College Football: How to spend opening Saturday in 2018

It’s the first weekend of the college football season and there are so many games on this Saturday. Here are the ones you should be watching.

The first full Saturday of the college football season is coming up and with dozens of games going on, make sure you don’t miss the biggest teams and most important matchups as each team begins its try at the 2019 College Football Playoff. Here are the games you should be keeping an eye on in week one this season:

Saturday noon:

Florida Atlantic at #7 Oklahoma, FOX, 12:00 p.m. | Lane Kiffin won 11 games in his first year as the Owls’ head coach and his offense feature one of the game’s most electrifying players, Devin Singletary. The identity of their starting quarterback, however, is still unknown, perhaps even to Kiffin. Oklahoma begins the post-Baker Mayfield era, leaving Kyler Murray as the heir apparent to the most efficient offense in college football. FAU is a being 21-point underdog, but the combination of characters and upset potential involved make this an intriguing watch in an otherwise lackluster noon slate.

Second screen: Oregon State at Ohio State, ABC, 12:00 p.m. | While this matchup lacks the panache expected of a week one power conference clash, it will give the country an opportunity to see how the Buckeyes respond to being without Urban Meyer for their first three games.

Saturday afternoon:

#6 Washington at #9 Auburn, ABC, 3:30 p.m. | The first top-10 clash of the season will put the national championship hopes of one of these teams on the ropes. Auburn won last year’s Iron Bowl before dropping the SEC title game to Georgia and the Peach Bowl to eventual national champion Central Florida. Washington desperately needs a win in this game, as a one-loss Pac-12 title might leave them the odd man out come Playoff time. They return two of their key players from one of 2017’s best offenses, quarterback Jake Browning and leading rusher Myles Gaskin, who combined for 4,000 total yards.

Second screen: #17 West Virginia at Tennessee, CBS, 3:30 p.m. | The Mountaineers are led by Will Grier, one of the most exciting quarterbacks around, but Tennessee has home field advantage and a lot to prove. Also, at 4:00 on FOX, North Carolina at California could provide some intrigue as the Tar Heels deal with suspensions and the Golden Bears try to build something.

Saturday evening:

#14 Michigan at #12 Notre Dame, NBC, 7:30 p.m. | One of college football’s biggest rivalries returns with a huge opening night clash. The line has flipped to favor Notre Dame at home in a must-win for two teams who think they can compete for a title. Is Shea Patterson going to be able to lift Michigan’s quarterback play out of its rut? Can the Irish replace all of their outgoing NFL talent? Neither of these teams has all of its questions answered going into Saturday, but they’d better have some solutions ready.

Second screen: Louisville vs. #1 Alabama, ABC, 8:00 p.m. | The nation will tune in to see who gets the start at quarterback for Alabama, Tua Tagovaiola or Jalen Hurts, but in any case, this is a tough challenge for the Cardinals in their first game without Lamar Jackson.

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Saturday night:

BYU at Arizona, ESPN, 10:45 p.m | If you’re not exhausted from the first full day of college football, you could do worse than watching Khalil Tate sling the ball around in Arizona State’s electric offense.

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