College Football Blitz, Week 1: Houston shocks Oklahoma, Alabama dominates, and more
By John Buhler
Labor Day weekend brought an exciting start to the 2016 college football season. Here are the biggest standouts from all the action in Week 1.
The first week of the 2016 college football season is in the books. Three of the top 10 teams in the AP Top 25 Poll were upset: The No. 3 Oklahoma Sooners were upset by the No. 15 Houston Cougars at NRG Stadium, the No. 5 LSU Tigers were upended by the Wisconsin Badgers at Lambeau Field, and the No. 10 Notre Dame Fighting Irish lost a tough overtime shootout with the Texas Longhorns in Austin.
Players like Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey, Houston’s Greg Ward, Jr., and Georgia’s Nick Chubb all shined in Week 1, while other players including UCLA’s Josh Rosen, LSU’s Leonard Fournette, and Clemson’s Deshaun Watson largely underwhelmed. Here are the Week 1 award winners for College Football Blitz:
Offensive Player of the Week: Ohio State QB J.T. Barrett
The Ohio State Buckeyes torched the Bowling Green Falcons in their Week 1 home opener at Ohio Stadium, 77-10. Ohio State scored 10 touchdowns and amassed 776 yards of total offense on a bewildered Falcons defense.
Ohio State’s record-setting day was put in motion by its star junior quarterback J.T. Barrett. Barrett had seven of the Buckeyes’ 10 touchdowns: six through the air and one on the ground. He completed 21 of 31 of his passes for 349 yards. Barrett also rushed for 30 yards before being pulled from the game midway through the third quarter in this rout.
Of Ohio State’s 77 points and 776 yards of offense, its star quarterback accounted for 42 points and 379 yards of offensive production. Blowing out Bowling Green this badly comes as a bit of a surprise given how many starters Ohio State lost to the 2016 NFL Draft, as well as Bowling Green winning its division in the MAC the last two seasons.
With Barrett poised for a Heisman caliber season in the Big Ten, he and his Buckeyes are off to a terrific start to the 2016 NCAA campaign. Barrett didn’t put up these numbers against a Power 5 school, but setting a few Ohio State records in the process makes him this week’s Offensive Player of the Week.
Next: Defensive Player of the Week