Week 1 and “Week 0”
Heading into Week #1 of the 2021 college football season, we present our perspective of “Week 0” before the two games ahead of collegefootballfan.com this week to open up our schedule. Thursday night, our opener finds us in Chattanooga for the first time to watch the UTC Moccasins of the Ohio Valley Conference host the Austin Peay Governors of the Southern Conference. Both ranked, FCS schools appear on our schedule in our 42nd year. On Saturday, our featured FBS game brings us to San Marcos, Texas for the second year in a row to see the Texas Bobcats compete. They’ll host the Baylor Bears. We’re looking for the underdog host team of the Sun Belt to spring an upset over the Power Five team…
We finally found out why the heck they call the first weekend of college games, “Week 0”. Basically, most games played that week feature teams that will play games at Hawaii and Hawaii itself. This weekend of a very limited schedule gives all those teams the option of opening earlier. They receive an additional bye week on their schedules to compensate for their long trip out to the islands. The NCAA also give every such team the option to schedule a 13th game for the season. This season, only the Rainbow Warriors accepted that opportunity. Funny, they picked up a second game against struggling New Mexico State, a team that lost to D-2 Tarleton State in a Spring game…
Note that UCLA, San Jose State, New Mexico State, and Fresno who play the Bows during the first half of their slate played this past weekend… Waivers can also be made. In the case of Nebraska versus Illinois, their opener changed to Champaign, Illinois since the originally scheduled game in Dublin, Ireland got nixed due to Covid…
Collegefootballfan.com attended a Week 0 game in 2017 when the Rainbow Warriors travelled all the way to Amherst, Massachusetts to defeat the UMass Minutemen, 38-35.
Maybe the grass is greener…In Illinois
One of the heroes of the Illini’s 30-22 win over the supposedly improving Huskers turned out to be QB Artur Sitkowski. Sitkowski, the much-maligned QB who transferred from Rutgers, completed 12 of 15 for 124 yards, two TDs, and no INTs. Rarely did he enjoy such a win with stats like that on the Banks of the old Raritan…Bret Bielema enjoyed a successful coaching debut at Illinois after failing to turn around football fortunes at Arkansas. His style of power football may garner better results in the Big Ten than in the SEC…
In 2019, Rutgers Soph QB Art Sitkowski (8), now playing for Illinois, racked up passing yards despite a game plan short on long tosses. Boston College triumphed 30-16. RU finished 2019 at 2-10. He led the Illini to a 30-22 win against Nebraska last Saturday.
Think “FCS, FCS, FCS”
Fresno slammed UConn, 45-0. At the end of this season, if UConn and UMass continue to lose miserably, both should consider going back to play FCS football in the Colonial Athletic Association. This FBS endeavor has to be too costly financially for one thing. On the other hand, with their schedules and their inability to recruit and compete at this level, the desires to enjoy football for fans and alum in the FBS makes no sense. Do their fans really enjoy following a schedule against dominant programs or even so-so competition from the far reaches across the country? From Fresno to New Mexico State to Clemson to Florida State? Most of this fan base roots on Sundays for the New England Patriots for their football pleasure and dollars.
UConn will play Holy Cross and Yale. Rhode Island and Maine both play at UMass this year. They should continue to compete at that level with schools sharing similar geography, athletic budgets, history, and academic standards. The best shot either of these two have a winning an FBS game this season is when the two meet on October 9 in Amherst…There are a few other programs we would offer this advice to, but later.
The high point of UMASS FBS football history on November 3, 2018.
Games we look forward to but not attending this week
Of course, No. 19 Penn State at No. 12 Wisconsin ranked Big Ten teams in the season opener; No. 17 Indiana at No. 18 Iowa – what other conferences allow this to start a season?… Boise State at Central Florida – two top Group of Five schools challenging each other to open with new head coaches…No. 4 Ohio State at Minnesota – a new QB on the road for OSU against a conference foe that has been improving…No. 10 North Carolina at Virginia Tech – Heisman candidate Sam Howell shows us what he’s got going into this season…
2019 Military Bowl Game MVP, Freshman Sam Howell (7), looks down field on a touchdown drive in UNC’s win over Temple.
No. 3 Clemson vs. No. 5 Georgia in Charlotte – opener between two Final Four contenders. D.J. Uiagalelei steps in permanently to replace Trevor Lawrence. It’s his team now…No. 16 LSU at UCLA – Tigers struggled last season and UCLA comes in with a dominant win over Hawaii. Is this the surprise team Herbie says they’ll be?… No. 23 Louisiana at No. 21 Texas. Billy Napier’s Ragin Cajuns no longer travel under the radar. What has Sarkisian done by now to make the Longhorns better? … South Dakota (FCS) at Kansas. Any win at KU under Lance Leipold on such short notice will be a feather in his cap.
We watched the Ragin Cajuns win 44-34 over Texas State last season. We expect Louisiana to continue to roll, but we also expect the Bobcats to win more games off their 2-10 record of a year ago.
