5 College Football Programs That Should Be Worried After Week 1

5. Alabama Crimson Tide

The Alabama Crimson Tide went to Tallahassee to open the 2025 season against the Florida State Seminoles as nearly two-touchdown favorites. Instead of winning comfortably, they were humiliated in a 31-17 defeat that leaves way more questions than answers in Tuscaloosa. Kalen DeBoer has now been the head coach at Alabama for 14 games, and he has four losses to unranked opponents and as double-digit favorites. The Crimson Tide were pushed around and did not have any answers on either side of the ball, again unable to run the ball. In a vacuum, losing at Florida State is not that bad, but Alabama is now 5-5 in its last ten games, and things could get ugly for Kalen DeBoer very, very quickly.

Week 2: UL Monroe at Alabama (-37.5)

2. Clemson Tigers

Speaking of Clemson, the Tigers lost a hard-fought game at home to LSU on Saturday night and fell to 0-1 on the season. It was not an ACC game, and they still have a very plausible path to the College Football Playoff (winning the conference). Still, nothing about the offensive performance against the Bayou Bengals is going to inspire confidence, and it is now very clear that Clemson has a problem scaling up their performance against top-notch teams. The defense performed well enough to win, limiting LSU and showing growth under new coordinator Tom Allen. The offense, though, could not run the ball at all (20 carries for 31 yards), and star receiver Antonio Williams left the game with a “lower body injury” that has him questionable moving forward. Clemson has plenty of talent, but can it produce on offense against quality competition?

Week 2: Troy at Clemson (-33.5)

3. Boise State Broncos

What to make of Boise State? They earned the Group of Five’s playoff selection last season and were the favorite to do the same in 2025, but they did lose a lot of talent, including superstar running back Ashton Jeanty. The Broncos began the 2025 campaign with a road trip to South Florida, and they looked shockingly bad in a 34-7 blowout defeat. South Florida might be excellent, we don’t know yet, but we can very safely say that Boise State’s running game is going to take a monster step back, which is going to spell serious trouble all season for the Broncos.

4. Kansas State Wildcats

Kansas State very nearly went to 0-2, and they were extremely fortunate to escape North Dakota. Perhaps much of the poor performance can be attributed to the short turnaround after travelling back from Dublin, but Iowa State had no trouble, so we can’t just excuse this from the Wildcats. The Fighting Hawks had 354 yards and had more time of possession, and it took a late score from Kansas State to win 38-35. KSU’s defense looks shaky, and Avery Johnson is not ripping apart defenses with his legs, at least not yet. In addition, other Big 12 teams (Iowa State, TCU, Kansas, Utah, Texas Tech) look very dangerous and much better than KSU thus far.

Week 2: Army at Kansas State (-17.5)

5. Alabama Crimson Tide

The Alabama Crimson Tide went to Tallahassee to open the 2025 season against the Florida State Seminoles as nearly two-touchdown favorites. Instead of winning comfortably, they were humiliated in a 31-17 defeat that leaves way more questions than answers in Tuscaloosa. Kalen DeBoer has now been the head coach at Alabama for 14 games, and he has four losses to unranked opponents and as double-digit favorites. The Crimson Tide were pushed around and did not have any answers on either side of the ball, again unable to run the ball. In a vacuum, losing at Florida State is not that bad, but Alabama is now 5-5 in its last ten games, and things could get ugly for Kalen DeBoer very, very quickly.

Week 2: UL Monroe at Alabama (-37.5)