With week one in the books, it’s time to react and overreact to what we saw. That’s usually what you get week one. However, here are my takeaways, no overreaction whatsoever.
Week one didn’t give us a wealth of knowledge, but here is the recap of week one.
1. The Southeastern Conference isn’t dead as some would have you think.
The SEC had a big weekend, especially after last season’s abysmal bowl performance from the conference.
Opening up 12-1 with the only loss coming from Vanderbilt* the conference had a great opening weekend. I know, I know, they didn’t play anyone. With the exception of Alabama and Texas A&M, the rest of the conference had a relatively easy slate of games.
But the conference is already 2-0 vs. top-25 teams and they took some shots at the Big 10 and PAC-12 with ‘Bama defeating #20 Wisconsin and A&M beating #15 Arizona State.
The rest of the conference cleaned up the games that they were expected to. Auburn swiped a big win against Louisville and the slate of pancake games came and went without a hitch including a 76-3 blowout of Tennessee-Martin courtesy of Ole Miss.
It’s not all doom and gloom for the SEC, and they performed how we expected them to, not true for every conference.
The B1G watched Penn State lose to Temple, Michigan lose to Utah, and Nebraska lose to BYU, all games that could’ve and should’ve won. Northwestern and Minnesota were able to show that the bottom end of the B1G is improving, however.
The PAC-12 had Stanford, Washington, and Arizona State all suffer losses.
Don’t put a ton of stock into week one results, but it does show that the SEC is still atop the college football world.
2. Trevone Boykin is an X-Factor
Coming into a season as the consensus Heisman favorite is great, but it puts a mountain of expectations on the player’s back. That’s true for TCU signal caller Trevone Boykin.
He was fantastic last season, and that pushed him to the top of the Heisman pyramid. How did he respond week one against a sneaky tough Minnesota team?
Brilliantly.
He didn’t have the flashy numbers we’ve come to expect of Boykin, but he got the job done. And the numbers will come, he just cannot lose.
In a hostile road environment, losing was a strong possibility. He finished 26-42 for 246 yards and a touchdown with 92 rushing yards and a score on the ground to go with it.
These early weeks are about getting in a groove and not slipping up. That’s exactly what Boykin did. He’s still at the top of my Heisman list.
He will find a way to win and at the end of 2015, he’s the biggest reason TCU will win the Big 12. He just has a nose for what it takes to win.
3. The Heisman Watch List has changed very little
My list has Boykin at the top followed by Nick Chubb of the University of Georgia, Ezekiel Elliott of Ohio State University, Derrick Henry of the University of Alabama, and DeShaun Watson of Clemson University.
Chubb is behind Boykin by a sizable amount just because he is a running back, but he’s still number two. He’s got the nation’s longest streak of 100+-yard games (9) which began with his first start in week six of last year. He had 120 yards on 16 carries punching in two touchdowns against the University of Louisiana-Monroe last weekend.
Elliott is the real star in Columbus; I know I’m going to get hate mail with that statement. But he is a gem. He and Chubb are in a dead heat for the number two spot. At the end of the day, the killer for Zeke is the fact that he is surrounded by three Heisman candidates on offense, as well as Joey Bosa on defense. He gets overshadowed.
Another factor in Elliott’s Heisman campaign is his workload. At times Urban Meyer doesn’t give him the ball as much as you’d like, that was the case in the Virginia Tech game when Zeke had four touches for over 90 yards and a touchdown in the first half. Give him the ball! He finished the game with 11 rushes for 122 yards and the lone touchdown.
Henry was the best running back on the Crimson Tide last season, but T.J. Yeldon got the majority of the carries. He finally gets the feature back role he deserves and is going to show the world how good he is. Last Saturday, against Wisconsin, Henry rushed for 147 yards and three touchdowns on only 13 attempts. He’s the real deal.
Watson is a beast for the Tigers. However, he is relatively unknown. He has been overshadowed by the giants from OSU, Alabama, and just about every other top 25 team. Clemson has a stigma that comes with its name; they find a way to screw up. They’ve even received their verb!
If Watson can avoid the inevitable ‘Clemson’ moment, he’ll be in the conversation late in the season.
He went 18-22 for 194 yards and pair of touchdowns against Wofford in week one.
Heisman Rankings:
1. Trevone Boykin
2. Nick Chubb
3. Ezekiel Elliot
4. Derrick Henry
5. DeShaun Watson
Trends For The Week:
Trending Up: SEC, UCLA, Texas A&M
Trending Down: Arizona State, Wisconsin, Michigan State
UCLA’s Josh Rosen looks like the real deal, and in a little pinch of overreaction, UCLA could be very good.
Texas A&M looked really impressive in a win against AZ State.
Michigan State let a MAC-team, Western Michigan, hang around a little too long. Maybe it’s a little bit of looking ahead to Oregon this week, but that cannot happen if they want to win the B1G and defeat Ohio State.
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