How far can USC, Michigan go? Is Colorado in trouble? Joel Klatt’s Week 1 takeaways

College Football

Published Sep. 3, 2024 11:33 a.m. ET

That was awesome — thunderstorm and all.

Yes, Penn State‘s win over West Virginia that I called on the “Big Noon Saturday” broadcast was delayed for two and a half hours due to weather, but I still had an amazing time. It was a fantastic experience to travel and return to an environment like the one in Morgantown, and it was an incredible weekend of college football as a whole.

The slate of games on Saturday (and Sunday night) reminded me why I love this sport.

I had so many takeaways from this past weekend that I had to save some for the midweek edition of “The Joel Klatt Show.” But there were still plenty of things I saw that I could not wait to dissect, including three traditional college football superpowers making national statements, and flashing warning signs for my Colorado Buffaloes.

Here are my takeaways from Week 1.

Notre Dame can go undefeated this season

Let’s start with what I thought was not only one of the best environments of the week, but what I would consider the performance of the week — the Fighting Irish going down to College Station and beating a top-20 Texas A&M team, 23-13.

Notre Dame pulled one out in one of the most incredibly hostile environments I’ve seen in a long time. That makes the way Marcus Freeman’s team executed even more impressive. Freeman knew that he needed to solidify his roster this season with another experienced quarterback — a guy with a slow heartbeat in crunch time. In Riley Leonard, he has that quarterback, and now they have an incredible win to show for it.

One of the biggest surprises was how Notre Dame’s young offensive line performed against a really talented A&M defensive line that I would put in the upper tier of the SEC. The Irish ran for 198 yards and 5.8 yards per carry, and the line got better late in the second half when everyone — including that premier Aggies defensive line — knew Notre Dame would try to run the ball.

I said before this game that if Notre Dame beat Texas A&M, the Irish would be undefeated at least until their regular-season finale at USC. I stand by that.

USC’s win helped its playoff hopes in more ways than one

The Trojans‘ 27-20 win over LSU in Las Vegas on Sunday will reverberate around college football. Not just because Lincoln Riley’s team fired a massive warning shot to the rest of the Big Ten, but because Riley finally appears to have a respectable defense thanks to his bold hire of new defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn.

I believe the Big Ten is now a five-team league at its top, with USC joining Oregon (struggled against Idaho), Michigan (sloppy against Fresno State), Ohio State (sluggish early against Akron) and Penn State.

Stepping back even further, let’s look at the two super-conferences represented in this game, the Big Ten and SEC. Any time these leagues face off, there will be narratives that emerge. In USC-LSU, we had two teams slotted very similarly in their conference in the preseason, right around that No. 4 or No. 5. At the end of the year, the College Football Playoff committee will get together to determine at-large spots and conference-over-conference head-to-head wins like what USC just pulled off will be a massive factor. (That’s also a major reason why the Texas-Michigan game on “Big Noon Saturday” next week will also be so big.)

This is not just a win for USC over LSU, this is a win for the Big Ten against the SEC.

Miami is above the rest of the ACC because of Cam Ward

Is “The U” back? It sure looks that way. The only reason I don’t rate Miami’s 41-17 dismantling of Florida in “The Swamp” higher is that I don’t think Florida is that good.

But despite my outlook on Florida, I don’t think we’re overreacting too much by heaping praise on Miami here. Mario Cristobal’s team looks like the real deal, in large part because the former offensive line coach has a squad that dominated the trenches on both sides. It’s worth noting that Florida’s roster actually ranks higher on 247Sports’ talent composite. What’s the difference? Coaching is probably a factor, and Billy Napier’s seat just got a lot warmer.

But the real difference is at quarterback.

Cam Ward is absolutely the best quarterback in the ACC, and he’s why I believe in Miami. What became evident in the reaction to Ward’s performance — more than 400 total yards and three passing touchdowns — was how few people actually watched him at Washington State. The reason Miami fans should feel so confident going forward is Ward’s level of play, not necessarily the win at Florida in and of itself (though that is apparently helping recruiting efforts).

The Hurricanes are easily the best team in the ACC.

Georgia isn’t going anywhere

Georgia is still Georgia. Kirby Smart’s team is as ruthless as ever, judging by the Dawgs’ 34-3 drubbing of Clemson in Atlanta. Remember, these two teams faced off three years ago, and it was an evenly-matched, knock-down, drag-out defensive slog that Georgia won 10-3 thanks to a pick-six. Since then, these programs have headed in opposite directions, and that was obvious on Saturday.

Georgia has now won 46 straight games against teams not coached by Nick Saban. Now, with Saban no longer a coach, who is beating Georgia? The Dawgs have an experienced quarterback in Carson Beck, talent everywhere on the roster, an extremely physical style and the best defense in the SEC over the last three years. I know they have a tough schedule and might not go undefeated, but Saturday felt like a serious announcement to the rest of the sport that Georgia is not going anywhere.

There’s more to Clemson’s downfall than the transfer portal

Everybody is talking about Dabo Swinney’s reluctance to use the transfer portal and how he cannot sustain that approach. Swinney even addressed that criticism in his postgame press conference Saturday, defending himself by saying he will keep doing what’s best for Clemson and will not be fazed by the outside criticism. Guess what? He’s right — about the portal. In fact, the Tigers are on the exact same trajectory as many dynastic college football programs before them.

Clemson is coming off a seven-year stretch that is as good as any seven-year stretch in college football history, overshadowed only by the Crimson Tide’s unparalleled 15-year run that was happening at the same time.

Clemson’s decline reminds me a lot of Mack Brown’s Texas team that was at the peak of college football in the mid-late 2000s but started to taper off in the early 2010s. The Longhorns won a title with Vince Young and played for another with Colt McCoy. Texas thought it could keep things rolling with Garrett Gilbert at quarterback, and the Longhorns never recovered.

That’s exactly what’s happening to Clemson, which rose to prominence under Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence, but couldn’t sustain it under D.J. Uiagalelei and Cade Klubnik. Dabo is right — this isn’t about the transfer portal. This is about history repeating itself. Clemson’s roster overall is not where it needs to be to absorb missing on a quarterback.

Is the Clemson dynasty over after 34-3 loss to Georgia?

Penn State may be ready to take the next step

Let’s not gloss over how impressive Penn State’s 34-12 win over West Virginia was. The Mountaineers were unranked but received votes in the AP Top 25. This was a confident bunch at West Virginia playing in front of a raucous environment at home.

As I prepared to broadcast the game on “Big Noon Saturday,” I thought Penn State would have its hands full, especially with all the newness and uncertainty on the Nittany Lions‘ offense, especially with new coordinator Andy Kotelnicki. What was that going to look like? Could Drew Allar respond to the change and take that next step forward? We got our answer.

Penn State entered this game 20-0 over the last two seasons against everyone not named Michigan and Ohio State, and 0-4 against those Big Ten heavyweights. They had to go out and get better, especially by adding an explosive element to their offense that would require Drew Allar to push the ball downfield. Both those things happened Saturday, and that was a huge development early in the season for the Nittany Lions.

Running back Nick Singleton had a 40-yard touchdown run after having zero runs of 40 yards or more last season. Allar repeatedly threw the ball down the field after ranking 124th among FBS quarterbacks in yards per attempt last season. It wasn’t always perfect, but the Nittany Lions created explosive plays, and that is a great development for a team that feels like it’s just scratching the surface.

As I mentioned on the broadcast, Penn State has a very favorable Big Ten schedule — missing Oregon and Michigan — and has as good a path to 12 wins as anybody except for Ohio State. The Nittany Lions will be favored in every game they play outside their matchup against the Buckeyes. They will be in the Playoff race throughout the season.

Michigan still looks like Michigan, just not the 2023 version

I think a lot of people were surprised that Sherrone Moore started former walk-on Davis Warren at quarterback instead of Alex Orji on Saturday. But while there’s no doubt that Orji is the more gifted athlete, Warren is a more serviceable passer.

I think Orji can still play a major part of Michigan’s offensive game plans, and maybe he can continue to develop as a passer rather than a pure thrower. But as of right now, I can see why Moore went with Warren, who was much more serviceable in terms of throwing the ball from the pocket, reading defenses post-snap and trying to get the ball to his wide receivers on the outside.

People are saying that Michigan’s offense looked terrible, but let’s ask ourselves: “What is this Michigan team?” We know the defense is going to be really good and play complementary football. Will Johnson again showed why he’s arguably the best cornerback in college football. The defense should hopefully keep Michigan in games.

Can the Wolverines be complementary in all three phases? Until last year, Michigan under Jim Harbaugh was always a methodical team that would pull away late instead of really showing off and blowing teams out. There were a lot of one-possession games late, even if Michigan was dominating its opponent in multiple facets, and then the Wolverines would wear people down.

Watching Michigan’s game against Fresno State on Saturday, it felt like the early Harbaugh era. It reminded me of watching the 2015 team with Jake Rudock at quarterback — a really good defensive team trying to find its way on offense.

Michigan is, by its own admission, a developmental program. Because the Wolverines won a national championship, we automatically think that they can reload like Georgia, Texas, Alabama and Ohio State all do. But that’s not what Michigan is. They can’t just have a sustained best-in-the-country program year in and year out, because that’s not what they do. They recruit and develop.

I thought Saturday night was the start of that development process under Moore. I think this team can still win nine or 10 games. Michigan will be OK, I just don’t think we can expect the Wolverines to remain in the upper echelon of the sport this year.

Colorado needs to change its formula

Last week, I predicted the Buffaloes would win, but not cover, against a tough North Dakota State team. Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter were incredible again, but I’m not riding high with Colorado.

I was convinced this offseason that we would see a Colorado team that had gotten better at the line of scrimmage, better on defense, better at situational football and better in Deion Sanders’ game plan. What I watched Thursday night was two elite stars and a whole lot of questions. Sanders and Hunters carried the Buffaloes, but all the same issues from last year remained.

In fairness, it’s the first game of the season, and Coach Prime just oversaw another massive roster turnover via the transfer portal. Maybe the Buffaloes will get better before next week’s huge game at Nebraska. Teams often show the most amount of growth between Weeks 1 and 2 because coaches now have game tape to identify flaws.

But the problem is that all the issues that cropped up in Colorado’s 31-26 win are things we saw last year. That sets off alarm bells for me. Colorado had fewer than 3 yards per carry and no creativity in the run game. Being over-reliant on the passing game exposes Shedeur and is unsustainable.

At some point, the offensive line is going to have to contribute, because right now it’s not happening.

How did Colorado’s win affect the outlook for the team this season?

Shedeur was only sacked one time, but that’s because he was phenomenal under pressure, going 7-for-9 for 185 yards and a touchdown. But he was still pressured on 30% of his drop backs against an FCS team — an alarming statistic.

As for Hunter, I know we all love to see him play both ways, but something has to change with his usage. He played basically every snap on defense, missed only two snaps on offense, and played seven snaps on special teams. He played in 136 of a possible 140 snaps, which is not sustainable.

Joel Klatt is FOX Sports’ lead college football game analyst and the host of the podcast “The Joel Klatt Show.” Follow him on X/Twitter at @joelklatt and subscribe to the “Joel Klatt Show” on YouTube.

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