Week 1 Overreactions: Notre Dame is 2023 Michigan, Georgia's inevitability, frontrunner trio for the Heisman Trophy

We’ve seen one full week of college football, with the 2024 season debut featuring some marquee matchups (Notre Dame-Texas A&M, Clemson-Georgia, LSU-USC), lots of FCS blowouts and a couple sensational performances by individual players. 

Is it too soon for some sweeping overreactions? Na, college football is the ultimate small sample size sport. We only get 12 data points during the regular season, so here are some 2024 Week 1 overreactions:

Notre Dame is 2023 Michigan, will go undefeated in the regular season

It took a tad longer than anticipated, but in Game 1 of Year 3, Marcus Freeman delivered his proof of concept with Saturday’s statement win at No. 20 Texas A&M. He pushed the right buttons in the transfer portal (from quarterback Riley Leonard to kicker Mitch Jeter), assembled a star-studded defense (Howard Cross, Xavier Watts, Benjamin Morrison) and made the correct coaching changes (bringing in OC Mike Denbrock) that resulted in the Irish’s most impressive win in recent memory. 

Notre Dame went into a College Station’s crazed cauldron and managed to play with the perfect combination of poise and reckless abandon. They certainly didn’t play the cleanest brand of football (11 penalties for 92 yards), but they never panicked when they made a silly mistake. 

We knew the Irish’s defense was going to be among the best in the country. We were wrong that their offensive line would suddenly be a sieve without their two NFL Draft picks and injured tackle Charles Jagusah (hat-tip to freshman left tackle Anthonie Knapp, who made his debut in Kyle Field against Texas A&M’s DL and more than held his own). 

Leonard, Jeremiyah Love & Co., answered their toughest test of the season in Week 1. The Irish will be favored in every game the rest of the way and already have an inside track for a College Football Playoff berth. Between their schedule, salty defense, run game and Leonard’s ability to make plays on 3rd downs, if you’re looking for 2023 Michigan, this is your team.

Georgia’s run to another national title appearance feels inevitable

At this point, there’s an inevitability with Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs. They’re a tsunami, coming at opponents wave after wave. Teams can only fight Georgia so long until they drown just trying to survive all the crashing blows. Clemson was merely the first of many victims that will fall to Georgia in 2024.

To win 40 straight regular-season games and play with such consistent relentlessness (be tackling, pursuit, downfield blocking, etc.) and togetherness (true team complimentary football) is truly remarkable in today’s landscape of college football. 

These 2024 Bulldogs are not a flawless team, but in the dawn of the 12-team playoff, they can survive a few fleas. Ohio State, Texas, Alabama and Ole Miss all remain formidable, but the scariest takeaway for the rest of the country Saturday should be that Georgia wasn’t even operating at peak capacity — and like every other program in the country, they expect to improve from Week 1 to Wee 2 and beyond, too. 

One of either Cam Ward, Travis Hunter Jr. or Nico Iamaleava will win the 2024 Heisman Trophy

The race for the 2024 Heisman Trophy was seen as wide-open as ever this fall, but what if it’s not? After Week 1, three candidates separated themselves from the pack. I think. The award is nominally supposed to go to the nation’s best player, but it’s also ripe with narrative, so despite guys like Carson Beck, Jaxson Dart, Quinn Ewers and others all having strong starts to the 2024 season, Ward, Hunter and Iamaleava had both the performances and preseason storylines to give them a leg-up. 

Ward was electric in Miami’s flattening of Florida. In the Swamp, the Wazzu transfer played with a nonchalant swagger that was stunning to watch. He finished with 385 yards and three touchdowns — talking trash with every throw and run. 

Hunter Jr. proved he’s the best pure player in the sport, once again racking up another 100+ snap game where he made a tantalizingly insane circus catch for a touchdown (one of three on the night) and spearheaded Colorado’s secondary. 

Lastly, Iamaleava sure looked like the prince who was promised for Tennessee, setting a school record with 315 passing yards in the first half in his first regular-season start. 

If this trio continues to deliver similar results each Saturday, here’s your New York City triumvirate of finalists.

Billy Napier has no choice but to play 5-star freshman DJ Lagway more

Florida’s head coach spent the last six months promising that the Gators had better players and a much-improved team than his first two seasons. Either Napier was putting lipstick on a pig for optics reasons, or worse, he truly believed this and was dead wrong. 

For six months, both head coaches were adamant they had better teams.

Mario Cristobal was clearly correct. Whereas Billy Napier was either putting lipstick on a pig … or worse, thought he did and rolled out there with *that.* https://t.co/pMYYxka0T3

— Jesse Simonton (@JesseReSimonton) September 1, 2024

Either way, the Gators’ head coach is up shit’s creek after losing for the fifth time in the Swamp in just over two seasons — something Steve Spurrier managed to do just five times in 12 years as UF’s head coach. 

The Gators’ offense line, supposedly a team strength, was manhandled by Miami, while their pass rush was non-existent. Outside of Tre Wilson and Montrell Johnson, they don’t have many playmakers, and while Graham Mertz (11 of 20 for 91 yards and an interception) wasn’t the primary problem Saturday, he wasn’t any good, either.

Enter DJ Lagway. The 5-star freshman looked a lot like a freshman in his garbage-time snaps against the ‘Canes, but Lagway also displayed some much-needed athleticism at the quarterback position for UF (one nice 16-yard run). The Texas native was never going to be the savior for Florida against this gauntlet schedule, but Lagway may be the only hope for Napier to save his job. The freshman at least provided a listless Florida team some juice. Outside of Johnson’s 75-yard touchdown sprint, Lagway led the Gators’ best drive of the afternoon.

Napier doesn’t need to outright bench Mertz, but Lagway needs to see a lot of snaps the rest of the season — and not just mop-up duty when Florida is down four touchdowns again.