Joey Galloway and Jesse Palmer name USC, Florida most impressive season openers

After a busy Week 1 of college football, ESPN analysts Joey Galloway and Jesse Palmer thought two teams shined in their openers above all. While recapping the week’s performances on College Football Countdown, Galloway and Palmer picked USC and Florida as their best debuts of the nation over the weekend.

Galloway and Palmer pick their most impressive Week 1 openers

“USC, because of what their defense did,” answered Galloway. “When we covered them in the spring game, they had 50 or 60 scholarship players. We knew they were gonna have to get into the portal to fill out that roster. To sort of get to a place where they had some depth. They just didn’t have any depth at USC.

“To see them come out, and the defense again account for 28 points — we know what Lincoln Riley is gonna do. We know he’s gonna score a lot of points. If they can be good on the defensive side, this could be a season they win the Pac-12 when everybody expected it to be Utah‘s conference.”

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As Galloway praised Lincoln Riley’s debut performance — and the Trojans defense recording an incredible three pick-six scores — Palmer went with another team profiting over the weekend at Utah’s expense.

“I’m gonna go with Billy Napier at Florida guys,” responded Palmer. “I just don’t think a lot of people gave them a chance against the defending Pac-12 champion, Utah. And I think a lot of people were wondering what the identity of the Gators were going to be and how they were gonna buy in. Everywhere he’s been, it’s all about physicality. And you saw that, especially on offense. They ran for 283 yards against what — over the last five years has been — one of the best defenses in the Pac-12. That’s really impressive.

“Anthony Richardson is the real deal at quarterback for the Florida Gators. So I think that performance, getting that win … they better turn the page because they’ve got a very good Kentucky team now coming into the Swamp this weekend. Don’t have a lot of time to celebrate that, but I think if you’re Billy Napier … just how physical his team played against an outstanding opponent was really impressive.”

Following their big Week 1 performances, both schools face conference opponents in their next game. USC next turns their attention to Stanford as they look to improve on their hot start defensively, while Florida gets little time to rest as they prepare to host Kentucky.