College Football Week 1 Recap: 10 Things

Coming up roses, again.

​College football is back, and probably for the first time I can remember, the feeling that the return of football brought with it more than anything else was relief.

Finally, we can stop obsessing over agents, runners, tattoos, memorabilia and Nevin Shapiro. The games are here and even though most of the games Saturday were complete and utter boredom, it's still nice to have them back. It wasn't sirloin steak, it was barely an appetizer, it was more like the free chips at El Tiempo, but it was still tasty.

I'm thinking as a weekly deal, I'll recap the weekend that was in college football by unveiling my Top 10, with the top five being my actual top five teams and the second five being people or entities that figured prominently into the weekend's activities.

One disclaimer on how I construct my rankings of teams -- I am a "body of work" enthusiast. You are who you've beaten, not who I think you could beat.

With that said, there were really only four teams who accomplished anything that was even remotely impressive and/or clarifying this weekend.

Red-zone turnovers will do this to a coach.

​Those teams comprise my top four. There's almost no reason to rank everyone else at this point. (Truth be told, there's actually no reason to rank any teams until mid-October, but I'll do it anyway for the sake of content.)

Here you go:

1. Boise State
The most thorough ass-kicking of the weekend came from the Broncos right in Georgia's backyard. The 35-21 final score doesn't begin to do justice to how futile Georgia's efforts were. Take out the one 80-yard touchdown run in the first quarter and the Bulldogs rushed the ball 30 times for 57 yards. Mark Richt's seat is a week away from being highly flammable.

2. LSU
I wavered back and forth on whom to make number one (not that it matters after one week, but I'm nothing if not thorough), in the end the deciding factor was Boise State doing it in a de facto road environment and LSU being a little less impressive offensively. But Jarrett Lee's numbers (10 of 22 for 98 yards) were a little deceptive in that he had several drops and managed the game just fine. I think LSU can Miles-ball their way to ten wins.

3. South Florida
I think if Notre Dame played USF ten times, the Irish would win eight. Unfortunately for Brian Kelly and his team, they only play once. In a game that feels like it just finished like ten minutes ago due to two weather-related stoppages, USF took advantage of five turnovers, numerous dropped passes and several foolish penalties to come away with a 23-20 win. (And the weird thing is I actually still think the Irish can win ten games if they play Tommy Rees at quarterback.)

4. Baylor
The Bears provided the one highlight-reel game (not involving a team from Utah) of the entire weekend as they came up big on the Friday-night stage with a heart pounding 50-48 win over TCU. Robert Griffin III was outstanding all game long and a late interception by a weary Baylor defense sealed the deal and set off the rowdiest set of Bible readings Waco has ever seen.

5. (tie) Oklahoma, Alabama, Florida State, Stanford, Texas A&M, Oklahoma State, Wisconsin
These teams comprise the rest of the public's top ten. Every single one smacked around either a non-AQ or FCS school by several touchdowns. All we know is these teams are good enough to beat bad teams, which within the context of the top ten means we know nothing.