Biggest Upset-Watch Games Early in the 2024 College Football Season

I am sure you’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time – the start of college football seasons are coming soon. This month will see us have live football on television in two weeks from now.

With the season fast approaching, it is now time for an early look at upset alert games. Another twist in the structure of the College Football Playoff will come in 2024 when it will expand to accommodate 12 participants instead of four that it has started with in 2014.

In other words, the once dropped close games during the regular season may not too much affect your position and you may not be locked out of the playoff. But if you put your rival against an early-season opponent then it may trip you up later in the season.

It’s high time to take a closer look at which games could potentially cause upset to the high-ranked teams at the beginning of the season.

Florida State vs. Georgia Tech live partnership to fairly trade teams games for home-and-home men ‘s basketball series.

When: August 24th, at 12 p. m. eastern time

It probably contributes to my poor reputation putting this one on here, knowing this will upset some Florida State fans. But I don’t want any of you readers to underestimate this showdown, folks. Week Zero’s game in Dublin, Ireland in particular feels very juicy to me.

Florida State will be back for payback in 2024 after the season they deserved a selection committee bid was ruined by the loss of Jordan Travis. The Seminoles will have a great deal of roster turn over which was ranked 89th in ESPN S&P+ returning production but Mike Norvell has set this team up perfectly for 2024. At the quarterback position, the Noles will have former Clemson and Oregon State quarterback DJ Uiagalelei. He will be helped by the return of Offensive Tackles Darius Washington and transfer portal Receiver Malik Benson.

Georgia Tech on the other hand enters this game with a heck of a lot of momentum for a team that only won 8 games last season. GT had four of its last six games victories, coming from a thrilling last-minute over UCF in the Gasparilla Bowl to end season with a 7-6 record. It was the first season after a level of zero point three above. 500 more than it was four years ago in Atlanta, Paul Johnson’s last year as the team’s head coach. Returning are sophomore quarterback Haynes King and highly-touted receiver Eric Singleton Jr. , as well as four members of the Giants’ front five.

Florida State is a 12 step program. 5-point favorite. However, I do not expect this one to be finished early and it could very much be a close shave.

A return to college football was provided by the Penn State at West Virginia match.

When: [August 31, 12. 00 PM ET]

It is not inconceivable that no team stands to gain more from the idea of an expanded playoff than Penn State. The Nittany Lions have had double-digit-win seasons for two straight years and assuming the twelve team playoffs were in existence would have likely made the field in 2022 and 2023. Also worth mentioning, PSU is lucky to have significant scheduling advantages because the Big Ten no longer has divisions.

Still, ahead of Penn State are games against USC, Wisconsin, Ohio State and Washington and they can ill afford to be sluggish against the Mountaineers on the road.

Neal Brown who has been coming off the back of two losing seasons managed to muster a 9-4 record in the following year, 2023. The Mountaineers return 12th in offense production and the successful players include quarterback Garrett Greene, running back Jaheim White and receiver Hudson Clement. WVU also draws home-field for this one—the Mountaineers went undefeated in nearly all their home games last year.

Penn State has a lot of talent coming back in 2024 with Drew Allar at quarterback, Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen at running back and Abdul Carter on the edge. So it is not a shock that the Nittany Lions are an early 10-point favorite. But they also are not pushovers especially when it comes to their own turf, Morgantown.

Notre Dame vs Texas A&M

When: Airs Monday, August 31, 2009 at Seven-Thirty PM Eastern Time

As it is the case with Penn State, an enhanced playoff field will work in favor of Fighting Irish. ND has been to nine and 10 wins in head coach Marcus Freeman’s first two seasons in South Bend. Despite the fact that the Irish will have to replace a ton of talent this year are ranked 98th in returning production, a playoff bid is achievable.

But to do so, ND has to avoid a lapse on the road against Texas A&M as it begins the season.

The three-headed monster of Texas A&M Aggies comes into the 2024 season with a new head coach in Mike Elko. Coached at Duke in the 2022 season as a first-year head coach, Elko managed to make the Blue Devils finish with nine wins. He takes over fairly formidable offence too: Conner Weigman, Le’Veon Moss on the running back , and Tre Watson and Garrett Miller are transfer players.

This Week 1 road trip appears to be one of Notre Dame ‘s most challenging games. The Irish having home games against Louisville, Georgia Tech, Florida State and a game on the road against USC. If the Texans are to stage a upset then Notre’s hopes for the remainder of the season would be on a ship that is very thinly iced.

Texas at Michigan

When: Sept. 7, 12:00 p. m. ET

First-year member of the SEC Texas has a tough task ahead of them this season, they have a difficult game on the road before conference play begins. Michigan has a lot of depth and the coach this year is Sherrone Moore in his first year and the Big House will be packed for this one.

The Longhorns seem to be set up to come in and compete for an SEC title right away in the year 2024. Texas returns starters such as quarterback Quinn Ewers and four offensive linemen after giving a playoff performance in the previous season. Steve Sarkisian also brought in portal receivers Isaiah Bond from Alabama and Matthew Golden from Houston.

But Texas has had some bad luck in the injury department at running back in the fall camp. Last week, the Longhorns lost their starting running back CJ Baxter for the season owing to a knee injury and rumors are that freshmen tailback Christian Clark has also been injured in his lower leg.

Meanwhile, Michigan gets back some experience on the defense side in the form of CB Will Johnson, DT Mason Graham, safeties Rod Moore, and Makari Paige. Returning running back Donovan Edwards is one of the experiences a pretty young offense boasts of.

But if Texas falters on the road against Michigan, it has games remaining with Oklahoma, Georgia and a border clash at Texas A&M in a revived series. There is no reason a loss at Michigan will cost Texas the 2024 playoff bid, yet, that same loss will significantly reduce the amount of outside noise the Longhorns can afford in the latter half of the season.

LSU at South Carolina

When: Friday, September 14, 12pm ET

First, an LSU team replacing a lot of talent going on the road to play a South Carolina team looking to rebound in 2024? Sign me up. While LSU has had two 10-win seasons under Brian Kelly, he was hired for the purpose of delivering championships to the city of Baton Rouge.

South Carolina is in a little bit of a rebuilding year as Shane Beamer is trying to move on from the disappointing 5-7 season of 2023. And at quarterback the trends are looking more and more like in-state candidate LaNorris Sellers will be the man to get the job.

The pro-style 6’3”, 245-pound signal-caller displays a big arm in game footage. He can jag it and bolt when he must, and for a big guy – nah, a fairly large man – that is rather frightening. In defending, the Gamecocks get back 79 percent of their production returned from the previous season and placed 10th best in the country. Linebacker Debo Williams, the Gamecocks’ leading tackler in the 2009 season, did come back.

On defense, the Tigers are headed by Harold Perkins Jr. , who will be a rising junior this season, and he has had to add some pounds to play inside. That should immediately boost new defensive coordinator Blake Baker’s scheme.

On offence, this will be a baptism of fire for expected starting quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, who has started only once in his career. In this match, Hou will perform how well in front of an organized defense team in the opponent’s territory. In this one, South Carolina has all to gain. LSU, in the meanwhile, has games remaining with Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Alabama and Oklahoma still left to be played. Thus a loss in Columbia would add more difficulties for the Tigers in an attempt to get to the playoff.

Oklahoma vs. Tulane

When: Schedule of events: On the 14th of September at 3:30 p. m. ET.

This one might be a little obscure to most people. New Green Wave head coach Jon Sumrall would want nothing more than an early impression, something he could achieve with a road triumph. And, in Oklahoma’s case, they may be in jeopardy of not making the playoffs should they lose.

Tulane is running by return quarterback Ty Thompson of Oregon and Mario Williams from USC, and Makhi Hughes, who rushed 1,000 yards. On the defense, they return 59% of the production from a Green Wave defense which was within the top 25 in scoring, giving up only 20 points per. 5 points per game.

Jackson Arnold of Oklahoma will be the first-time starter replacing Dillon Gabriel. He gets some strong weapons returning around him, such as receivers Nic Anderson and Jalil Farooq and running back Gavin Sawchuk. Getting a taste of Tulane’s defense will be as good as any for this newly reconstructed Sooners offence.

The last time these two faced off in Norman, Oklahoma was last year it was 40-35 in favor of Oklahoma. I really think that this game will be as tight as was that one.

Clemson vs. NC State

When: Sept. 21, TBD

If for instance this is the festive season it will be interesting to identify the position of these teams at then part of the season. Clemson starts out with number one Georgia in Atlanta and then gets pesky App State at home. NC State is scheduled to face Tennessee in Week 2. Well, both these teams could be coming to this game with only one loss in the season or coming off morale boosting wins over much favored opponents.

Still this is a major confrontation for both teams. To win Clemson, has to navigate its way back to the playoff for the first time in four years. NC State which has managed nine victories in two of the last three seasons under the leadership of head coach Dave Doeren is out to show that they are a team that belongs to the ACC.

This one should have an intriguing quarterback competition. Some of these are young talents that should develop in their second season in Garrett Riley’s offence; Clemson’s Cade Klubnik. On the other hand, there is NC State that is expecting a lot from ex-Coastal Carolina signal-caller Grayson McCall in order to boost the aerial attack of the Pack. Defensively, they are roughly leveled: the Spurs perform well against different opponents, while the<|reserved_special_token_260|> Abdul-Rauf and Harper notable for their stability play evenly against the Spurs.

The last three games in head to head saw the winning team win by a margin of 10 points or less. This one should be a tacker as well; it seems that both will be fighting neck and neck, and the winner will be that much closer to the ACC title game.