2026 college football Week 1 overreactions: Michigan panic, Jeremiah Smith for Heisman, Oregon doubts and more

It feels really good to say that college football is back. I, like many across the world, spent Saturday glued to my couch watching the action, but because it was Week 1, we also had quite a few games spread out across Thursday through Monday. Hey, I wasn’t complaining. 

A lot happened in Week 1, though, from great starts to some absolutely jaw-dropping finishes.

After sifting through all the biggest games and moments of Week 1, here at SeatGeek, we’ve put together our biggest overreactions after one full week of college football action.

Biggest college football overreactions after Week 1: Do we believe them?

One week is nowhere near enough to know how this season will play out, but that has never stopped anyone from jumping to conclusions.

Is Michigan even a top-25 team?

The Michigan Wolverines are 1-0. But should they be?

Michigan’s offense was stymied by Western Michigan all night long on Saturday, and for a moment, it looked like the Broncos had pulled off a major upset. But somehow, one second was added back to the clock, and Michigan’s Hail Mary was answered with the game-winning score to give the Wolverines a 13-12 victory.

I am still baffled by the whole thing. I understand the Big Ten’s reasoning for a second being added back, but that then begs the question of why the “actual” game clock is different from what’s available on TV, in the stadium and even with the game cameras. The situation is bizarre, especially as it looked pretty clearly like the game was over. And then for Bryce Underwood’s Hail Mary to get caught for the score? Goodness gracious, what an ending. 

It’s controversial, it’s crazy, it’s college football. Regardless of the result, however, Michigan did not look like a team deserving of a top-25 ranking. The Wolverines had far and away the worst performance of any ranked team in Week 1. The offense was abysmal against a MAC opponent, and Underwood, even with the Hail Mary, had 170 passing yards and threw an ugly interception. 

It was not a very stellar Michigan debut for Kyle Whittingham, and the Wolverines must improve fast as they have Oklahoma, Iowa, Penn State and Indiana all on the schedule between now and Oct. 24. For all the talk of the Wolverines being a potential CFP contender to watch out for, Week 1 was hardly a good start. 

Has Lane Kiffin already turned LSU into one of the country’s best teams?

All eyes were on Baton Rouge with LSU hosting Clemson in a battle of Tigers. LSU has been under the spotlight for months now after Lane Kiffin left Ole Miss ahead of the CFP for the Tigers job, and his push to sign players who were in NFL training camps has rubbed a lot of teams, fans and even conferences the wrong way. 

His first test was a Clemson team that has a two-time national championship head coach in Dabo Swinney. At least for Saturday, advantage Kiffin.

The game got off to a strange start due to a lighting delay, and new LSU quarterback Sam Leavitt threw a pick on the second play of the game, resulting in a Clemson field goal. It was all LSU after that, though, with Kiffin’s Tigers beating Swinney’s Tigers 51-10. Leavitt threw for 230 yards and a score while rushing for 113 yards and two touchdowns. Dilin Jones also rushed for 113 yards and two scores, and the Tigers’ defense was suffocating and gave Clemson nothing on the ground or through the air. Clemson finished Saturday with 145 total yards of offense, with most of that coming in the fourth quarter with the game well out of reach. 

Kiffin is a bit of a firebrand, and he’s not everyone’s cup of tea. He knows that, and with LSU under so much scrutiny of late, this felt like the new head coach setting the tone, sending a message against a program that, while not nearly of the same caliber as it was a decade ago, still has a lot of name recognition. Kiffin is easily one of the biggest winners of Week 1. 

Ohio State has the 2026 Heisman winner – at receiver

In my preseason predictions, I backed Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin to win the coveted award. After all, Sayin completed 77% of his passes for 3,610 yards and 32 touchdowns last year while finishing fourth in voting. 

If Week 1 is any indication, the Buckeyes will have a Heisman winner on offense, but it will be Sayin’s top target and not the star signal-caller himself. That would be Jeremiah Smith, the star junior receiver who had amassed 2,700 receiving yards and 29 total touchdowns across his first two college seasons. 

Sayin opened the year in top form, completing 21 of 25 passes for 320 yards and three scores in a 52-3 blowout of Ball State, but Smith was the clear alpha here, catching eight of those passes for 151 yards and two of Sayin’s three touchdown passes. 

Smith is a grown man on the field, and there’s little doubt he’ll be a star receiver at the next level starting next season. For now, the Buckeyes’ game plan may as well be “feed Smith until they prove they can stop him.” And for all we know – and have seen for two-plus years now – that plan will probably work. 

Is Oregon a real title contender?

The Ducks aren’t going to get the same kind of style points other perceived contenders are for their Week 1 win. Oregon needed pretty much every single minute to get past Boise State, which was a heavy underdog for this non-conference clash. 

Now, the Ducks, unlike many other top-ranked teams, played what appears to be a formidable foe in Week 1, and that’s worth noting. But nothing about Oregon’s Week 1 performance screamed national championship.

Dante Moore’s stats jump out – 28 of 37 for 378 yards and three touchdowns – but a lot of that stemmed from quick screens and wide open receivers working against a Boise State secondary that didn’t inspire a lot of confidence. If you take out one 40-yard run by Jordon Davison, Oregon’s running backs averaged less than 3 yards per carry. The defense was pretty weak in the passing game, and the cornerbacks didn’t look particularly great. The Ducks were also heavily penalized, netting 90 penalty yards on 10 accepted flags. There were also a couple non-calls on the Broncos’ final offensive drive that you could make a case for being missed by the officials. 

There’s still a long way to go, and teams rarely enter the season in top form, but for a Ducks team with title aspirations playing an opener at home, Week 1 shouldn’t have been as close as it was. 

Boise State is the best Group of Six team in the land

On the other side of Oregon’s win was Boise State’s loss. The Broncos have regularly been one of the best teams outside of power conferences, and they appear to be the team to beat in the latest installment of the Pac-12. That’s especially the case if Saturday’s performance is any indication. 

Boise State gave the Ducks all they could handle and then some. Few expected the game to be close, and fewer expected the Broncos to have a chance to tie the game with under two minutes remaining. Oregon has a roster many pundits believe is the deepest in the country with NFL talent at each position. If that’s the case, what does that say about Boise State’s one-score loss in Eugene? 

And even if the Ducks aren’t as good as they were supposed to be as we outlined above, Boise State still deserves a ton of kudos for going to Autzen and nearly pulling off the upset. The run game will need to improve, and Maddux Madsen will need to be better than his 51.7% rate moving forward, but there’s a lot to like from the Broncos’ performance. No team’s stock rose more in a Week 1 loss than Boise State’s. 

The Group of Six gets one automatic bid into the College Football Playoff, and even with this loss, there’s a strong case to be made that it’s the Broncos’ to lose.  

Alabama has its best quarterback under DeBoer

Keelon Russell, unsurprisingly, won the Alabama QB1 job this summer. The former five-star recruit is a dynamic athlete, but the question entering the season was whether he could hit the ground running. Well, if Week 1 is any indication, the SEC – and the rest of the country, for that matter – is in trouble.

Russell was stellar against ECU in his first career start. He compiled 256 yards through the air, completing 18 of 30 passes, but the big news story was his legs. Russell rushed for a game-high 86 yards on 13 attempts with a score. Russell’s ability to operate the RPO game is something the team didn’t have much the last two years under DeBoer, but it looks like Russell will be able to add that to the playbook and then some. 

Alabama’s run game has lagged behind these last two years, even with a mobile quarterback in Jalen Milroe in 2024. Russell appears to be a different type of runner and quarterback, though, and if Saturday is any indication, he very well could be better than both Milroe, a 2025 third-round pick, and Ty Simpson, a 2025 first-rounder. The talent is otherworldly, and it’s clear that Russell can add some different dimensions that this offense sorely missed the last two seasons. 

Late-season Arch Manning is here early for Texas

Arch Manning’s 2025 season was really a tale of two halves. In his first five games, Manning completed 60% of his passes for 1,151 yards with 11 touchdowns and five interceptions with five rushing scores. Texas went 3-2 over that stretch with losses to Ohio State and Florida, and Manning had a game where he completed 44% of his passes against a UTEP team that ranked 111th out of 136 teams in scoring defense last year. 

But from that point on, the nephew of Peyton and Eli dazzled. The Longhorns went 7-1 over their next eight games, and Manning completed 62.1% of his passes for 2,012 yards and 15 touchdowns to two interceptions. He also added five more rushing scores. 

Texas loved what it saw from Manning to close the season, and he looked like that version of himself in the Longhorns’ season opener against Texas State. He completed 20 of 27 passes for 305 yards and four touchdowns. He did throw a rather ugly interception in the red zone, though. But still, Manning struggled early last year, even against lackluster competition. It was nice to see him hot out of the gate. 

But the real test is next week against the Buckeyes, who limited Manning to 208 total yards and one touchdown to one interception in a 14-7 Texas loss last year. If Manning can put up good numbers on Matt Patricia’s defense, that will really be a sign that he can potentially live up to the lofty hype. 

Is Miami a lock to return to the College Football Playoff?

Now, the top 10 of the preseason poll remains undefeated, and most teams won in dominant fashion. But Miami’s 45-6 win over Stanford really stands out. 

First, there doesn’t appear to be any sort of hangover from the Hurricanes’ CFP title game loss back in January. Second, Darian Mensah looked incredible, compiling 406 yards of offense and five touchdowns. And, most notably, Miami had the best opponent of any top-10 team not named Oregon on its Week 1 schedule in Stanford.

Now, the Cardinal aren’t going to be world beaters in the ACC this year, but they opened the year with a very nice win over a Hawaii team that won nine games a year ago and returned the bulk of their starters. It was clear in Week 0 that Stanford is moving in the right direction. But the Hurricanes just swarmed the Cardinal from the very start, and it resulted in an overwhelming victory. 

Ohio State, Georgia, Indiana, Texas, Oklahoma and Notre Dame all won in blowout fashion, but in terms of overall performance, I think the Hurricanes looked the best of the bunch in Week 1. Outside of a matchup with Notre Dame in November, Miami’s schedule looks awfully straightforward, and 10 wins seems like almost a given at this point. 

If I was to give out a next-best win grade, it’d be to Ole Miss. The Rebels’ offense looked stellar with Trinidad Chambliss leading the way, and that was a hard-fought win over what looks like a very strong Louisville squad that could make some noise in the ACC. 

Are Oklahoma State’s Big 12 hopes already dead?

I bought into the new-look Cowboys. I loved quarterback Drew Mestemaker last year, and North Texas was one of the better and more intriguing Group of Five (now Six) teams in the nation in 2025. Eric Morris bringing Mestemaker and Co. to Stillwater had me buying in to the point I picked them to win the Big 12. Smart move, writer. 

The Morris era kicked off with a whimper as the Cowboys fell 24-10 to Tulsa, which went 4-8 last year. Mestemaker completed 24 of 49 passes for 241 yards, one touchdown and two picks, and Oklahoma State also lost two fumbles. Ouch. 

I thought Oklahoma State would hit the ground running a bit more this year under Morris, but it looks like we’re in for some growing pains. I had the Cowboys’ matchup with Oregon next week circled as an intriguing game to watch, and while the Ducks didn’t look very impressive, the Cowboys don’t appear to be posing any sort of threat when that matchup kicks off.