CFB Week 1 winners, losers: LSU vaults into title conversation

Below, we dissect the winners and losers from an action-packed Week 1.

Winner: LSU Tigers defense | Associated Press No. 9 LSU finally has a defense. 

The maligned unit, which allowed 24.3 points per game last season, including 33.5 per game in four losses, was sensational against No. 4 Clemson, holding the reigning ACC champions to 261 yards. LSU, which allowed 140.1 rushing yards per game in 2024, held Clemson to 31 yards on 20 carries (1.6 yards per attempt).

Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik completed just 50 percent of his pass attempts for 230 yards (6.1 yards per attempt) and an interception while being sacked twice.

LSU’s offense has never been the problem under head coach Brian Kelly, in his fourth season leading the program. The defense has. But on Saturday, the unit delivered a performance that launched LSU into the national title conversation.

Loser: Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning hype | Farewell, Manning’s Heisman campaign. We hardly knew thee.

Manning entered the season with unreasonable hype for someone with two career starts, but his first start should turn that roiling boil into a modest simmer. The preseason Heisman favorite was 9-of-15 for 38 yards through three quarters against No. 3 Ohio State and finished the game with 170 yards, one touchdown and one interception in the 14-7 loss.

It wasn’t the performance one would expect from a Heisman frontrunner, but absolutely in line for a quarterback making his first road start against the defending national champions. Adjust expectations accordingly.

Winner: Ohio State Buckeyes defensive coordinator Matt Patricia | Saturday offered some redemption for Patricia, widely derided by football fans for his awful tenure as head coach Detroit Lions, when he went 13-29-1. And his ill-fated 2022 turn as New England Patriots offensive play caller. And when he was outsmarted as New England Patriots defensive coordinator by former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Nick Foles and head coach Doug Pederson in Super Bowl LII. 

The point is, Patricia’s given us a lot of material over the years.

But he got revenge with the Buckeyes’ defense’s phenomenal performance, holding Texas to the fewest points by an AP No. 1-ranked team in a regular-season game since 1996. (h/t Stathead)

Loser: Northwestern Wildcats sportsmanship (and offense) | It seemed like a perfectly reasonable ask.

Following Northwestern’s 23-3 loss to the Tulane Green Wave, Tulane head coach Jon Sumrall revealed before the game, he had asked the Northwestern Wildcats to allow his team to wear its traditional road white jerseys, which Tulane wore in its first game following Hurricane Katrina, to mark the 20th anniversary of the devastating Category 5 storm. 

However, Northwestern declined the request.