Column: Marquee matchups gave college football one of its best opening weekends in recent years
A hint of defiance marked Bob Stoops’ voice as he spoke from the podium.
His third-ranked Oklahoma Sooners had just lost their season opener, upset by No. 15 Houston, and Stoops kept that trademark white visor tugged down tightly over his eyes.
“I’ve still got a strong belief in our team,” he said. “We’ve still got a chance for a great year.”
Coaches are supposed to talk like that but, in this case, he might be right.
College football is venturing into new territory — or at least testing the waters — with marquee programs motivated to schedule quality opponents, rather than pushovers, in the early going.
This opening weekend ranked among the best in recent memory, featuring a slew of games between top 25 and power conference elite.
It helps that the fledgling College Football Playoff leaves some wiggle room for teams to lose in nonconference play and scramble back for a shot at the national championship.
A few days ago — before UCLA suffered an overtime defeat at Texas A&M — Coach Jim Mora mused about a landscape where powerhouses aren’t afraid to square off in September.
“I think it’s beautiful,” Mora said. “You talk about generating interest in college football right off the bat.”
Not that everyone has bought into this outlook. Among top 10 schools, sixth-ranked Ohio State opened against Bowling Green and No. 7 Michigan crushed an outmatched — if not travel-weary — Hawaii.
The downside to starting against a big-time opponent is obvious. As Florida State Coach Jimbo Fisher put it: “You don’t get a chance to grow into the season.”
But slotting UC Davis or Northwestern State into the schedule never had much appeal to fans or broadcasters, both of whom are more eager to pay for high-profile games.
The playoff system allows for a stumble out of the gate if only because teams don’t have to make it all the way back to No. 1 — they merely have to be among the top four.
The selection committee has emphasized strength of schedule when it comes time to choose those teams, so Stoops wasn’t the only losing coach who saw reason to hope Saturday.
After his fifth-ranked Louisiana State fell to unranked but dangerous Wisconsin, Coach Les Miles talked about motivating players to rebound: “I think they are just going to have to come back to work and find a resiliency.”
“Quality loss” might be the key phrase. LSU and its 16-14 defeat at Lambeau Field will look a whole lot better to the committee in December if Wisconsin keeps winning.
The same goes for Oklahoma and, probably, the loser of Monday night’s game between No. 4 Florida State and No. 11 Mississippi. It might be tougher for teams that started farther down the rankings.
At No. 16, UCLA needed to prove it belonged. And No. 20 USC now has a mountain to climb after a humiliating Saturday night loss to top-ranked Alabama.
So it sounded less realistic — in playoff terms — when USC Coach Clay Helton insisted “one game does not make a season.”
It should be noted that most of this weekend’s games were scheduled years in advance, so it remains to be seen if the playoff system will ultimately encourage strong nonconference matchups.
And this wasn’t the best opener ever — in 1998, eight games featured top-25 opponents.
Still, the last few days generated a lot of buzz for college football and it became clear that when a bunch of quality teams go head to head, you get a bunch of good games.
Even the Heisman Trophy race was affected as two of the presumed front-runners — quarterbacks Deshaun Watson of Clemson and Josh Rosen of UCLA — were less than impressive in the spotlight.
“I just wasn’t playing the way I should and the way that’s up to my standard,” Rosen said. “Not even damn close to my standard.”
On the flip side, Houston quarterback Greg Ward Jr. shifted himself into the picture by passing for 321 yards and two touchdowns against Oklahoma.
As for the overall perspective, the loss at College Station, Texas, may have dampened his enthusiasm a bit, but Mora could see a long-term benefit to boosting the caliber of nonconference play.
Even for the losers.
“Someone’s going to have to battle back,” he said. “I think it’s going to make for compelling drama all year long.”
Twitter: @LATimesWharton
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