Welcome to first Sunday where we can FINALLY talk about college football games. The season began with a back-and-forth matchup in the only game with 2 Core 4 (ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, SEC, Notre Dame) teams. Neither team could put the other away and it came down to the kickers. While FSU’s hit 2 50+ yard shots, the GT kicker made up for a just missed with a game winner as time expired. The Yellow Jackets take the opener 24-21 in Dublin, Ireland. What a start. I know the Seminoles were pre-season top 10 in the AP poll, but that was based on last year. The GCR doesn’t have pre-season or other biased ranking, so it was one team beating another when both were tied for 1st (with 261 other teams).
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The first US game featured McNeese coming back, but just falling short against Tarleton who jumped toa 26-7 half time lead. I honestly thought the game was done at that point after McNeese couldn’t seem to avoid turnovers, but they got it together in the locker room and scored 16 unanswered in the second half to lose 26-23.
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Montana St (FCS) came to New Mexico (Group of 5) and looked like an FCS team to start falling 17-0 early in the second. By half time it was 24-14 and within 2 minutes after the half, the Lobos extended the lead to 31-14 on the second defensive fumble return TD of the day. But then it was all Bobcats scoring the last 21 points to gain the first FCS win over an FBS team this season 35-31.
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SEMO took advantage of 4 N Alabama turnovers to cruise to a road victory 37-15 in the official FCS Kickoff Game.
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In the MEAC/SWAC Challenge Kickoff, played in Atlanta, Norfolk St scored the first 14 points including an 82-yard burst. The Rattlers scored the next 17 and State tied it up. Going into the 4th, FLAM was up 24-17. With about 6 1/2 minutes to go, State scored and went for 2 to take the lead. They came up short and couldn’t get back to the scoring table. Final Florida A&M 24-23.
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SMU in their first game as a member of the ACC and as Core 4 team traveled to Nevada. No team scored twice in a row through the first 3 quarters, but Nevada had more TDs so led 24-13 before SMU took off with 16 unanswered to win 29-24. Was nearly a very inauspicious start for the Mustangs, but they found a way.
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The final with a 11:59pm Eastern kickoff (no, I did not watch it), was FCS Delaware St vs G5 Hawaii. The Rainbow Warriors jumped to a quick 14-0 lead, but the Hornets fought back to tie it early in the 3rd. Hawaii scored the last 21 to win 35-14.
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That’s all of the action from yesterday and it was a lot of fun. No rankings this week with just 14 teams in the mix. Next week is a full schedule with games from Thursday through Monday. I’ll post the first ranking on Tuesday. Have a great week and thank you for reading, G.
