College football is back! With the first couple games of the season complete, it’s time to dive into our first set of studs and duds in 2019. Week 0 only saw two FBS games played, but they were both down to the wire finishes with multiple fourth-quarter heroes and failures.
Here are the top studs and duds from Week 0 of the college football season.
Stud: Florida’s Front Seven
There was an unreasonable amount of sloppy play by the Florida Gators on Saturday night, but the one clear positive for Dan Mullen’s squad was their defensive front. The Gators piled up 10 sacks against Miami’s offensive front while also forcing four fumbles and a multitude of turnovers.
Duds: Felipe Franks and Jarren Williams
There was a lot of “ugly” to go around in the Florida-Miami slop fest, but the majority of the blame can be pinned on the play of each team’s quarterbacks. Jarren Williams recently beat out Tate Martell for the starting job in Miami, but his performance didn’t inspire much confidence. Felipe Franks deserves some credit for engineering the team’s game-winning drive in the fourth quarter, but even he threw a pair of interceptions and lost an ugly fumble.
Stud: Cedric Byrd III
I don’t hand out “Stud of the week” awards, but if I did, my Week 0 pick would easily go to Hawaii wide receiver Cedric Byrd III. The star wideout for the Rainbow Warriors caught 14 passes for 224 receiving yards and four touchdowns. Arizona’s defense wasn’t pretty, but Byrd was unstoppable all night long.
Dud: Jace Whittaker
There aren’t a lot of positives to take away from the Arizona Wildcats’ defense, but they should at least feel confident in knowing they have a ball hawk in their secondary. Jace Whittaker got his hands on two interceptions and was harassing Hawaii receivers all night long.
Both Studs and Duds: Khalil Tate and Cole McDonald
Arizona and Hawaii’s Saturday Night thriller was a chaotic mess that highlighted all the joys and anarchy of college football. Both quarterbacks put on an offensive show that resulted in a 45-38 final score, but both players also made a ton of boneheaded mistakes. Cole McDonald threw for 378 yards and four touchdowns…but also tossed four interceptions. Khalil Tate lit up the scoreboard with three touchdowns, 361 passing yards, 108 rushing yards, but also tossed two costly interceptions.
