College Football, one of America’s favorite pastimes, has finally made a return after a half-year drought. Despite being only three weeks into the season, college football has already delivered entertaining and shocking games.  

The first rankings revealed the Alabama Crimson Tide at first, the Ohio State Buckeyes at second, and the Georgia Bulldogs at third, to little surprise. All three of these teams ended last season strong; Ohio State squeezed past Utah in the Rose Bowl, while Georgia and Alabama competed in the National Championship, with the Bulldogs’ clinching the 33-18 win. Only one Florida team made the preseason top 25. The Miami Hurricanes were ranked 16. 

Despite not placing high in the polls, local Florida teams have participated in many exciting games so far. The University of Florida Gators, led by new head coach Billy Napier, started the season by playing the seventh ranked Utah Utes in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville on Sep. 3. Despite being outranked by the former Pac-12 champions, the Gators were only 3-point underdogs. The game stayed close, with the teams tied at the end of the first half. The game continued, with the Utes leading the Gators by 4 points with about six minutes remaining in the game. Utah worked their way down the field, looking for another score to put the game away. However, a misplaced throw by quarterback Cameron Rising to the endzone led to an interception by linebacker, Amari Burey. This interception was converted into another touchdown, securing the game for the Gators. This is the 33rd consecutive victory for home-stadium season openers for Florida, which is the longest active streak in the nation. While the Gator’s secured the win, Utah was clearly a challenging opponent. “I was equally impressed with the Utes. That’s a great football team that may not lose another game this season,” said head coach Billy Napier.  

The next game was only determined by the last second left on the clock. On Sep. 4, the Florida State Seminoles and Louisiana State Tigers faced off at the Caesar’s Superdome in New Orleans, both teams looking to prove themselves. The Seminoles used to be one of the most successful teams in the nation under coaches like Jimbo Fisher and Bobby Bowden, but have not found any large success since 2017 when Fisher left the program. After Willie Taggart’s short tenure at FSU, the head coach job was passed to former Memphis University coach, Mike Norvell. Despite the Seminole’s overwhelming win against Duquesne during the season opener, the team still had much to prove. LSU faced a similar set of circumstances. After the immense success of the 2019 LSU Tigers, who won the National Championship under quarterback Joe Burrow, the team fell into a drought. After firing longtime coach Ed Orgeron, the Tiger’s hired Brian Kelly, the coach of Notre Dame University at the time.  

The Seminoles took an early lead in the first quarter, and worked their way up to a double-digit lead at the beginning of the third quarter. However, the Tigers fought back, scoring another touchdown, bringing the score to 24-17. The Seminoles set up on the 1-yard line, about to put the game away with less than one minute left in the game; FSU then made a costly mistake. Quarterback, Jordan Travis, attempted to toss the ball to Treshaun Ward. However, Ward dropped the ball, and it was recovered by the Tigers. LSU’s ensuing drive put the team at 2-yard line with one second left in the game. With a pass to Jaray Jenkins, LSU had almost evened the score to 24-23. However, the victory was just out of the Tiger’s grasps, as safety Shyheim Brown helped his team block the extra point kick, cutting the game short. Head coach, Mike Norvell, acknowledges the first significant FSU win in a while. “It’s big for our program. It’s big for those kids that are in that locker room. It’s big for everybody because we did have a great stage to put on display the identity of what I believe this team is made up of. And it’s young men with character that love to work, that believe in each other, that believe in the process,” said Norvell.