Brian’s College Football Top 5: Week 1

Photo from Fox Sports

A week 1 in which everyone thought would be an absolute snoozer ended up being pretty damn fun!

Shock surprise, eh? College football is fun.

Hold the front page.

Here is my top 5 for week 1 of the college football season.

5. Western Michigan Broncos

I don’t care that the Big 10 apparently has some sort of special clock that means there was actually 1 second left that nobody knew about.

For the entirety of my football life, the stadium clock and TV clock was synced up, and the clock hitting 0 means the game was over.

Western Michigan beat Michigan.

I know the score doesn’t say that, and history books will remember it as a Michigan win, but those who watched it know.

This was a Western Michigan victory.

4. UCLA Bruins

The past few seasons for UCLA have been a bit of a mess.

In comes Bob Chesney from James Madison to try and fix things, and his first opponent is a talented, up and coming Cal team that people are pretty high on.

And it was quite the game for about 3 quarters.

And then, in the 4th, the Bruins pulled away, securing a nice and easy 45-24 win on the road to start the Chesney era in Los Angeles.

3. FCS Opponents

Week 1 is usually full of cupcake games.

FBS teams that face off against FCS teams to get an easy, care free win, since there’s no preseason in college football to work out the kinks.

At least, that’s how it’s supposed to go.

Some teams didn’t get the memo, as Tarleton State took down Bowling Green, The Citadel beat Charlotte in 3 overtimes, and Idaho State easily beat Utah State.

They picked up a paycheck for playing them, and came home with a win.

2. Tulsa Golden Hurricane

Last season, Tulsa upset Oklahoma State in a shocking week 3 win.

It was a win that began the downfall of Mike Gundy’s tenure with the Cowboys.

They then hired Eric Morris in the offseason from North Texas, and Morris brought over a ton of his former players to join him at Oklahoma State.

Their week 1 opponent?

The Tulsa Golden Hurricane.

And wouldn’t you know it, Tulsa did it again, beating the Cowboys 24-10 and starting the Eric Morris era off with a gigantic dud.

Back to back wins over an in state rival has to feel great.

1. UMass Minutemen

Thursday night began week 1 of the College Football season, and it began with Rutgers facing off against UMass in a game that I feel not a lot of people cared about, or wanted to pay attention to.

This was just a game on TV while we waited for Colorado and Georgia Tech to start.

After all, UMass has lost 16 straight games, and is widely regarded as one of the worst football teams in the country, even worse than many FCS schools.

But Pop Watson and the Minutemen not only beat Rutgers, they easily handled Rutgers.

Don’t even let a score line like 37-21 fool you.

UMass ran away with this game, broke their drought, and shocked the college football world.

Maybe, just maybe, UMass will surprise some people in 2026.