The College football season is upon us and “Week 0” was nothing short of the hype. The main stories focus on upsets around the world, FCS teams making noise, and a late flight ruining a chance of an upset.
Game of the Week: The 2024-2025 College football season opened up in Dublin, Ireland as the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets traveled halfway across the world to face the #10 ranked Florida State Seminoles. This game had huge implications for both of these teams. For the Yellow Jackets, this game was their coming out game. Going into this game Brent Key, Georgia Tech’s head coach, was 4-0 against Top 25 teams, however, this game against the Noles would be like no other they had to compete in. This offseason Georgia Tech hired Duke’s former defensive coordinator Tyler Santucci. Santucci back in 2022 when he was the co-defensive coordinator for the Texas A&M Aggies led the #1 passing defense in the country. Georgia Tech may have ended their season last year at 7-6 but this season they are hoping to change that. This year they are hoping that second-year quarterback, Haynes King, will take that step to the next level as last year he led the ACC in interceptions thrown. This off-season however had many downsides for Georgia Tech, they ended up losing 32 players to a College Football team’s biggest nightmare—the transfer portal. Even with Georgia Tech losing all these players, they still were hoping to make noise this season with their star players in Haynes King and Jamal Haynes. On the other hand, Florida State last season finished 13-0 and was snubbed from the College Football playoffs, however this year with the newly expanded 12-team playoff field the Seminoles’ chances of making the playoffs this year are very high. Florida State, however, did lose a lot of depth on this roster during the off-season. Star players for the Noles such as Keon Coleman, Jared Verse, Johnny Wilson, Braden Fiske, and Jordan Travis all went to the N.F.L. this past off-season. However, Florida State did attack the transfer portal this off-season as they acquired players such as former Oregon State quarterback, DJ Uiagalelei, and other key players such as Roydell Williams, Marvin Jones Jr, and Earl Little Jr. FSU’s head coach, Mike Norvell, is hoping that FSU can go back-to-back in the ACC and claim another ACC title.
This game was featured on ESPN as ESPN’s Game of The Week. Florida State came into this game as high favorites to win. On one side the Noles were coming in with a chip on their shoulder as last season many thought they were snubbed from the College Football Playoffs. FSU hoped to make noise early this season in an early win against the Yellow Jackets. Conversely, Georgia Tech came into this game hoping to potentially pull off an upset in Ireland and send Noles fans home in shock. To start the game, FSU marched down the field early as running back, Lawrance Toafili rushed for a 28-yard touchdown. However, shortly after that touchdown, the Yellowjackets responded with a score of their own from the backup quarterback, Zach Pyron who rushed powerfully into the endzone for a 1-yard touchdown. Florida State’s kicker, Ryan Fitzgerald then proceeded to nail a kick to increase the score to FSU-11 vs GT-8. Georgia Tech then proceeded to score another touchdown and FSU nailed another field goal to tie things up at 14 heading into the half. This game ended up being close down the stretch of the game however, Georgia Tech nailed a field goal with 0:00 seconds on the clock to win the game 24-21 and upset Florida State in Dublin, Ireland.
Other Games: “Week 0” only featured three other games besides Florida State vs Georgia Tech. New Mexico opened up the season at home vs FCS powerhouse, Montana State. Heading into the 4th quarter New Mexico was leading Montana State 31-14. However, the 4th quarter was nothing like the other 3. Montana State went on a 21-0 run to take the lead late in the game and ended up closing the game out with a win. SMU, the newest member of the ACC, started their season on the road against Nevada. SMU ended up being down heading into the 4th quarter trailing 24-13. SMU then proceeded to score 16 straight unanswered points and close out the game 29-24. SMU quarterback, Preston Stone, led the Mustangs with 254 passing yards and threw for one touchdown late in the game to secure the win for SMU. The final game of “week 0” featured Deleware St traveling across the country to face the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors. This game was not very close as Hawaii’s quarterback, Brayden Schager, led the Rainbow Warriors to a dominating 35-14 win over Deleware State.
Team of the Week: Georgia Tech
Georgia Tech was last week’s “Team of the Week” after traveling across the ocean and upsetting #10 Florida State in Dublin, Ireland.
