Ten defining moments from past opening slates

True freshman wide receiver Zachariah Branch was the talk of Week 0 last season when he opened his career with an electric debut. The former five-star recruit drew instant comparisons to Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush with his explosiveness and elusiveness, racking up all-purpose yards in a Week 0 drubbing of San José State. Branch completed a 96-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, took three punt returns for 66 yards, handled a carry for 12 yards and caught four passes for 58 yards and a score in an immediate breakout performance. He went on to become an integral part of the Trojans’ offense and special teams units and is perhaps their most exciting player ahead of the 2024 season.

Notre Dame took a slight step forward in Year 2 under Marcus Freeman, who completed his first 10-win season as a head coach. The 42-3 rout of Navy last year’s Ireland game was a harbinger of the dominance to come for the Fighting Irish, who flexed their defensive muscles on just about every opponent they faced. It was also the first of four-straight games with at least 40 points for the offense, and while that pace cooled down in the middle of the season, the unit remained the seventh-highest-scoring group in the land.

Scott Frost entered his fifth season at Nebraska on the hot seat, and despite the hopes that 2022 could finally be his breakthrough year, Frost ultimately lasted just three games. A loss to Northwestern in the Ireland game spelled major trouble for a coach that could ill afford to lose to inferior competition, and the defeat looked even worse at season’s end when the Wildcats finished with a putrid 1-11 record — their only win coming over the Huskers in that Week 0 contest. Frost was out two weeks later when Nebraska lost to Georgia Southern.

Season openers are often sloppy affairs riddled with Game 1 jitters, and that was clearly the case for a Florida team that otherwise had a tremendous 2019 season. The Gators committed multiple turnovers in opposing territory and kept Miami in the game with late penalties but ultimately squeaked out a one-possession victory over their in-state rival. While the close call briefly cost them a spot in the AP Top 10, they never fell further than No. 11 all season. It was a key victory for Dan Mullen in his winningest year atop the Florida program.

Florida State entered 2002 as a premier national championship contender and carried a No. 3 preseason ranking into its Week 0 battle with Iowa State at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium. The Seminoles built a commanding 24-0 lead, but the Cyclones stormed back and made things precarious for Bobby Bowden’s crew, narrowing the margin to a touchdown by the end of the fourth quarter. The rocky second half pointed out flaws in an FSU team that never again climbed as high as No. 3 in the rankings and ultimately lost five games, falling well short of a national title.

Texas won the Big 12 South in 1999, but it had higher aspirations in Year 2 of the Mack Brown era and came up short of all of those, losing in the Big 12 Championship Game and falling to rival Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl. Signs pointed to a disappointing campaign right out of the gate when the eventual five-loss Longhorns slipped up in a significant upset to NC State on their home turf, dropping a 23-20 season-opener. The Wolfpack blocked a whopping three Texas punts and scored 16 points off those plays — including the game-winning touchdown.

Arizona was fresh off the best season in program history and returned most of its starters from that 12-win campaign, sparking Rose Bowl aspirations and even some national title hopes. The Wildcats held a No. 3 preseason ranking — the highest in school history. But when they fell on their faces in a 41-7 Week 0 beatdown, it became clear very early on that they could not hang with the nation’s best teams. That loss to No. 4 Penn State was the first of six defeats in a massively underwhelming campaign in which Arizona did not even make a bowl game, let alone the Rose Bowl.

Texas A&M had never won fewer than eight games in a season under R.C. Slocum until the 1996 campaign, in which the Aggies disappointed with a 6-6 record. They carried a No. 13 ranking into their Week 0 matchup with BYU and fell victim to an upset loss in Provo, setting the tone for an uncharacteristically underwhelming year. The defeat sent the Aggies tumbling to No. 25 in the AP Top 25 Poll, and after their loss to Southwestern Louisiana the next week, they dropped out of the rankings for good.

The 1990 season-opening duel between a pair of top-10 squads in Colorado and Tennessee remains arguably the best Week 0 game of all time. The Pigskin Classic in Anaheim resulted in a 31-31 tie and gave the Buffaloes a key résumé-building result on their path to a national championship. That they could hang with one of the nation’s top teams was an early sign of a special year in which they lost just one game and rattled off five ranked victories en route to an Orange Bowl title and their first and only national championship in program history.

The 1984 team remains the only Auburn football squad to enter a season at No. 1 in the AP Top 25 Poll. It knew its first two games would be an indicator of potential national championship contention, but unfortunately for the Tigers, neither of those games went their way. They opened the year with a 20-18 loss to No. 10 Miami at a neutral-site, Week 0 battle, and after two weeks of preparation for No. 4 Texas, they came up short in another marquee matchup. That 0-2 start sent Auburn plummeting in the rankings, and it never quite recovered in a four-loss campaign.