The high school football season last began on Aug. 24, 2019, when Miami and Florida met in Orlando to kick off the sport’s 150th season. While the Hurricanes and Gators open their season in Gainesville, another Sunshine State team will be participating. at the beginning of 2024.
Here’s a look at this weekend’s ACC game in Dublin and some key Week 1 games over Labor Day weekend.
How well did Mike Norvell reload after his quarterback, top three receivers, top running back and top two tacklers left? We will have a very smart concept until the end of Labor Day week.
A foreigner to open the season on Saturday and have to return immediately with some other CEC game on Labor Day night poses a series of demanding situations from the start. That includes either opponent, who showed wonderful innovations last season.
Brent Key had a first year as head coach, leading the Yellow Jackets to a 7-6 record, the program’s first winning season since 2018. All arrows continue to point to Tech who, led by quarterback Haynes King, is firing the last production high of the season.
Bill O’Brien returned to the school’s training ranks when he succeeded Jeff Hafley at Chestnut Hill. The Eagles have most of the starters on both sides of the line of scrimmage after a 7-6 season that included a 31-29 loss to the host Seminoles in the convention opener. O’Brien has done a smart job by running the portal with experienced running backs and receivers.
A team that wants a smart start? That’s precisely what Deion Sanders’ Buffaloes completed last season by opening 3-0 before finishing 1-8 on return. Sanders’ second season begins in Boulder against FCS powerhouse Bison, who won nine national titles. a recent stretch of 11 seasons (2011-21). During that run, NDSU won all six games against FBS opponents, adding Minnesota, Kansas State, Iowa State, and what was Iowa’s No. 13. (Arizona snapped a six-game streak in 2021 in a Bison-led game early in the fourth quarter before losing, 31-28. )
The Bisons open the second season of FCS with Tim Polasek, who has 4 championship rings since he was an assistant at Fargo, leading the show. Colorado, back in the Big 12, has plenty of skill at glamorous positions, adding the addition of FAU’s wide receiver and throwback specialist LaJohntay Wester. It’s the forward play on both sides of the ball that will be in the spotlight, especially an offensive line rebuilt after CU ranked second-to-last nationally last season with 56 sacks.
The Bulldogs are ranked No. 5 and the Tigers are No. 3 when they last met in the 2021 season opener in Charlotte. A 10-3 UGA win totaled 436 yards between the teams. Kirby Smart’s team, of course, won the first of two direct national titles and Clemson had its first three-loss season since 2014.
This time, the Bulldogs are coming off a 13-1 season with the only loss against Alabama in the SEC Championship Game, while Dabo Swinney’s Tigers lost 4 games for the first time since 2011. Expectations for names from the Array National are higher in Athens with Heisman. . Candidate Carson Beck at quarterback and what he once returned will be a stifling defense.
Questions in Death Valley arise with whether QB Cade Klubnik can enter the elite category after his first full season as a starter, and whether a defense that lost several key pieces can return to the elite.
11 years ago, the former East rivals announced they would play a homecoming in 2023 and 2024. The Nittany Lions will be coming to Morgantown for the first time since 1992, when Joe Paterno and Don Nehlen were on the sidelines. It was also the last meeting between the schools before last season’s game at State College, a 38-15 win at Penn State.
The Nittany Lions, who dominated the series 49-9-2, are expected to qualify with expanded playoffs. Although those chances will likely come down to a seven-game drop to Ohio State and/or a three-game loss. streak opposite Michigan, James Franklin’s team will have full hands in this opening game.
Meanwhile, Neal Brown, whose seat was warming before last season, led the Mountaineers to their first nine-win crusade since 2016 and their only second win since 2015. As a result, his contract has been extended by one year until 2027. Winning would of course be the best case scenario, WVU will have to play at least 60 minutes of football in what will indeed be a rowdy atmosphere.
As noted in the most sensible part of this column, the state’s rivals last met in 2019 when they kicked off the 150th season of college football in Orlando. Both groups open 2024 with a lot to prove. Gator Nation wants to see everything be right at the start of Billy Napier’s third season in Gainesville after two sub-. 500 disappointments. Specifically, UF wants a smart start to a program that includes trips to Tennessee, Texas and the state of Florida, visits to UCF (you know Gus Malzahn’s Knights will be excited), Kentucky, LSU and Ole Miss and the showdown with Georgia. in Jacksonville.
Speaking of disappointments, the Canes have been a middling team (40-34) for the past six seasons and have probably invented tactics to lose games; see Middle Tennessee in 2022 and Georgia Tech last year. To begin Napier’s third season, Miami wants to at least stay out of the national verbal exchange as a potential playoff team in what is also Mario Cristobal’s third season. A win in the Swamp, even against a Florida team that has been on the decline in recent years, would provide a quick boost.
The winning team will enjoy the shine for at least a week, while the loser will face a long list of questions and doubts. The Hurricanes lead the all-time series 29-27.
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND – Duke Blue Devils head coach Mike Elko celebrates with Riley Leonard. . . [ ] after a win against the UCF Knights in the Military Bowl at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium on December 28, 2022 in Annapolis. Maryland. (Photo via G Fiume/Getty Images)
This showdown in College Station is full of subplots. Mike Elko makes his debut as head coach of A
To get into the stories, Leonard’s 2023 season was cut short due to an ankle injury suffered against, as you may have guessed, the Irish. He had a healthy preseason after largely being a spectator in spring drills. Speaking of ankle injuries, Elko turned to Connor Weigman, who returns to helm the Aggies’ offense after missing more than a portion of last season due to his own ankle issues.
The Trojans make their debut in the Big Ten in what will be the third meeting between teams. The most recent was in 1984, when LSU won in Baton Rouge, five years after the day of the first assembly in 1979, when USC won at the Coliseum. With the last two Heisman winners, LSU’s Jayden Daniels and USC’s Caleb Williams in the NFL, the page turned to Miller Moss in SoCal and Garrett Nussmeier in Baton Rouge. Both inspired last season when their predecessors were draft-ready.
Even with Williams and other point guards (including WR Tahj Washington) out, Moss and the rest of the Trojans’ offense deserve to provide a brake on the Tigers’ defense, which ranked 106th (417 yards) last season. Brian Kelly tried to look at the ball through the hiring of coordinator Blake Baker, who was D. C. of Missouri for the past two seasons after serving as LSU’s linebackers coach under Ed Orgeron in 2021.
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