Welcome back to CBS Sports' College Football Rewind. This is your look back at what happened each week and what it means moving forward. Every Saturday night, I will analyze the week's games and the always colorful world of college football. Tonight is an abbreviated Rewind edition for our Thursday kickoff games.
The attention surrounding Jim Harbaugh consumed college football in the offseason. The prevailing opinion is it's a matter of when, not if, Harbaugh makes Michigan a national championship contender again.It won't be this year. We all knew that. What we didn't know was what exactly Harbaugh's first team would look like. The answer after one game: It's an evolving team with some grit, a reliable tight end (Jake Butt) and wide receiver (Amara Darboh), an offensive line that still can't get push to run the ball, and ongoing major questions at quarterback.
Before we go any further on Michigan, this needs to be said: Utah looks like a nice team, or at least as much as we can judge in Week 1. It's a flawed and imperfect team, but that's OK. The Utes do imperfect well, although Gionni Paul's ill-advised late hit on Michigan quarterback Jake Rudock nearly got the Wolverines back into the game. Utah probably won't win the Pac-12 South but it could make some noise.
Raise your hand if you saw Utah quarterback Travis Wilson emerging as the offensive star of the game. Wilson threw for 208 yards and had 47 yards rushing and a touchdown. That offset Michigan stifling star running back Devontae Booker, who averaged less than 2.9 yards a carry.
Utah is a physical, grind-it-out, tough-minded team. In other words, it's what Harbaugh teams traditionally are and what he must hope Michigan will eventually look like. It's not there yet, but there were so many opportunities for the Wolverines to truly have a shot at winning.
Rudock, a graduate transfer from Iowa, missed three open receivers for touchdowns. Two were badly overthrown. Just as bad, Rudock tossed three interceptions, including one returned for a touchdown.
The whole point of starting Rudock was presumably to avoid turnovers. Instead, he had tunnel vision and looked indecisive at times. Rudock threw five interceptions in 345 pass attempts at Iowa in 2014. He tossed three interceptions in his first 31 throws for Michigan on Thursday. Harbaugh took the positive approach by putting a comforting arm around Rudock after the last interception. How patient will Harbaugh be moving forward? The psyche of a team can quickly deteriorate, but Harbaugh's post-game comments suggested he's sticking with Rudock.
Rudock actually had good pass protection for the most part. But Michigan averaged only 2.6 yards a carry after gaining 3.0 yards per rush in 2014. Harbaugh's best teams at Stanford averaged close to 7.0 yards a carry. Running the ball still remains the biggest issue for Michigan.
Harbaugh may very well win some games in 2015 that he shouldn't. He's that good of a coach. But Thursday wasn't one of those nights and Michigan fans will have to be patient with their savior. Utah was the faster, more athletic and tougher team.
1. Arizona could be in trouble with no Scooby Wright III. The Wildcats' star linebacker left with a knee injury in the first half and his absence was glaring. There's a reason Wright was the Pac-12 defensive player of the year and an All-American. At halftime, the Wildcats only led UTSA 21-20 and the Roadrunners had thrown for 205 yards and run for 123. Stay tuned on Wright's injury. Anu Solomon threw four touchdown passes as Arizona won 42-32. Wildcats coach Rich Rodriguez told the Pac-12 Network he doesn't know how long Wright will be out. This could be a damaging blow for the defending Pac-12 South champions.
2. TCU wins a sluggish opener. As first games go, it was a listless one for No. 2 TCU, which never seemed in danger of losing but still only beat Minnesota 23-17. The 23 points were the fewest by the prolific Horned Frogs since they were held to 21 by Iowa State on Nov. 9, 2013. Minnesota held TCU to a season-low 30 points in 2014 and did a nice job stifling the Horned Frogs again. The good news for TCU: This might be the best defense it faces for a couple of months. Trevone Boykin completed 26 of 42 passes for 246 yards and ran for 92 yards and one score. TCU's six-point win marked the second straight year a preseason top-2 team won its opener by less than a touchdown. No. 2 Florida State opened 2014 with a six-point win over Oklahoma State and went undefeated in the regular season. Prior to last season, top-2 teams had won blowouts in openers for seven straight years, largely against inferior opponents. Let's avoid freaking out about TCU after a Week 1 road victory over a quality team in which the Horned Frogs controlled the game. They just didn't score a bunch of points like we're used to seeing. The points should come.
3. North Carolina excels in red-zone interception efficiency. Give credit to South Carolina's defense, which played far better in the second half while beating North Carolina 17-13. But I have no idea what to make of the Gamecocks because they won a game they really should have lost. North Carolina quarterback Marquise Williams is a senior who knows better than to make the bad passes he had that led to three interceptions inside the Gamecocks' 25-yard line, including two in the end zone. Williams had no interceptions inside the 25-yard line on 87 career passes entering Thursday, according to ESPN Stats.
There will be a lot of second-guessing of Tar Heels coach Larry Fedora for the red-zone mistakes, and deservedly so. What happened to running back Elijah Hood, who ran for 138 yards but only had 12 carries? Fedora told reporters Hood was kept out of the red zone because the Tar Heels fell behind the chains but “he's proven he's our starter.” Fedora also questionably opted to go for it on fourth-and-goal from the 8-yard line with 3:40 left instead of kicking a field goal to pull within 1. That's not showing much confidence in new defensive coordinator Gene Chizik, whose defense played well.
4. Vanderbilt still has no offense. After a nightmarish first season, Derek Mason took over as the Commodores' defensive coordinator. The early result Thursday was a strong defensive effort in a 14-12 loss to Western Kentucky. Brandon Doughty, Western Kentucky's prolific quarterback, was held 162 yards below his 2014 average and the Hilltoppers were shut out in the first half. Western Kentucky had its fewest total yards since facing Alabama in 2012. But if you struggle to score, you're prone to lose. Vanderbilt made several mistakes in the red zone. It's only Week 1, but once again you've got to wonder where the wins are going to come from for Vandy.
Score of the Day
Florida International 15, UCF 14. So much for that UCF to Big 12 talk. At least interim AD George O'Leary won't put coach George O'Leary on the hot seat. There's no way to sugarcoat that losing to FIU was a bad loss for UCF and for the American Athletic Conference, which is trying to gain credibility, and a nice win for Conference USA. UCF is the two-time defending AAC champion. FIU went 4-8 in 2014, including a season-opening loss to Bethune-Cookman. But the Panthers' defense smothered UCF so much that O'Leary played for a 42-yard field goal try by freshman Matthew Wright, who had never tried a field goal in college. After UCF committed a false-start penalty, Wright's 47-yard kick was blocked by Darrian Dyson. FIU coach Ron Turner enjoyed a Gatorade shower and UCF suffered a loss that could hurt the AAC for a College Football Playoff access bowl come December.
Stat of the Night
Georgia Tech scored 34 points in the first quarter, their most in an opening quarter since 1950, while routing Alcorn State 69-6. The Yellow Jackets ran for 476 yards on 52 carries while throwing only five passes. Thirteen different players had a rush attempt for Georgia Tech, whose schedule doesn't get tougher until a Sept. 19 trip to Notre Dame.
Week 1 Questions: Saturday
1. Who is Ohio State's quarterback? My feeling for a while has been J.T. Barrett will get the nod over Cardale Jones. The bigger issue for Ohio State is the loss of four suspended players, including defensive end Joey Bosa, and how quickly former quarterback Braxton Miller adapts to H-Back. The Hokies won in Columbus last year and won't be rattled playing No. 1. Scoring points, though, is a much different issue for Virginia Tech.
2. Who is (are) Alabama's quarterback(s)? Is it Jacob Coker? Is it Alec Morris? Is it Cooper Bateman? Nick Saban has been here before. In 2011, he determined neither A.J. McCarron nor Phillip Sims had clearly separated as No. 1 so they both played in Week 1 against Kent State. The difference: Most people correctly assumed McCarron would run away with the job and he did. This year there's no presumed favorite and there's no Kent State warm-up act. It's Wisconsin. But can the Badgers score enough against Alabama's highly touted front seven?
3. Are Texas A&M and/or Arizona State possible playoff contenders? Texas A&M vs. Arizona State is the most intriguing Week 1 game. This has dramatic finish written all over it. It's the only SEC vs. Pac-12 game scheduled for 2015 after they were the two deepest conferences in 2014. Is Texas A&M's defense improved enough under John Chavis to make noise in the SEC West? Has Arizona State turned a corner with two straight 10-win seasons to be a real playoff threat? This feels like one of those rare games that could be a data point considered all season by the playoff committee.
4. Is the SEC West back or did it lose its mojo? When we last saw the SEC West, it went 28-0 in 2014 nonconference regular-season games before losing five of seven bowl games. The SEC West immediately faces Week 1 challenges with Alabama-Wisconsin, Texas A&M-Arizona State and Auburn-Louisville. If the SEC West makes a statement out of conference during the regular season, this is the only week to do so based on its teams' schedules.
5. What time do I have to wake up on Saturday? Saturday? Don't forget Friday! It's not a great schedule, but there is Baylor-SMU and Washington-Boise State on Friday night. As for Saturday, rise and shine by noon ET. There's no Ireland game this year.
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