Week Zero Quick Storylines

Here are just a few of the storylines from the Week Zero College Football games:

·        From a historical standpoint, the Colgate vs. Villanova meeting is a great game to kick off the 150th year of college football as both programs have been around since the late 19th century and have more than 250 combined seasons on the gridiron with a total of 1,278 victories between them.  Each team also has a long tradition of success, with the Raiders owning a .570 all-time winning percentage and the Wildcats checking in at .560

·        Colgate is picked to repeat as Patriot League champion while Villanova is picked to finish ninth in the CAA Conference

·        Something has to give as the Raiders went 3-0 against the CAA last season, and the Wildcats are 8-0 against ranked Patriot League opponents all-time

·        The overwhelming story line with Samford is how it replaces FCS all-time passing yardage leader Devlin Hodges, who earned the 2018 STATS FCS Walter Payton Award as a senior

·        The Penguins still have six seniors who played in the 2016 FCS championship game, when the Missouri Valley Football Conference program fell to James Madison

·        It should be a milestone season for both coaches: YSU's Bo Pelini is six wins shy of 100 in his career and Samford's Chris Hatcher needs two to reach 150 overall

·        Beginning in 1938 and running through the mid-1980s, the Miami Hurricanes and Florida Gators met yearly, their matchup pausing only briefly in 1943 during World War II

·        For the better part of five decades, this rivalry helped define state bragging rights – which the Hurricanes currently hold as they have won 12 of the last 16 matchups since 1978

·        Dan Mullen became the third head coach in history to win 10 games in a debut season with a current Power Five program after inheriting a team that won less than five games the year prior. The others were Stanford’s Chuck Shaughnessy (1-7-1 in 1939; 10-0 in 1940) and Auburn’s Gus Malzahn (3-9 in 2012; 12-2 in 2013)

·        Florida won each of its last three games in 2018 by 26-plus points while scoring 40+ points in each of those games

·        Dick Tomey, who coached at both Arizona and Hawaii, will be honored before the game Saturday, with several of his family members in attendance

·        Khalil Tate is one of two returning Power 5 quarterbacks with at least 1,500 career rushing yards and 4,000 career passing yards, joining Oklahoma’s Jalen Hurts, who did all of his previous damage at Alabama

·        UH is coming off its first winning season since 2010 and have appeared in two bowl games in the last three seasons under Rolovich. 4 UH returns 20 starters this season — a figure tied for the most in the nation along with Ball State, Indiana, Michigan State and Oregon

·        The Warriors are 9-0 under Nick Rolovich when scoring 40+ points (5-0 in ’18) and 20-0 including his tenure as UH offensive coordinator from 2010-11