The final college football-less Saturday of the year has passed.
Although the majority of programs don’t start their season until the first weekend of September, each year there are a few teams who start their year a week early, known as week zero.
Week zero is often just a tease for the college football season with usually limited action to speak of.
Regardless, some college football is always better than none. And this year week zero has just enough to quench our thirst and end the long college football off-season.
NAVY vs NOTRE DAME
The first kickoff of the 2023 college football season will be at Aviva Stadium, Dublin, Ireland for the Aer Lingus College Football Classic.
College football fans will get the first look at Sam Hartman in a Fighting Irish uniform. As another chapter of the historic Notre Dame vs Navy rivalry is written.
As always, Notre Dame enters the season with a wealth of expectations. And this year, they have no excuses not to match them.
Second-year head coach Marcus Freeman secured the services of 4-year Wake Forrest starting quarterback Sam Hartman. Who will lead the offense behind a very talented, and returning offensive line.
The 13th-ranked Fighting Irish are 20.5-point favorites for the showdown and look in prime position to kick-start their 2023 campaign.
San Jose State @ USC
We don’t have to wait much longer to see the returning Heisman trophy winner and consensus best quarterback in the country return to the field.
Caleb Williams and the USC Trojans kick off their season this Saturday by hosting San Jose State in a game they will completely dominate.
But a competitive game is not the attraction here. Fans should tune in to see a potential Playoff contender start their season as they mean to go on.
Caleb Williams is likely playing his last year of college ball. And Lincoln Riley will be feeling the pressure of delivering success to the LA-based program. After losing both the PAC 12 championship game, which eliminated them from the playoff, and the Cotton Bowl at the end of last season.
Unfortunately for San Jose State, they look certain to feel the full force of USC’s 8-month-long pent-up frustrations.
Hawaii @ Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt is the lone SEC team in action during the week zero slate.
The Commodores host the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors in their week zero matchup which will see AJ Swann take full control of the Vandy offense under center.
Vanderbilt upset Kentucky and Florida last season in their only two conference wins. They will need to show rapid improvement to become bowl eligible this year.
Opening their season against Hawaii and Alabama A&M should allow Vandy to run up the scoreboard and build much-needed confidence in the first two weeks of the season and let Swann get comfortable as the solidified QB1.
This article was written by our new writer Ross Love. Thanks to Ross for contributing this article and you can catch more of his work here in the future.
Feature IMage: The Irish Times