College football Week 1 winners and losers: The year of the quarterback has gotten off to a stellar start

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College football's year of the star quarterback got off to a roaring start.

Sure, this year's Week 1 slate wasn't exactly the strongest we've ever seen. Just one game over college football's opening weekend featured two teams ranked in the preseason AP Top 25. And it hasn't even kicked off yet. No. 9 Ole Miss plays No. 24 Louisville on Sunday.

Teams like Ohio State, Texas, and Georgia all covered massive spreads against inferior opponents. But they did that, in part, because of the stat lines their star quarterbacks put up. Just look at the performances by the quarterbacks among the nation's top teams this week.

Even though receivers like Ohio State's Jeremiah Smith and Miami's Malachi Toney had incredible games in Week 1, they have a lot of work to do to be favorites for the Heisman Trophy because of the quarterback depth at the top of college football.

Nick Cammett via Getty Images

Julian Sayin (No. 1 Ohio State)

Sayin had as many incompletions as he had total touchdowns in the Buckeyes' 56-3 win over Ball State. Sayin was 21-of-25 passing for 320 yards and three touchdowns while also rushing for his first career score on the ground. Don't expect Sayin's run game to be a prominent feature of the Ohio State offense all season long, but he at least won't go his entire Buckeye career without a rushing TD.

Dante Moore (No. 2 Oregon)

The Ducks had to sweat way more than they expected in a 34-27 win over Boise State. But the Broncos are a potential playoff team. Moore was 28-of-37 for 378 yards and three touchdowns and didn't commit a turnover. After a slow start, Moore found tight end Jamari Johnson on a fantastic throw down the middle of the field to end the first half.

Gunner Stockton (No. 3 Georgia)

The Bulldogs put Tennessee State away in the first quarter of a 63-3 win. Georgia had 28 first-quarter points on an extremely hot day in Athens and Stockton had just one incompletion before he got to watch the rest of the game from the sideline. He was 15-of-16 passing for 202 yards and three touchdowns.

Arch Manning (No. 5 Texas)

Yes, Manning threw a bad interception into triple coverage in the end zone late in the second quarter. But that was the only blemish on an otherwise stellar day in Texas' 59-7 victory over Texas State. Manning was 20-of-27 passing for 305 yards and threw four TDs. Two of those scores went to Auburn transfer Cam Coleman in his first game at Texas.

By the way, Sayin and Manning meet in Week 2.

AP Photo/Doug McSchooler

Josh Hoover (No. 6 Indiana)

Hoover immediately endeared himself to Indiana fans when he threw a touchdown pass to Charlie Becker in the second quarter with blood streaming down his face. Hoover suffered a cut to the top of his nose on a facemask penalty just a few plays before, but didn't exit the game until he found Becker for a 21-3 lead. Indiana beat North Texas 52-16 as Hoover was 13 of 16 for 231 yards and four touchdowns.

Jayden Maiava (No. 14 USC)

The Trojans became the first team to go 2-0 in 2026 with a 39-0 win over Fresno State on Friday night. Maiava was 23-of-25 passing for 349 yards and three touchdowns in the win and has as many incompletions as he does total touchdowns across USC's two wins. Maiava has thrown for 635 yards and five touchdowns and has also rushed for a score.

Here are the rest of this week's winners and losers.

Winners

UMass: Thursday night was the biggest win for the Minutemen since the 1998 FCS national title. No, that's not hyperbolic, either. UMass was a 29.5-point underdog to Rutgers and dominated the Scarlet Knights in a 37-21 win. It was the first win over a power conference opponent in UMass history as Virginia Tech transfer Pop Watson had as many touchdowns as incompletions. Watson threw three scores and was 19-of-22 passing for 197 yards. UMass also rushed for 200 yards and held Rutgers to just 30 on the ground thanks to sacks and forced four turnovers of Rutgers QB Dylan Lonergan.

Tulsa: Could the Golden Hurricane break a four-year bowl drought in 2026? A year after beating Oklahoma State in a game that led to Mike Gundy's firing, Tulsa beat the Cowboys again in a 24-10 win. It was the first game for new OSU coach Eric Morris after he arrived from North Texas.

Morris' Mean Green was one of the best teams in the American Conference in 2025. And he brought a bunch of his players with him to Stillwater, including QB Drew Mestemaker, RB Caleb Hawkins and WR Wyatt Young. Saturday, a team with some of the best players in the American in 2025 couldn't beat a team that won just one conference game a season ago. With games against Sam Houston and East Texas A&M coming up, Tulsa has a great shot to be 3-0 before going to Arkansas in Week 4.

Tennessee QB Faizon Brandon: The 18-year-old's first collegiate start could hardly have gone better. Brandon threw for three touchdowns and rushed for two more in No. 20 Tennessee's 56-9 win over Furman. Brandon became the first SEC quarterback to throw for three scores and add two others on the ground in his first start since Cam Newton in 2010. Newton went on to win the Heisman Trophy.

We're not making a Heisman prediction just yet for the true freshman. But it was obvious why he was the winner of Tennessee's QB competition in camp, even if Saturday's game was against an FCS opponent.

Army and Navy: Both teams played FCS opponents on Saturday. Both teams ran over, around and through those FCS opponents.

Army rushed 57 times for 569 yards and eight touchdowns in its 59-3 win over Bryant. Sixteen different players had at least one carry and only Zach Mundell — who rushed four times for 105 yards — topped 87 yards. It’s fair to say that was a team effort.

Navy had 73 carries for 506 yards in its 42-15 victory over Towson. QB Braxton Woodson did most of that damage as he had 23 carries for 200 yards and three touchdowns. Fourteen different Midshipmen ran the ball at least once.

Boise State: It's hard to make this category after a loss. But the Broncos made it clear why they are a favorite to make the College Football Playoff after their 34-27 defeat to No. 2 Oregon. Two years ago, Boise State lost to the Ducks on a last second field goal before winning the Mountain West and easily making the playoff as the top non-power conference team. With the American Conference looking wide-open and the Pac-12 boasting seven other solid programs, a conference title and an 11-2 season should be enough for Boise State to be in the postseason field once again after how Saturday's game played out.

Virginia Tech: In 2025, Hokies running backs accounted for a grand total of three rushing touchdowns all season. Yes, you read that correctly. Just three.

Well, that number has already been eclipsed in 2026. Jefrey Overton Jr. and Marcellous Hawkins Jr. combined for four rushing touchdowns in the first half against VMI on Saturday night. In fact, Overton's second score of the game with 4:56 to go in the first quarter tied last year's season total. Not a bad way to start the James Franklin era.

Losers

Rutgers: Where does the second Greg Schiano era go from here? The former Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach is in his seventh season in his Rutgers reboot. It hasn't been nearly as successful as his first stint. Of course, the Scarlet Knights were in the Big East and not the Big Ten back then, but Rutgers had eight or more wins in five of Schiano's final six seasons before taking the Bucs job in 2012.

Since he's been back, Rutgers hasn't won more than seven games in a single season and went 5-7 a year ago. And if you can't beat UMass at home, who are you going to beat in a Big Ten schedule that includes No. 14 USC, No. 6 Indiana, No. 16 Michigan, No. 18 Penn State and road trips to Maryland and Wisconsin? A loss at Boston College in Week 2 will be the sign of an extremely long season to come in Piscataway.

Georgia Tech: Better clock management would have given the Yellow Jackets a win over Colorado on Thursday night. Instead, Georgia Tech is 0-1 after a late TD by the Buffaloes and a blocked field goal as time expired resulted in a 14-13 Colorado win.

Leading 10-7, the Yellow Jackets got the ball with 7:35 remaining in the fourth quarter. Georgia Tech proceeded to run 12 offensive plays, but kicked a field goal from the Colorado 11-yard line with 1:40 to go for a six-point lead.

If Georgia Tech had snapped the ball later in the play clock over the course of that drive, Colorado could have had fewer than 20 seconds and no timeouts when it got the ball back for its game-winning drive.

Stanford: It's hard to cover a star wide receiver like Malachi Toney. And Stanford was a very good — or bad — example of that on Friday night. Toney had 12 catches for 234 yards and three scores in the Hurricanes' blowout win. And just look at how open he was on two of his TDs.

The 2026 season was always going to be a rebuilding year under first-year coach Tavita Pritchard. It's the former Stanford QB's first head-coaching job and he's inherited a program that had an interim coach in Frank Reich for the entirety of the 2025 season and hasn't won more than four games in a full season since 2018. Oh, there's a lot more travel involved now too as Stanford is a member of the ACC. Friday night showed that Stanford is still going to be among the bottom teams in the ACC for a little while longer.

Charlotte: Making Charlotte a competitive program might be a bigger task than Tim Albin expected. The 49ers lost 43-41 at home in triple overtime to The Citadel on Saturday.

Charlotte had 538 total yards, but quarterback Cole Gonzales threw two interceptions and The Citadel didn't turn the ball over at all. The Bulldogs' triple-option offense rushed for 268 yards on 50 carries for the program's first win over an FBS team since a 27-24 overtime win over Georgia Tech.

After moving to the American from Conference USA in 2023, Charlotte is 9-28 overall and just 1-12 in Albin's tenure.

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