1 out of 10 On Thursday night, No. 17 Pitt defeated West Virginia 38-31 at home in the Backyard Brawl rivalry. On Saturday afternoon, Iowa survived an upset at home against South Dakota State, narrowly beating the FCS team 7-3. No. 13 NC State also had a close game against East Carolina, defeating the Pirates 21-20 in Greenville. Meanwhile, North Carolina narrowly defeated Appalachian State on the road, defeating the Mountaineers 63-61 in a thriller that went down to the wire. The biggest game at 3:30 p.m., No. 3 Georgia vs. No. 11 Oregon, was over pretty quickly. The Dawgs rolled to a 49-3 win over the Ducks in a game that was never close. No. 19 Arkansas defeated No. 23 Cincinnati at home, winning 31-24. We’ve got you covered with the biggest winners and losers from Week 1 of the college football season. 2 out of 10 While the game had a fairly low score in the first half, tied at 10, it really opened up in the second half. CJ Donaldson gave the Mountaineers a 17-10 lead early in the third quarter, blocking a punt and rushing for a score on back-to-back plays, but Pitt’s offense scored two touchdowns near the end of the quarter to take a 24-17 lead. the fourth. Pitt’s defense forced a WVU three-and-out between the Panthers’ two scoring possessions. But this continued to be back and forth until the end of the quarter. West Virginia scored a touchdown on JT Daniels’ rushing touchdown to make it 31-24 with 10:37 left in the game. Pitt answered late in the fourth with a Kedon Slovis 24-yard touchdown pass to Israel Ambanicanda with 3:41 left to tie things up. West Virginia had plenty of time to answer, but on first down from its own 39-yard line, Pitt’s MJ Devonshire picked off Daniels and returned it 56 yards for an incredible pick-six to give Pitt a 38-point victory. -31. The win for the Panthers snapped a three-game losing streak to the Mountaineers and gave them their first win in the series since 2008. This game should be played on the first Thursday night of college football every season based on how exciting this was. 3 out of 10 But App State had other plans, making this finish as chaotic as possible. The Mountaineers scored touchdowns on back-to-back possessions to open the fourth quarter, taking advantage of Drake Maye to get the ball back after its first score. UNC kept scoring to try and put the game away, but App State never let the game get away. The Mountaineers tied the game at 49 on a 38-yard Cameron Peoples touchdown run. The last four minutes of the game was when things got out of hand. Maye found running back DJ Jones for a 42-yard touchdown pass to make it 56-49 with 2:50 left. The Mountaineers countered with a 75-yard drive, capped by a Chase Brice touchdown pass to Dashaun Davis with 31 seconds left. Instead of taking the extra point to tie it and send it to overtime, App State opted to go for two. Bryce overthrew Davis on the two-point conversion attempt, making it 56-55 UNC. The Mountaineers then attempted an onside kick, but North Carolina’s Bryson Nesbit returned it 43 yards for a touchdown. There were only 19 seconds left on the clock – surely the Tar Heels had put the game away, right? No. App State drove right down the field — aided by a defensive penalty — to score a touchdown. App State had to go for two to tie things up, but Brice was tackled short of the goal line, giving the Tar Heels a 63-61 win. So in all, App State scored 40 points in the fourth quarter, including 338 yards of offense, and still lost. Tough way for the Mountaineers to lose. 4 out of 10 That was almost over in the first half. It was already 28-3 at halftime, with quarterback Stetson Bennett throwing for 254 yards. He also scored a pair of touchdowns in the second quarter. The quarterback finished with 368 yards through the air on the day. Bennett’s receivers also had a productive day. Sophomore Ladd McConkey opened the scoring with a rushing touchdown in the first quarter and totaled five receptions for 73 yards and another score. Adonai Mitchell added 65 yards, including an 18-yard touchdown reception. Georgia finished with 571 yards of total offense with four rushing touchdowns and averaged 9.2 yards per play on the day. Oregon’s offense couldn’t get much going under new quarterback Bo Nix, who recorded 173 passing yards and two interceptions. The Ducks, who finished with 313 yards of offense, had a chance to score a touchdown in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter. But Georgia’s defense stopped the drive at the 2-yard line as the Knicks’ fourth-down pass fell incomplete. Georgia returns just three starters on defense from last season. If the Dawgs offense can play like this all season, they should have no problem getting back to the playoffs. 5 out of 10 The Cornhuskers were 28.5-point favorites at home against the Fighting Hawks, and North Dakota kept it a one-score game for most of it. This game was tied 7 at halftime, even! Fortunately, Nebraska started to pull away late in the third quarter. The Cornhuskers went up 24-17 on a 46-yard run by Anthony Grant with 2:30 left in the third. The Cornhuskers finally took a two-score lead on Ajay Allen’s fourth-quarter touchdown. Quarterback Casey Thompson added a five-yard touchdown pass with 2:07 left to put Nebraska up 38-17. Thompson improved a bit from his game last week against Northwestern. He finished with 193 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. If Nebraska wants to have a winning season, his numbers will likely need to improve a bit. 6 out of 10 But the Wildcats, under second-year coach Jedd Fisch, pulled off a huge road win Saturday against San Diego State. Arizona went on the road and defeated the Aztecs 38-20. The win marked the Wildcats’ first road win since October 2019 and their first non-conference road win in five seasons. The Wildcats took over this game from the start. They had a 10-0 lead after the first quarter and led 24-10 at halftime. In the second half, Arizona’s defense held San Diego to just 10 points. The Wildcats scored another 31 points in the second half to comfortably win by three scores. Arizona quarterback Jayden de Laura had a great day for the Wildcats, throwing for 299 yards and four touchdowns with one interception. Wildcats running back DJ Williams added a touchdown in the fourth quarter. San Diego State has also been a decent program in recent years, so that makes this win even more impressive for Arizona. The Aztecs went 12-2 last season, marking SDSU’s second double-digit win year in three seasons. Congratulations to the Wildcat fans on this big win. We’ll see if Arizona can keep up the winning streak this season. 7 out of 10 After the No. 11 Ducks were demolished by the No. 3 Dawgs, the No. 7 Utah Utes fell just short in the waning moments of their game against the unranked Florida Gators. Utah got the ball back with 1:25 left, trailing 29-26 after a Florida punt. The Utes were able to drive to the Florida 6-yard line and looked poised to score in the final seconds of the game. But on 2nd and goal, Gator linebacker Amari Burney intercepted Utes quarterback Cameron Rising’s pass in the end zone to seal Florida’s victory. With the loss, the Pac-12 is now 1-8 against SEC teams in their last nine Week 1 games, per ESPN’s broadcast (h/t Chris Vannini of The Athletic). Oregon’s loss to Georgia wasn’t all that surprising, but there was certainly hope that the Ducks would put up more of a fight. Meanwhile, Utah’s loss to Florida severely hurts the Utes’ playoff hopes. Entering the day, Utah was a legitimate playoff contender. Instead of earning a statement victory on the road, the loss makes Utah’s path to the playoffs that much more difficult. The Utes still have games against USC and Oregon left before the regular season ends. One more loss would knock the Utes out of the playoffs entirely – if the loss to Florida hadn’t already. Mario Cristobal’s Miami Hurricanes were playing Week 1 at home against Bethune-Cookman. The Canes took care of business at home, winning 70-13. Returning quarterback Tyler Van Dyke finished with 193 yards passing and two touchdowns. Oklahoma is starting fresh under Brent Venables, who arrives in Norman after spending the last 10 years at Clemson. The no…
