No. 9 Clemson stunned at Duke; Colorado, No. 8 Florida State get huge wins | Ceiling, floor for each NFL team
Clemson #Clemson
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🔥 Good morning to everyone but especially … Getty Images
THE COLORADO BUFFALOES AND FLORIDA STATE SEMINOLES
College football is back, and so, too, are Colorado and Florida State … at least after one week. The Buffaloes and the Seminoles were the two biggest winners in Week 1.
We’ll start with Deion Sanders’ squad, which has some players who are certainly ready for prime time, much like their coach’s nickname. Colorado stunned TCU, 45-42, in a back-and-forth thriller that included several jaw-dropping performances.
I won’t rain on any Colorado fan’s parade, but there’s still a long way to go, Tom Fornelli reminds us.
For now, Colorado already has as many wins as last year, and I can’t wait to see what’s next.
Florida State, meanwhile, bulldozed LSU, 45-24, in the week’s lone top-10 matchup to cement its College Football Playoff contender status.
The Seminoles lived up to the hype and then some, writes Barrett Sallee, and it wasn’t just the offense.
Another thing I love about college football? Sanders’ hire paid huge immediate dividends. At Florida State, Mike Norvell persevered through an 8-13 record through his first two seasons and saw the benefits last year, going 10-3. Now, his program is in the title picture. No two paths are the same, but they can both lead to wonderful places.
👍 Honorable mentions 🐯 And not such a good morning for … USATSI
THE CLEMSON TIGERS
There are many words that can be used to describe Clemson’s performance Monday night, but none of them are nice. I think I’ll go with inept. Completely and utterly inept. The Tigers posted one of their worst and most embarrassing performances in recent memory in a ghastly 28-7 loss to Duke.
The list of mistakes is shocking.
We have to give an enormous amount of credit to Duke and Mike Elko. The Blue Devils were an ACC bottom-feeder before he joined the program last year and jumpstarted it with nine wins. This is the Blue Devils’ …
They made the plays. They took advantage of the mistakes. They were deserving winners, and their resurgence over the past two seasons is remarkable.
For Clemson, it can only be better from here. It’s impossible for it to be worse.
👎 Not so honorable mentions
🏈 College football roundup: Penn State leads best of the rest Claire Komarek, CBS Sports
Outside of the madness above, there were plenty more interesting moments — some good, some not so good — from Week 1.
At the top of the rankings …
There were (and still are) quarterback questions for many of the country’s top teams, but Drew Allar eased all worries for Penn State in their 38-15 romp over West Virginia. As a result, Jerry Palm moved the Nittany Lions up in his bowl projections. We also have Chip Patterson predicting today’s updated top 25, with plenty of projected movement in the top 10.
Just outside the top 25, we got an awesome scene in Laramie, Wyoming, where Wyoming upset Texas Texas, 35-33 in double overtime. Games like those make college football awesome.
As for some meaningful non-football highlights:
Here are the early lines for Week 2 games.
🏈 NFL ceilings and floors, season predictions, Week 1 odds USATSI
There are few sure things in the NFL, but if their quarterbacks stay healthy, teams like the Chiefs and Eagles will be good. Even if things go well, teams like the Cardinals will not. Every team has a ceiling and a floor, and for some teams, they’re quite close together.
For others, though, the range of outcomes is massive. Jeff Kerr examined the best- and worst-case scenarios for every team. The Vikings have one of the wider ranges.
Jeff’s spot-on here. Minnesota went 11-0 in one-score games last year — best in NFL history — en route to 13 wins. That will regress. But maybe it won’t regress as much as we think. Or maybe the Vikings will actually be better and won’t play as many close games. We’ll have to see.
John Breech has Minnesota smack dab in the middle of that range in his 2023 season predictions. It all gets started Thursday, and we have early Week 1 lines as well.
⚾ Dodgers’ Julio Urías arrested on domestic violence charge
Dodgers starter Julio Urías was arrested on felony charges of domestic violence Sunday, per reports.
📺 What we’re watching Tuesday
⚾ Giants at Cubs, 7:40 p.m. on TBS🏀 Liberty at Wings, 8 p.m. on CBS Sports Network🏀 Mystics at Mercury, 10 p.m. on CBS Sports Network