Woody's Weekly Things: Five weird things from Week 1

CLASS OF 2019 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | State | Position | Team

CLASS OF 2020 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | State | Position

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Even before I started working at Rivals.com, I would spend my Saturdays watching as many college football games as possible. Now that I have interacted with most current college football players, it gives Saturday’s a different perspective. Each week, I will watch as many games as possible and share my thoughts in this space, examining weird moments and sharing some throwback recruiting stories as well.

The chain is dead. Give me a throne or a cape.

We saw plenty of turnover chain knockoffs last season, including some that were pretty pitiful (hello, Butch Jones' trash can). But given the entire offseason to come up with new ideas, several programs have stepped up their game. My personal favorites after one week? Boise State has a throne on the sidelines where players come sit after making their big play. While Memphis introduced a Rick Flair-style robe. While I love the Broncos throne, my personal edge goes to the Tigers, especially considering the city of Memphis’ deep ties to the wrestling community. Two claps for the Tigers.

N’Keal Harry is the best player nobody talks about

While the national media has spent the last two-plus years slurping former five-star Ed Oliver at Houston, former five-star wide receiver N’Keal Harry continues to slide under the radar. He dominated again on Saturday, evoking memories of Peter Warrick with an insane touchdown. Harry doesn’t get anywhere near the love he deserves but that’s what I’m here for.

Nick Saban's attitude

I don’t want to go into this too much but there was nothing weirder than Nick Saban’s angry overreaction to a simple question from ESPN’s Maria Taylor following the Tide’s thumping of Louisville on Saturday night. Taylor handled it like a pro and Saban later apologized, but considering all the access that Saban has allowed into his program over the last few months, including a podcast about his life and a behind-the-scenes docu-series on ESPN, you’d think he would be softening when it comes to his relationship with media. Not so fast. Saban could have easily played off this question but it’s clear the quarterback question is a hot button issue. But the questions aren’t going to stop coming so this might not be the only blowup we see this season.

What's up with UTEP?

It slid under the radar but UTEP was hammered by FCS program Northern Arizona on Saturday 30-10, but it’s actually a bigger win than the experts in Vegas expected. The Miners came into the game as seven-point underdogs and couldn’t even cover the spread. Ouch.

This is not CGI

You can have all of your one-handed catches. This is the play of the year and it might not be topped. Toledo’s Cody Thompson, a two-star in the class of 2014, made this look so easy that it almost looks like visual effects.

The Mississippi State quarterback stepped in for a suspended Nick Fitzgerald and even though it was just against Stephen F. Austin, he showed Bulldogs fans that when Fitzgerald leaves he will be prepared to step into the lineup. Thompson threw for 364 yards and five touchdowns while throwing for 109 yards and two more scores. The seven touchdowns tied a school record. Thompson rocketed up the rankings for us after I had a chance to watch him play in the state championship game in 2016. I left that game convinced he would develop into a star at the next level and he appears to be well on his way.

Moore was ranked higher elsewhere but I was skeptical of him, even after seeing him play during the fall last year. As an Army All-American, most of the analyst team had a chance to see him and we still thought he should land as a high three-star. In his first college game on Thursday night, Moore exploded, accounting for 313 all-purpose yards, setting a Purdue record. Not a bad way to start a career.

I planned on watching just a few minutes of both of these games but became hooked when it looked like the FCS squads were going to pull the upsets. Because of the inner-state matchups, the intensity was ratcheted up and it made for some fun moments. Ultimately, the bigger programs won, but both came in dramatic fashion. Former South Carolina receiver signee Diondre Champaigne made the game-winning catch with 41 seconds left to help Georgia State win, while ULM got the game-winning score from quarterback Caleb Evans with 37 ticks remaining.

When I managed to find the fourth quarter of the Kansas-Nicholls game, I couldn’t believe that Kansas was in danger of losing. It’s one thing to struggle in the Big 12, it’s another to do it against a middling FCS team. I like to give coaches who inherit a bad situation the benefit of the doubt, but after losing that game it’s hard to find many more wins on the Jayhawks schedule. I don’t have the answers, but you just can’t lose games like that, regardless of the circumstances.

How about my boy Byron Cowart? After being an afterthought in two-plus seasons at Auburn, Cowart has resurfaced at Maryland and had a pretty good game in the Terps' win over Texas. He appeared as a pass-rush specialist and routinely drew double teams. He was credited with just two tackles in the game so his stat line won’t jump off the page, but make no mistake, his confidence appears to be back and he will be terrorizing quarterbacks all season.

I was on hand to watch Washington and Auburn play and the play of Cox jumped out at me. The fullback is obviously a dying breed in the college and pro game, but Cox is a throwback player who is willing to put his body on the line seemingly every play. He had several key blocks to spring big play. We ranked Cox as a four-star fullback in the class of 2015, something that is basically unheard of, but he has had a great career so far and should only continue to have success at the next level.