- Alabama lost to Florida State 31-17 in their season opener, their first opening-game loss since 2001.
- Tulane emerged as a potential Group of Five playoff contender after defeating Northwestern.
- Tennessee showcased a strong offense in their win against Syracuse.
Fifteen years of unparalleled dominance gone and erased – poof! – in the span of a season and one game.
Nick Saban isn’t walking through that door. Heck, AJ McCarron isn’t, either. There is no rationale reason for optimism.
After losing to Vanderbilt and Oklahoma in coach Kalen DeBoer’s debut, the No. 8 Crimson Tide opened 2025 with an embarrassing 31-17 loss at unranked Florida State, which ended last season at or near the very bottom of the Power Four. The loss was Alabama’s first in a season opener since 2001.
There is nothing Alabama does particularly well and some obvious flaws, including the play of an offense that averaged just 4.6 yards per play. From drops to missed blocks to missed assignments, Alabama’s offense managed to combine poor preparation with poor execution. Defensively, the Tide allowed 6.1 yards per play and 10.9 yards per pass attempt.
This is what Alabama resembles a game into DeBoer’s second year: an average program farther away from the national championship than at any single point during the Saban era.
And given what’s unfolded since a win against Georgia last September, it’s become incredibly hard to see how DeBoer’s tenure gets back on track.
That makes the Tide the biggest losers of the first Saturday of the 2025 season. Coming in second is No. 1 Texas, which lost 14-7 at No. 2 Ohio State in one of the most hyped season openers in recent history:
Winners
Ohio State
The win against Texas will reinsert the defending national champions atop the US LBM Coaches Poll as the Longhorns tumble down the rankings. But that’s just the beginning. It’s difficult to overstate the long-term impact the result of Saturday’s season opener will have on both teams along with the Big Ten and SEC, especially in how the selection committee eventually assesses the Buckeyes, Longhorns and these two conferences.
Playing with a reworked roster and coaching staff, the Buckeyes squeezed just enough from an unimposing offense to score the type of victory that will linger deep into the regular season and beyond. While games against Penn State and Michigan will determine the Big Ten, the odds of Ohio State making the playoff in some capacity have increased dramatically.
There’s plenty of improvement needed on the offensive end after the Buckeyes gained just 203 yards on 3.8 yards per play, including only 2.3 yards per carry. Before Saturday, the Buckeyes’ fewest yards in a regular-season game since 2016 was 252 yards in last year’s loss to Michigan. By default, Julian Sayin outplayed Manning by avoiding turnovers and focusing his attention on star wide receiver Jeremiah Smith, who had a game-high six receptions.
But this was to be expected: OSU was overhauling things on offense behind new personnel and a new offensive coordinator. That there are similar changes underway on defense speaks to the ability of that unit to keep the Buckeyes at or near the top of the FBS while the offense rounds into form. The defending national champions passed a high-profile test to open the year and should only get better from here.
LSU
No. 9 LSU forced Cade Klubnik into a late incompletion on fourth down and with No. 4 Clemson in the red zone to win 17-10 in the other Death Valley and reclaim a huge chunk of the momentum lost during a disappointing 2024 season. Beyond flipping the script given the program’s winless mark in season openers under Brian Kelly, this one puts LSU back on the map as a legitimate contender for the SEC crown and national championship. The defense stepped up: Clemson managed just 261 yards of offense and only 1.6 yards per carry. While that performance will reignite criticism of Clemson’s offense, the story coming out of Saturday is about the growth seen from LSU after multiple years in a row of dismal defensive numbers.
Florida State
We won’t know for a bit whether beating Alabama actually means anything when it comes to the Seminoles’ chances of a worst-to-first climb in the ACC. But from a symbolic perspective, it’s hard to top the deep meaning behind a win against the Crimson Tide. At a minimum, the victory speaks to the way Mike Norvell remade the program in the offseason, especially in hiring new coordinators Gus Malzahn and Tony White. Another big addition was former Boston College quarterback Thomas Castellanos who was dead-on accurate when he said in June that Alabama didn’t “have Nick Saban to save them” anymore.
Tulane
Tulane is the current favorite for the Group of Five’s bid to the playoff after Boise State’s stunning loss at South Florida on Friday night and the Green Wave’s 23-3 win against Northwestern. Brigham Young quarterback transfer Jake Retzlaff threw for 152 yards and ran for a game-high 113 yards with two touchdowns. The Wildcats are one of three Power Four teams in non-conference play for Tulane, joining Duke and No. 15 Mississippi. Splitting games against the Blue Devils and Rebels while losing just once in American play should leave Tulane atop the Group of Five in December.
Tennessee
The No. 18 Volunteers suffered no post-Nico Iamaleava hangover by beating Syracuse 45-26 in Atlanta behind 281 yards of total offense and three scores from new starting quarterback Joey Aguilar. The Appalachian State and UCLA transfer paced a balanced offense that threw for 247 yards and ran for 246 yards and two touchdowns on 6.2 yards per carry. Based on Saturday, the Volunteers have to be taken seriously as an SEC contender.
John Mateer
Oklahoma’s new quarterback looked the part of an impact transfer by completing 30 of 37 throws for 392 yards with four touchdowns as the Sooners beat Illinois State 35-3. The 392 yards set a new program record for a debut. While beating the Redbirds tells us nothing about the Sooners’ chances in the SEC or against Michigan next week, it’s clear that grabbing Mateer and coordinator Ben Arbuckle away from Washington State is going to have a hugely positive impact on this offense.
Losers
Texas
The Longhorns will spend the rest of the regular season trying to make up ground against a schedule that includes No. 4 Georgia, No. 17 Florida, No. 21 Texas A&M and Oklahoma. While we only have one year of data at our disposal, Texas could conceivably lose twice in the SEC and still be in position for an at-large playoff bid. But the issues run deeper for the Longhorns, and include early questions about Manning, the overall state of the offense and whether there is enough experienced talent to play with and beat the best teams in the FBS. Bellyflopping into the regular season after months of acclaim as the SEC favorite, Texas never resembled the team many expected to go wire to wire atop the Coaches Poll.
Arch Manning
No player reflects this disappointment more than Manning, who went 17 of 30 for 170 yards, averaging an anemic 5.7 yards per throw, with a touchdown and an interception to go with another 38 rushing yards. (There might not have been more commercials featuring Manning during the Fox broadcast than completions against the OSU defense from Manning, but it was close.) His struggles were underscored by the fact 98 of his passing yards came in the final five minutes after Texas trailed by 14. This is essentially a nightmare scenario for the youngest member of the quarterback dynasty: Texas lost while Manning was very unimpressive, and the talking-head coverage of the Longhorns and their quarterback this week will be absolutely brutal.
Kalen DeBoer
He’ll shoulder the blame for Alabama’s latest failure, as he should. The next few months will determine whether DeBoer returns in 2026, though you’d have to think he’d get at least one more year unless the Tide completely disintegrate in SEC play. More than a result of evaluation, development or game-day preparation, DeBoer’s current predicament can be linked to a fateful choice: to replace the greatest coach in program history and inherit Saban-era expectations. It’s always better to replace the guy who replaces the guy, you know.
Cade Klubnik
Clemson’s road to the playoff still goes through teams such as Miami, SMU and the rest of the ACC’s upper crust. In the end, the LSU loss does much more to Clemson’s reputation and level of national respect than to the Tigers’ overall playoff odds. (That respect level just took a big hit, by the way.) There’s going to be a more concrete impact on Klubnik, who began the year as one of the co-leaders for the Heisman Trophy but will have a hard time moving past a mediocre game in the loss. The senior hit on 19 of 38 throws for 230 yards and an interception.
Kansas State
After dropping the Week 0 opener to No. 21 Iowa State in Dublin, No. 20 Kansas State struggled to put away North Dakota of the Championship Subdivision before scoring with 42 seconds left to win 38-35. This one featured a better game from quarterback Avery Johnson, who had 318 passing yards and three scores, but narrowly getting past an FCS opponent doesn’t help rebuild the Wildcats’ diminishing credibility with Big 12 play around the corner.