Latest / Game Day Collective / College Football Week 0 RECAP: UNC Shocks TCU, Virginia Dominates + Winners & Losers

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College Football Week 0 RECAP: UNC Shocks TCU, Virginia Dominates + Winners & Losers · Game Day Collective

• Josh Mahler: Week zero is now in the books, or as I think we should start calling it, week one, because that's what the new rules are gonna state week zero to be. It is week one. But anyways, the first weekend of college football in the books. I thought it was a lot of fun. There was a lot of excitement, mainly because we finally got college football back. But we're gonna take a look at it because you you see a North Carolina team that didn't just beat TCU, but they looked like they were the better coached football team. And I don't know many people across the country. that would have predicted that. And you know, you think of a year ago TCU embarrassed UNC 48-14 in Bill Belichick's college debut. but the Saturday in Dublin we saw UNC completely flip the script and completely flip that around in a result to beat TCU. and hold held the f Hornfrogs scoreless through the last three quarters. So really impressive stuff overall for North Carolina. And I don't want to take any credit away from them, but we're gonna talk more about that game. Thinking about college football returning, of course, North Carolina looking dramatically more competent, I think would be the correct way to phrase that. And also Virginia. I I think Virginia made a a a very big splash and probably the biggest result on Saturday's slate with a big win, not just beating North Carolina, but completely dismantling them. Virginia won that game very big. North North Dakota State as well. First FBS game and I think another very big win for North Dakota State, which was looked much less like a transition the way that I kind of anticipated this game to be, and more like a warning, especially to their conference, and a warning to the the opponents that they might face now that they're in the FBS. Memphis went on to to Las Vegas to be able to win a potentially huge group of six victory there over UNLV and USC won comfortably, but there was I I think Two complete different ways to interpret that 42 to 26 final. Some questions definitely arise about USC, and we'll talk about all of that and much more. Let's get into it and talk about everything that happened on Saturday for week zero. Quick scoreboard flash. we'll break down the scores real fast here on the screen. We've got North Carolina, who won 15 to 10 over TCU. USC beat San Jose State 42 to 26. Virginia. won thirty-four to eight over North Carolina State. North Dakota State beat Jacksonville State thirty-three to seven. And Eastern Michigan won twenty-eight to seventeen over Sacramento State in their FBS debut. so a little bit of a transition for them. Stanford ended up pulling a one away and upsetting a lot of people who were pick picking Hawaii to cover the spread by winning thirty seven to twenty seven on a late scoop and score to completely flip that one over and take away The spread better's hope in in that Hawaii game. Florida State, a a lot of I mean, still questions arise for Florida State and if they're ever gonna get out of this slump. They won 34 to 17 over New Mexico State, not as emphatic as the books might have maybe suggested that one would have been. And Memphis ended up pulling off the upset, as we called here on Game Day Collective College Football Show. Memphis won 27-21. So there's one place that we can start, and I think it's Bill Belichick, who got the signature win in his North Carolina tenure that he desperately needed. And I think that's a a pretty big story for Saturday. we'll start off with that North Carolina victory over in Dublin, Ireland, where they were able to take down the TCU Hornfrogs 15 to 10. And it was completely opposite of 2025, not much scoring. And you look at 48 to 14 from 2025, and then you go into this season where it was just that very low scoring defensive game. And more importantly, it it it didn't feel fluky for North Carolina at all. I I think that this was a North Carolina team that seemed like they very much so had things put together, especially on that defensive front. I felt like this looked like a defense that was led by Bill Belichick that we didn't see last year. I think last year there was a lot of questions as of how Bill Belichick would have his defense looking as sloppy as it did, but this year it looked like a very tough defense. And I don't want to take that away from from UNC at all. I think that they deserve the most credit out of this game. I think that this should really be the centerpiece of the game. the the takeaway of the game is is that TCU, they scored its touchdown with four minutes remaining in the four first quarter. It never scored again. That offense was completely dead in the last 50 minutes of the game. And so I I think that that North Carolina looking at what they were able to do, forcing three turnovers on downs, holding TCU out and that's that's one thing that I think TCU, you take away from TCU, just take the points. I think teams across the nation should have been looking at that point or at at that that game and seeing you just take the points when you can. When you've got a field goal set up for you, just take take it because TCU could have won that game if they would have just taken the field goal when they had an opportunity to. they were able to convert a couple f fourth down conversions here and there, but just take take the points when you can. North Carolina also missed out on some points, I believe, somewhere in that game, if memory serves me correctly, by not just taking the points and and and going forward on fourth down. There was also another one where it was, I believe, fourth down, and they ended up going big and ended up scoring right after that. But still, just take the points. I think TCU teaches us across the country just to take the points when they're there. one player to to kind of spotlight there, especially on that that UNC defense, was Xavier Lewis. Who finished with seven tackles, four and a half tackles for a loss, included two sacks. So I think that he was one of the players that that drew a lot of attention throughout a lot of of the nation. And especially whenever you look at a lot of the post-game coverage, he drew a lot of attention and had a very big game for North Carolina in this first game of the season. So I think if North Carolina can play that defense like this consistently, that the entire calling of of this season or the the the looking at at at what they have ahead of them for this season, I think that they can they can make a big change, a big jump from what they were a season ago. And we talked about how they just have to be a little bit better in a few areas. And I think that they looked much better on defense. That defense looked head head to shoulder, just completely diff different. It looked a lot better than it did a season ago. So I I'm excited about this North Carolina defense. Now I do think that the the offense raised some questions. I do think Billy Edwards Jr. kind of gave North Carolina what it needed on offense. And I think that, you know, you you look at this this new offense and what it pieced together, I I feel a lot better about it. I think with what Bobby Petrino brought in and what he was able to do with Billy Edwards Jr., i it gave a lot of hope for what this offense could be. And I think if it could play a little bit better complimentary football, North Carolina could be a much better team than I think we would have predicted. I thought that they were Definitely a bowl team, a bowl eligible team. Right around that six wins, I'm bumping them up to where I think they could win eight games now throughout this schedule, especially with this defense. And I think if this offense can just answer a couple of things that we weren't able to see, and I think you do have to give both offenses some credit there where credit's due, that it was a nasty game. It was disgusting, it was rainy, wet, slick. So you do have to give some some credit there. But as far as Billy Edwards Jr. He threw for 232 yards, didn't throw an interception, and he replayed it repeatedly made a lot of plays that kind of made North Carolina look like a functional offense. And I think there were several times it did seem throughout this game that North Carolina was very much an offense that was either just gonna be completely explosive and give you something exciting, or they were gonna go backwards and there was really no in between. So again, I think a lot of that had to do with some of the weather, some of the inclement weather and looking at and what you had there with the wet ball, players having to strip their gloves just to be able to catch the ball. that the field's slippery now at this point. So there was a lot that that that I think feeds into that. But 232 passing yards in that game specifically, when you look at the elements around it, I I was very impressed with that that outing for Billy Edwards Jr. So I think you look at their t their tight end room right now too, I think Jelaney Thurman, I think with with him specifically, early on in the game, I thought, man, this kid could have a huge game. And it it made a a big splash early in the game, but he ended up having four catches for 94 yards, including a big touchdown that or sorry, not a not a touchdown, but a big catch late in the game down in the fourth quarter that ended up helping North Carolina. And so ultimately I thought that that the tight end room made me have a lot more hope for this. offense. I think Billy Edwards Jr., I think that that he presents something. And of of course Bobby Petrino's offense looked a lot like what Bobby Petrino has done elsewhere that you know, w where he's stopped along his his career as well. So I think sometimes the the best quarterback performances aren't the guys that that are out there throwing for four or five touchdowns. It's really the guys that just don't lose the game. by winning with their defense and and so they they don't lose the game. They're not turning the ball over in key moments. They're not giving the defense an opportunity for turnovers. They're not taking big sacks and taking big losses, which I thought that Billy Edwards Jr. did a really good job for. With TCU, I think the biggest problem for TCU was just their discipline overall, especially on the defense. They had some key penalties that really hurt them. There was a few penalties. There was one that just Felt like a tough break. No doubt it was roughing the passer, unnecessary roughness, and and where the defender came in, hit the quarterback on the ground. All his momentum is just leaning forward and he's not anticipating that the quarterback's just gonna slip and fall on the ground, makes the contact, just a tough break there. because I know that it and and reaction time, it's just impossible for him to have stopped. but it's still a penalty nonetheless, and a very obvious penalty. Just tough breaks like that. where some of those penalties and some of them were just silly. pointing for a first down and getting a 15-yard penalty on that and backing yourself up, it it's yes, it's a rule, that's a dumb rule. I think everyone can agree with that. You should be able to point as long as you're not taunting directly towards the other team, directly towards even I think even taunting towards the fan base, I think is taking it a step too far. As long as you're not directly taunting towards the opponent or the opponent's sideline, the opponent's fan base, anything like that, I think you allow the celebration. my take on it. Anyways, I do think that there were many times right before half where TCU, I can see that the misunderstanding of what went on on the field. I think they thought maybe it was an incomplete pass, and so they thought that the clock would stop. But I mean they just let the clock run out and it was like they didn't know the rules. And so there was just some coaching errors ultimately and very illly Illy coached, if that's even a a correct word, it was a very ill ill ill coached team, poorly coached team. I think that's a better term to run with there. But yeah, I just think overall with 11 penalties, North Carolina only had three penalties the entire game. So it was it was big. It it was huge. So when you're talented on paper and you're a touchdown plus favorite, you can't be making these these huge mistakes. 11 penalties, 11 mistakes. while the other side only makes three, that was a huge difference in this game. So you can call it officiating if you want, but it was really just, I think more of those penalties, most of those penalties were just very, very not disciplined at all, poorly disciplined, and man, it just it was a tough break for TCU and the penalty department. And even with the turnovers, they couldn't they couldn't do enough on defense to really do much. So I do think that. The Sonny Dykes conversation is starting to get heavy this year. I think if he's not on the hot seat, I'm kind of confused how he couldn't be. Because if TCU is supposed to be a Big 12 you know contender, this kind of stuff can't happen. Now you can still lose this first game. This is where we can't overreact because there were a lot still a lot of questions that weren't answered in this game. Because was TCU this bad or was UNC just so much better than they were a season ago? I think that TCU looked pretty poor myself. but I think that you have to give TCU some time because you can lose a non-conference game and still fight through and be a conference contender. But if if you're gonna be a contender, I think you have to show up in these kinds of games. All right. Going on to some winners and losers, we're gonna kinda fire off some stocks that went up and went down. And we're gonna start off with Virginia. I was completely wrong about Virginia. I knew they had the talent on paper. I just had a lot of questions about how the continuity would look with this team. And I was totally wrong about that, 100% wrong. And we'll get to that whenever we talk about the game day collective picks that we made on earlier last week, so I think it was on th Thursday night, released on Friday morning. But Virginia stock went skyrocketing up. I think they were the biggest winners of the the weekend, no doubt. I think that there's a case to be made for maybe North Dakota State, even Memphis. but I think you look at Virginia, absolutely, no doubt in my mind, they were the biggest winners. you you look at that 34-8 victory when you were just barely, I think only a four and a half point favorite. they outgained North Carolina State 413 to 168. They rushed for 258 yards on offense. I think that you look at that and and also what their defense was able to do, holding North Carolina State with a veteran quarterback. Which was the biggest reason why I thought North Carolina State had some stake in this game. They held them to only 3.3 yards per game. Virginia didn't commit a turnover at all. They controlled the time of possession for for more than 38 minutes of this game. It was an incredible game. And I think you look at Bo Prabula, a guy that I had a lot of questions about coming into this game. Not that I don't think he's talented, I think he's very talented. I knew he was talented. Again, the continuity. was really what kind of question was a big question mark for me looking at Virginia. but Bo Premula, he he went nine for 11 and passing, 150 five yards, two touchdowns. He had 15 carries for 110 rushing yards. He looked extremely good. I I'm gonna come out and say it. I think watch out for the ACC race right now because I know Virginia came off of a very good season a season ago. I I just thought that that season from a season ago would not carry over To this season, the way that it it seems to have started off. This was a very good start. And you look at what North what Virginia was able to do against North Carolina State. I think this was the perfect start to a season for an ACC championship run for Virginia. I don't know if they're gonna be able to take over you know, teams like Miami, but man, watch out. I think this is a dangerous Virginia team, and I think that their stock went up dramatically here from week zero and their first. First game of the season. I think stock went down big time for North Carolina State. I think with 168 total yards, CJ Bailey, the veteran quarterback that I put a lot of faith in, I picked North Carolina State because of CJ Bailey, and he comes out and performs this way. You don't see a three-year starter very often in college football anymore. And especially with it with his tenure. He could have gone places. He could have gone elsewhere. He could have found somewhere else to. be a starting quarterback. And I think that he showed a lot of potential leading into this season. And he went 12 for 23, 84 passing yards and an interception. I I I think that that you look at this, the North Carolina State's first eight possessions produced in a big old goose egg, zero points. So, you know, I I think that this ultimately was a result that scares me from Saturday the most. And I think one of the biggest losers from Saturday Because there isn't one easy thing to blame. That was so many different things that were just disastrous for North Carolina State. I figured North Carolina State might lose. I picked them as my upset, but I wasn't very confident on that. I thought, you know what? If I have to pick an upset, that would be the one. And I should have gone with my gut. My gut was trying to tell me, no, just go with Memphis. I kind of feel a little bit more confident on Memphis. And we'll get to that one in a in a second. But North Carolina State couldn't throw it, they couldn't run it. they couldn't get Virginia off the field at all. they they turned it over twice. This was a complete systematic issue with North Carolina State and a lot of issues to to to have to be talked about with North Carolina State, huge drop in their stock. Let's go to another winner. big time draft, not draft, but a big time stock rise for North Dakota State. they ended up winning 33 to 7 over Jacksonville State, huge. FB FBS debut game for them, a big win for them. This was awesome. I loved seeing this from North Dakota State. A powerhouse in the FCS comes around and and like I mentioned at the beginning of the show, this didn't seem like a transition. It seemed more like a warning to the to the rest of the FBS and specifically their conference. man, this is the North Dakota State team that I think could hang in there with a lot of teams in the FBS right now. They looked very good. They outgained Jacksonville State. By 373 yards to 170, they rushed for 209 yards. So anytime you can rush for over 200 yards as a team, you gotta feel good about your performance. It was a very well balanced overall team. I think you look at Nathan Hayes making his first collegiate start too. That was a big question mark that I had. So the reason why I thought Jacksonville State might be able to cover in this game, and the reason why I picked them to cover that seven and a half point spread is that I thought like You know what, this is a team that's been at the at the FBS level and they've per produced. They've done very well at the FBS level. And you look at North Dakota State who's coming into their first FBS team. Sorry, their first FBS game. And they've got a new quarterback at the helm. I don't know. There's some question marks there. I think this could be a close game. I still thought North Dakota State was gonna win. I knew that their their home fielded environment is is tough. that's a very good home field environment, especially for such a small a small school overall, but I I I didn't see this coming out of their their new quarterback in Nathan Hayes. 14 of 22, 160 yards and two touchdowns. He was just efficient and he made smart plays. you look at Miles Mitchell, he had 74 rushes on eleven carries. so that they were just a well-balanced team overall and played complimentary football. So apparently North Dakota State they didn't get the memo that moving to the FPS is supposed to kind of require a little bit of an adjustment period. Nope, they just went full head of steam and came in. So the bison looked like the bison in the F FCS. So watch out. I think that they are a very dangerous team coming into this level. And like I said, specifically within their conference. So very excited for what the future holds for them. Now Jacksonville State, I think their stock went down a little bit. It wasn't anything too Too alarming. I think that they held into that game for a while. I think right before half it's is whenever it started to kind of get out of control. but overall they do have a lot of things that they need to fix going forward. Now, I it's not that I don't think North that Jacksonville State can fix some of these things. It's just that North Dakota State physically controlled that game overall, but stock does go down for the loser there in that game. All right. I'm gonna say there there's a winner in the USC game, and there's no doubt. a man the stock kind of went down a little bit in this win for usc in my opinion. Jade Maiava looked really good. I will say that the offense was the stock that it was what made their stock not completely drop. I think you look at this USC team, they they came in and and they looked really good. They led 35 to three entering the fourth quarter, which is why I think overall their stock kinda just slowly dips down. Now you could say a lot of that was garbage time, so maybe that's what to throw it away for. Jade Maiava though went 25-29, 286 yards, two passing touchdowns, also had a rushing touchdown, which was QB sneak, so not sure how much we put stock into that. But you also look at wide receiver Trent Mosley, who was incredible on the on the the day, had seven catches for 118 yards and a touchdown. And so I think that USC looked really good on offense, which we all knew was gonna come. But that defense kind of crumbled there at the end. And I don't know, like I said, it might just be an overreaction, but I just felt like, man, leading 35 to 3 entering into the fourth quarter and you only win by 16 points. 42 to 26 was the final score. It was just alarming to me to see USC not completely blow them out. Now I thought USC should be able to cover the spread in this game as strong as their offense is and as strong as their offense proved to be now again, garbage time. So I'm not gonna say that their stock went down. I'm just gonna say maybe their stock just kind of plateaued for a minute. We're gonna hold USC where they're at because I thought USC, this defense, I thought might look a lot better. And we start to see a lot of improvements and the entire team, but their fan turnout, that's another reason why I just feel not so good about USC right now. But nonetheless, they won the game, so you can't drop them too much. like I said, maybe I'm just gonna say that USC. Their stock just kind of plateaus for for now until we see something to really feel good about USC. because I think that their fourth quarter depth is really what kind of took a plummet ultimately. So you you've you've got to be able to hold on to that lead. You can't allow 23 points in the fourth quarter. So I I know it was mainly backups, and so I'm not trying to put too much stock into that, but the starting defense, I thought that the stock went up. So I will say that. So it's just something to monitor. because if your depth was that poor, where they allowed 23 points in a single quarter, that's where I start to raise some concerns. Because what if we have injuries pop up? What if we have some some scenarios where you need to rely on that depth because of wear and tear throughout the season? I'm just concerned about USC and their depth, not overall. Overall, I felt like USC kind of showed what I was hoping to see from them overall. that fourth quarter just really stuck, stuck with me. And so that was pretty tough. all right, going on. I guess I don't really have much to say. I don't think there's any stock to be had in Stanford or Hawaii. Both teams, this was kind of a slop fest. I I will say that Hawaii came back. Stanford led 23 to 7 at one point, and this overall performance, this overall score was 37 to 27. And the the the collapse was Hawaii's finish there at the end. I'm not gonna put any stock. rising or s plummeting because there is none that really have don't buy stock in Hawaii or Stanford. That's my my answer here. But for those of you who who bet on the spread for Hawaii, my condolences to you. That sucks that literally in the last minute of the game, a scoop is scored to take it back. man, I don't know. y you would hope that Hawaii could have finished that out. And I really thought that they might be able to there towards the end. But not much going for him there. I will say another winner and a little bit of a stock rise, at least for whatever level you want to put that at, is for Eastern Michigan. Really good performance there and it was Sacramento State's debut in the FPS as well. And s Eastern Michigan ends up taking down Sacramento State twenty eight to seventeen. so, you know, I think that this was kind of a quietly professional performance for Eastern Michigan in in this game. y their their quarterback Noah Kim, he Ended having a really good game overall, 27 of 38, 279 yards and two touchdowns. so I think Eastern Michigan that looked really good. So I think everyone wanted to kind of see how Sacramento State looked entering into the FBS level. And Eastern Michigan reminded everyone that it an established FBS program isn't just gonna roll over and take it the way that Jacksonville State did. So I thought that this was this was a really good performance for Eastern Michigan. Stock rises a little bit for them. And for Sacramento State, I think that their discipline is kind of where, man, I just kind of their stock went down just a little bit from this one. they had 10 penalties for over 85 yards, they had two turnovers. It's really difficult to overcome all of that. So for Sacramento State, you came in just kind of plateaued. Let's see where you're gonna go. Are you gonna go up or go down? And it started off your s your season and it started off your FBS tenure just slightly going down. It was alarming. We need to see something big from Sacramento State coming back. going on to another stock decline was Florida State. I thought Florida State looked very suspect. And I talked about this. I had very full confidence. I think I ended up putting it at an eight and a half out of ten that Florida State would win this game. Felt very good about that. And I meant to take a bet on New Mexico State to cover the spread just because I did not feel confident about Florida State winning this one. comfortably or even covering that 31 and a half point spread. They were 32-point favorites, and the game was 17 to 10 midway through the third quarter. So I mean this was just not a good performance for Florida State. New Mexico State finished with 319 yards. They threw for 272 yards. Ashton Daniels went 17 to 27, 202 yards, a touchdown and an interception. So it just didn't look very good. I will say that their running back croma he he looked really good in this game. 14 carries, 115 yards, and a touchdown on the game. So ultimately I think Florida State, they won by 17, sure, and somehow I come away with way less convinced that before than before that they're gonna do anything. So especially with SMU coming up next, I'm not feeling very good about Florida State. So their stock kind of plummets just a little bit. A stock riser in Memphis, I did pick this one and we'll get to this in just a second. I I I wasn't extremely confident in it, but I did feel like a gut feeling was was we've given me that Memphis was gonna win this game. and so I think that this could have been one of the most valuable group of six victories so far. And you know, you look at what Memphis could do, you just gotta be better than the rest of the group of six teams. And so they went to Las Vegas in in Charles Huff's debut as well. So I thought that that was a a reason where it's kind of shaky, you know, are you gonna be able to To to stand up against Dan Mullen's team where he's got some five stars over on his team. so I I do think that Marcus Stokes, he looked pretty good overall. did only go 15 to 26, but 223 passing yards, two touchdowns, no turnovers. That was the big thing. their running back looked really good as well, Jalen Carter. He went 15 carries, 97 yards, and a touchdown. So ultimately the biggest stat that I take away from this game is that. Memphis sacked Jackson Arnold six times in the second half, including twice in UNLV's final possession there. So I could talk a lot about Jackson Arnold. Here's what I will say. Jackson Arnold looked much better in that game. If you look at his his stats and what he was able to do, he looked like he looked much more comfortable in this system. And I think Jackson Arnold gets way too much hate because he was put in bad situations. He had a terrible offensive line that was completely beat up at Oklahoma. he went to Auburn under Hugh Freeze, who did not utilize him at all and just went completely against his weaknesses and drove him into the ground. Hugh Freeze literally came out and said and told the media that he was trying to get his his own defense to ease up on Jackson Arnold to try to boost his confidence. This is not the way you you build up a quarterback. I think Jackson Arnold showed what I always have seen in him, although the sacks Did hurt him and it hurt his team. But ultimately, let's talk about Memphis. They were the winners. Their stock goes up. I think ultimately Memphis didn't you completely dominate the box score or anything like that, but they dominated the mo moments that really decided the game, and that's a tremendous road win for Mish for Memphis to go on the road to beat UNLV. All right, let's talk about what we learned and we're gonna go through our game day collective week zero picks and kind of talk about how we did. on the picks, really me, because I was the one making the picks this week. It was only my me, myself, and I here on the show. So ultimately before we get out here, we're we're gonna do something every week here on the show. We're gonna kinda go through my own picks, and also if we have co-hosts and guests, we might even go through theirs as well. But we'll we'll talk about where we're right and and we'll talk about it. We're gonna be open whenever we're completely wrong and we're gonna be talking about where we were wrong, where we went wrong, and how we were we felt that we were wrong. In week zero, we had plenty of of good reads, but there were also a couple that seemed to kind of go up in flames almost immediately. So let's talk about our picks and throw them on the screen here, real quick. So going through the picks, I I had a bipartisan person kind of go through and give a grading system on how these picks ended up going. and so those are the grades that you see there on the screen. Starting off with the upset. I picked NC State over Virginia, and you can't can't argue with the grade there. Just was completely on the wrong side. Virginia dominated from start to finish, 1x26. The upset case never materialized anywhere in this game. I thought CJ Bailey would have been the deciding factor. He was the deciding factor, but the complete opposite way. I also underestimated Virginia and how well they were able to get that continuity over on that side all meshed together. Bo Prabula had a really really good game. Overall, my grade was given to me, and that was an F for that pick. just absolutely wrong. My lock was Jacksonville State seven plus seven and a half, just to cover the spread. I thought they'll lose by a touchdown, they'll lose by maybe six points, something like that. but missed completely there. Jacksonville State did not come close to covering. North Dakota, North Dakota State won by 26 as well, and the lock was decisively wrong rather than. Being kind of a late score or even just a close game here. North Dakota State is ready for the FBS level. I think they made that very clear here in week zero. And my grade was given to me as an F there on the lock of the week as well. Game of the week in TCU. This is where it starts to get not much better, but you know what? I don't think there was many people. There was a handful of people in the entire nation that picked North Carolina to win this game. So I you can't. Can't go you can't I think that's why the grade was given as a D here is like we're gonna give you some gra grace here on the grading curve because I mean, we we missed both the winner and the game script altogether. TCU was projected to win comfortably in this game, and North Carolina won outright. The game w was was far lower lower s scoring than projected. if I would have known for a fact that about the weather whenever we made this pick, I probably would have kind of Done the overall score a much different. I predicted 34-20 in a higher scoring game. I just thought that both defenses would be very suspect. But and I also thought that both offenses might look a little cleaner, but the weather did play into this one. So I think that's where the grading curve kind of came in, helped me out overall on the grade, but that one was given to me as a D there on the game of the week projection. This is where it gets much better force on the picks. We had the After Dark game of the week. I picked Memphis to win this one 38 31 to 28. Wasn't far off. and I did pick Memphis to win, so ended up getting a grade of an A on that one. So a little off on the score, a little off on on some of the overall outcome of of what could have been, but I I did feel a little bit more confident going into this game. and after I made my pick there and after the show, I started to feel a little bit more confident about Memphis when I started to even look into it a little further, which is dangerous. Don't do that because sometimes you just change your picks altogether, which I was doing a little bit, but I already put them out there on the record. but ultimately we got the winner right and we were pretty close on the expected margin. so Memphis ended up winning by six after being projected for us to f pick them to win by three. Good one there was graded an A on the after dark mem game there of of the week. All right, so each week we're gonna be picking a high confidence two high confidence wins and t two low confidence wins. So the winner that we're picking. is just like, all right, we think that they're gonna win, but where's the confidence level there? And it's really just on the entire picks. We go through a rapid pick and we pick you know, a bunch of games throughout the the week. we're not gonna say every. We did pick every game of the week this week, but there's only eight games to choose from there. so we're just gonna pick two of the highest confidence, the the the two that go up to that to the top and the two that go down down towards the bottom in terms of how we picked them. So it's like, hey, I picked this team to win, but it wasn't a very high confidence win, high confidence in them winning, and so it goes down. But we still picked them to win nonetheless. So high confidence wins were USC and FSU. So the way that this is gonna work is we'll get half a point for each win that we ended up getting right. So we ended up getting it right on USC and we ended up getting it right on FSU. So a good one there. We ended up getting an A-minus total given to us for that one. And then we look over at the low confidence wins. We were correct on Memphis. That was a six out of ten and six and a half confidence on North Dakota State winning. So we were correct. you know, we we didn't have high confidence in those wins, but we still picked them to win, and they won. And we were really close on Memphis, not quite as as close on North Dakota State, but still ended up getting full points on both of those. So an A given to us on the low confidence picks. So it made me feel a lot better when we started looking towards the bottom half of that graphic and kind of seeing what we had going for us there. So overall, the unique straight-up picks, we went four and two on our straight-up picks, which was really fun to be able to go through in week zero, coming away with a winning record there. Our against the the spread picks were and one. the only against the spread picks that I picked there were Jacksonville State, seven and a half. Obviously, very wrong. So we're gonna be transparent, put this out there. Even when we make our new picks for week one and going on forward, we're going to keep that record put on the screen so we can be completely transparent with you guys as we do it. So it's always easy to jump in here and and and criticize after for the picks that were wrong. But that's why I try to get you guys to jump down in the comments down below before to make your picks as well. So let me know where you got your picks right and where you got your picks wrong. and go ahead and criticize my picks all you want. It's a lot easier to to criticize after the fact than to make your own picks beforehand. So I will throw that out, especially for week zero and week one. The first games of the season are incredibly hard to make any kinds of picks. But ultimately week zero, it was a humbling couple of you know, couple places there, but we did call Memphis. We we trusted North North Dakota State to win, although clearly not nearly enough. and also USC, Florida State kind of took care of business there. But Virginia and North Carolina definitely made me look bad here on our picks this week, no doubt. So that's college football though. we'll we'll kind of adjust the rankings. We will come out with our own rankings and kind of adjust our rankings accordingly. I don't think they're really gonna change much this week. I wouldn't I wouldn't imagine they would, but we will have our own rankings here on the show. So stay tuned throughout the week as we kind of preview. leading up to what's gonna be week one and so much more. So we've got a lot going into it. So of course we we learned a lot of lessons through week zero. We learned just not to even pick on week zero you know at all. It's just it's not worth it. but ultimately it was a lot of fun. I know I am very much looking forward to what we've got in store for week one and beyond. college football season is officially upon us guys and that is exciting to say. So no doubt, very excited for what we've got ahead of us. Again, make sure to stay tuned throughout the week and go check us out over on gamedaycollective.media. That's where you'll find all of our coverage. so much more over there on the site. And you can find merch and all of that to support the show. But of course, that that'll do it for this edition of the Game Day Collective College Football Show. Make sure that if you're watching on YouTube, subscribe over on YouTube. If you're not watching on YouTube, jump over there real quick, subscribe, help us keep on growing there, and follow the podcast. Leave us a five-star review wherever you listen. And follow Game Day Collective on X, Instagram, Facebook, and visit Game DayCollective.media for more college football coverage throughout the week and so much more that we're trying to put together over there on the website. So remember, the conversation doesn't close out where the show does. Welcome into the collective. I'm Josh Mahler, and we'll see you on the next one.