TGIF (Thank God It's Football)

Isn't college football silly, and wonderful?

Isn't it stupid, and brilliant?

This weekend, I watched UCF -- a team that went 4-8 last year -- beat North Carolina State on the road. Not only did the Knights claim their first win against a BCS conference team in seven years, they also validated my prediction on Friday night's debut episode of "Rec Warehouse College Kickoff." Key play: a school-record 80 yard touchdown run by Kevin Smith. On UCF's first play from scrimmage.

I watched App State become the first I-AA program in the history of I-AA programs to defeat a ranked I-A school. And they sealed it because some Michigan kid, a six-twelve 900-pounder who was probably the best player ever to come out of Whatever High School, flat-out blew his assignment on a field goal attempt.

I saw Mario Cristobal -- the first Cuban-American head coach in D-I football history -- show up in Happy Valley in a suit and tie. His Florida International team got hammered by Penn State, but it was worth it to see Joe Paterno admire Cristobal's attire when the two shook hands prior to the game. By the way, the tie that JoePa was wearing on Saturday is probably at least four years older than Cristobal.

I saw a college football game called due to lightning. Urban Meyer said during our live Gator Postgame show that he'd never even heard of that, much less been a part of it. Quite an experience for Brady Ackerman and me -- caught completely off guard, we sprinted from the screening room to the Sun Sports set faster than Mike Bianchi ripping through a free buffet. There's nothing quite like sitting down behind the desk and hearing the director say "30 seconds!" when you've spent the last hour watching the Lincoln Financial announcers discuss the weather radar.

Alvin Wyatt and Bethune-Cookman hung a win against Kerwin Bell in Bell's college coaching debut for Jacksonville University. Howard Schnellenberger led Florida Atlantic to a win over Middle Tennessee, giving the Owls an early leg up on the Sun Belt race. FAMU lost to Southern in a rivalry game that really should be played every year. Oh yeah, and Georgia Tech shellacked Notre Dame. All of this on college football's opening weekend.

What happens in Week Two? Can this weekend possibly be topped?

Random observations:

-As big a win as it was for UCF -- and it was huge -- the Knights still looked helpless in the second half against the Wolfpack, giving up twenty unanswered. With Texas coming into town in two weeks to open UCF's new on-campus stadium, George O'Leary and staff better get a handle on that right quick. I still think the Knights will get smoked, but if they can run the ball even remotely as well as they did against NC State, they might be able to milk the clock and make it interesting. They simply cannot allow the game to get away from them the way it did in the second half on Saturday. Not against a team like Texas.

-If South Florida is to validate all the preseason love being thrown its way, it won't be with a performance like Saturday's. If the Bulls let Elon University hang around all day, what do they expect to do with Louisville, West Virginia, and/or Rutgers? I'll chalk it up to opening-day rust, but that wasn't what Jim Leavitt had in mind to open what is supposed to be a breakout season for USF.

-Tim Tebow can indeed pass, but if you watched the game with any level of scrutiny on Saturday, it was evident that those passing lanes opened up primarily because he's such a threat to run (it also helped that he was passing against I-AA defenders, but still). That little duck-down move, where Tebow jab-steps forward as if he's about to hit the hole, then pulls back into a throwing setup, completely bamboozled Western Kentucky all day. The problem is, every defensive coordinator in the SEC now has that move on tape. Interesting to see if Florida tries that ploy in two weeks against Tennessee -- and if they do, even more interesting to see if the Vols bite on it.

By the way, as I write this, I am a perfect 3-0 on the season in the weekly picks contest with Brady Ackerman and Terry Norvelle on Rec Warehouse College Kickoff. Took Cal to beat Tennessee, Bethune-Cookman to beat Jacksonville, and yes, I took UCF to beat North Carolina State. Our final game is tonight, when Florida State meets Clemson in Bowden Bowl IX.

I took the Seminoles. Can't wait to see how this game stacks up in what has already been a gloriously bizarre opening weekend.