What a wonderful, weird opening Thursday night for college football season.

Appalachian State took #9 Tennessee to overtime, where the Vols won by fumbling the ball into the end zone and having one of their own guys recover it.

Will the Vols drop far from #9? Doubtful. They’re in the SEC, remember?

Minnesota and Oregon State played a tight, physical game in which three Gopher defenders were ejected for targeting.

It will be interesting to see if quarterbacks change their play this season to purposefully get defenders ejected from the game. If you’re a heady passing quarterback, you’re going to be sliding a lot more, knowing full well that an aggressive defender isn’t going to give up taking a shot at a quarterback running in the open field.

Two things. First, dumb play by the defender coming in just a little too high and a little too late. Second, note the video camera on the field. This year, the upstairs official will collaborate with an on-field official to make the call. In this case, the exact call was “roughing with targeting”, which means it’s a roughing the quarterback call and they can tack on the targeting, which they did.

Bottom line: Defense is hamstrung. There should be offensive records being set all over the nation this year.

There’s Still Amazing Football Left!

Best Games of the Weekend:

• Kansas State @ No. 8 Stanford - Tonight
• No. 3 Oklahoma vs. No. 15 Houston
• No. 16 UCLA @ Texas A&M
• No. 22 North Carolina @ No. 18 Georgia
• No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 20 USC
• No. 2 Clemson @ Auburn

Obviously we’ll have game threads for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

Big Ten

Minnesota Football vs Oregon State: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly - The Daily Gopher

A win is a win, but the Gophers have work to do moving forward

Indiana 34, Florida International 13: Three things we learned from the Hoosiers' opener in Miami - The Crimson Quarry

Indiana might actually have a defense, Richard Lagow was serviceable, and well -- it was FIU. So who really knows.

Another kind of weird game. Tied at 12-10, Indiana, for the longest time then FIU just caved. Indiana returned two pick sixes and the rout was on.

How Wisconsin can stop LSU's unique run game - Bucky's 5th Quarter

LSU uses a bit of a gimmicky wrinkle in its run game. Wisconsin will have to stop it to win on Saturday.

Michigan State Spartans Football Preview: Game One — Furman - The Only Colors

The 2016 season kicks off against the Fighting Ingle Martin’s of Furman

Ohio State vs. Bowling Green 2016: Game preview, prediction, and 6 things to know - Land-Grant Holy Land

In 2001 Urban Meyer got his head coaching start at Bowling Green. Now his Buckeyes open up the season against the Falcons.

Penn State to Celebrate 50th Anniversary of Joe Paterno's First Game as Head Coach - Black Shoe Diaries

Penn State has announced they will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Coach Paterno's first game prior to the Temple Game

Elsewhere

A Brush With Death - Rocky Top Talk

There’s...not really anything good to say here except we won. Dobbs ended the night 16/29 for 192 yards with negative rush yards. Hurd had 110 yards, but on 28 attempts, for a 3.9 ypc average. Kamara was mostly non-existent. The defense had no sacks. The Vols had 2 turnovers. Special teams regressed. It was really, really ugly, and we’re fortunate to have won the game.

Derek Mason plays two quarterbacks, offense sputters in come-from-ahead 13-10 loss to South Carolina - Anchor Of Gold

This was an uninspiring start to Derek Mason’s third year as head coach.

Auburn vs Clemson Opponent Q&A: Discussing the Game with Shakin' The Southland - College and Magnolia

I spoke with Brian Goodison from Shakin' The Southland about this weekend's opening game.

Oklahoma Sooners Football: Getting to Know the Houston Cougars - Crimson And Cream Machine

Sam and Dustin of the Scott & Holman Pawdcast answered some of our questions

Kicking the Tires: Stanford Cardinal - Bring On The Cats

It's not every decade that K-State leads off the season with a Power 5 conference opponent. On Friday, the Wildcats travel to Palo Alto to face the Stanford Cardinal.

UCLA at Texas A&M: The Definitive Guide to Noel Mazzone’s Offense - Bruins Nation

This guide has been fact-checked and is 100% accurate. Trust me.

Why is Rice on the Big 12 expansion list? | News OK

I’m generally pretty good at coming up with theories on why the Big 12 does some of the things it does. Not this time. I’m baffled. Someone tell me why the Big 12 is going through the masquerade of keeping Rice and Tulane on the list.

Then There’s This: