Opening Weekend in NCAA Is About Learning the Questions, Not the Answers
With the excitement and freshness and optimism going into every…single…college football season, the hardest thing to learn about the season opener is this: You didn't learn anything. You have no conclusions.
The first game of the college football season isn't a crowning moment. It isn't even a day about starting to find answers. It's about identifying the questions. That's it.
The season started Thursday night, and we didn't get the explosion it was set up to be. We got the start of a process. It was Jim Harbaugh's first game as Michigan's savior-coach, and, in another game on another channel, TCU quarterback Trevone Boykin's first night in his run as the Heisman Trophy favorite. Two of the game's most hyped superstars on the first night. What a treat!
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
"Everything that happens from here," Harbaugh told reporters after Michigan lost at Utah 24-17, "is what matters most."
Harbaugh wore his magical khakis, as did so many Michigan fans to channel their hero and forget about Brady Hoke's bumblings. Instead, there was no magic. Michigan lost in pretty much the same way Hoke's teams lost, with a quarterback throwing interceptions and an offensive line being pushed backward, leaving running backs nowhere to run.
And Boykin? Well, TCU won at Minnesota, barely. Boykin didn't throw for 400 yards or run for 200. He was good at times, and he overthrew open receivers at times. And he didn't lead TCU to 50 or 60 points, but just 23.
"I have to have a short memory," Boykin told reporters in his postgame press conference, per Carlos Mendez of the Star-Telegram, making almost exactly the same point Harbaugh did.
By the end of the night, there were more questions than there were at the beginning. There simply isn't anything sexy about a process, but that's what a season is, not a collection of highlight moments.
Teams just aren't sure what they have the first day. All they'd done until now is arm wrestle with themselves, unsure how much of each victory was actually a sign of another weakness.
The questions did become clearer Thursday for Michigan. Do the Wolverines have a quarterback? Harbaugh kept it a mystery all the way until the first snap whether the quarterback would be Jake Rudock, who transferred from Iowa, or Shane Morris.
It turns out, maybe Harbaugh didn't wait to produce the element of surprise. Maybe he just couldn't decide. He went with Rudock, who was known for protecting the ball but instead threw three interceptions, including one that was returned 55 yards for, basically, a game-winning touchdown with about eight minutes left. Only two drives later, for a touchdown, did Michigan's offense look like something Harbaugh might have drawn up?
"I thought that was outstanding," Harbaugh told reporters. "Jake shook that play off and came back fighting on the next play."
The other question we learned in seeing Harbaugh: Who is that guy? This was not your San Francisco 49ers Harbaugh, who left last year with the label of a nutcase who mistreated players and broke apart his own team.
In his postgame press conference, he was not only all-positive, all-the-time, but also calm and sort of soothing in a quiet monotone. He was barely louder than a whisper. During the game, he put his arm around Rudock after the killer mistake, slapped players on the backsides, patted them on the head, stepped onto the field and clapped.
"A lot of things to build on, a lot of things to grow from in a lot of areas," he said.
Dare I say it? He was nurturing. And maybe that was different from his days in the NFL, because pros will defy you and college players will listen and absorb everything. At least, they will with Harbaugh.
Maybe he has learned how not to have such a short shelf life. Maybe he just takes the alpha-male thing only as far as he needs to. A guy known for nearly starting fights in the postgame handshake or for saying outlandish and cocky things, was all calm and poise.
Or maybe he realizes what a season opener is all about. Now he knows what he has to answer.
Somehow, he's going to have to figure out how to run the ball. And he will. Harbaugh is known for his power game; the Wolverines averaged 2.6 yards per rush. He said the coaches coached during the game, and the team improved.
TCU coach Gary Patterson wasn't quite as sweet after his game. After all, he barely missed the College Football Playoff last year but started this year No. 2 and with probably the top Heisman candidate. TCU is supposed to be a continuation, not a miracle transformation.
"Trevone's got to hit," Patterson said. "We had three open guys for touchdowns, and he overthrew. You can't play like that and win the big ballgames."
The opener isn't a big ballgame? Fans might want ESPN highlights and something to tweet home about. But it's just a starting point.
And that's a good warning for the college football world going into its first big weekend of the season. Everett Golson might not be the next Jameis Winston for Florida State. Wisconsin will try to make a statement for the Big Ten against Alabama, which still hasn't named a quarterback. But it might not stick.
Even defending champ Ohio State might struggle with some new parts and a new attitude as the champ, not the challenger. (Nah, probably not them.)
"Our team was growing in confidence," Harbaugh said.
That's not exactly what the preseason Harbaugh watch was all about. But it's reality.
Greg Couch covers college football for Bleacher Report.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
