Gameday Week #1

Top of the Mornin' To Ye!  

The first Saturday of the 2014 college football season has arrived! While ESPN's College Gameday broadcasts from Fort Worth, Texas, in preparation for tonight's match-up between the #1 Florida State Seminoles and the Oklahoma State Cowboys (8:00 PM Eastern, ABC), the Penn State Nittany Lions have been playing the Central Florida Knights in Dublin, Ireland, for the last couple of hours.  Penn State currently leads UCF 13-10 with less than three minutes left in the third quarter.

There are plenty of exciting games coming up later today, even though conference seasons for many teams don't start for a few weeks.  At Noon we have the long-awaited rematch between Appalachian State and Michigan.  The last time these two teams met was in 2007, the season opening game where Appalachian State upset Michigan, 34-32.  Michigan is heavily favored to win this year, but as the 2007 game demonstrated, upsets can happen.  At the same time, in Baltimore, Maryland, Michigan's great rival, Ohio State, is playing Navy at M&T Stadium, the home of the Ravens.  Ohio State will be without their starting quarterback, Braxton Miller, as he is out for the season with an injured shoulder.  J.T. Barrett, a redshirt freshman, will start as the Buckeyes QB.  Navy, by contrast, will start Junior Kennan Reynolds, who, during his sophomore season, set an NCAA record last year for rushing touchdowns with 31.  Look for a very competitive game here. 

At 3:30 PM, Atlanta's Georgia Dome will host the West Virginia Mountaineers vs. the Alabama Crimson Tide.  Alabama is favored by 26 points, and head coach Nick Saban will be starting fifth-year senior Blake Sims at quarterback.  His backup will be Junior Jake Coker, who transferred from Florida State over the summer.  As for West Virginia, the Mountaineers hope that a victory here will reinvigorate a program that finished last season with a 4-8 record.

Other major non-conference games being played this afternoon include a PAC-12-ACC match-up between UCLA and Virginia (noon, ESPN), a Sun Belt-ACC game between Georgia Southern (the former FCS team that upset Florida last season) and North Carolina State, a Big Ten-PAC-12 contest between California and Northwestern, an SEC conference game between Arkansas and Auburn, and an ACC-SEC season opener between Clemson and Georgia.

As for this evening, for those of you who would like something other than Florida State vs. Oklahoma State, the networks have the following games:

At 7:30 PM Eastern, FOX will televise a rematch between Fresno State and USC.  Last year, USC defeated Fresno State in the Las Vegas Bowl, 45-20.  Can the Bulldogs pull off a victory this year? 
USC is favored by at least 20 points.  Today's game will be Steve Sarkisian's debut as USC's head coach. 

Speaking of first-season head coaching debuts, Charlie Strong's Texas Longhorns will play the North Texas Mean Green in Austin.  Though Texas is a 26-point favorite, they will be playing a North Texas squad that had nine wins last year.  The Longhorn Network will telecast the game at 8:00 PM Eastern. 

Finally, at 9:00 PM Eastern, Wisconsin and Louisiana State will play the first in a two game neutral site series.  Tonight's game, in which ESPN has the telecast, will take place at Houston's Reliant Stadium.  It should be a very competitive game, both teams are ranked and each has a legitimate shot at winning their respective conference divisions.  LSU is a six-point favorite.  Next year, both teams will play in Green Bay's Lambeau Field.   

I will be posting updates on my Twitter feed throughout the day and final scores on this website.  Enjoy the afternoon, everybody!!