LSU Coach Brian Kelly, FSU Lineman Have Big Days while Nico Iamaleava Disappoints in UCLA Debut

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After four straight days of games, Week 1 has officially come to a close. It was a long offseason leading up to this point, with everyone involved in college football programs entering the 2025 season with optimism and a fresh perspective. After all, everyone (outside of Week 0 participants) entered the week unbeaten. That’s not the case now.

Some teams lived up to and exceeded the hype surrounding them, extinguishing previous demons and inspiring the belief that they could contend for a conference or national title.
Others fell flat on their face, accentuating concerns heading into the season and clouding the outlook on the rest of the season after just 60 minutes of play. In this piece, we highlighted both sides of the equation: the winners and the losers of Week 1 of the 2025 college football season.

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Winner: Cal QB Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele just turned 19. He just played his first-ever college football game this weekend, and it’s unfair to place heightened expectations on him. But he also looked different out there on the field.

It isn’t easy to quantify or put into words, but Sagapolutele moved differently. He was poised, confident, and accurate in the face of pressure. He made several pinpoint throws in critical situations that hit his Cal Golden Bear teammates right where they needed to.

When it was announced that he had beat out former five-star and Ohio State Buckeyes transfer quarterback Devin Brown for the starting job against the Oregon State Beavers in Week 1, people were surprised. But after a 6-7 campaign a year ago, which included a 2-6 conference record in their first year of ACC play, expectations weren’t high for Cal or Sagapolutele. That was until he put on a clinic against the Beavers.

The true freshman passer completed 20 of 30 passes for 234 yards and three touchdowns while adding 30 yards on the ground. After losing Fernando Mendoza in the offseason, who transferred to Indiana, the Golden Bears appear to have struck gold with Sagapolutele, who, if he continues on this path, will be one of the most well-known players in college football soon enough.

Loser: Iowa Hawkeyes Passing Attack Optimists

For years, the Iowa Hawkeyes have been abysmal through the air. However, the combination of transfer quarterback Mark Gronowski and offensive coordinator Tim Lester was supposed to change that. Gronowski began his career with the South Dakota State Jackrabbits and started the majority of four seasons with the program.

Gronowski was a prolific passer at the FCS level, throwing for 93 touchdowns versus just 20 interceptions. But he was far from prolific in Iowa’s season-opener against the FCS’s Albany Great Danes. He finished the day with a meager 44 passing yards, completing just eight of 15 passes. The only positive was that he did throw a touchdown pass, but it was far from an explosive play, as it came from just two yards out.

Lester, who already entered the season with pressure on him to put together just an average passing offense, appears to have his work cut out for him in 2025. It was a disappointing first impression for Gronowski as the Hawkeye’s signal-caller and certainly put a damper on an optimistic offseason.

Winner: LSU Head Coach Brian Kelly

There’s little doubt that Brian Kelly is a solid football coach. He’s been around the block, coaching the Notre Dame Fighting Irish from 2010 to 2021 and compiling a 92-40 record, including an appearance in the 2012 BCS National Championship. He’s entering his fourth season at the helm for the LSU Tigers, yet he hasn’t figured out how to start the season on the right note.

Kelly was 0-3 in season-openers at LSU heading into their 2025 debut against the No. 4 Clemson Tigers. It was at Clemson, and the odds seemed even lower that Kelly would end the streak. But ending the streak is precisely what he did, as his Tigers managed to come away with a physical 17-10 win. It snapped a curious streak of slow starts to seasons, while also leading LSU to a resume-building victory as they look to make the College Football Playoff for the first time since their 2019 title run. After three years of it not going Kelly’s way to start the season, it finally did in 2025 in demonstrative fashion.

Loser: Northwestern Wildcats

While there weren’t high expectations for the Northwestern Wildcats this season, as they’re coming off a 4-8 campaign, they’ve reached a new low after falling to the Tulane Green Wave on Saturday. The fact that they could only manage a field goal nails home that point, as it was an embarrassing effort for head coach David Braun’s squad.

Former SMU Mustangs quarterback Preston Stone threw 28 touchdowns and six interceptions in 2023. Though he lost the starting job in 2024, it was to a worthy candidate in Kevin Jennings, who led the Mustangs to the CFP.

Stone departed after the season, deciding to join the Wildcats in the Big Ten. All he did in his debut was throw interceptions — four of them, to be exact. He completed just 19 of his 36 pass attempts (52.8%) for 161 yards and was sacked three times.

Surely, it’s not all on Stone, as this roster clearly lacks talent. But putting up three points and allowing an AAC team to rush for 268 yards (6.5 yards per carry) is unacceptable and reflects Northwestern’s putrid effort.

Winner: Florida State Seminoles Lineman

The Florida State Seminoles dominated the line of scrimmage against the Alabama Crimson Tide — on both sides of the ball. Offensively, they ran the ball 46 times and totaled 236 yards for a healthy 5.1 yards per rush. Four different players scored a touchdown.

The offensive line played about as good a game against an SEC foe as it could’ve, repeatedly pushing the line of scrimmage forward and giving dual-threat quarterback Tommy Castellanos time to work his magic. Defensively, they stopped a rushing attack that was dominant a season ago. Alabama attempted to run the ball early, but found itself stonewalled more often than not. By the end, they’d run the ball 29 times for just 87 yards for an average of just 3.0 yards per carry.

That disallowed the new starting quarterback, Ty Simpson, from being eased into the game. He threw 43 passes, but completed just 23 of them. Surely Florida State’s linemen, coming off a yucky 2-10 season, heard the noise of opening the season against the bigger, badder, and better Crimson Tide linemen of the SEC. But they chose to speak with their pads, dominating at the point of attack and winning the game for the ‘Noles.

Loser: UCLA QB Nico Iamaleava

The last six months have not been pretty for Nico Iamaleava. It began with a messy departure from the Tennessee Volunteers program. He reportedly requested a large sum of NIL compensation and ultimately sat out of practice before entering the transfer portal. He likely assumed there’d be a bidding war for his services, but most schools had already emptied their NIL fund or felt good about their starting quarterback coming out of spring practices.

The UCLA Bruins became one of the only takers, operating a de facto quarterback swap with former Bruin Joey Aguilar transferring to the Volunteers. Fresh off a playoff berth at Tennessee, expectations were high within the program entering their Week 1 bout with former Pac-12 rival, the Utah Utes.

It would be an understatement to say they didn’t belong on the same field as the University of Utah. Playing at home in the Rose Bowl, the Bruins were defeated 43-10. Iamaleava completed just 11 of 22 passes for 136 yards with a touchdown and an interception apiece. It was far from a successful debut for UCLA and its new quarterback, and the possibility exists of a long, disappointing season in Westwood.

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