College Football Week One Takeaways: This Isn't Saban's Crimson Tide

Week One of the college football season is almost completely in the books. After a wild Saturday featuring some heavy-hitting matchups, the remaining schedule for Sunday and Monday is just as loaded.

Sunday features two intriguing contests as No. 13 South Carolina battles Virginia Tech in Atlanta in the afternoon, followed by No. 6 Notre Dame traveling on the road to take on No. 10 Miami in Miami Gardens in the night cap.

Legendary head coach Bill Belichick makes his North Carolina debut on Monday against TCU to wrap up the weekend in what is one of the most anticipated contests in the history of Tar Heels football.

Although some games remain on the slate, here are the key takeaways from the return of college football in Week One.

Florida State Earned a Much-Needed Culture Win for a Program That Desperately Needed it

Mike Norvell's Florida State Seminoles have been a bit of Jekyll and Hide in his first five seasons in Tallahassee. When things have been good, they've been real good. Florida State owns two 10-plus win seasons, including a 13-1 campaign in 2023 where the Seminoles won the ACC title. The program has also had its fair share of lows, highlighted by an unconscionable 2-10 season a year ago.

In most cases, a 2-10 record will get you fired as the head coach at Florida State. But just one year removed from an ACC title, and saddled with a large buyout, Norvell returned in 2025 and needed to get his team acclimated quickly with No. 8 Alabama coming to town.

All the Seminoles did in their opener was bully the Crimson Tide at the line of scrimmage for four quarters and make Alabama quarterback Ty SImpson's life miserable in his first start under center. Florida State's defense finished with three sacks and seven tackles for loss while holding the Crimson Tide to just 87 yards rushing in a 31-17 win.

Norvell cooled his hot seat, while turning up the heat on Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer's.

Alabama's Culture of Championships Set by Nick Saban Is Eroding Quickly Under Kalen DeBoer

When Kalen DeBoer arrived in Tuscaloosa to replace Nick Saban, he owned a 37-9 record and was fresh off taking Washington to the national championship game.

On paper, DeBoer seemed like a good choice to replace Saban. He's a steady presence on the sideline, he gets along well with administrators, and could put together a staff of recruiters in the SEC that would get after it on the trail.

Games aren't played on paper.

Year one saw DeBoer's Crimson Tide lose to three unranked opponents, including Vanderbilt, Oklahoma (which effectively knocked Alabama out of the playoff) and Michigan in the ReliaQuest Bowl.

Saturday kicked off year two for DeBoer, and the Tide once again lost to an unranked opponent in Florida State, and looked like the worse of the two teams on the field for the entirety of the contest.

Saban lost just four games to unranked opponents in his 17 seasons in Tuscaloosa. DeBoer has now lost four times to unranked opponents in his first 14 games as the head coach.

This isn't Saban's Crimson Tide. Instead, it's a program that's stepped back to the field and appears to be merely good, rather than great. It's hard to be the guy to replace the guy. Especially when the guy is one of the greatest coaches in the history of the sport.

Ohio State Isn't Going Anywhere

The third-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes hosted Arch Manning and the No. 1 Texas Longhorns in Columbus, fresh off a national title.

There were plenty of new faces for the Buckeyes as they formally kicked off their title defense, and with Manning and Texas coming to town for the opener, many wondered if Ohio State would be able to get their season off on the right foot.

Turns out the answer to that question was an emphatic "yes."

Ohio State's defense under first-year defensive coordinator Matt Patricia was swarming the entire game. Texas was unable to put the ball into the endzone until the fourth quarter, spoiling Arch Manning's debut as the full-time starting quarterback.

The Buckeyes look primed to be one of the top contenders to compete for a national title once again, while Texas will need to improve things offensively with Manning if it wants to realize its potential as the best team in the SEC.

The hype around Manning stole the pregame storylines, but in the postgame, it was all about Ohio State and its first step towards its title defense.

Brian Kelly and LSU Start the 2025 Season Off on the Right Foot

LSU is one of the toughest jobs in the country in terms of annual expectations to compete for championships, and head coach Brian Kelly knew exactly what he was getting into when he left Notre Dame to bolt for Baton Rouge after the 2021 season.

Entering year four, Kelly's Tigers have won 10 games, 10 games and nine games respectively in each of his first three seasons. However, the Tigers have not won an SEC title and have not been to the College Football Playoff, which is enough to turn the heat up on the hot seat at LSU.

Kelly had also never won a season opener as LSU's head coach - until Saturday.

Kelly's Tigers visited No. 4 Clemson on the road and earned a hard fought 17-10 victory thanks to timely offense and a swarming defense that rendered Clemson's rushing attack useless. The Tigers managed to rush for just 31 total yards in the contest.

In a primetime spot, Kelly's team delivered. That should be enough to cool things down for now, and set the program up for the rest of the season against a very difficult SEC schedule.

Kansas State Almost Let Iowa State (and the Trip to Ireland) Beat Them Twice

No. 17 Kansas State was one of a handful of teams to play in Week Zero, as the Wildcats traveled across the pond to Dublin, Ireland and were handed a loss by Big 12 conference rival Iowa State.

The Wildcats returned home in Week One as a four touchdown favorite over FCS North Dakota, and things did not go according to plan.

Kansas State trailed 21-17 at halftime, and the second half wasn't much better. By the time the waning minutes of the fourth quarter rolled around, Chris Klieman's bunch trailed 35-31. It took an Avery Johnson six-yard touchdown pass to Joe Jackson with less than a minute to play for the Wildcats to avoid a disastrous upset.

It's been a topsy turvy opening two weekends for Kansas State, who was a trendy pick to win the Big 12. While it's certainly not time to write them off as a conference title contender, things will have to improve - fast.

The Wildcats host Army in Week Two. The Cadets lost to Tarleton State in double overtime on Friday night to open the season, so expect Kansas State to be a heavy favorite once again in Week Two. Hopefully this time around, their fans can sit back and enjoy a comfortable win.