Week 1 overreactions: LSU's perfect, Pitt has Heisman QB, Florida is fixed

The first full week of the college football season doubles as the only time every team's fan base feels positive.

This year's slate featured just one Top 25 matchup, as most of the ranked teams played tuneups against lower-level schools. That led to some incredibly lopsided scores that will surely cause everyone - including us - to overreact heading into Week 2.

Note: These are meant to be overreactions and we won't be held responsible if these takes don't happen. However, if they do come true, we will insist these were serious predictions.

LSU is going undefeated

Our first overreaction in last year's edition of this piece was to call LSU the future national champion based on a 17-10 road victory at Clemson. Not only did that not happen, but Brian Kelly failed to make it through the season. Now, new head coach Lane Kiffin haunts our lives 24/7 with a never-ending zest to remain the story of college football. This year, we need to up the ante after the Tigers handed Dabo Swinney the worst loss of his Clemson tenure in a 41-point blowout. LSU won't just win the national title this year; it will do so in undefeated fashion.

Sure, that might sound like a stretch - these are overreactions after all - but the stats suggest it's almost appropriate. While this may not be the Clemson of old, LSU ran its opponent off the field in the opening three quarters. By the time the second-stringers took over in the fourth, LSU had outgained Clemson by an absurd 507-73 margin and held the Tigers to only four first downs.

The SEC schedule will be significantly tougher, but the LSU we saw Saturday ain't losing anytime soon.

Chambliss will put up 6,000 yards

Only one quarterback in college football history has produced over 6,000 yards in a season. Well, Joe Burrow will soon have to make room for Trinidad Chambliss in that club. Chambliss' 2026 campaign began with a bang as Ole Miss outlasted Louisville in an epic 41-38 thriller Sunday. The sixth-year signal-caller sure looked like a 24-year-old playing defenders three and four years his junior, torching the Cardinals' defense for a total of 396 yards and four touchdowns.

Although Burrow's mark of 6,039 total yards seems borderline unattainable in today's game, Ole Miss' defense didn't provide much help in taking down Louisville. That suggests the Rebels may be in for a season of shootouts that require Chambliss to go hero mode on a weekly basis.

Utah carried Whittingham

Turns out, Utah's success under Kyle Whittingham might've had more to do with the program than the coach.

Whittingham piled up a boatload of wins in 21 years with the Utes before becoming the new head coach at Michigan following Sherrone Moore's dismissal. It took one game for him to learn that things are a little different outside of Salt Lake City. Whittingham's debut with the Wolverines was a disaster that ended up being saved by one of the wildest finishes in recent memory. By now you've see the Hail Mary winner that occurred after the officials added one second to the game clock, but don't let the insane finish distract you from the fact that Michigan largely failed to handle Western Michigan.

In Week 2, Oklahoma and its dominant defense are coming to the Big House to face the Wolverines' anemic offense, and Whittingham's confidence in high-priced quarterback Bryce Underwood is already wavering. Nothing we saw Saturday suggests they can handle the pressure from the Sooners' front. A loss would send Whittingham to 1-1 in his early Michigan tenure, with the victory being unimpressive if not controversial. That's not exactly what you'd call "thriving."

Sumrall has fixed Florida

Jon Sumrall had Florida's offense cooking in his debut. The Gators logged a Week 1 high of 66 points and were never forced to punt, which the head coach joked about Monday.

The godfather of punting, Iowa's Kirk Ferentz, would shed a tear at the thought of such a possibility.

Florida ranked an embarrassing 118th in the country in scoring last year. That's primarily why the Gators fired Billy Napier and brought Sumrall aboard in the offseason. One of Sumrall's first moves was hiring Buster Faulkner from Georgia Tech to run the offense, and he hit it out of the park like early 2000s Barry Bonds launching a hanging curveball.

The Gators scored on 10 of their 11 drives Saturday, with the only blemish being an Aaron Philo interception.

Heintschel for Heisman

Week 1 confirmed what we already expected: A quarterback will win the Heisman Trophy. However, it won't be Arch Manning, Dante Moore, CJ Carr, or Chambliss; in the end, the trophy will be headed to Pitt in the hands of Mason Heintschel.

The star passer lit up the scoreboard against Miami (Ohio) on Saturday, throwing for 453 yards and an ACC-record seven touchdowns. Question Heintschel's resume all you want, but Dan Marino never threw seven touchdowns at Pitt and he turned out pretty damn good. The competition facing the Panthers will certainly be tougher going forward, but if we didn't call the Heisman race in Week 1, we wouldn't be doing justice to an overreaction piece.

Oklahoma State has buyer's remorse

A 19-12 loss to Tulsa last season ended Mike Gundy's 21-year tenure as Oklahoma State's head coach. Then, the Cowboys hired North Texas' Eric Morris, money poured in, and transfers - including prolific passer Drew Mestemaker - flocked to Stillwater to rebuild the once-proud program. The result? An even worse 24-10 loss to Tulsa to begin the 2026 campaign.

While the defeat in itself certainly stings for Oklahoma State fans who are taking jabs from Tulsa grads, it's the manner in which the game unfolded that presents a case of buyer's remorse. Morris' North Texas offense led the nation in scoring a season ago (44 points per game), and Mestemaker was the only 4,000-yard passer in the country. That duo was supposed to restore the Cowboys to the offensive juggernaut they were for most of Gundy's career. Instead, Oklahoma State scored 10 points on a local Group of 6 opponent and Mestemaker threw two picks.