QBR. 

I’m unsure what head coach Sherrone Moore’s thought process is here, as Orji was used purely as a runner or sometimes just as a decoy on some plays while Warren was in the pocket. Apparently Warren is the starter going forward, but there’s still going to be a role for Orji…maybe? Either way, it will be interesting to see just how the quarterback situation in Ann Arbor shakes out.

Notre Dame has the best win of the season…so far

Man. Talk about a gutsy performance.

In what was the most-anticipated game of Week 1, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish walked into an absolutely raucous environment at Kyle Field in College Station and walked out with a 23-13 win over Texas A&M.

Somewhat similarly to the Clemson-Georgia game, neither offense could really get much of anything going for the entire first half, as the game was knotted at six heading into the break. However, when the second half started, both teams’ offenses started to shine a little more. The game was tied at 13 at the beginning of the fourth quarter before Jeremyiah Love’s 21-yard touchdown run and the defense’s clutch stop on 4th down helped put the game away and secure a win for the Irish.

New Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard’s stats didn’t really jump off the page, as he only threw for 158 yards and didn’t throw a touchdown. But he also didn’t throw an interception and took good care of the ball. Love was phenomenal, as he ran for 91 yards and the aforementioned score. 

However, the biggest thing that jumps out on the stat sheet is how bad Aggies quarterback Connor Weigman played. He was, to put it simply, not good at all. He only completed 40% of his passes, only threw for 100 yards, and threw two interceptions. Now, granted, he was playing against one of the best secondaries in the country. But for Texas A&M and new head coach Mike Elko, Weigman was supposed to be the guy. And he didn’t look the part this week. There’s obviously still time to turn things around, but he was not good against the Irish.

As for Notre Dame, this was an unbelievable win, and one that will do wonders for a potential College Football Playoff resume. It also helps out the Irish that the rest of the ACC appears to be a complete dumpster fire at the moment. Hey, you know, speaking of that…

And last but not least (you all knew this one was coming)...

Florida State’s season is completely and totally over

Wow. I mean, just…wow.

I honestly don’t really know how to properly illustrate just how absolutely gut-wrenchingly terrible these past two weeks have been for the Florida State Seminoles, but I’m gonna try to do it anyway.

The very first game of the 2024 season had the then-No. 10 Seminoles taking on the unranked Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in Dublin, Ireland. At first, things started off pretty great, as the offense worked its way down the field with haste and scored a touchdown (with a two-point conversion too!) to go up 8-0.

That was about as good as it got for Florida State. Like, you think I’m kidding, but I’m really not.

Georgia Tech responded right back with a touchdown drive of their own, and Florida State found themselves down 14-11 at halftime. Then, the second half began and the Seminoles simply could not pull away from the Yellow Jackets. They held the lead a couple more times, but Georgia Tech tied the game at 21 and found themselves with the ball during the final possession of the game. So they decided to try (and nail) a game-winning 44-yard field goal.

So that was a frustrating loss. But to be fair, it was on the other side of the globe, in a place that was unfamiliar to everyone. They’ll shake it off, come back home next weekend, and beat Boston College handily. Right?Wrong.

Boston College was the team that did the convincing beating, as the ‘Noles fell 28-13 to the Eagles in their second game of the season. And just as Georgia Tech quarterback Haynes King had beaten the Florida State defense with his arm and his legs, Boston College quarterback Thomas Castellanos did the exact same thing. Castellanos did only throw for 106 yards, but he threw two touchdowns and added 73 yards and a score on the ground. Not to mention, BC running backs Kye Robichaux and Treshaun Ward combined for 162 rushing yards. The entire Boston College team ran for nearly 300 yards. 

But the worst part about all of this might be the performance of DJ Uiagalelei. In the Georgia Tech game, he went 19-27 with 193 yards, no touchdowns or interceptions. So that was…okay, I guess. But in the Boston College game, the story was much different. He completed just 50% of his passes for 272 yards, a touchdown, and an interception. Most of those yards and completions came in garbage time. At halftime, he was 8-21 throwing the ball, which is under 40%. He simply did not play well, and has demonstrated little to no reason that he should be the guy under center going forward if the Seminoles want to try and turn their season around.

Florida State is in a dark, deep hole that they will be hard-pressed to climb out of. The schedule suddenly becomes much more difficult. There are no longer any “cakewalk” games. If their season continues at the rate that it’s currently going, they might be lucky just to make a bowl game.

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