College football Week 1 winners and losers: LSU’s win at Clemson saves SEC from really rough start to 2025

Let’s get this out of the way immediately: Week 1 in college football can be misleading.

Recent history is littered with season openers that didn’t affect the next dozen weeks like we thought they would. Drawing season-long conclusions based on one weekend’s worth of games is a perilous endeavor. Do it at your own risk.

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But make no mistake. Saturday wasn’t a great day for the SEC. And could have been a lot worse if No. 9 LSU hadn’t snapped a five-game Week 1 losing streak against No. 4 Clemson.

Texas entered 2025 as the preseason No. 1 team in the AP Top 25 for the first time and won’t spend a second set of rankings at that spot after losing 14-7 at No. 3 Ohio State. The Longhorns were slight underdogs to the defending national champions before kickoff.

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The defeat was’t unexpected. But the way it happened is at least slightly concerning. Preseason Heisman favorite Arch Manning looked like a QB making his third career start and first on the road. He had numerous misfires and held onto the ball too long for stretches. Though he flashed a couple big-time throws, he looked far from a ready-made pro prospect.

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That, too, was understandable. Few quarterbacks with limited experience would walk into Ohio Stadium and put on a star performance.

More worryingly, Manning didn’t get much help. Texas’ remade offensive line struggled to get push against an Ohio State defense that was replacing eight starters itself. The Longhorns barely converted a QB sneak in the first quarter and got stuffed on another near the goal line in the second half. With less than a yard to go, a touchdown looked inevitable. Instead, Manning barely got back to the line of scrimmage.

No. 8 Alabama entered its game against Florida State as a 14-point favorite and promptly looked like a 14-point underdog in a 31-17 defeat to a Seminoles team that was 2-10 a year ago. Alabama missed the College Football Playoff in 2024 thanks to road losses to Vanderbilt, Tennessee and Oklahoma, and those road struggles carried over into 2025. The Tide were disheveled, disorganized and bossed around up front by Florida State.

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Alabama rushed 29 times for just 74 yards and the Seminoles sacked first-year starter Ty Simpson three times. The Crimson Tide had early success running right at Florida State but couldn’t replicate it the rest of the afternoon.

The defense was bamboozled by Gus Malzahn’s misdirection as the former Auburn coach is now solely focusing on offensive play-calling with FSU. Malzahn left his job at UCF after the 2024 season to take the offensive coordinator job at Florida State and he looked like a man who knew exactly how to attack Alabama’s defense. Florida State ran 49 times for 230 yards and four touchdowns and had passing plays of 64 and 40 yards.

The defeat was Alabama’s first Week 1 loss since 2001. The only team with more consecutive Week 1 wins entering the weekend? Ohio State.

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The Buckeyes were one of four Big Ten teams who made the College Football Playoff in 2024 and blitzed their way through the postseason, taking down two SEC teams on the way to the title. The SEC had three teams in the playoff, with Alabama, South Carolina and Ole Miss on the outside after they each went 9-3.

With seven teams winning at least nine games in the regular season, the SEC got to boast that it was the deeper conference.

However, that’s an argument that only works once. And it’s undeniable that the SEC’s bid for four or more playoff teams took a significant hit in Week 1 even with LSU’s victory.

Both Alabama and Texas can still make the playoff. Unlike a team like Boise State, there are plenty of quality opponents left on each team’s schedule for statement wins. And with the playoff committee saying it will weight games against stronger opponents more heavily, the SEC could be the prime beneficiary of that criteria change.

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But you can only gain so much from a quality loss — 0-1 is still 0-1. Especially when three losses will likely put you outside of the postseason.

Here are the rest of this week’s winners and losers:

Winners

The American: The American (formerly the AAC) is in a great spot to have a team in the College Football Playoff at the end of the season after South Florida beat Boise State, 34-7. The Bulls could be a surprise contender in the conference and an upset over Florida or Miami in the next two weeks would be massive for their playoff case.

Tulane beat Northwestern, 23-3, as the Green Wave got an immediate boost from new QB Jake Retzlaff. And Memphis and Navy both got easy wins over FCS opponents.

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The American’s depth hurt it in the playoff race a year ago. It might have had too many good teams as Army’s strength of schedule ultimately cost the Black Knights after they went 8-0 in conference play. This season, a 10-2 conference champion could find itself among the 12 playoff teams.

Auburn: The Tigers got a massive Week 1 win in Waco with a 38-24 victory over Baylor on Friday night. Former Oklahoma QB Jackson Arnold threw for just 108 yards but ran for 137 yards and two touchdowns as the Tigers rushed 51 times overall for 308 yards and four scores.

Auburn entered the 2025 season as one of the most volatile teams in the SEC. With games against Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Georgia, Missouri and Alabama, the Tigers have one of the toughest schedules in the conference. Not only is Friday night’s win a confidence boost, it’s a huge step toward a winning season in what could be a pivotal third season for coach Hugh Freeze.

Iowa State K Kyle Konrardy: The Cyclones kicker easily set a school record with a 63-yard field goal at the end of the first half of their blowout win over South Dakota.

The previous Iowa State record was held by Ty Stewart and Alex Giffords at 58 yards and Konrardy’s kick was just two yards short of the Big 12 record held by former Kansas State kicker Martin Gramatica.

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Tennessee QB Joey Aguilar: The former App State and UCLA QB had a big game in his debut with the Vols. Aguilar was 16-of-28 for 247 yards and three TDs in Tennessee’s 45-26 win over Syracuse on Saturday. Aguilar threw TD passes to three different receivers as UT was up 31-14 at halftime.

Aguilar arrived in Knoxville after former Tennessee QB Nico Iamaleava transferred to UCLA. Aguilar had transferred to UCLA from App State after the 2024 season, but found himself squeezed out of a chance at the starting job with the Bruins when Iamaleava arrived during the spring.

Wisconsin: The Badgers had an ugly win over Miami (Ohio) on Thursday night after QB Billy Edwards went down with a non-contact knee injury. However, multiple reports indicate that Edwards avoided a significant injury despite not returning to the game and should not miss significant time.

That’s massive news for a Wisconsin team that has dealt with myriad QB injuries during Luke Fickell’s tenure. The Badgers have one of the toughest schedules in the country and, as Thursday night showed, it could be a very long season without Edwards on the field.

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Losers

Boise State: The Broncos’ chances of a second straight College Football Playoff berth could be over after a dismal showing at USF. Boise State fumbled three times and had four failed fourth-down attempts as USF scored 27 unanswered points.

Even if Boise State loses to Notre Dame and goes undefeated in its other 10 games, a 10-2 record may not be enough to get back to the playoff. How could the committee take the Broncos over an AAC team when a team from the AAC laid such a drubbing on them in Week 1?

Army: We can also probably rule the defending regular season American Conference champions out of the playoff race. The Black Knights lost 30-27 at home to FCS-level Tarleton State in double overtime on Friday night. Army turned the ball over three times and missed a field goal to start the second overtime.

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Colorado: The Buffaloes’ 27-20 loss to Georgia Tech on Friday night wasn’t a disaster. But Colorado has to be kicking itself for missed opportunities early in the game. Georgia Tech turned the ball over on each of its first three drives of the game, but Colorado mustered just one TD off those turnovers.

Once Georgia Tech kicked a field goal on its fourth drive, it was inevitable that Colorado was going to regret not taking more advantage of the Yellow Jackets’ mistakes.

QB Kaidon Salter had an uneven performance in his Colorado debut and the Buffaloes were gashed on the ground. Georgia Tech rushed 47 times for 320 yards as QB Haynes King had 19 carries for 156 yards and three scores, including the game-winning 45-yard run with 1:07 to go.

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San Jose State: The Spartans had two late chances to beat Central Michigan at home on Friday night.

After CMU kicked a field goal for a 16-14 lead with 4:13 to go, SJSU promptly went 62 yards in 10 plays before USC transfer Denis Lynch missed a potential go-ahead 33-yard field goal with 1:13 to go.

SJSU was able to quickly force a three-and-out and got the ball back at their own 29-yard line with 47 seconds to go. The Spartans made it all the way to the CMU 38 yard-line, but Lynch missed a would-be game-winning 56-yard kick as time expired.

Middle Tennessee: The Blue Raiders lost 34-14 to Austin Peay on Saturday night after the Governors built a 21-0 lead in the first half.

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The win is FCS-level Austin Peay’s first win over an FBS school since 1987. Middle Tennessee had just 153 total yards and was 0-of-12 on third downs. It’s a brutal start to the season for MTSU coach Derek Mason as he enters his second season with the program. The Blue Raiders were 3-9 a season ago and are likely facing an 0-2 start with a trip to Wisconsin looming in Week 2.