Technically, we’re all winners because college football is officially back. No more Saturdays spent mowing the lawn, attending family parties, or whatever other menial chore occupied the hours where football is meant to be. Yet, in college football, while there are several stocks that go up, others must go down. Even in Week 0, there was plenty of both. Join us as we celebrate and commiserate college football’s Week 0 stock up and stock down!
College football Week 0 | Stock up
Firstly, with a bumper schedule of 11 games that involved FBS teams, not to mention additional FCS games, CFB fans were definite winners. Normally, Week 0 features a mere handful of games with little meaningful matchups, but the scheduling gods gave us an early treat. But, let’s look at those whose stock moved up from college football Week 0 before we move on.
Northwestern Wildcats
Remember when Nebraska slammed Northwestern 56-7 last season? Remember when the oddsmakers made the Cornhuskers a 13-point favorite to whip the Wildcats once again? You better believe that Pat Fitzgerald and his Northwestern team remembered both of those things and used them to fuel a gritty, emotional, shock win that gave hope of a return to a winning season after last year’s disastrous 3-9 campaign.
Yes, Northwestern were winners on the Aviva Stadium scoreboard when the dust settled in Dublin, Ireland. However, there was much more to take away from it than that. After struggling with inconsistency and inadequacy at the quarterback position last fall, Ryan Hilinksi put in an impressive performance that gave the Wildcats offense optimism but also helped free up the ground game for the physical Cam Porter and productive Evan Hull.
There were plenty of standout individual performances, such as Peter Skoronski who solidified his standing as a potential top offensive line prospect in the 2023 NFL Draft. Defensive lineman Adetomiwa Adebawore was a simply unstoppable force on the front, helping stall multiple Nebraska drives and contributing to the deterioration of the Cornhuskers’ passing game that had started out in breathtaking up-tempo fashion.
However, it was a whole team performance, from front to back, on both sides of the ball that really elevated Northwestern on Saturday. The secondary was astounding for the most part, repeatedly called into action by Casey Thompson and for the most part standing firm. This team has the makings of a contender in the Big Ten if they continue to gel and develop. The emotion HC Fitzgerald put into his post-game press conference shows on the field.
North Carolina running back room
Chapel Hill has become something of a running back factory in recent years. Javonte Williams and Michael Carter dominated out of the North Carolina backfield, giving them a devastating double-headed monster. Ty Chandler achieved his only 1,000-yard season when he spent 2021 with the Tar Heels. And the tradition looks set to continue for at least three years following some mesmerizing RB performances in the 56-24 win over Florida A&M.
Why three years? Well that’s the minimum time that George Pettaway and Omarion Hampton will be eligible for. The two stud true freshmen running backs put on a show for Tar Heels fans on Saturday night.
Hampton earned Freshman Player of the Week honors here at PFN after tallying 101 yards and two scores on 14 carries. Meanwhile, Pettaway needed just four carries to reach 51 yards with an end-zone trip of his own. Elijah Green also added 69 yards on eight carries. The future is bright for the Tar Heels ground game.
Nathan Carter, UConn
It might have been in a losing effort to a good Utah State team, but UConn running back Nathan Carter had one of the best single-game performances of anyone during college football Week 0. The third-year RB toted the ball 20 times on Saturday evening, finishing with 190 yards at 9.5 yards per carry.
The 5’9″, 194-pounder also added a reception for 10 yards to hit a double-century in scrimmage yards as the Huskies’ second-quarter collapse led to a 31-20 defeat. It was the third 100+ yard game of Carter’s career.
The Doug Brumfield and Ricky White connection
It might have been against an Idaho State team that UNLV has previously put up nearly 100 points on, but Doug Brumfield to Ricky White looked like one of the best QB/WR connections in all of college football on Saturday.
Brumfield completed 21 of his 25 pass attempts for 356 yards and four touchdowns. That’s more yards than he threw in three outings last season and double the touchdowns for the 6’5″, 215-pound quarterback.
Over half of Brumfield’s passing yards went to White. The former Michigan State wide receiver looked like a man amongst boys out there. He snagged eight receptions for 182 yards and two touchdowns. Those two scores included the highlight play of the night, a left-handed lob from Brumfield that White tracked over his shoulder, escaped the attentions of a defensive back on the sideline, and walked it in for a 72-yard score. UNLV will have harder matchups this year, but it was a great start for the transfer WR and his third-year QB.
Vanderbilt Commodores
Saturday night was meant to be a celebration for Hawaii, with the return of heroic quarterback Timmy Chang as the head coach and the expectation that he can facilitate change within the Rainbow Warriors. Except, someone forgot to tell Vanderbilt.
On the back of a commanding performance by quarterback Mike Wright, the Commodores steamrollered Hawaii 63-10 in a game that a lot of analysts considered to have “upset alert” potential.
Wright was simply too good for the Rainbow Warriors. He threw for 146 yards with two touchdown strikes to under-the-radar draft prospect WR Will Sheppard. But, the third-year QB did his best work on the ground, gashing Hawaii for 163 yards and two scores that included a ludicrously exciting 87-yard rushing touchdown. While they’re a long way from Clark Lea’s assertion that they can become a dominant force in the SEC, it’s a good start.
College football Week 0 | Stock down
Football is a sport to be enjoyed, a game to be loved. Sometimes it feels like football analysts forget that, over-criticizing and dwelling on the negatives and sapping the excitement from the game.
We prefer positivity here at Pro Football Network. but some saw their stocks go down in college football Week 0.
Scott Frost
It can get really cold in Ireland, and after Nebraska’s defeat to Northwestern, meteorologists might have been forecasting some frost on the tarmac at Dublin airport. All puns and jokes aside, Scott Frost is in real danger of finding himself out of a job sooner rather than later. He was meant to be the savior who returned the Cornhuskers to glory. Right now, he looks like he might struggle to lead them back from Ireland to Nebraska.
There were some positives to take away from Nebraska’s narrow defeat to Northwestern. However, the negatives speak volumes about the issues with this team.
His decision to kick an onside kick while in a comfortable position turned the momentum of the game. To his credit, he held his hands up and accepted responsibility for the decision, but that only adds further evidence to a statistical résumé that is threatening to bury him.
Frost has compiled a miserable 15-30 record as Nebraska’s head coach. He’s never been able to beat an AP-ranked team, and he’s 10-26 against the Big Ten. In one-score games, he’s now 5-21.
Frost was asked on Saturday night if there was a time that he would walk away from the team. The answer was a categorical no, but Frost and other people within the organization know that results like this will eventually put an end to his tenure.
Florida A&M Rattlers
It’s with a heavy heart that I put the Florida A&M Rattlers in the stock-down section of college football Week 0, it truly is. I had high hopes of the Rattlers causing one of the great CFB upsets when they traveled to Chapel Hill to take on a North Carolina team who were facing life without Sam Howell for the first time in three years.
As it was, they put up a battling effort. Only a fourth-quarter collapse made the scoreboard look like an embarrassing and catastrophic defeat.
The sad thing with this situation, this loss — and one of the reasons they find themselves on the stock-down side of this college football review — is the what if? Because, what if the Rattlers had taken a full-strength squad to Chapel Hill? What if Isaiah Land had been able to play? There’s a chance that they could have pulled off the greatest shock of not just Week 0, but the entire season.
But due to various issues, 25 players were deemed ineligible for the season-opening game. The players that took to the field and battled hard for Florida A&M deserve to be celebrated as winners. However, the oversights in the process that denied those players — and college football fans — the opportunity to be a part of something special and shocking, sees them slide into the losers section of this article.
Charlotte 49ers
It feels like ages ago since Charlotte was the feel-good story of college football. That 2019 season that saw the 49ers have a winning season and reach a bowl game for the first time in the program’s short history hasn’t really kicked on to something better.
For the second straight season, the 49ers were turned over by Florida Atlantic. Despite taking an early lead, Charlotte ended up on the wrong side of a 43-13 shellacking.
The 30-point differential is bad enough. However, it was the nature of the defeat that sees Charlotte tabbed as a loser from college football Week 0. Tackling was very much optional in Boca Raton, with a 52-yard touchdown run from Larry McCammon III providing teach tape on how not to tackle and the angles not to take to stop a ball carrier. The defense gave up nearly 500 yards, and they struggled to get anything going on the ground themselves.