Most overrated teams in college football after Week 1

When you are Alabama, with half a dozen national titles this century, a loaded roster and the No. 8 preseason ranking in the country, expectations are that you beat an ACC club recovering from a 2-10 record in 2024. But rather, Florida State jumped on the Crimson Tide early and bullied them all night long for a two-touchdown victory in Tallahassee, completing just NINE passes in the process.

Florida State could be all the way back and a road loss against what looks like a top-25 squad is not the fate-worse-than-death which Alabama fans may treat it as. But their real panic should be rooted in some observations shared by many college football fans and media Saturday evening — that the effort, sharpness and intensity of a typical Nick Saban squad is simply missing from this group, and at a larger scale, from this coach and staff.

Head Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer has a long season ripe with other marquee matchups he can use to right the ship and get back to the College Football Playoff, but the eye test was a total failure in Week 1.

Texas' Offense

Texas' loss at Ohio State twists perception like a kaleidoscope. On one hand, Arch Manning looked awful in his first real start as the Longhorn QB1 and a preseason No. 1 Texas team just got its teeth knocked in at the beginning of a season where fans expect national championship contention.

On another hand, you could say Texas' new starting quarterback got off to a rough start but showed flashes and real toughness on the last few drives as the Longhorns fell just short on the final possession of a 14-7 loss on the road vs. the reigning national champions.

A salesman would advise Steve Sarkisian to promote that second viewpoint a lot harder to his players in practice this week. After all the complaints and miscues from Saturday, Texas only lost by a touchdown against a top five team on the road who's coming off of a national title. It hardly impacts their CFP chances.

But there is a truth to address, and it's that Texas' offense wasn't the dominant unit folks had hoped. The defense was the truth, totally as advertised. But while a younger offensive line protected Manning well, the quarterback and his weapons just didn't have the juice to break through against an Ohio State team that was also dealing with their own offensive flaws on Saturday.

Clemson

LSU and Brian Kelly had — not even a monkey, a full gorilla — to get off their backs in a marquee season-opener. So, the Tigahs stormed into the other Death Valley, caused some property damage, and then handled the home team in a defensive 17-10 battle.

For LSU, it's a heck of a statement, but for Clemson, it's a machete through the main sail. LSU has one top-25 contest after another once SEC play starts, but Clemson simply doesn't have those chances just piling up. Now, if they don't win the ACC, we're looking at team with at least 2-3 losses and uncertainty when it comes to other quality wins.

At home, it's also surprising to see Cade Klubnik come up short vs. Garrett Nussmeier in a high-profile showdown between two muses for NFL scouts. Neither passer set a new standard Saturday night, but Nussmeier basically put up 24 points if you count the controversial Barion Brown TD incompletion and just had LSU ahead most of the game, while Klubnik wasn't poor necessarily, but his unit simply didn't play up to snuff.

Northwestern

Sorry to kick a program while it's already down wallowing around on the North Chicago pavement gasping for air, but Northwestern got battered and beaten on the field by an AAC club and then roasted over an open campfire by its coach after their Week 1 game on Saturday.

Hoping to start off on the right foot on the heels of a 4-8 finish in 2024, the Wildcats traveled down to New Orleans to face a playoff-hopeful Tulane team. NW packed and planned to wear white jerseys, but Tulane asked later in the week if they could change to a different color so the Green Wave could wear their whites in honor of the uniforms the program wore 20 years ago in 2005's first game after Hurricane Katrina.

Northwestern denied Tulane's request and the Green Wave responded by denying the Wildcats entry in to the end zone for the entire 60 minutes of game time on the way to their 23-3 beatdown. In his postgame press conference, Tulane coach John Summrall laid the smackdown to the losing side over their uniform hijinks, making it a brutal afternoon all the way around for this particular Big Ten school.

Sounds like another long fall is on the way in Evanston.