Five Stars of the Week — Week 1

Joshua Ray Amiling
Anthony Richardson
Photo Credit: @BleacherReport on Twitter

For how exciting it was to watch a Week Zero Hawai’i game and feeling the comfort of another Nebraska blown game, what college football fans were really waiting for was Week 1. It delivered excitement and more, with plenty of close calls, upsets, and dominating performances kicking off the first weekend with a full slate of games. It made deciding who my five stars would be much more difficult, but it was fairly easy in the end to go with these picks. As a reminder, my qualifications for my Five Stars are that they have to be adjacent to college football in some way. Whether it be an incredible player stat line, a team putting on a show, an announcer having an epic call or misspeak or more, all that matters is that it happened because a college football game was happening. 

Note: Updates will be made if something notable happens in the LSU vs. Florida State game or the Clemson vs. Georgia Tech game. 

A Basketball Game Breaks Out in Boone

Defense was optional for Appalachian State and North Carolina. In what had already been a fun game, the Tar Heels saw a 41-21 lead evaporate then nearly disappear after the Mountaineers scored a touchdown to pull it to 56-55 with under a minute to go. However, the attempted two-point conversion failed as the Chase Brice pass sailed over an open receiver. But the madness was not over yet as the onside kick was recovered by North Carolina and returned for a touchdown. After the extra point, it was still only an eight-point game. With an unsportsmanlike conduct to boot that pushed the kickoff back, the Mountaineers returned the kick to the Tar Heels’ 48-yard line and scored a touchdown in two plays. Unfortunately for the Mountaineers, the tying two-point attempt was no good and on the ensuing onside kick, North Carolina went down immediately after the recovery to seal the bananas 63-61 victory. 

Sean Clifford Stalls the Boilermakers

Things were not looking good for the visiting Nittany Lions on Thursday night. Purdue had just picked off a sailed Sean Clifford pass and returned it 72 yards for a touchdown to take a 31-28 lead midway through the fourth quarter. But after two defensive stops, Penn State marched 80 yards in just over a minute, with Clifford dicing up the secondary all the way to the end zone with a 10-yard touchdown pass to Keyvone Lee out of the backfield for a thrilling 35-31 win. It also gave us our first Gus Johnson moment. 

Hello Gus, we missed you.  

Houston and UTSA Have an Epic Texas Showdown 

Houston and UTSA opened the year against each other with plenty of hype behind each team after great 2021 seasons. In a rocking Alamodome, the Roadrunners held a 21-7 lead going into the fourth quarter. But then Clayton Tune, who statistically does most of his damage in the fourth quarter, threw two touchdown passes in the final period of regulation to help bring the Cougars back. After a go-ahead Bubba Baxa field goal with 23 seconds left, it looked like the game was over. But Frank Harris threw two absolute dots to put UTSA in field goal range. The game-tying attempt split the uprights to send the game into overtime. After trading field goals in the first overtime and touchdowns with two-point conversions in the second, Houston took the lead in the third overtime after Tune leapt for the score. The following UTSA attempt was no good and Houston escaped with a thrilling 37-35 win. 

Anthony Richardson Announces Himself to the College Football World

Hosting seventh-ranked Utah, Florida was an underdog in the minds of many.

But the Gators had a not-so-secret weapon on their side: Anthony Richardson. In an absolute slugfest of a game, Richardson had a decent day through the air with a 17-of-24, 168-yard passing line. But it was on the ground where he won Florida the game. On only 11 carries, he tallied 106 yards and three scores, including the game-winning run with 1:25 to go in the game. Cameron Rising proceeded to throw an interception on second-and-goal, wasting the Utes’ second goal-to-go situation of the game (they had previously been stopped on four straight downs) to give Florida an impressive 29-26 win to open the Billy Napier era. 

Arizona is Not #ForTheBrand  

Arizona defeated San Diego State 38-20, but it wasn’t without blunders. This punt was less than ideal, but it provided neutral fans plenty of laughs.

About the author

Joshua Ray Amiling
Website | Read more posts by this author

I’m a Washington Huskies fan who is still amazed but not surprised that we didn’t have more success under Chris Petersen (I blame Jake Browning). Sports are my life. I know nothing else. I graduated from Bethany Lutheran College with a degree in Communication. I’ve been a part of a newspaper since 8th grade, including my college’s official newspaper where I was co-copy editor.

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