College Football Week 1: Box Score Reviews

Week 1 of the college football season is officially in the books. With that in mind, we’ll look at some of the more interesting box scores from the week, and give the real insight into some of the more misleading contests of the week. Let’s dive in.

College Football Week 1: Box Score Review

Misleading Box Scores

Albany 17 at Buffalo 21

Thanks to a late fourth quarter touchdown, down three with five minutes left, Buffalo was able to get the win on Thursday evening. While Buffalo outgained Albany in total, the Great Danes held the edge in yards per pass and first downs. Albany also threw an interception in the Buffalo green zone in the third quarter and turned the ball over on downs in the redzone with a minute left in the game. Buffalo was fortunate to win this game. Albany has been off to a good start in 2026.

UAB 23 at Illinois 42

On the outside, Illinois was able to win the game by 20 points. However, if you dive into the box score for this game, you will see a completely different story. UAB had the ball for 41 minutes of this game, more first downs (24 to 17), outgained Illinois by 80 yards, and had more passing yards and rushing yards than Illinois. They did this despite amassing 65 more penalty yards and having a minus-one turnover differential. This also doesn’t include a pick six that Illinois put on the scoreboard in the fourth quarter, and successfully completing a 50-yard hail mary touchdown to end the first half. Credit to Illinois for being more efficient than UAB while being significantly better in yards per pass and yards per rush. However, Illinois did not deserve to win this game by almost three possessions. 

Coastal Carolina 24 at West Virginia 31

West Virginia firmly controlled this game in the first half. However, things fell off the rails in the second half and turned from a potential blowout, to a competitive game.

WVU had a big time edge on the ground (4.6 to 1.9 yards per carry). However, Coastal outgained WVU in total, held a 6.6 to 5.5 yard per play edge, and had more passing yards (373 to 132). Coastal also turned the ball over on downs inside of the WVU 10-yard line, fumbled at midfield, and fumbled again at the WVU 40-yard line, before putting up 17 points in the fourth quarter in only two and a half minutes of total possession. It seems like the West Virginia defense still has some things to figure out, while the offense hit the ground running.

FIU 9 at USF 19

FIU likely deserved to lose this game by more than they did barring a last-second garbage time touchdown. However, USF did not play well in this matchup.

USF was outgained 381 to 208, and were outplayed in yards per play (5.1 to 3.7), yards per pass (5.9 to 5.1), and yards per rush (3.2 to 2.8), while also holding a plus three turnover margin. USF is obviously going through some program turnover at all levels. However, putting up these numbers in the home opener against a CUSA team is a tough look.  

Idaho State 29 at Utah State 17

Utah State took a tough home loss to FCS Idaho State on Saturday, but didn’t totally earn it. The Aggies had a 28 to 13 first-down edge, a better third-down completion percentage, outgained ISU 407 to 241, also out-passing and out-rushing ISU by 100 and 70 yards, respectively.

Utah State’s downfall in this game was simply mistake after mistake that went as follows. First, they missed 47-yard field goal. Then, they had an interception on their own 33, followed by a turnover on downs on the ISU 1-yard line. Then, they had an interception on their own 45-yard line, an interception in the ISU end zone, and two straight turnover on downs in the fourth quarter. That was capped off by another interception at the ISU 1-yard line.

Simply put, Idaho State played a much cleaner game with no turnovers and used their lead to force mistakes. Utah State was actually able to move the ball fairly consistently in this game. Yet unfortunately, the defense didn’t do them any favors. It should be interesting to see if the Aggies can clean up some of these mistakes next week in a tough road game at Washington.

SMU 27 at FSU 24

Florida State should have got rolled in this game. FSU was outgained 585 to 324, while also giving up 430 passing yards at 11.9 yards per attempt. The Seminoles’ secondary is in big trouble moving forward. The only reason this wasn’t a three-possession win for SMU is a litany of turnovers and miscues from the Mustangs. Had it not been for the miscues in an undisciplined first game of the season for SMU, Norvell may have been fired on the field last night. The FSU boo birds were already heard early and often in last night’s affair.

Additional Box Score Quick Hits

UMass 37 at Rutgers 21: Rutgers gave up almost 400 total yards of offense at 6.3 yards per play. Rutgers also had four turnovers with starter Dylan Lonergan getting benched.

Colorado 14 at Georgia Tech 13: Georgia Tech amassed a total of 51 yards on the ground at 1.7 yards per carry.

Fresno State 0 at USC 39: USC’s defense held Fresno St. to 116 total yards.

Liberty 13 at JMU 20: JMU ran at a snail’s pace with only 49 total plays, but 5.9 yards per play.

The Citadel 43 at Charlotte 41: Triple OT loss, giving up 7.8 yards per pass and 5.4 yards per rush. Yikes, Charlotte.

Boston College 15 at Cincinnati 34: Boston College outgained UC 389 to 340, and out-passed UC 224 to85, with UC having only 15 total pass attempts.

Tulane 3 at Duke 17: Tulane tallied 55 total rushing yards, while also giving up 250 rushing yards to Duke at 5.1 yards per carry.

Boise St. 27 at Oregon 34: Boise State was outgained 497 to 274.

Oklahoma State 10 at Tulsa 24: QB Drew Mestemaker was 29-of-49 with two interceptions and 4.5 yards per completion.

NIU 0 at Iowa 40: NIU tallied 120 total yards of offense and gave up 507 yards to Iowa on defense, who played three different quarterbacks in the game.

Wyoming 13 at Colorado State 35: Wyoming deserved to lose, but had three interceptions in CSU territory and lost a fumble at their own 19-yard line.

Arkansas State 24 at Memphis 42: 960 total offensive yards combined in this game, Arkansas St. had four interceptions knocking on the door of the Memphis redzone.

ULM 13 at Mississippi State 62: Mississippi State had 762 yards on offense.

FAU 21 at Florida 66: 1,200 total offensive yards combined, 157 total plays.

South Dakota State 18 at Northwestern 34: 20-18 game in the fourth quarter.

Portland State 20 at San Diego State 53: Portland State had more first downs than SDST, 21 to 20. They also nearly outgained them, falling short by 19 yards and passed for 280 yards.

Clemson 10 at LSU 51: LSU put up 644 total offensive yards.

Central Michigan 7 at New Mexico 38: CMU passed for 0.2 yards per completion on 16 pass attempts.

UCLA 45 @ Cal 24: 24-24 game heading into the fourth quarter, UCLA rushed for 271 yards at 8.5 yards per rush.

Western Kentucky 14 at Nevada 49: The WKU defense gave up 486 yards (323 rushing yards) to a Nevada team that averaged 17.5 points per game last season.