It’s never too early to look ahead to Week 1. Here are 100 things we’re looking for out of that first weekend (in mostly chronological order, of course).
MORE: SN’s Preseason Top 25 teams for 2016
Cal vs. Hawaii in ANZ Stadium in Australia on Aug. 26
Will Muschamp’s debut at South Carolina on Thursday night (Sept. 1)
Lamar Jackson
K-State at Stanford on Friday night (Sept. 2)
Christian McCaffrey
Colorado-Colorado State
Sparty on Friday
Malik McDowell (Michigan State’s difference-maker)
LJ Scott
Dino Babers’ debut at Syracuse
Donnel Pumphrey
Georgia Tech-Boston College in Ireland early Saturday morning (Sept. 3, 7:30 a.m., ESPN2)
Lee Corso’s headgear selection
Northwestern-Western Michigan
James Conner’s return for Pitt
Frank Solich, longest-tenured Group of 5 coach
Yeah, that’s a plug for the alma mater #OUohYEAH
Justin Fuente’s debut at Virginia Tech
MORE: Meet college football’s new coaches in 2016
OKLAHOMA VS. HOUSTON AT NRG STADIUM
Baker Mayfield (SN Player of Year in 2015)
Greg Ward Jr.
Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield (Getty Images)
Bob Stoops, co-dean of FBS coaches
Tom Herman
College Football Playoff implications in Week 1
The first “UPSET ALERT” scroll
Saquon Barkley
Matt Campbell’s debut at Iowa State
Bronco Mendenhall’s debut at Virginia
Arizona-BYU
Taysom Hill’s return
Seth Russell’s return (Bears a title contender)
Baylor’s first long touchdown
J.T. Barrett
Raekwon McMillan
That first look at “Script Ohio”
Meet Mike Weber
Kirk Ferentz, co-dean of FBS coaches
Desmond King and C.J. Beathard
The Sea of Red
MORE: SN ranks the top 25 quarterbacks for 2016
Jordan Westerkamp
That first look at “Go Blue M Club Supports You”
Jim Harbaugh (building a monster at Michigan)
Jabrill Peppers and Jourdan Lewis
Oregon’s first long touchdown
Excitement at Washington AND Washington State
Chris Petersen and Mike Leach
Luke Falk and Jake Browning
Chris Ash’s debut at Rutgers
Mark Richt’s debut at Miami
Brad Kaaya
ALABAMA VS. USC AT JERRY WORLD
Nick Saban
Ju-Ju Smith-Schuster and Calvin Ridley on the same field
Lane Kiffin calling plays against his old team
Alabama offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin (Getty Images)
Who starts at quarterback for USC?
Who starts at quarterback for Alabama?
That first rendition of “Fight On”
That first look at Big Al
Bret Bielema’s first sideline interview
MORE: Five keys to Clemson returning to playoffs
CLEMSON AT AUBURN
Deshaun Watson
Wayne Gallman
Gus Malzahn vs. Dabo Swinney
GEORGIA VS. NORTH CAROLINA IN ATLANTA
Kirby Smart’s debut at Georgia
Elijah Hood
Nick Chubb’s return
That first look at Jacob Eason
That first look at Uga, too
LSU vs. WISCONSIN AT LAMBEAU FIELD
Is it too early to ask for snow at Lambeau?
Leonard Fournette
That first Fournette highlight
Corey Clement’s return
Les Miles’ first sideline interview
Lovie Smith’s debut at Illinois
D.J. Durkin’s debut at Maryland
Missouri at West Virginia
Barry Odom’s debut at Missouri
Skyler Howard
Florida football in “The Swamp”
Jalen Tabor
MORE: SN ranks nation’s Top 25 running backs
UCLA vs. Texas A&M
The 12th Man
Josh Rosen
Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin (Getty Images)
Hot seat talk for the loser
Navy, Air Force and Army as always
Appalachian State at Tennessee
Josh Dobbs, Jalen Hurd and “Rocky Top”
NOTRE DAME AT TEXAS ON SUNDAY
Malik Zaire or DeShone Kizer?
Malik Jefferson’s first big hit
That first look at Bevo
OLE MISS VS. FLORIDA STATE ON LABOR DAY
Dalvin Cook
Chad Kelly
Jimbo Fisher’s first sideline interview
Over-reacting to Heisman hype
Over-reacting to Week 2 polls
Over-reacting to social media
Over-reacting to over-reactions
Over-reacting at sportingnews.com
ARE WE THERE YET?
