2024 Games of the Slot: Week 1
Breaking down which game to watch at each time slot this weekend
We got a great introduction to the 2024 college football season last week with Georgia Tech’s upset of 10 Florida State, Montana State’s fourth-quarter comeback at New Mexico and the sheer nonsense that nearly led Nevada over SMU. But now, it’s back in full.
So kick back this labor day weekend and soak in the action. We’ve got a full docket of games to get into. As always, all times are in Eastern.
Friday Night
Game of the Slot: Florida Atlantic at Michigan State (7 p.m., Big 10 Network)
The Friday slate has some big time contenders on it, but the most interesting game for me is this FAU-Michigan State game.
FAU has a solid coach leading the program in Tom Herman, and while the Owls haven’t done much of late, I think they’re building into a solid American program. They struggled to build a consistent passing attack last season, but bring in a new transfer quarterback in Cam Fancher from Marshall. The dual-threat signal caller shows tremendous upside from what FAU had last season, and pairing that with tailback C.J. Campbell Jr. will make for a dynamic offense. The Owls’ defense should also be talented, headlined by preseason Freshman All-American safety C.J. Heard, cornerback Daedae Hill Sr. and Senior Bowl watchlist nominee defensive back Kahzir Brown.
On the other side, we have a Michigan State squad starting over in a much more difficult expanded Big 10. They have a new head coach in Oregon State’s Jonathan Smith, a new quarterback in Aidan Chiles that followed Smith from Corvallis, and a plethora of new coaches. Most of Smith’s staff from Oregon State followed him to East Lansing, so I don’t expect there to be many schematic errors. But coaching and system changes don’t equate smooth sailing. I think this game is one to watch simply to see how the Smith and Chiles-led Spartans look on the field. Toss in an opponent like Florida Atlantic that might be ready to knock off the higher regarded program and we get a solid Friday night kickoff game.
Multi-Box Games: TCU at Stanford (10:30 p.m., ESPN); Temple at 6 Oklahoma (7 p.m. ESPN); Western Michigan at Wisconsin (9 p.m., FS1)
TCU at Stanford has the makings of a fun game. The Horned Frogs, as always in a Sonny Dykes led team, is going to be offense first and Josh Hoover is a quality quarterback. Troy Taylor’s Cardinal weren’t the best in 2023, but they return most of their starters after a strong finish to the season. Temple at Oklahoma isn’t going to be a game, but I’m excited to see how Jackson Arnold looks after a full offseason program as the starter. Plus, the Sooner defense should be stifling. Western Michigan at Wisconsin isn’t likely to turn into a game, but if it does, there’s issues in Madison. The Phil Longo-led spread revolution in Wisconsin had a lackluster start, and not putting away Western Michigan will raise the blood pressure of Badger fans and boosters.
Saturday - 12 p.m. EST
Game of the Slot: 16 Clemson at 1 Georgia (ABC/ESPN+)
This is the big ticket helmet game of the week. A showdown down south in Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta to truly kick off college football season.
Clemson is looking to exorcise their demons last season of an ineffective offense and lackluster defense. It’s year two of the Garrett Riley-led offense with Cade Klubnik under center. The Tigers return a lot of offensive production. It’s time to put up or shut up in Clemson. If this is going to work, we need to start seeing results this week against Georgia.
On the other side, Georgia is primed and ready for another national title run. I expect the Bulldogs’ offense to be the key this season instead of the defense. Quarterback Carson Beck is in the mix for being the top pick in next year’s NFL Draft after a standout season and while he’s not on my preseason Heisman Top Five, tearing through the Clemson defense will go a long way there. One thing to watch: Georgia’s primary tailback Trevor Etienne’s status is up in the air after some offseason driving-related law issues.
Multi-Box Games: 5 Penn State at West Virginia (FOX); Virginia Tech at Vanderbilt (ESPN); Bucknell at Navy (CBS Sports Network)
We don’t have one but two high quality games at the noon timeslot. The other is Penn State at West Virginia. I’m watching the Nittany Lions’ offense here. Andy Kotelnicki is one of the best playcallers in the nation and he’s been tasked with getting this team to the next level. West Virginia is a quality program that serves as a perfect first test. Most people would consider Virginia Tech as a runaway favorite against Vanderbilt, but I think the Commodores might surprise some people. They’ve got an intriguing quarterback battle I broke down earlier this week in the SEC Preview and those two guys could best the Hokies’ defense. Finally, I’m putting Navy on upset watch against Bucknell. The Midshipmen are going to ground-and-pound triple option their way down the field. Can Bucknell stop it? They weren’t great in the Patriot League last year, but Navy wasn’t the best either.
3-4 p.m. EST
Game of the Slot: Miami at Florida (3:30 p.m., ABC/ESPN+)
It’s not often we start the season with a rivalry anxiety bowl but here we are.
Miami is the favorite - and ranked by the AP at 19. Mario Cristobal was hailed as a program savior when he was hired three years ago, but not much has changed in Coral Gables. This year, the Hurricanes added some elite talent in quarterback Cam Ward and tailback Damien Martinez and, maybe more importantly, hired a clock manager after Georgia Tech happened. The Cristobal era hasn’t been disastrous, but things are starting to get hot. A convincing win over the rival Gators would go a long way to silence the doubters.
For Florida, though, this is the start of the hardest schedule possibly in college football history. The Gators under preformed last season and the seat under Billy Napier is getting warmer and warmer. But their 2023 wasn’t as bad as it seems. They lost three one-score games and had a bunch other in reach until the end. The Gators are staring down the pipe at a rough season, but if they can flip those results from last year, they’re a 8-4 team. There’s a lot more optimism in that. The biggest thing for me to watch is how long the leash is on Graham Mertz. He was a solid quarterback, but D.J. Lagway is waiting in the wings. How long does it take before Napier succumbs to the outside pressure and inserts the true-freshman into a bloodbath?
Multi-Box Games: Miami (OH) at Northwestern (3:30 p.m., Big 10 Network); Boise State at Georgia Southern (4 p.m., ESPNU); Eastern Michigan at UMass (3:30 p.m., ESPN+)
The 3-4 slate is filled with fun Group of Five matchups. We start with Miami of Ohio, who is a really good team. They’ve got Northwestern on the coast of Lake Michigan. This one has Sicko mess written all over it. Boise State at Georgia State is going to be a good fame, though. Boise State has playoff aspirations as the Group of Five autobid and Georgia State could very well do the same in a competitive Sun Belt. This one might have playoff implications. The out-of-conference Eastern Michigan at UMass might seem weird here, but hear me out. UMass against MAC schools is always weird. Something unbelievably outrageous is going to happen here and this game is going to be a wild 35-33 affair or something like that. Mark my words, you’ll understand when you tune in.
Need more information before the season starts? Check out the SID Sports Preseason Primer! Including Top 25, Heisman Watch, a preseason CFP bracket, links to all my conference previews with notes on all 134 teams, and more!
5-8 p.m. EST
Game of the Slot: 15 Notre Dame at Texas A&M (7:30 p.m., ABC/ESPN+)
We’ve got another helmet game here in Bryan-College Station.
Notre Dame is trying hard to shake the Notre Dame label of winning the games they’re supposed to and finding ways to lose all the big games. They took another swing at quarterback this offseason with Duke’s Riley Leonard. He’s a better quarterback than Sam Hartman, but he’s got an injury history the length of a CVS receipt. Can the Irish keep him upright? I’m not too worried about their defense, especially with the elite secondary they have led by lockdown corner Benjamin Morrison, but the Irish need answers on the offensive side of the ball.
Speaking of Duke, Leonard’s formed head coach is now leading Texas A&M. Hype is high in Bryan-College Station since the Elko hire, but I want to temper it a bit. Sure, he knows the area after spending three years as the Aggies’ defensive coordinator, but this is a fundamentally different team. There’s a ton of question marks across the board. The biggest one, like with Notre Dame, is if quarterback Conner Weigman can stay healthy. He’s a sneaky good quarterback, but the reason that’s flown under the radar is his injury history. I think this is a good test for both sides and should tell us a lot about who is who.
Multi-Box Games: North Texas at South Alabama (5 p.m., ESPN+); Nevada at Troy (7 p.m., ESPN+); Fresno State at 8 Michigan (7:30 p.m., NBC)
Let’s head back to the Group of Five ranks, shall we? North Texas is a really interesting team to me. They’ve got one of the nation’s most explosive offenses under head coach Eric Morris and they bring in former TCU quarterback Chandler Morris (no relation) to run the show this year. South Alabama had a coaching change after Kane Wommack left for the Alabama defensive coordinator position but usually posts a good defense. Nevada surprised me with how they hung with SMU last week, and Troy is an even more winnable game. The Trojans lost Jon Sumrall to Tulane in the carousel, but still figure to be a player in the Sun Belt. We turn to a game that most will think of as a beat-down in Fresno State-Michigan, but I’m holding my breath. Fresno State has a great quarterback under center in Mikey Keene and with as much turnover as Michigan has, I could see a scenario where Keene and the Bulldogs catch them unawares.
West Coast After Dark
Game of the Slot: Wyoming at Arizona State (10:30 p.m., FS1)
This isn’t the best headlining game, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be entertaining.
Wyoming has a new head coach in Jay Sawvel after Craig Bohl’s retirement, but it’s much of the same in Laramie. I’m really intrigued by the Cowboys’ offense, led by Evan Svoboda and tailback Harrison Waylee. Svoboda is in the Josh Allen-mold and has plenty of untapped potential. Let’s also not discount that Wyoming has been a very good Mountain West program the past few seasons. They’ve got a borderline elite G5 defense that will cause problems for Arizona State.
Speaking of Arizona State, Kenny Dillingham got dealt a horrendous hand last season and this offseason. The quarterback position has been a rotating door since he got to Tempe between injuries and the portal. I assume Michigan State transfer Sam Leavitt is going to be under center this year, but the dynamic duo of Cam Skattebo and Alton McCaskill shows this is going to be a run-focused team. Leavitt should play well in that role as a game manager and touch distributor. I’m really worried about their defense, though, which ranked 123 in the nation in points per drive. They’ve turned it all over in the portal, but that just leads to more questions than answers.
Multi-Box Game: Southeast Missouri State at New Mexico State (9 p.m., ESPN+); New Mexico at 21 Arizona (10:30 p.m., ESPN); Weber State at Washington (11 p.m., Big 10 Network)
New Mexico State has seen a lot of turnover after Jerry Kill retired and quarterback Diego Pavia transferred to Vanderbilt, and SEMO is a team that could jump on that. They beat the doors off North Alabama last week, but haven’t beaten an FBS team since 2002. New Mexico fell victim to an FCS opponent last week in Montana State, and I think Arizona is going to handily win this game, but I’m interested to see how Noah Fifita, Teratoria McMillan and company adjust to new head coach Brent Brennan’s offense. Speaking of new head coaches, how does the Jedd Fisch era in Washington look? Against FCS Weber State, I’m expecting Washington to start finding their groove. There’s a lot of change there, so a three-score win will put some minds at ease.
Sunday Showdown
20 USC vs. 7 LSU (Sunday, September 1, 7:30 p.m., ABC/ESPN+)
Since the NFL hasn’t kicked off yet, college football gets its one Sunday a year to shine and they’re taking advantage of that with another helmet game.
USC is starting to have the shine of the Lincoln Riley hire wear off, and if they’re going to succeed in the much more physical Big 10, they need to have a good start against a physical LSU team. Miller Moss is not the quarterback Caleb Williams was, but maybe that’s what the Trojans need. What they really need is a defense with life. Can new defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn breathe life into this unit for the Week 1 matchup? If they can get some stops, I could see USC being really dangerous.
But LSU is the better team here. They also had their fair share of defensive struggles last season, and like USC, have a new defensive coordinator. But this defense has a lot more talent than USC’s - namely in Harold Perkins Jr., Major Burns, and Greg Penn. The offense lost Heisman-winner Jayden Daniels, but Garret Nussmeier has most of the starting offensive line back and a ton of confidence from his coaches. I could really see either side coming out on top of this and I’m sure it’s going to be a good game. Much better than the last time a Lincoln Riley-led squad faced off against LSU.
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