The college football season kicked off last night in Sydney, Australia and featured a combined 82 points.
Although college football truly doesn’t get going until Labor Day weekend, the season officially got underway last night with Cal vs Hawaii. In a high scoring affair, the Golden Bears outlasted the Warriors 51-31.
Referred to as the Sydney College Cup, the game was given an intriguing neutral site in Australia with some interesting storylines. With Jared Goff now a member of the LA Rams, Cal had to turn the page at quarterback. Luckily for them, former Texas Tech quarterback Davis Webb fell into their laps as a graduate transfer. In head coach Sonny Dykes’ “Bear Raid” offense, Webb had a big night through the air with 441 yards and four touchdowns. He was also aided by halfback Khalfani Muhammad who opened his season with just shy of 100 yards and a touchdown.
Underdogs in this opening game, Hawaii managed to stick around early on. This was the debut for new head coach Nick Rolovich, a former Hawaii quarterback. After serving as the offensive coordinator at Nevada, Rolovich returned to Hawaii to try and restart the program.
Unfortunately, last night wasn’t a good start. The Warriors turned over the ball five times, including a failed onside kick attempt to begin the game, while Cal had a clean turnover slate. Hawaii running back Diocemy Saint Juste was a bright spot for the offense, accounting for 118 yards and a beautiful touchdown run.
However, at the end of the day, it was too much talent in favor of Cal. The Pac-12 team is now 1-0 heading into a bye. For Hawaii, the sledding gets tougher as they travel to Ann Arbor next weekend to play Michigan.
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Thanks to ESPN, many witnessed a pretty cool scene across the globe. Hosted at ANZ Stadium, last night’s game was the first in Australia since 1987. What a unique way to kick off the college football season. Now we can finally welcome college football back into our lives.