While all 134 FBS teams won’t take the field until Labor Day Weekend, the 2024 college football season will officially start on Aug. 24. It is dubbed Week 0 and serves as an appetizer to the main course of Week 1 over the holiday weekend.
There are just four games slated for Week 0, but there is intrigue with all of them, and they’ll span 11 time zones. From Dublin, Ireland, to Honolulu, Hawaii, here’s a look at the opening slate of the college football season.
The NFL isn’t the only gridiron football league that is attempting to expand its reach by playing games abroad, as the college game is doing the same. This contest between the ACC rivals will take place in Ireland at Aviva Stadium, which normally hosts rugby union and soccer games for Ireland’s national teams. The game is being billed as the Aer Lingus College Football Classic and marks the ninth college football game to take place in the Irish capital.
FSU is coming off a season in which it went 13–0 but was controversially left out of the College Football Playoff, and then it proceeded to get demolished by 60 points in the Orange Bowl. The team lost 10 players to the 2024 NFL Draft—second-most amongst any school—but it does have one of the most recognizable names in college football at quarterback. DJ Uiagalelei, formerly of Clemson and Oregon State, will be under center for the Noles and will provide a veteran presence for a squad that’s had as much roster turnover as any.
The Yellow Jackets went 7–6 last year, their first winning season since 2018. They notched a pair of wins over ranked teams, while none of their six defeats came to teams with losing records. QB Haynes King led the ACC in both passing touchdowns (27) and interceptions (16) last year, and the latter could be a cause for concern away from Bobby Dodd Stadium. For his career, King has a 24:13 TD:INT at home but has the same number of interceptions (13) as touchdowns outside his home stadium.
This is one of two FBS vs. FCS matchups of the day, but in a departure from the norm, the FCS school is the favorite. That’s because Montana State is ranked No. 4 in the Preseason FCS Coaches Poll, while New Mexico is coming off its seventh straight losing season. The Lobos allowed 35.1 points per game last year, which was among the bottom 10 in the nation, as five opponents scored at least 42 versus them. That could pose a problem versus the Bobcats, who averaged nearly 40 points per game a year ago and have one of the best dual-threat QBs in FCS with Tommy Mellott.
He had four 100-yard rushing games in 2023, including 150 yards and two TDs on the ground, plus 209 yards and two TDs through the air in his final game of last season. Meanwhile, UNM faced a similar athletic QB in its last game of 2023 as well when Utah State quarterback Levi Williams passed for 198 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for 153 yards and three scores against it. That’s a blueprint that Mellott and MSU will attempt to follow on Saturday.
After languishing in the background for nearly 40 years, SMU is back in the national spotlight in its first game as part of the ACC. It comes on the heels of an 11–3 season in which the Mustangs were one of just five teams in the nation to rank in the top 12 in both scoring offense and scoring defense. On the other side, Nevada was among the worst teams on both sides of the ball in 2023 as one of just three teams to rank in the bottom 16 in both scoring offense and scoring defense.
SMU quarterback Preston Stone is a sleeper Heisman candidate after winning his last eight starts of 2023, with 22 total TDs versus just two interceptions over that span. He’s expected to have little difficulty with a Wolf Pack team that went 2–10 each of the last two seasons. Nevada did upgrade its own QB position by landing transfer Chubba Purdy, the younger brother of Brock Purdy, but Purdy is expected to yield the starting position to Brendon Lewis. The latter provides some dynamism with his legs (495 yards, four TDs) but has a ways to go with his arm after tossing just two touchdowns across 236 pass attempts in 2023.
Honolulu is the setting for the final game of Week 0 as the Rainbow Warriors welcome FCS school Delaware State, which is making the 5,000 mile trip for what’s surely a nice payday. Hawaii’s offense under Timmy Chang is as unbalanced as they come, as the team ranked second-to-last in rushing yards per game last year and last in rushing touchdowns. The run game is an afterthought for Hawaii, which relies on QB Brayden Schager to put the ball into the playmakers’ hands, though he’ll be without his top receiver on Saturday. Steven McBride, who had a 1,000-yard receiving season for the Rainbow Warriors last year, is out due to an eligibility issue, which helps level the playing field a bit for DSU.
Delaware State could use all the help it can get after the team went 1–10 last season, with the one victory coming over a school that doesn’t even compete in the NCAA. The Hornets faced two FBS schools in 2023 and lost by a combined score of 119–20 in those contests. Facing a pass-heavy offense in Hawaii, DSU can at least take solace in that, perhaps, its best two players are on the defensive side of the ball. Linemen Eric Montes and Darren Cook were both named to the Preseason All-MEAC Second-Team Defense and the duo, who combined for 13.5 sacks last year, will be tasked with trying to slow down Schager.
