College Football Week 1 Live Updates, Takeaways: Oregon Survives Boise State, LSU

Here we go. The first full Saturday of the 2026 college football season is upon us, and Sports Illustrated’s college football staff will be locked in all day long to bring you the biggest moments and critical updates from across the sport.

The top teams playing in the early window all held serve, with No. 1 Ohio State, No. 6 Indiana and No. 13 Alabama all winning big against overmatched opponents. The mid-afternoon nearly gave us a sport-shaking upset, however, as No. 2 Oregon needed a second-half comeback against Boise State to pull out a 34–27 victory. Tonight’s ABC primetime game, LSU vs. Clemson, is dealing with significant lightning delays, and will not kick off until 9:40 p.m. ET.

Tune in here as the SI college football staff shares their major takeaways from Week 1 of the college football season as the results come in, and keep scrolling for live updates and highlights from across the country.

Takeaways from Week 1’s college football games

There were some growing pains, but Keelon Russell might be the real deal

The Crimson Tide went with the upside of dual-threat and former five-star recruit Keelon Russell over the familiarity of Austin Mack, and the former immediately rewarded the coaching staff with a strong performance in the season-opening, 48–10 win over East Carolina.

Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat though. Despite what the score suggests, this was far from a perfect performance for the Crimson Tide, who had a breakdown in the secondary early in the game, had multiple dropped passes, shot themselves in the foot with a few pre-snap penalties and poorly managed the play clock.

At times, Russell held onto the ball too long. Other times, he failed to get down and avoid contact while on the run. The latter issue could come back to bite him and the Tide if it’s not corrected. That’s the bad. But now that we’ve got our nit picking out of the way, let’s get to the good.

Russell is a tremendous athlete, one who thrives when the play goes off-schedule and he’s forced to make chicken salad out of chicken you-know-what. The Tide offensive line had a solid day from a run-blocking standpoint, perhaps a little less so from a pass-blocking one. But Russell’s mobility, in addition to keeping the defense honest and opening up running lanes for the Tide halfbacks, saved several negative plays that looked like surefire sacks.

After one game, the Crimson Tide’s running game already looks leaps and bounds better than last year’s putrid unit. And the offense, with Russell at the controls, looks to be far more dynamic and balanced.

There’s still plenty for the first-year starter to clean up, and the schedule will get considerably more difficult. But Russell gave Crimson Tide fans a tantalizing glimpse at what the ceiling of this offense could look like down the road with a convincing debut. —Tim Capurso

Build an entire team via the transfer portal? Your mileage may vary.

We’ve seen large-scale transfer rebuilds over the last few years. Indiana obviously won a national title importing a lot of veterans, many of whom came with coach Curt Cignetti from his previous stop, James Madison. Eric Morris’s efforts to reshape Oklahoma State followed that blueprint to an extent, but were even more drastic; yes, he brought a number of players from North Texas, but they were a fraction of the 92 incoming transfers joining the Cowboys program this season.

The full microwaving of a roster raised questions about chemistry, even with the Mean Green backbone of the roster, and those questions look prescient on Saturday after Morris lost his Oklahoma State debut to Tulsa, 24–10—the same Group of 6 program that effectively ended Mike Gundy’s tenure by beating the Pokes last season. It’s just one game, but for a program that some thought could compete near the top of the Big 12 right away, with North Texas superstars like quarterback Drew Mestemaker and running back Caleb Hawkins, the loss recalibrates those expectations in a significant way.

It also proves that there is truly no blueprint in the transfer portal era. Some teams can build a roster on the fly, immediately post one of the best seasons in program history and win an unprecedented national title in Year 2. Others, like Rich Rodriguez at West Virginia, may have to follow a giant transfer haul with another after a 4–8 season. North Carolina went in the other direction under Bill Belichick, and doubled down on high school recruiting after his poor college coaching debut. We’ll see how a program like Penn State, after importing a large chunk of coach Matt Campbell’s Iowa State roster, looks in Year 1, but after a 45–0 blanking of Marshall Saturday, so far, so good. —Dan Lyons

Oregon got the win, but Boise State might’ve scored some CFP-important style points

Two seasons ago, the Broncos fell on the road to Oregon in Week 2, 37–34. It was an early setback for Boise State, but did nothing to dissuade fans—or, more importantly, College Football Playoff voters—from the notion that the Broncos were the best Group of 5 program and worthy of a playoff berth.

Today’s 34–27 loss will absolutely sting for Spencer Danielson’s Boise State program, but they could find themselves in a very similar position.

The Broncos built a double-digit lead in the first half, but couldn’t quite hold on against a red-hot Dante Moore, who finished with 378 yards and three scores in his opening salvo of the Heisman race. Boise State was ultimately outgained 497–274 and took advantage of some Ducks miscues along the way to take their early lead, but did not look completely outmatched by the No. 2 team in the country, and what some believe is the most talented roster in the sport.

In 2024, the Broncos’ near miss in Eugene, Ore., was almost treated like a positive point on the résumé at times. If Oregon proves to be an elite unit, that may be the case again, though Boise State now has to avoid allowing this loss snowball. That begins with arguably their biggest game of the year next Saturday, with fellow G6 CFP contender Memphis coming to town. —D.L.

College football Week 1 live updates, scores and highlights

Saturday’s notable Week 1 scores and matchups (all times ET)

No. 1 Ohio State 56, Ball State 3

No. 2 Oregon 34, Boise State 27

No. 5 Texas 59, Texas State 7

No. 6 Indiana 52, North Texas 16

No. 13 Alabama 48, East Carolina 10

No. 23 Houston 33, Oregon State 20

Nebraska 49, Ohio 21

Auburn 17, Baylor 16

Tulsa 24, Oklahoma State 10

7:30 p.m.

Clemson at No. 11 LSU: Dabo Swinney isn’t exactly a universally beloved college football figure, but he’ll have a lot of backers as his underdog Tigers take on college football’s reviled main character.

Western Michigan at No. 16 Michigan: Has Bryce Underwood turned a corner under a new coaching staff? Facing the MAC champions provides a sneaky-good test.

10:00 p.m.

UNLV at Hawai’i: The Rebels need to get into the win column to keep themselves afloat in the Group of 6 CFP race, but a trip out to the islands is never easy.

10:30 p.m.

UCLA at Cal: Sneakily the most intriguing game of the week. Two former conference rivals that don’t like each other, especially after one left the other and effectively blew up their geographically-logical conference home. The Bruins have to pay the Golden Bears “Calimony” every year as a result. Both programs have new coaches that have injected serious life into stagnant fan bases, and both have potential first-round draft picks under center. Make sure to have that late coffee ready, East Coasters.

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