Texas and QB Garrett Gilbert passed their first test in winning their opening game, as there was a lot of pressure on the Longhorns, who are coming off an embarrassing 5-7 season.
The Washington Huskies and the Hawaii Warriors will meet in Seattle this Saturday in a matchup of teams trying to prove that they deserve a spot in the top 25. The Huskies are favored going into the game, and have the advantage of playing host, but will that be enough?
After an impressive first game, the Stanford Cardinal will head to North Carolina to face the Duke Blue Devils in a matchup between two teams on very opposite ends of the football spectrum.
A week after their BCS Championship hopes could have very well been swept out of the door, Oregon will face the Nevada Wolf Pack, who finished 13-1 in 2010, and wants to come out in their first game of the season with a bang. A win over Oregon could be the bang they are looking for.
Mizzou is a ranked team coming from the Big 12, but they are underdogs in this game against a ASU team that is ranked in the USA top 25 (#23), has a solid team on both sides of the ball, and is a good dark horse pick to win the new Pac 12.
Both Arizona and Oklahoma State played a couple of cream puffs in week 1 of the college season, but this will be the first big test for each team that has legit conference title and BCS hopes.
Clemson plays in the tough SEC and has a good defense and they will be contending with a solid Troy team that has 5 straight seasons with 8 wins.
This is an interesting game not only because each has bowl aspirations and plays in the Lone Star State, but Texas A&M has stated they plan to leave the Big 12 for the SEC, if they accept them, and SMU has already campaigned publicly that they would like to join the Big 12 if the Aggies depart.
The top ranked Sooners are stacked on both sides of the ball and while they are big favorites against a legit Tulsa team that won 10 games last season, was victorious in the Hawaii Bowl, and finished the season ranked in the top 25 for the first time since 1991.
Texas is coming off a disastrous season where they went 5-7 and did not play in a bowl game for the first time since…forever and face a Rice team that was 4-8, but has hope returning most of their starters and will use a new spread offense that may give the Longhorns’ defense nightmares.
In the season opener for both teams Baylor is a dark horse in the Big 12 conference behind their Heisman candidate QB while TCU has National Title hopes, but has to get by Baylor on the road in this game as well as deal with Boise State later in the season.
College football’s opening weekend marquee matchup will kick off on Saturday night in front the legions of fans that are expected to pack Cowboys Stadium in Arlington Texas, as the No. 3 Oregon Ducks square off against No. 4 Louisiana State.
The neutral site game being dubbed the “TicketCity Battle by the Bay” will get under way on Saturday night as Candlestick Park plays venue to its first ever regular-season college football game when the California Golden Bears host the Fresno State Bulldogs for just the third all time meeting between the two schools.
It all begins with a win on Saturday if Cougars head coach Paul Wulff wants to stay in Pullman for another season, and it would appear that Washington State could walk away one victory closer to matching their win total of 2010 by beating a downtrodden Idaho State Bengals on Saturday at Martin Stadium.
The Oregon State Beavers will look to rebound from its first losing season since head coach Mike Riley too over the program with a win over non conference Sacramento State in Corvallis on Saturday.
Quarterback Case Keenum will enter his sixth-year with the Cougars after patrolling the sidelines for most of 2010 with a torn ACL, and will attempt to reverse last season’s loss at UCLA with a win in Houston’s home opener at Robertson’s Stadium on Saturday.
