The Alabama Dynasty Is Officially Dead: Week 1 College Football Recap

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We still have a couple great college football games coming today, but I didn't want to wait until Monday to give some thoughts about what we saw throughout the country on Saturday. In what was maybe the most loaded Week 1 slate we've ever seen, we learned a lot about several teams. Here are my biggest takeaways:

- The Alabama dynasty is dead

I think it would have been fair to say this the day Nick Saban retired, because even if the Crimson Tide continued to be one of the best programs in the sport, we may never see a program go on another run like what Bama did during Saban's tenure. But after a 9-4 first season under Kalen DeBoer and what we saw on Saturday with what's supposed to be one of the best rosters in the country, any mystique that program had is now nonexistent.

Alabama's offensive line got its ass whooped on every snap by Florida State. The Seminoles had seven tackles for loss and while Alabama was only called for one holding penalty in the game, it got away with at least five or six other egregious ones. There was an FSU defensive lineman in the backfield on every play.

Bama is 5-5 in its last 10 games. DeBoer has lost four games as a favorite of at least 14 points. It's over.

- LSU is going to be a problem

I wasn't sure how bought in I was to the LSU hype coming into 2025, but I'm a believer after watching the Tigers go into Clemson and deliver a pretty dominant performance. LSU won by a touchdown and had another one inexplicably taken off the board by a terrible review and also missed a field goal. The final score could have been very lopsided.

Garrett Nussmeier played well and the Tigers moved the ball against one of the best defenses in the country — with maybe the most underrated group of weapons in the country — but I was most impressed with LSU's defense. Clemson's running game was absolutely suffocated and the Bayou Bengals managed to pick off Cade Klubnik once, as well. These guys are a real national title contender.

- Arch Manning will be fine

Everybody take a deep breath. I know we are legally required to bombard Twitter with memes and declare Arch Manning the patron saint of busts because he had a sub-par game on the road at Ohio State, but I promise everything is going to be ok. Yes, he missed some throws. He also led one touchdown drive late in the game that was capped with a great throw, had another dime dropped in the end zone on 4th down and came up empty at the goal line early in the game when Steve Sarkisian called a terrible tush push. Not all that much needed to change for Texas to have won this game on the road against the defending national champions.

If anyone is selling Arch stock, I'm interested in purchasing.

- Tennessee upgraded at quarterback

Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers, folks. Remember that.

- Lee Corso is the man

I don't think any of us understand just how weird college football Saturday mornings are going to feel without Lee Corso. He's been involved in the sport in some fashion since Dwight Eisenhower was president and has now made his last ever headgear pick. Of course, the headgear ended as it began with Brutus.

He was also the only person on the College GameDay panel to pick Florida State to pull the upset over Alabama and the Noles led the charge of every team Corso played for or coached winning on Saturday. Beautiful.