College Football Playoff First Round recap: Home favorites win big

The electric on-campus atmospheres of the first ever CFP First Round games proved to be a big advantage for the host schools. All four hosts won big over the lower seeded teams to advance to the traditional New Year’s bowl games. Let’s recap it all below!

It’s fitting that the first ever on-campus CFP game took place in South Bend, home of the most iconic team in the sport. The Fighting Irish thoroughly dominated their in-state rival Hoosiers, overcoming an early Riley Leonard interception to take home a 27-17 win. Don’t let that final score fool you, because this game was 27-3 with around 2 minutes to go. Notre Dame stopped an early Indiana scoring opportunity by picking off an errant Kurtis Rourke pass, and two plays later, RB Jeremiyah Love took the ball 98 yards for a touchdown, the longest TD run in CFP history. The Hoosiers just couldn’t muster any offense against Notre Dame’s stout defense, and Hoosier HC Curt Cignetti called a much more conservative game than I expected him to. Notre Dame advances to the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day, where they’ll take on #2 overall seed Georgia. Expect that to be a defensive slugfest, and with UGA QB Carson Beck expected to miss the CFP, Notre Dame should have the advantage at the most important position given how well Riley Leonard played in this game.

●One of 2024’s best stories came to a crashing end in State College on Saturday. SMU put themselves in a hole early and had no means to recover, losing by a final tally of 38-10. SMU QB Kevin Jennings threw more touchdowns to Penn State than he did to his own team with his two pick-6’s in the first half. He added another INT with SMU in prime scoring position for a first-half turnover hat trick. Penn State’s defense was dominant, forcing those turnovers and snuffing out any and all positive drives for the Ponies all afternoon long. PSU HC James Franklin did make several questionable coaching decisions to give SMU chances to get back into this game, like a failed 4th down conversion on their own 19-yard line. But SMU’s mistakes were too much to overcome, and the Nittany Lions moved on to the Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Eve against the Heisman runner up Ashton Jeanty and Boise State. Fun fact: Penn State and Boise State have played in a combined 10 Fiesta Bowls and are 10-0 in those games.

●Is 10.4 yards per carry good? Because that’s what Texas RB Jaydon Blue averaged while stampeding over Clemson in Texas’ 38-24 win over the Tigers. The Longhorns outrushed Clemson 292-76, with Blue going for 146 and Quintrevion Wisner adding 110 himself. Quinn Ewers was fairly pedestrian but didn’t need to be the hero with how dominant the run game was. His counterpart, Clemson QB Cade Klubnik, did an admirable job trying to keep the Tigers in this one. This game was briefly a one-score affair in the 4th quarter after a gutsy 4th-down TD pass from Klubnik, but two plays into Texas’ next drive, Jaydon Blue took it 77-yards to put this game away. Texas now moves on to the Peach Bowl, where we’ll see a strength on strength matchup: The Longhorns’ dominant defensive line vs. #4 Arizona State and their phenomenal rushing attack led by RB Cam Skattebo.

●Going into this year’s College Football Playoff, there was no team with more pressure on them than Ohio State. For one week, at least, they were definitely up to the smoke. The Buckeyes looked like the $20m team we thought they’d be as they flew past Tennessee, sending a legion of Volunteer fans who made the trek to Columbus home sad. It took only 12 minutes for Ohio State to go up 21-0, showing a decisiveness through the air they lacked against Michigan. Freshman phenom Jeremiah Smith racked up 2 touchdown catches, while Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson both ran for 2 touchdowns as well. Vols QB Nico Iamaleava was awful, and Tennessee didn’t cross 200 yards of offense until garbage time. Chants of “SEC” broke out early and often as the game got more and more out of hand. With Ohio State moving on to the Rose Bowl against Oregon, we get a classic Pac-12/Big Ten matchup in the Grandaddy Of Them All. It’s also a rematch of one of the best games of the regular season, where the Ducks squeaked by the Buckeyes with a 1-point home win.

●Just because the 9-12 seeds got blown out doesn’t mean the committee got it wrong. It just means it’s hard to go on the road and beat a Top 10 team. SMU, Indiana, and Tennessee all had great regular seasons and they got rewarded for it. Unfortunately they all ran into buzzsaws. Most seasons there aren’t more than 2 or 3 teams that can truly win a national championship, and letting in more teams will show the gap between the good and the great. And no, Alabama still did not deserve to make the CFP.

●Home field advantage matters. It usually does, but seeing SMU QB Kevin Jennings get rattled by Penn State’s student section every time his team was in the red zone proved to me how valuable it is. Every home team won by double digits, and it was truly a joy seeing important postseason football being played at historic sites like Beaver Stadium and Ohio Stadium.

●On the flip side, you do risk injury by playing in one of these games. Tennessee missed RB Dylan Sampson for most of their loss to Ohio State, while Texas lost multiple offensive linemen and RB Quintrevion Wisner to injury. They’ll have a week plus to recover but this could be a major factor going forward.

●James Madison won their first ever bowl game with a 27-17 victory over Western Kentucky in the Boca Raton Bowl. Sam Houston State also got their first bowl victory by beating Georgia Southern in the New Orleans Bowl.

●In a battle of Group of 5 champions, Ohio knocked off Jacksonville State 30-27 in the Cure Bowl. They did so with the help of this DB making an interception with a club hand.

●Not a bowl game, but our FCS National Championship Game is set: Montana State will take on powerhouse North Dakota State for the crown. The Bobcats took down South Dakota to advance, while the Bison needed an insane touchdown from Trey Lance’s brother to defeat defending champ South Dakota State. Don't forget this game is played in Frisco!