HIGHLIGHTS: CSJ FBS GROUP OF FIVE GAMES AND RECAP OF WEEK 0
Week 0 has become really the first week of college football. What used to be only a handful of games now has blossomed into many more. In fact in the FBS for this year’s Week 0, there were 11 games with eight of those games involving at least one Group of Five school.
Week 0 also saw two G5 schools playing Power Five schools. Wyoming lost at Illinois, while Hawai’i lost at home to Vanderbilt.
This first week also saw G5 play FCS foes in two other contests with Western Kentucky defeating Austin Peay and UNLV defeating Idaho State. WKU was the first team to score a touchdown this season in the Hilltoppers 38-27 win.
But the meat of the action was four G5 vs. G5 contests including two Conference USA matchups to begin their schedules. Florida Atlantic whipped Charlotte at home 43-13, while North Texas did the same to UTEP on the road, 31-13.
The two non-conference games though in G5 vs. G5 play were the most intriguing.
Connecticut went to defending Mountain West champion Utah State and scored the first 14 points of the game in debut for Coach Jim Mora, Jr. However, the Aggies would rebound and get the 31-20 victory in the end.
Two new coaches met when Nevada (Ken Wilson) visited New Mexico State (Jerry Kill). RB Devonte Lee ran for two second-quarter touchdowns, while fellow RB Toa Taua rushed for 109 yards in Nevada’s new run orientated offense in the 23-12 road win.
Week 1 will see many more contest but it sure is good to have football back again.
Here is a look at highlights of the four G5 vs. G5 contests with a game recap in the hyperlink.
Utah State 31 UConn 20 (LOGAN, Utah)
FAU 43 Charlotte 13 (BOCA RATON, Fla.)
North Texas 31 UTEP 13 (EL PASO, Tex.)
Nevada 23 New Mexico State 12 (LAS CRUCES, N.Mex.)
Illinois 38 Wyoming 6 (Champaign, IL)
It took Chase Brown and Illinois just 41 seconds to secure all the points needed as the Illini opened the 2022 college football season with a 38-6 win over Wyoming on Aug. 27 in front of 37,832 fans at Memorial Stadium in Champaign.
Luckily for Illinois outcomes are not determined by style points.
Originally from LaMoure, North Dakota, Kent is a 1996 graduate of North Dakota State University. His prior writing experience is over 15 years having previously worked with D2football.com, I-AA.org, and College Sporting News before coming to College Sports Journal in 2016. His main focus is college football is the Missouri Valley Football Conference within the Division I FCS. And in 2017, he began also to look at the FBS Group of Five conferences of the American Athletic, Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West, and Sun Belt.
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