Week 1 of the college football season came and went without many head-turning results. Only three teams that entered the week ranked in the Top 25 came away with an 0-1 start.
Still, there was plenty to take away from the first week of action. Teams like Texas A&M and Alabama raised their profiles. Teams like Stanford and Arizona State were, well, less than impressive.
Although the Top 25 will likely stay mostly unchanged, here's a look at how the Associated Press poll will be different from the preseason version that preceded it and the teams that stood out in either a positive or negative way in college football's opening act.
Stock Up: Texas A&M Aggies
After a 2-5 finish to the regular season and a defense that finished 86th in Football Outsiders' FEI rankings, you couldn't be blamed if you were a little skeptical of the Aggies heading into this season.
After a 38-17 drubbing of the No. 15 Arizona State Sun Devils, Kevin Sumlin's squad did a lot to raise its stock in this young 2015 season.
It wasn't Sumlin who made the biggest difference, though. The Aggies hiring defensive coordinator John Chavis this offseason was one of the biggest assistant hires in the nation. As John McClain of the Houston Chronicle noted, this defense played with a physicality and edge that was rarely seen last season:
McClain wasn't the only one who noticed the defense, either. Even Arizona State head coach Todd Graham noted the change.
"I didn't see them doing much that we didn't prepare for; they were just doing it really fast, really hard," Graham said, per Ron Higgins of the Times-Picayune. "You could tell Coach Chavis has had a good impact on them."
Of course, Sumlin's trademark offense wasn't bad, either. Both Kyle Allen and Kyler Murray saw action at the quarterback position with varying degrees of success through the air. Overall, they combined to average 6.5 yards per attempt, while the offense churned out 4.0 rushing yards per carry.
Those aren't the video game numbers that fans have come to associate with A&M, but it's that kind of efficiency when paired with a much-improved defense that will make the Aggies dangerous.
Stock Down: Stanford Cardinal
On paper, it looked like Stanford was primed for a bounce-back year after a somewhat disappointing 8-5 campaign in 2014.
The Cardinal returned a four-year starter at quarterback, plenty of experience on the offensive line and the fifth-highest ranking in a Pac-12 conference that has plenty of questions in 2015. On paper, it looked great.
Then the Cardinal stepped on the field against the Northwestern Wildcats. What transpired was not pretty. Stewart Mandel of Fox Sports summed up the complete offensive ineptitude of the Cardinal rather nicely:
The Wildcats—who finished 71st in Football Outsiders' final F/+ rankings last season—dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. Led by a 134-yard performance from running back Justin Jackson, the Wildcats out-Stanforded Stanford by outrushing them 225-85.
There's a chance this is simply a sign that the folks in Evanston, Illinois, are in for a great season. However, this was not the way the Cardinal envisioned starting their season.
Kevin Hogan—who should be a strength of the offense—finished the game with an abysmal stat line of 20-of-35, 155 yards and an interception.
With so much talent coming back for head coach David Shaw offensively, this was an unmitigated disaster. The coaching staff will need to right the ship quickly with a matchup against USC just two weeks out. It's safe to say the Cardinal bandwagon is pretty bare after that performance.
Stock Down: Texas Longhorns
OK, so the Texas Longhorns weren't technically in the Top 25, but they did receive three votes. After laying a Texas-sized egg against Notre Dame in one of the most high-profile games of opening weekend, Texas shouldn't receive any votes for the foreseeable future.
Obviously, college football games are generally a zero-sum proposition. For every winner, there is a loser, and Notre Dame's stock skyrocketed in this win. Quarterback Malik Zaire (19-of-22, 313 yards and three touchdowns) appears to have been the right guy for the task of leading the Irish to a playoff bid this year.
However, the larger story might be how poorly this season started for Charlie Strong and Co. Yes, the offense is expected to struggle. Even with quarterback Tyrone Swoopes entering his second year as the starter, the offensive woes aren't expected to be solved in a year.
The defense, however, is Strong's calling card. Its performance to open the season was nothing short of a meltdown. The unit that finished as the No. 21 defense in the country, according to Football Outsiders' FEI rankings, gave up 527 yards to an Irish offense that welcomed plenty of new faces and lost running back Tarean Folston for the season, per Matt Fortuna of ESPN.com.
Still, all the attention seems to be shifted on the Longhorns' woeful offense. Strong expressed his displeasure with the offensive game plan, according to Nick Castillo of the Dallas Morning News:
(Offensive struggles) cannot happen. We have some talented players there. You look at Johnathan Gray, he touched the ball eight times the other night. He’s a back that needs the ball. The ball needs to be fed to him anywhere from 15 to 20 to 25 times … We have some athletes there on offense there. We’ve just got to do a better job of spreading the ball around and making sure that the right guys get the touches.
It really comes down to a question of what came first: the chicken or the egg?
Did Texas' defense really struggle, or was it just put in a bad position by an offense that gained eight first downs?
The answer is that the Longhorns are a mess. Fortunately, Rice is next up on the docket, but things better get patched up quickly—a Power Five matchup with Cal awaits after that.
Stock Up: Alabama Crimson Tide
While everyone was wondering who would start at quarterback for the Ohio State Buckeyes this offseason, a similar question loomed for Alabama.
Jake Coker, Cooper Bateman, David Cornwell and Alec Morris all took turns being the speculative starter. Turns out, it doesn't really matter who starts at quarterback. The Tide are going to be an elite team.
That's the kind of assumption that can be made after Bama easily dispatched of Wisconsin, 35-17. Jake Coker got the starting nod and proved he can get the job done. The Florida State transfer went 15-of-21 for 213 yards and a touchdown. However, it was a ground attack that gained 238 yards and 6.4 yards per carry that led to Bama's 35 points.
Derrick Henry only needed 13 carries to accrue 147 yards and three touchdowns against the Badgers.
In a development that is shocking to no one, the defense appears to be pretty solid as well. The usually dominant Wisconsin rushing attack was held to just 40 yards on 21 attempts.
As Phil Steele noted, the final score didn't even truly demonstrate just how dominant Bama's defense was:
An obliteration of Wisconsin doesn't necessarily answer all of the questions raised by the team's lopsided loss to Ohio State. Quarterback Joel Stave did have some success throwing the ball at times against the Alabama secondary.
However, this is the kind of win that should probably make Alabama the No. 2 team in the country for now.