Here, you get a little more into the nitty gritty of the games highlighted this week.

There are only 5 games this Saturday, and one obviously stands above them all. However, if you love college football in the way that I do, there’s something interesting to be found across all of college football. Some of these week 0 match-ups may not be headlining, marquee games, but there is some potential for underlining intrigue as the season kicks off. This is the beginning, of the story, of the 2025 college football season, let’s see how it unravels.

#22 Iowa State vs #17 Kansas State (-3)

Iowa State focus: Can Rocco Becht succeed without his shiny toys? 

Kansas State focus: Wildcats look to feast early on the ground and run wild.

Farmageddon will start our 2025 college football season, and this will be the 109th meeting between Iowa State and Kansas State. The Cyclones lead the all-time series 54 – 50 – 4, and they are looking to make it 3 straight on Saturday in Dublin. Both of these teams have legitimate conference titles hopes this season in a wide open Big 12 (the Big 12 this year will be the most entertaining conference week in and week out), and either team getting a win this first game will set the tone for the year.

Junior Iowa State QB Rocco Becht is entering his third season as starting QB, and has potential to build his NFL draft stock this year, but it is his first year without Jayden Higgins and Jaylin Noel. These two WRs accounted for 68% of the yards and TDs thrown last year by Rocco on their way to having the second and third most receiving yards all-time in a single Iowa State season. They essentially account for 63% of all of Rocco’s passing production over his two years as a starter. We will see how Becht can play with lesser weapons, and if he can take that next step in development and prove he can produce without his two crutches. Luckily for Rocco, Kansas State was much better against the run than the pass last year.

Kansas state will look to get running again. Literally. The 11th ranked team in the nation last year with 215.5 rushing yards per game, Kansas State will stay true to that identity, even after losing DJ Giddens, the third all-time leading rusher in Kansas State history (and right before Giddens was Deuce Vaughn, the 2nd all-time Kansas State rusher. See a pattern?). Junior RB Dylan Edwards takes the lead this year in the rushing game, and you can expect a big year from him. Junior QB Avery Johnson was the second leading rusher on the team last year with 605 yards and 7 rushing TDs. Iowa State’s defense last year allowed 188 rushing yard per game, 110th nationally and second worst in the Big 12. The Wildcats will look to feast early on the ground, and control it on the ground. Watch out for Kansas State this year, I truly believe they will be playing for a playoff spot, and will make an appearance in the Big 12 Championship game.

Fresno State @ Kansas (-13)

Kansas Focus: Can QB Jalon Daniels of yesteryear (first 3 games of 2023) return?

Fresno State Focus: The Matt Entz era begins with son of a NFL HOF QB

Kansas was great at one thing (and just the one thing) last season, running the ball. They were 13th nationally in rushing yard per game last year. They did lose Devin Neal, who ran for 1,266 yards and 16TDs. Senior Daniel Hishaw Jr will look to fill those shoes with the help of senior transfer from Iowa Leshon Williams. Prior to the 2024 season, they were preseason ranked 22nd, and got up to 19 after their cupcake first game. Then it all fell apart, losing 5 games in a row. Aaaaaand then  decided to finish 4-2; beating the #17 Iowa State, the stout defense of #6 BYU in Provo, and #16 Colorado. It was kind of a strange season, and hopefully they can ride that momentum from the end of the season and start stronger this year. Also to note, 5 of their 7 losses were lost by an average of 3.8 points. They were right there to going to their third consecutive bowl game. Alas, senior QB Jalon Daniels wasn’t the same last year coming back from his injury? (I am still confused on his back issues from 2023). 2023 saw Daniels in just 3 games, and he threw for 705 yards, completing 74.7% of his passes and threw 5 TDs to 1 INTs, a special season was brewing before missing the rest of the year with those back issues. Last year, he completed just 57% of his passes and threw just 14 TDs against his 12 INTs (in 2022 his ratio was 18TDs/4INTs). Now further removed from his injury, can Jalon prove that talent still resides in him? Maybe with OC Jim Zebrowski having his first year without a counterpart (was co-OC with Jeff Grimes past two years. Jeff Grimes is now the OC at Wisconsin).

Matt Entz starts his Fresno State coaching tenure after a very successful 5 seasons at North Dakota State, going 60-11 and winning 2 national championships during his time there. Starting QB is senior EJ Warner, son of HOFer Kurt Warner. EJ transfers in after one season at Rice, and before that was 2 years at Temple; accumulating a career stat line of 8,814 yards 60% completion, 58 TDs with 37 INTs. Nothing super flashy, but EJ could be a QB looking for the right situation to thrive. Matt Entz, and the new coaching staff in Fresno, could be exactly what the Bulldogs need to be more of pest than people are expecting. I have this creeping suspicion that the Bulldogs they end up covering the 13 in this game.

Sam Houston @ Western Kentucky (-9.5)

Sam Houston Focus: Phil Longo hopes to shine bright with Bearkats, party like it’s 2016

WKU Focus: Can McIvor MacGyver a team chock-full of transfers?

Sam Houston lost essentially everything from last year. They had the best defense in the conference, and ranked top 20 nationally in points allowed per game, and 22nd in yards allowed per game. That’s all gone basically. Their 11-year head coach, KC Keeler, that won an FCS natty with the team, was at the helm of the transition to the FBS and got them so close to the C-USA Championship. Well, he is gone. Replaced by the, most recently, fired OC from Wisconsin, Phil Longo. Prior to Wisconsin, Longo has found success as OC at North Carolina (OC when Sam Howell was setting school records at UNC and they had multiple 1k WRs and RBs), and averaged over 500 yard per game at Ole Miss, but they weren’t winning enough and we know how cut throat the SEC is with their HC jobs. And just before that, Longo was the OC of the Bearkats, and in 2016 had the offense humming to the tune of 547 yards per game. Can lightening strike twice?

It is a complete rebuild for Longo, except he does have last year’s starting QB, RS senior Hunter Watson, who threw for a whopping 1,800 yards with 12 TDs and 8 INTs. Their defense carried the team really last year, and the eligible best have transferred out. I do not think I will be discussing this team, with any depth, again this year. This is a conference game though, between the teams that finished 2nd and 3rd in C-USA, WKU’s win over Sam Houston last year was the tiebreaker that kept the Bearkats from playing for (likely losing to) Jacksonville State in the C-USA Championship.

HC Tyson Helton enters his 7th season at WKU, and has lost less than 8 games just once in his first 6 years. He has gotten the Hilltoppers to 2 C-USA championship games, yet has come up short in both appearances. Tyson is looking to get over that hump this year and bring a conference title to Western Kentucky for the first time since 2016. It will have to be without the promising junior QB, Caden Veltkemp, after he left for FAU. 

His replacement? Senior transfer, Maverick McIvor, (sick name right?). Last year at Abilene Christian, Maverick threw for 3,847 yards completing 62.5% of his passes, with 30 TDs and just 7 INTs. The rest of the team, both offense and defense, is littered with transfers coming in. I believe there are only, at most, 3 or 4 staters on each side of the ball returning from last year. I do not know what to expect from this team, but if McIvor has some weapons and can spin the ball, this team will yet again have conference championship aspirations. 

Stanford @ Hawai’i (-2.5)

Stanford Focus: With a little bit of Luck, Stanford hopes to change the trend

Hawai’i Focus: The no’eau QB Micah Alejandro enters the limelight 

*no’eau is Hawaiian for talented

Stanford, the last 6 seasons, have won an average of 3.3 games per year. With a very much needed reset (that is all I will say on the matter, legal reasons), General Manger Andrew Luck brought in interim HC Frank Reich (Go Bills) to right the ship. It seeeeems Frank is just here for the season to help build the culture, and maybe let Luck have more time finding the right guy for the job, but only time will tell. Honestly, there is not much worth diving into with this team. They lost anyone who was productive, not much production on a very bad 2024 team, and brought in transfers along the offensive line, and in the WR core, to aid the senior QB transfer from Oregon State, Ben Gulbranson….. who really has done nothing noteworthy…. At all. But lets just see if Andrew Luck can get the program trending in the right direction. Bowl game eligibility would be immaculate, even 5 wins would be the most they have won since 2018. Baby steps, and if Andrew Luck can sprinkle some magic on this program, it will be fun to watch Stanford’s rebuild. 

Now the fun part. I am saying it now, keep tabs of when Hawai’i plays. No no no, I am not saying they are going to the playoff or even winning the MWC, but just hear me out. There will come a Saturday night, the games all over and it is the midnight hour, “oh? What’s this?” And there will be Hawai’i with their Redshirt QB, Micah Alejandro, slinging the ball 50 times a game and putting up a bunch of yards. I could see them being one of the most fun offenses to watch this season. Micah did make a pair of significant showings last year, but kept his redshirt eligibility staying within the 4-game limit. He came on in a mid-November game, being the third QB for Hawai’i to step onto the field that night, the Rainbow Warriors down 52-3 and he proceeds to go 11/12 for 111 yards and the lone Hawai’i TD of the game. In his one full game last year he threw 37/57 for 469 yards and 5 TDs. With the game airing on CBS at 7:30, I wouldn’t be surprised if the country becomes enamored watching this offense throw ball all over the field 40+ times in the game. HC Timmy Chang, the man who has thrown more pass attempts than any other QB in college history, may have found his new protege.