Week 1 of college football delivered everything the sport is best known for: chaos, surprises and drama. And, of course, overreactions ran rampant.
The world is just a more fun place during a college football Saturday. The first official one of the year proved that we weren’t all exaggerating how wonderful CFB is.
There were the usual cupcake sacrifices as teams like Alabama rolled exactly as you’d expect them too. There were also quintessentially weird outings with teams like Iowa figuring out how to win 7-3 without scoring a touchdown.
After watching dozens of games with a dozen different narratives spilling out of each, it was also easy to overreact.
5 exceptional overreactions to college football Week 1
“Stetson Bennett IV can win the Heisman Trophy”
The overreaction: Stetson Bennett IV is criminally underrated for a quarterback who led his team to the national championship last season.
He made the case for the college football world to take him seriously against Oregon. Bennett had 368 yards and two touchdowns. He was exceptional against the blitz and in just about every other scenario. He made all the plays Bulldog coaches and fans could ask of him.
With that kind of debut, it’s time to add him to the Heisman Trophy power rankings.
The bucket of cold water: Bennett is an effective quarterback for Georgia, there’s no question about that. It doesn’t mean he’s on the level of other Heisman contenders like Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud or Caleb Williams.
Oregon’s defense also gave up 38 or more points in three of their last four games of 2021 and they’re adjusting to a new coaching staff. If the Ducks struggle as the season goes on this performance is going to be devalued quite a bit.