College football Week 1: 5 underrated games die-hard fans will love

Looking for some quality (or potentially weird and intriguing) college football games that are flying under the radar? Look no further. Here’s some sneaky good games for this week.

With the sheer number of college football games played each and every week, it can be difficult for some fans to figure out what they want to watch. Of course there’s the headliner games featuring the biggest, most prominent teams in the country that’ll grab everyone’s attention every week.

But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try to seek out some games that will be intriguing to watch and get significantly less attention.

Here’s five of those games:

No. 5: SMU at Arkansas State

The SMU Mustangs are headed up the road to face the Arkansas State Red Wolves. It shouldn’t be a surprise that the casual college football fan (or even more die-hard fans) traditionally wouldn’t care about this game. SMU hasn’t been good since the 90’s (shoutout to the NCAA for that) and Arkansas State is an above-average Sun Belt team that can’t quite break through in its own conference.

That said, Arkansas State has seen a steady level of moderate success under Blake Anderson, winning an average of 7.8 games a year during the five years he’s led the Red Wolves. SMU has seen a recent resurgence lately, largely due to the work Chad Morris did. Still, Sonny Dykes has a chance to continue building the Mustangs and they could find themselves evenly matched against Arkansas State.

No. 4: Utah State at Wake Forest

The Utah State Aggies have hiked halfway across the country to take on the Wake Forest Demon Deacons in a game that is certainly worth watching for a few different reasons.

First, Utah State won 11 games a season ago, lost its head coach, and then for some reason welcomed a former head coach back after he had previously left and moved on to a bigger school and a better opportunity. Gary Anderson is back in action with the Aggies, folks! And this is his second “first game” leading Utah State.

Second, Wake Forest is a program that is definitely on the rise right now. The Demon Deacons have improved considerably over the past few years under Dave Clawson’s guidance, competing in and winning three straight bowl games. Wake Forest has to believe that it can contend with, and even beat, Utah State here, despite the fact that Utah State has been a very good team lately.

Third, Utah State believes it has a quarterback good enough to win the Heisman this season. Jordan Love had a remarkable sophomore campaign, throwing for 3,567 yards and 32 touchdowns against just 6 interceptions. If Love can continue being that good, then every college football fan should make an effort to keep up with him.

No. 3: Virginia at Pitt

Secretly two of the better teams from the ACC this year, the Virginia Cavaliers and the Pittsburgh Panthers could provide a rather interesting game at the beginning of the season. This game could actually go a long way to determining which teams will make it into the ACC Championship game.

Virginia quarterback Bryce Perkins is a talented dual threat who is truly capable of hurting defenses through the air and on the ground and he’s looking to build upon what was a solid 2018 season. Pitt’s defense in 2018 was rather porous, so stopping Perkins might be a tall task for the Panthers.

Pitt is also tasked with replacing the bulk of its offense from a season ago as the Panthers have to fill the void that Qadree Ollison and Darrin Hall left. The two 1,000-yard-rushers carried Pitt to victory throughout 2018. Keep an eye on AJ Davis and Todd Sibley, Jr. as they work to replicate what Ollison and Hall did a season ago.

No. 2: Fresno State at USC

Fresno State, like many smaller schools that face much more well-known and prominent programs, is seeking an upset here. But this game shouldn’t really be considered an upset if the Bulldogs win.

Fresno State was a notably better team than USC was in 2018, as the Bulldogs won a dozen games while the Trojans couldn’t even qualify for a bowl game. If USC loses this game, Clay Helton, who is already sitting on a scorching hot seat, may not even make it to week two as the head coach of the Trojans.

The Helton era of USC football could very well a close this season if the hire of new offensive coordinator Graham Harrell doesn’t work out. The Trojans are supposedly going to try some version of the air raid this season under Harrell’s direction. That change in offensive philosophy could make JT Daniels more fun to watch this season and does make Daniels a key player to watch in this game.

No. 1: Ole Miss at Memphis

Okay, this game probably isn’t flying under a lot of people’s radar. Ole Miss and Memphis could provide an incredibly electrifying game that just about anyone could enjoy (as long as you like remarkably stupid plays, bad defense, and tons of offense). Plus, the Rebels and the Tigers have captured headlines over the past few years (Ole Miss for being caught in a massive scandal and Memphis for actually being pretty good the past couple of seasons) so it’s not like these two teams are relatively unknown or anything.

Like the Fresno State game against USC, in this game, the more prominently named program is not the better team at the moment. Memphis has been electrifying on offense over the past few seasons and so has Ole Miss, for what that’s worth, but the Tigers have appeared to be a more complete team in recent history.

Keep an eye on the quarterbacks in this game as they attempt to outwork and outshine their counterparts here. Brady White for Memphis and Matt Corral for Ole Miss can both command offenses with ease and have shown that they have high ceilings. White has a notable amount of experience under his belt at this point, but Corral could prove to be something special.