Brian’s College Football Top 5: Week 0
Photo from Vanderbilt Athletics
We. Are. Back!
It wasn’t a full weekend of college football, but it was enough to just scratch the itch before Thursday kicks off week 1 of the college football season.
And because of that, we are back with my weekly top 5.
And if you can’t remember, I’ll explain again.
This is not the top 5 teams in the country. It’s the top 5 teams that impressed me most that specific week.
Let’s get going.
5. Florida A&M Rattlers
Did Florida A&M lose by 32? Yes.
But they were only down by 11 at halftime and were missing 25 (!!!!) players when they travelled to Chapel Hill to take on UNC.
Nobody expected them to win even with a full squad, so to put up that kind of fight while being brutally shorthanded is very impressive.
4. UConn Huskies
Another team who lost in week 0, but another team who performed much better than expected.
UConn lost to Utah State by 11, and quite frankly could have made it closer or even won if not for some costly turnovers, but considering the state of UConn’s football program, an 11 point road loss is a lot better than I’m sure many expected.
Must be the ghosts living with Jim Mora helping things along.
3. Vanderbilt Commodores
Let’s just get this out of the way, Hawaii is atrocious.
But, Vandy isn’t anything special either, and you can only play who is in front of you.
So seeing Vandy crush Hawaii 63-10 in the first game under new head coach Clark Lea is a very good sign.
Will Vandy win many more games this year? Probably not!
But last year’s Vandy team needed to barely hold on against UConn, so this is a massive sign of progress.
2. North Texas Mean Green
A sold out Sun Bowl ready to watch their UTEP Miners start off the season with a bang, and North Texas went down south and shut ‘em up with a 31-13 win, thanks to a dominant 2nd half.
That’s no small feat, and it picks up right where North Texas left off as they ended last year by ruining UTSA’s undefeated season.
1. Northwestern Wildcats
For all the schadenfreude towards Nebraska for another crushing loss, it takes away from a really good game by Ryan Hilinski and the Northwestern Wildcats.
Do I wish they were more aggressive and leaned on Hilinski to put the game away earlier? Sure.
But their game plan worked, so I can’t complain too much.
Regardless, if they get that version of Hilinski each week, it looks like it’ll be a year where Northwestern’s offense is actually competent.
