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College football is officially back.
Several interesting results and storylines emerged during Week 0. For instance, Bill Belichick’s UNC got revenge on TCU after last season’s 48-14 blowout win for the Horned Frogs. Stanford held off an impressive comeback effort from Hawaii in a 37-27 victory that was likely the most exciting game of the week. Virginia looked quite strong in its opening matchup against NC State, downing the Wolfpack 34-8 behind a stellar performance from transfer quarterback Beau Pribula. But most importantly, when fans turned on their TV looking for a football game, it was finally back.
It was a long wait and a jam-packed offseason of transfer portal business, eligibility fiascos and late nights yearning for a random FCS matchup to pass the time, but that wait is over. The Hustler is here to help consolidate everything you should be looking forward to in Week 1. Think of this as a “cheat sheet” to prepare yourself. Without further ado, the debut rendition of “This Week in College Football” is here.
Ole Miss’ impressive College Football Playoff run concluded against the eventual runner-up Miami Hurricanes last year, but that shouldn’t take away from its season’s success. Quarterback Trinidad Chambliss spent three years at the Division II level with Ferris State before taking his talents to Oxford, where he was initially expected to back up Austin Simmons. Instead, he won the starting job in Week 3, when he posted an impressive stat line of 353 yards and a touchdown. Chambliss went on to put up one of the best seasons from a quarterback in the nation and finished eighth in the Heisman Award voting.
Joining Chambliss is running back Kewan Lacy, who thrashed opposing defenses last year for 1,567 yards and 24 touchdowns. Head coach Pete Golding brought in two high-profile receiving options from Syracuse in Darrell Gill Jr. and Johntay Cook II, both of whom will hope to make an impact on their new team. Defensively, the Rebels will be relying on a band of transfers to mesh well, headlined by ex-Florida State safety Edwin Joseph.
Louisville, on the other hand, totally overhauled its roster in the portal, notably bringing in signal-caller Lincoln Kienholz, who joined the team from Ohio State. Former Vanderbilt Commodore Tre Richardson will star as the team’s top receiving option after posting 806 yards and seven touchdowns through the air in 2025. Running back Isaac Brown returns behind an almost entirely revamped offensive line, hoping to build on his success from last season (884 YDS, 7 TD, 8.8 YPC).
On the other side of the ball, the Cardinals returned Clev Lubin and AJ Green to start opposite each other on the defensive line. Head coach Jeff Brohm also received a commitment from former UNC Tar Heel Tyler Thompson to join an already-talented group of defensive ends. After a 9-4 season in 2025, Louisville just missed out on being included in the final AP Poll. It will hope to change that in 2026, and to do so, it’ll need to start the season hot against No. 9 Ole Miss.
The Rebels and Cardinals will face off in the Music City Kickoff on Sunday, Sept. 6 at 6:30 p.m. CDT, just a few miles from Vanderbilt’s campus, at Nissan Stadium.
LSU head coach Lane Kiffin will pick up right where he left off: on the forefront of college football headlines. After abandoning the Ole Miss team he guided to the College Football Playoff semi-finals for Baton Rouge, Kiffin will lead his brand-new squad into a showdown against Dabo Swinney’s Tigers spearheaded by now-senior quarterback Christopher Vizzina, an Alabama native. Vizzina’s only full game last year came in a loss to SMU, where he completed 29 passes for 317 yards and three touchdowns.
Kiffin’s LSU team is led by former Arizona State QB Sam Leavitt. After Leavitt’s strong 2024 season, his 2025 campaign was cut short after a foot injury required season-ending surgery. He begins 2026 ninth in Heisman odds and will look to climb those rankings with a strong opening week performance.
Look out for Clemson’s junior wide receiver Bryant Wesco Jr.; after a monster freshman season in 2024, Wesco Jr. suffered a spinal injury after landing on his neck versus SMU and missed the rest of his sophomore season. The wideout will look to partner with Vizzina and lead a strong Swinney offense.
LSU’s DE Princewill Umanmielen will look to make sure that doesn’t happen. The Nebraska, then Ole Miss, transfer finished third in the SEC with nine sacks last year. He will lead Kiffin’s defensive line, and likely his defense as they embark on a stifling campaign.
This Tiger showdown will kick off on Saturday, Sept. 5 at 6:30 pm CDT in Baton Rouge’s Tiger Stadium.
Florida State may be coming off consecutive seasons below .500, but it is already 1-0 after a win over New Mexico State to start 2026 on a more positive note. Quarterback Ashton Daniels recorded 232 total yards and two touchdowns in his debut with the Seminoles after a disappointing 2025 with Auburn. The running back room will be the one to watch in Tallahassee, though, as former Texas running back Quintrevion “Tre” Wisner has joined the ’Noles. Wisner rushed for 1,064 yards and five touchdowns in 2024 before missing games in 2025 due to a hamstring injury and thus only showcasing limited production. Alongside him will be sophomore Ousmane Kromah, who just gashed the Aggies for 122 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries.
FSU also looked strong on defense against New Mexico State. It held the Aggies to just 47 rushing yards and picked off Trey Hedden, allowing just 17 points against a solid offensive team. Ashlynd Barker will be a name to watch in the secondary, ranking second on the team in total tackles last season. Daniel Lyons and the Desir brothers (Mandrell and Darryll) will coexist on the defensive line, as the group hopes to apply consistent pressure on opposing quarterbacks for weeks to come.
The opposing signal caller this time will be none other than Kevin Jennings, a dark horse Heisman candidate — at least in The Hustler’s book. The Oak Cliff, Texas, native is one of the premier quarterbacks in college football, as he accumulated 3,641 yards and 26 touchdowns (albeit 13 interceptions) in 2025. The Mustangs will have significant production to replace on the rest of the offense, though, as leading skill-players TJ Harden and Jordan Hudson are both out of eligibility. Running back Kendrick Raphael joined the team in the offseason after a near 1,000-yard season at Cal, and wide receiver Yannick Smith will aim to put his 6-foot-3 athletic frame to good use after two seasons at ECU.
On the defensive side of things, SMU has had immense success over the past three seasons. During that stretch, the Mustangs have recorded the second-most sacks in the country. However, most of their starting defensive linemen from last year are gone, so they will need to replace the production with a crew of transfers from across the country. Alexander Kilgore returns as one of the team’s top linebackers, joined by Brandon Booker, who was SMU’s third-leading tackler last season. Head coach Rhett Lashlee will prepare his unit to start the season off strong and smother Daniels along with the rest of Florida State’s offense.
The Seminoles and Mustangs will take the field at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee, Florida on Monday, Sept. 7 at 6:30 p.m. CDT.
This matchup could end up seeing two College Football Playoff teams: Boise State is the favorite to win the revamped Pac-12, and Oregon is No. 2 in the AP Poll. The biggest story for the Ducks this offseason came in January when star QB Dante Moore elected to return for his senior year. Moore, at the time, was a projected early first round pick, and his decision to come back shook up the NFL landscape, as well as the Big Ten.
This game could prove pivotal for Boise State down the line. If it gets battered by Oregon on Sunday, it will have to persuade the committee down the line that their potential Pac-12 win is convincing enough to earn a spot in December.
Leading the Broncos is returning quarterback Maddux Madsen. The now-senior threw for 2334 passing yards last season along with 18 touchdowns. As is becoming tradition, Boise State hopes to establish itself on the ground. Junior Dylan Riley and sophomore Sire Gaines, both California natives, rushed for a combined 1936 yards last year. They will look to continue their on-ground assault versus a tenacious Oregon defense.
For the Ducks, nine out of twelve opponents last year were held to under 20 points. Matayo Uiagalelei and Bear Alexander lead the Oregon defensive line and are regarded by many as one of the scariest in the country. Oregon will attempt to use this strength to stifle the Boise rushing attack to start their championship bid.
The Broncos will travel to Eugene, Oregon to face the Ducks in a Sunday afternoon matchup, kicking off at 2:30 pm CDT.
Additional Storyline: Traveling QBs
The 2026 transfer portal was a quarterback carousel. We’ve already discussed Leavitt to LSU, but 34 of 68 Power Four teams are starting a transfer quarterback in 2026. Here are some of the more notable moves:
Darian Mensah to the University of Miami. The former Duke Blue Devil threw for 3973 yards and 34 touchdowns last year. The transfer marks the third year in a row Miami has reloaded with a top transfer QB: Mensah follows Heisman finalist and first overall pick Cam Ward, as well as College Football Semifinalist and now-Arizona Cardinal Carson Beck. He will look to lead Miami over the hump and bring a championship to Coral Gables.
Josh Hoover to Indiana. Hoover comes from TCU, where in 2025 the veteran QB threw for 3472 yards and 29 touchdowns. The 23-year-old enters the season as the active leading passer in the FBS. He joins the defending national champions as head coach Curt Cignetti entrusts the former Horned Frog to follow in the footsteps of Heisman winner Fernando Mendoza.
Drew Mestemaker to Oklahoma State. The 6-foot-3 gunslinger nearly brought the North Texas Mean Green to the College Football Playoff, ranking first in the nation in passing yards at 4,379 last year. He posted a 34-to-9 touchdown-to-interception ratio to go along with that, making him one of the biggest names to watch for the Cowboys after a disappointing (to say the least) 1-11 record in the 2025 season.
Byrum Brown to Auburn. Not dissimilar to Mestemaker, Brown was very close to carrying his team to the College Football Playoff as the Group of Five representative. With the South Florida Bulls, he posted over 3,000 yards through the air and north of 1,000 on the ground, which, when combined with 42 total touchdowns, made him a statistical anomaly. Expect Brown to raise Auburn’s ceiling quite a bit in 2026 compared to recent years.
Rocco Becht to Penn State. Serial winner and former Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell left Ames to lead the Nittany Lions this fall. As a three-year starter under Campbell, Becht threw for 9,209 yards and totaled 83 touchdowns. He is the FBS’s active wins leader as a starter with 26 and will look to take the Penn State program to heights it never achieved under coach James Franklin, and will need a monster year out of Becht to do so.
Brendan Sorsby initially transferred to Texas Tech. However, reports of his gambling addiction made the former Cincinnati Bearcat reconsider, and the QB is now preparing for the 2027 NFL Draft.
Thus concludes The Hustler’s first-ever edition of “This Week in College Football.” The Power Four slate kicks off on Thursday night at 5 p.m. CDT, as UMass travels to Rutgers.
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This Week in College Football Week 1: Back and booming – The Vanderbilt Hustler
