College football is back, and its return has never felt so amazing. From “Enter Sandman” being blasted in Lane Stadium in Blacksburg to the tomahawk chop echoing throughout Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee, college football fans gathered across America for a season kickoff like no other before.

Many notable top 25 teams had to fight tooth and nail to win their games against unranked non-power five programs. Oklahoma, for example, was the fourth-ranked team in the nation heading into their game against Tulane. The game had been moved to Norman due to Hurricane Ida. The defense that many analysts raved about all summer long did not play to the expectations set out for them by the national media. The Sooner defense gave up 35 points to a Tulane team that played with heart after many players’ families were affected by Ida. Iowa State, Ohio State and Oregon also narrowly slid past their opponents, all of which were also unranked. Multiple ranked power five teams lost their matchups to unranked opponents. LSU, Washington and North Carolina were all ranked and favorites to win their matchup, with all coming up short.

Upsets were a common theme around college football in week one, and many of the teams that were supposed to win big didn’t win at all.

What was also common across the sport in week one was the play by the perennial SEC powerhouses, Alabama and Georgia. Alabama coasted to a 44-13 win against an overmatched Miami team. Bryce Young, wearing number nine, looked every bit of the quarterback that he was hyped up to be. Statistically speaking, Young performed better than Jalen Hurts, Tua Tagovailoa and Mac Jones in their first starts as Alabama quarterback. In Charlotte, Georgia faced off against Clemson in a defensive struggle which resulted in a 10-3 victory for Georgia. The game lived up to the hype; however, it was not the back and forth shootout many thought it would be. The only touchdown of the game came when senior Georgia safety wearing number 29, Christopher Smith II, picked off Clemson quarterback DJ Uiagalelei and returned the interception for a touchdown. The Dawg’s defense gave up only two yards of rushing, 180 total yards, and sacked the Tiger’s quarterback a staggering seven times. The three points scored by Clemson are the fewest scored by the Tigers since 2007 before coach Dabo Swinney’s tenure began at Clemson.