What's to Blame for College Football's Week 1 Struggles?

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College football is traditionally the high scoring, exciting counterpart to the NFL. It's why I have recommended college ball to people who just want to start watching football and not necessarily follow closely.

Whether it is through an up-tempo offense, multipe overtimes, or simply an offensive shootout, CFB fans are accustomed to great offense.

Brief Game Recaps

Multiple high-level teams were able to score fifty or more points on FCS teams in week one, but that is to be expected. Looking through the games we were most excited for, there were very few examples of high scoring affairs, and the offenses looked sloppy overall.

Here's the final scores for the high-level matchups from college football's week one.

Texas @ Ohio State - 14-7

LSU @ Clemson - 17-10

Georgia Tech @ Colorado - 27-20

South Carolina vs Virginia Tech - 24-11

Yes, some of the top games did have some big scores. Notre Dame and Miami combined for 51 points, Auburn at Baylor saw 62 total points, and the neutral-site game between Tennessee and Syracuse combined for 71.

However, the two premier matchups on Saturday, Texas/Ohio State and LSU/Clemson were defensive battles, and many expected at least one of these games to turn into a shootout -- and neither did.

Personally, that was about the score that I anticipated from the Longhorns and Buckeyes.

Both teams were debuting a new full-time starter, replaced big pieces along the offensive line, and the team who had less questions defensively, Texas, still had to go on the road into The Shoe.

Texas even had the "staff advantage," retaining their coordinators that arrived in Austin with head coach Steve Sarkisian. Ohio State was replacing both coordinators, as Chip Kelly left for the NFL, and defensive coordinator Jim Knowles accepted an offer he couldn't refuse from Big Ten rival Penn State.

The betting odds favorite to take home the Heisman in December, Arch Manning, was woeful throughout the game, failing to complete routine passes and did not elevate his game to the standard that needed to be met. Ohio State struggled on the ground to the tune of 2.0 yds/per carry, and couldn't convert on 3rd down, at just a 30% rate.

Kyle Robertson – Imagn Images

LSU and Clemson had high-level weapons that college football fans were already familiar with, both returned Heisman caliber QB's, and well coached, sound defenses with experience.

Yet, neither team could really get things moving on offense with any level of consistency. LSU impressed through the air when going to star receivers Aaron Anderson (6 catches, 99 yds) and Barion Brown (5 catches, 25 yds, and another catch/TD wrongfully called a drop by the officials), but couldn't finish drives on a consistent basis.

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What Caused the Low Scores?

It wasn't just Texas/Ohio State and LSU/Clemson that had low final scores. It was a general feeling amongst the CFB public that the offenses were lagging, and it felt "boring" as opposed to normal weeks and previous week one slates.

The reasons do vary game to game, but there are some overarching themes for each matchup.

The Transfer Portal

NIL and the transfer portal have become the college football equivalent to parents saying "it's that damn phone!"

None of that here, but there are reasons that the portal can hurt a team early on, even if it is truly game changing over the course of a season.

Bringing in any amount of new players and starting them early on can be tough on any team, regardless of their talent level. Communication along the offensive line, quarterbacks syncing up with receivers and tight ends, defensive backs passing off routes, timing on stunts along the defensive line... These are all things that take time, familiarity, and live in-game reps to make happen at a high level. Play high-level games in week one and these things are sure to be exposed.

Even in a win, take LSU for example. They brought in the number one transfer portal class (per 247Sports) this offseason, with eighteen portal players coming in. Four of those eighteen are offensive skill position players. The Tigers frequently rotated their receivers and tight ends, and aside from returning star WR Aaron Anderson, Nussmeier could not establish a connection with anyone with consistency. The rotations will tighten up as the season goes along, but the quantity of receivers entering the game is not manageable and not good for the quarterback.

Aside from familiarity, the portal has simply spread out offensive talent across a wider number of teams. Though some teams like LSU have been able to stack positions like reciever, generally, the portal has spread out the talent and depth across all of college football.

The same applies to the defensive side of the ball, but the fact of the matter is, defenses generally take a shorter amount to install playbooks, and come together into a high level of football. The portal has also allowed teams to plug small holes into their defense, which can take an average defense into an elite one fairly quickly.

For example, Oregon has been stout defensively since head coach Dan Lanning and defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi's hirings in 2022. They have attacked the defensive line and secondary in high school recruiting as good as anyone has since then, and have had elite additions in the transfer portal. Even with that, the safety position has been a major weakness, and almost all of their major losses in the Lanning era can be chalked up to being too weak at the safety position. This year, they acquired Purdue transfer Dillon Thieneman, a two-time all-Big Ten selection, the 2023 Big Ten freshman of the year, and arguably the best safety in the nation. An immediate fix to a big hole, essentially removing any big questions of Oregon's defense.

Two-High Shells

I'm not about to go full Mel Kiper and say that two-high shells are ruining football and that they should be banned, but it is no secret that they take away some of the explosive pass game we know and love.

The two-high safety look, which is now used on more downs than not in the NFL to try and take away the massive arms of Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, and Lamar Jackson has been in college football for a long time.

The two-high shell refers to two safeties lined up deep on the defense, each responsible for one half of the field, attacking any pass that comes their way.

I don't necessarily love this answer, as we still had high scoring games with deep shots involved, and we will see many, many more as the season progresses, but it could be PART of an answer.

It's Week One...

The easy, simple answer, that ties itself into the first answer regarding the transfer portal, it is/was week one. Though there have been some examples of exciting, high scoring week one games, there shouldn't be too high of expectations. These are 18-22 year old men trying to figure out an offense that in some cases they have only been around for a couple months, some are getting a new system from a new coordinator, and all of them haven't played a football game in months. It takes time to gel, and get in tune with a new football season.

Give it time, and the high-flying, high-scoring college football that we all know and love will be back. Don't hit the panic button, college football has not completely lost its way (yet).