College Football Focus Studs And Duds Week 1

 Each Sunday, College Football Focus will take a look at the good and bad of the college football weekend, listing three studs and three duds.

 With limited menu options from the opening weekend, we had to get a little creative.

There was a lot of celebrating by Stanford, which blasted Rice 62-7 in Australia (News & Observer)

Studs
Stanford's offense -- The Cardinal scored 62 points against Rice, the most in a season opener since 1968 (68-20 over San Jose State), and piled up 656 yards of offense. That's a stark contrast to last season, when Stanford was held to six points in an upset loss to Northwestern. Stanford had balance (37 passes, 36 rushes) and explosiveness, averaging nine yards per play, and running back Bryce Love was a revelation, finishing with 180 yards and a touchdown on just 13 carries. His play was almost enough to make fans forget about the departed Christian McCaffrey.

Colorado State -- The Rams opened a brand-new, 41,000-seat on-campus stadium in style, putting up 58 points on Oregon State and showing that they will definitely be a factor in the Mountain West race. QB Nick Stevens was stellar, tossing for 334 yards and three touchdowns, but it was an 44-yard interception return by Tre Thomas that put CSU up 34-20 and broke things open.

BYU DL Sione Takitaki -- The junior was all over the field early, creating havoc for a Portland State team that hung around longer than expected. The Cougars won in fairly uninspiring fashion, 20-6, but Takitaki was a one-man wrecking crew, finishing with seven stops, three tackles for loss and a pair of sacks.

Duds
Oregon State -- Gary Andersen was optimistic that his team could maybe make some waves in the Pac-12 this season, but after allowing 58 points to Colorado State and scoring just seven points after halftime, Anderson has to be worried about his season -- hyperbole, maybe, but the upcoming schedule offers little relief. Portland State -- no soft touch, as BYU found out -- comes in next weekend, and then it's Minnesota after that. Then the real fun begins -- at Wazzu, hosting Washington, at USC and hosting Colorado and Stanford. It's easy to see why the Beavers were pointing to the CSU game as important, because it's not impossible that they begin the year 1-7. We'll know more about them after the next couple of games, and maybe CSU was just better. But few -- least of all Anderson -- thought the Rams were 31 points better.


San Jose State -- The Spartans grabbed a 16-0 first quarter lead over a somnambulistic South Florida team before having their doors blown off in a 42-22 rout. What's worse is that San Jose State never really threatened after that first quarter, getting an oh-by-the-way touchdown midway through the fourth quarter. The defense allowed 315 rushing yards, and South Florida ran a school-record 101 plays. South Florida converted two of its three interceptions into scoring drives.

Rice quarterbacks -- The Owls knew they were in for a rough one going against a very good Stanford squad, but it still had to be disappointed with the play of quarterbacks Sam Glaesmann and Jackson Tyner. The pair combined to go just 10-of-24 for 95 yards and two interceptions, were sacked twice and hurried or hit numerous other times. Glaesmann had a QBR of 4.3 while Tyner's was 1.3 -- numbers that aren't going to win a lot of contests.

Saturday Morning Take Five

College Football Week 1 Picks

 Hello, friends. It's Saturday morning, which means kickoff for college football is just hours (or minutes, depending on when you are reading this) away.

 Our Saturday routine will be to make picks of the top five games of the weekend -- hence, the nifty Take Five name -- via video, with the games noted below. We will also predict remaining top 25 games, as well as big matchups outside of the top 25. We will be making the selections against the pointspread, though we will say this is for informational purposes only, as we know that betting on games is a bad, bad thing.

 There are only four games this weekend that match FBS teams, so we will skip the Brigham Young-Portland State contest.

 We will present some pointspread figures here, but the picks will be made in the video above.

 Oregon State at Colorado State (-4) --Oregon State is 26-17 as an away dog L/10 years, but just 5-9 L/3. Oregon State has covered three of last four road openers as a dog. CSU is 9-4 ATS at home the last three seasons, including 4-0-1 in the last five (including a 51 point spread vs. Savannah State, CSU won 65-13). The Rams are also a nifty 5-2 as home faves under third-year coach Mike Bobo.

Hawai'i at UMass (-2) -- UH is 21-23 as an away dog L/10 years, but 3-2 in road openers the last five seasons. UMass has been a home favorite just nine times since the move to FBS, going 5-4 ATS, and was not a favorite in a single game in 2016. The Minutemen are 12-16 ATS in non-conference games, and lost by six on the road against Hawai'i last year as a seven-point dog. UMass is 19-17 ATS three years into Mark Whipple's second stint as head coach.

South Florida at San Jose State (+22) -- USF is just 10-17 as a road favorite the last 10 seasons, but 5-3 in that role the last three years. The Bulls have been favored by 20+ points in their last five season openers, going 2-3, and losing outright on the road against McNeese State in 2013. The Spartans are 1-3 ATS their last four vs. AAC teams, but 24-20 in non-league contests ATS the last 10 years. SJSU is 2-3 L3Y as double digit home dogs.

Stanford vs. Rice (+30.5) -- Stanford is 6-1-2 ATS in neutral site games, including 3-0-1 the L3Y. The Cardinal are just 2-2 as a favorite of 30 points or more the last five seasons, including failing to cover vs. Rice at home last year. Rice is 4-3 in neutral site contests, but has played just one in the last three seasons. The Owls are 7-3-3 the L3Y vs. non-conference teams, and 3-2 in games where they were underdogs of at least 30 points in that span.

College Football 2017 -- Week 1 By The Numbers

 Let Sports Illustrated and Fox Sports and whoever else tell you that Sept. 2 is week one of college football.

 We know the REAL truth -- this weekend, even with a limited slate of games -- is the actual kickoff of the 2017 college football season. And a glorious thing it is.

 Every Friday during the season, we will delve into the best matchups and provide some entertaining, possibly relevant, numbers and facts. Things we find interesting about the matchup, which may or may not have any bearing on the outcome. All games are Aug. 26th.

 Oregon State at Colorado State, 2:30 pm
 Oregon State is just 21-36 on the road the last 10 seasons, but has gone 20-15 in non-conference games; Beavers coach Gary Andersen is 1-1 vs. CSU from his time as head coach of Utah State. OSU is just the fourth Power 5 school to visit Fort Collins since 2004; Colorado State is 20-3 in home openers, and is working on a streak of four straight; CSU is 13-4 at home the last three seasons, but just 8-6 against non-league competition; The Rams offense has allowed just 30 sacks total over the last two seasons.

 Portland State at Brigham Young, 3 pm
 Portland State lost its FBS games last year, to San Jose State and Washington, by an average of 35 ppg; Neil Lomax is probably the most famous player from PSU, and notable head coaches include Mouse Davis, Pokey Allen and Jerry Glanville; Brigham Young is 9-0 vs. FCS programs since 2005, winning by an average of 42 ppg; The Cougars are 12-4 in home openers since 2000, with just one game coming against an FCS team

 Hawai'i at UMass, 6 pm
Hawai'i is coming off a seven-win season, which included a bowl game win over Middle Tennessee; the Rainbow Warriors are just 4-18 in their last 22 road openers, and have dropped six straight by an average of 23 ppg; Hawai'i's 58.7 completion percentage was its highest since 2011 (60.0); UMass has not had a winning season since transitioning to FBS in 2011, with its best win total -- three games -- coming in 2014 and 2015. UMass was -10 in turnovers last season; Dick MacPherson is among the men who have prowled the sidelines in Amherst, winning 45 games in seven seasons.

 South Florida at San Jose State, 7:30 pm
 USF is 8-12 in road openers, and its victory over Syracuse last year snapped a three-game skein; Charlie Strong is just the fourth head coach in school history, following Jim Leavitt, Skip Holtz and Willie Taggart. Only Holtz had a winning record in year one (8-5); The Bulls are +19 in turnovers the past two seasons; USF's 43.8 ppg last year was a school record; San Jose State is 13-2 in its last 15 home openers, but is 6-12 the last four years in non-league action; SJSU allowed 40 or more points six times last season and gave up an average of 5.5 ypc on the ground.

 Stanford vs. Rice, 10 pm (Sydney, Australia) 
The Cardinal have won just twice in six meetings with the Owls, including 23-13 in the last meeting (1963); Stanford is 7-3 in its last 10 road openers, but its last two losses came as a ranked team; Stanford's 26.3 ppg last year were the lowest of the David Shaw era (six seasons), and the 34 sacks allowed was the highest total in that span; Rice has one of the lowest enrollments in all of FBS (6,628); The Owls are 0-26 since 1998 vs. ranked teams, their last win coming in 1997 over No. 21 BYU; Rice is -19 in turnovers the past two seasons; Rice allowed fewer than 21 points just once all of last season.

CFF 2017 Rankings -- 55-51

  

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       2017 TOP 60 RANKINGS

 It isn’t always easy, determining (read that as guessing) who will have the best teams in college football. Last year we had two of the four playoff teams, but all four of the CFP teams were in our top six, including Washington at 4 – the only publication that had the Huskies making the playoffs. A number of factors go into these rankings – talent, experience, strength of schedule. It’s up to us to figure out which are the most important, and rank  the teams accordingly. One note – this is how we see the teams finishing up the end of the season, not who has the strongest bunch heading into the year. If we did it that way, Alabama or Ohio State would be 1-2 every single season.

 We will unveil five teams per day, until we reach the top 10, at which point we will release 10-5 on one day and the College Football Playoff participants the final day. Today we bring you teams 55-51.

51. Minnesota (9-4) -- A whole lot of coaching transition -- most notably head coach P.J. Fleck, who comes over from Western Michigan -- means the Gophers have turned the page on the Tracy Claeys era (who knew there was such a thing?) -- even though it was a pretty successful one. Fleck took Western Michigan to the Cotton Bowl last year and was respectable against Wisconsin, so now we will see if his enthusiasm plays as well in the Twin Cities. A solid ground game, led by Rodney Smith, and a grudging defense (22.1 ppg) will be the Gophers calling cards, but you Fleck will want to put his offensive stamp on things. That means maybe a little more passing than expected, even with a new quarterback. Michigan and Northwestern on the road will be challenging, but the Gophers could once again flirt with nine victories. If they do that, then everyone will know that the boat is rowing in the right direction. FAST FACT -- The Gophers recovered a nation's-best 16 fumbles in 2016.

Zach Abey (Getty Images)

52. Navy (9-5) -- Houston and South Florida may have generated more headlines the past two seasons, but the Middies are the ones with back-to-back division titles. It could be a bit more difficult to make it three straight with a schedule that includes jaunts to Memphis, Temple and Houston, but given the adversity the Middies faced last season -- 102 missed games by starters/regulars -- nothing is impossible. There is experience on offense, though QB Zach Abey, who started the final two games last year, is young. How he does as a full-time starter bears watching. LB D.J. Palmore led the team in sacks (6) and tackles for loss (11.5), and is the emotional leader for a unit that returns six starters. FAST FACT -- Navy's victory over Houston last season was its first over a top 10 opponent since 1984.

53. Miami (Ohio) (6-7) -- Momentum may or may not mean anything, but if it does then watch out for the RedHawks. Miami won its final six contests before dropping a one-point bowl decision, and is flush with optimism for a team that is the most experienced in the MAC, and third nationally. Dual threat QB Gus Ragland was a big part of the late season success, and he has the controls to himself now. The corner tandem of Heath Harding (11 PBU, 4 INT) and Deondre Daniels (6 PBU) is one of the best around. A late September road trip to Notre Dame should show the nation what kind of mettle Miami, a real contender for the league crown, has. FAST FACT -- The RedHawks became the first team in NCAA history to open 0-6 and finish 6-0.

54. Michigan State (3-9) -- Crash and burn is a term thrown around all the time, but it is a perfect description of what happened to the Spartans last season. After three straight seasons of double-digit wins, MSU couldn't get out of its own way in 2016. Offseason turmoil (players kicked off the team in the wake of a sexual assault investigation) hasn't allowed for a smooth summer, and questions about the overall talent still loom. RB L.J. Scott is one of the few keepers, however, gaining 994 yards and scoring six times. He should have a more pronounced role as the offense breaks in a new quarterback. Normally strong, the defense allowed 27.8 ppg last year and generated almost no pressure on opposing quarterbacks -- and lost Malik McDowell to the NFL Draft. This ranking is pretty much based on the belief that Mark Dantonio will get things going again, but there is not a lot of faith in the talent currently on the roster. MSU will need to play over its head to really challenge for the division, and will likely be satisfied with a return to the postseason and respectability. Trips to Michigan and Ohio State won't make that very easy. FAST FACT -- The Spartans had just 11 sacks in 2016, ranking 124th of 127 teams nationally.

Nick Stevens (The Coloradoan)

55. Colorado State (7-6) -- The Rams weren't far from a really solid season last year, losing by five at Boise State and by a field goal at Air Force. Being the most experienced squad in the Mountain West could reverse their fortunes, as could an offense that averaged 35.3 ppg a year ago and returns QB Nick Stevens, the conference leader in passing efficiency (171.3). CSU will have a brand-spanking new stadium to brag about, and opens against Oregon State, which will not be a pushover. It also faces Colorado in Denver and travels to Alabama, but gets Boise State at home in the season's penultimate weekend. FAST FACT -- The Rams 37-0 victory over Fresno State was their first shutout since 1997.

 We will be back tomorrow with teams 50-46.

 Here are teams ranked 60-56