What makes Ichiro a Hall of Famer, from those who knew him best
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Alden Gonzalez
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Alden Gonzalez
ESPN Staff Writer
- ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the L.A. Rams for ESPN from 2016 to 2018 and the L.A. Angels for MLB.com from 2012 to 2016.
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Jesse Rogers
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Jesse Rogers
ESPN Staff Writer
- Jesse joined ESPN Chicago in September 2009 and covers MLB for ESPN.com.
Ichiro Suzuki will become a Hall of Famer — and possibly the second unanimous selection ever — when the Baseball Writers’ Association reveals its ballots Tuesday night. Ichiro’s stat line over more than two decades of excellence, first in Japan and then in MLB, makes his induction a slam dunk, but the legend of Ichiro is about much more than his 3,089 major league hits and .311 career average during 19 seasons with the Seattle Mariners, New York Yankees and Miami Marlins.
As the iconic outfielder gets his Cooperstown call, we asked former teammates, opponents and other MLB greats to describe what it was like playing with, pitching to and simply witnessing Ichiro during his legendary career.
First impressions of Ichiro
When Ichiro came to the majors, there was plenty of skepticism about how a Japanese hitter would fare in MLB since nobody had made the jump. Starting with his Mariners teammates, he found ways to turn heads from the beginning.
John OIerud, teammate with Mariners, 2001 to 2003: “I heard Bobby [Valentine] talking about this one guy that was really good and that he could play here in the big leagues. Ichiro was the first Japanese position player to come so nobody knew if they could have success here at Major League Baseball. And so I remember the first time I met him in the clubhouse with Seattle, he knew who I was and I didn’t immediately know who he was. And talking to Tom Robson, who’s the hitting coach, he said Ichiro is bigger than Elvis in Japan, just to give me a frame of reference. And still as big as he was in Japan, there was still a question of whether position players could compete over here.”
Mike Cameron, teammate with Mariners, 2001 to 2004: “My favorite story was his first year in spring training. Our manager was Lou Piniella. Ichiro was hitting foul balls over the third-base dugout and over the third baseman and he would get a lot of his base hits between first and second, short and third and over the shortstop’s head. And one day Lou got pissed off. He was standing on the top step and Ichiro was coming back to the dugout. I think he had grounded out or something like that. And Lou always rattled out anything he wanted to say, and was talking so loud — I’m sure Ichiro heard it — he’s asking our bench coach, ‘Can this guy f—ing pull the ball one time?’ And sure enough, the next at-bat, he got up there, he hit a homer to right.
“He came around the bases with no animation or anything, same dry face that he always has with his shades on, then he takes his helmet off, takes his gloves off, puts his bat in his bat rack, his personal bat rack that was on the bench, and he sat down and he said, ‘How was that?’
“And everybody just died laughing.”
Brett Boone, teammate with Mariners, 2001 to 2005: “We had no idea how to take him at first. I now had a teammate with his first name on his back. No one had ever seen that before. He had his own program and BP and things and everybody knew his credentials in Japan, but had no idea how it was going to translate. And he kind of went through spring training like a pro. Guys were asking him to do this and do that. And he kind of looked at you like, ‘No, I know what I’m doing.’ And he had an OK spring, still everybody’s waiting to see what he was going to do and came out of the chute, bang. And that was that first season — it was pretty awesome. He gave me rice balls every day. He was great and really fit into that dynamic. I mean, it was a strange year for all of us because the Japanese press was here and it was almost like having a postseason press conference every day.”
Chef Jeremy Bryant began a 20-plus-year stint with the Mariners in 1999, when what’s now called T-Mobile Park opened. He was told a year in advance that Ichiro would be joining the team, a staff member referred to him as “The Michael Jordan of Japan,” and so Bryant spent a summer learning Japanese cooking. When Ichiro arrived, Bryant was ready — his fridge stocked with gourmet Japanese food, his mind prepped for how to make it to the superstar’s liking. Then, Ichiro walked into the room with a question Bryant was not expecting.
“Do you have cheeseburger?”
Bryant: “I didn’t have a cheeseburger. I didn’t even think he would want that. I was suggesting all these things and I’m like, ‘How ’bout wings?’ He goes, ‘Oh yeah, wings! Very good.’ I had started marinating them Mexican style. I put some lime juice, garlic, and before I went too far, I put a bunch of teriyaki sauce on them, and so I joked with him like, ‘These are my signature Mexi-yaki wings.’ He went out, had his Opening Day, everything went good. And the next day he was like ‘Wings, again, please.’ I left the stadium to buy some more wings, came back, made them again, and then Day 3, again. I swear to God, man — 10 years, he had those wings. Every game that we played at night, Ichiro had those wings. … Same time — 5:05 every day because he was the first one out of batting practice. He ate them in the same exact chair. He never sat in a different place in our little dining lounge. And he used the same plate. I even cooked them in the same pan. … And then on getaway days, whenever the team was flying out, he didn’t want wings on those days. He wanted two corn dogs. Just two, and they had to be the basic, regular — I would get them at Costco, the frozen ones. I had all this gourmet stuff ready for this guy, and he loved two corn dogs on getaway days.”
Even as he quickly turned his teammates — and team staffers — into believers, Ichiro had to prove himself to the rest of the league. Of course, batting .350 on his way to American League MVP and Rookie of the Year honors in 2001 helped matters immensely.
Tim Salmon, opponent with Angels, 2001 to 2006: “I remember seeing him for the first time and how slight of build he was. He wasn’t a big guy. My thought was, ‘OK, this will be interesting to see how this plays out.’ He’s a right fielder. Most right fielders are big guys, power guys.
“He was such a slight build but had all this amazing talent, and he could be whatever he wanted to be. And his arm, I mean, he was just phenomenal. He had a cannon in the outfield and just the gracefulness that he went about things, whether he was charging the ball and his footwork and being able to get off that perfect throw every time or running the bases. He just glided and he just did everything with a gracefulness. That was really rare to see.”
Joe Maddon, longtime opposing manager with Rays and Cubs (and bench coach for Angels in 2001): “I really believe that he could look at the field and decide where he wanted to hit the ball and then he would hit it in a manner that would fall in front of outfielders. Although he had pop in his bat, he knew how to just hit it over infielders — almost like his bat was a fungo — and as if the pitcher was just tossing it up in the air and he would hit it somewhere, it was just really maddening to defend it.”
Mike Sweeney played with and against Ichiro for many years in the American League. They also shared an All-Star locker room several times. Sweeney remembers the first time he met Ichiro — while Sweeney was playing first base for the Royals in 2001.
Sweeney: “He leads off the game with a line drive to left-center field for a base hit and he gets over to first base and all I could think about was when I was in Japan playing against the Japanese all-stars, anytime that an American would get a base hit up on the jumbotron would be this big huge graphic, almost kind of like a 1950s/1960s graphic from Batman and Robin. Like ‘Pow!’ or ‘Boom!’ And it would say, ‘Nice batting.’ And so over the loudspeaker, you’d hear the PA announcer say, ‘Nice batting.’ And you’d see these big graphics up on the jumbotron.
“So being a kid from Southern California that doesn’t speak any Japanese, I don’t know what to say to Ichiro. I don’t even know if he knows English. He had just gotten here in spring training. So I look over at him and I pat him on the back and say, ‘Ichiro, nice batting.’ And I don’t know what kind of response I’m going to get. And he looks at me — never met him before — and he goes, ‘Mike Sweeney, nice ass.’ I just started dying laughing. I’m like, oh my gosh, his English was perfect. No accent. And I’m going, oh my gosh, this guy, he’s going to be great.”
With a major league career spanning nearly two decades, Ichiro ended it playing with the same players who were watching him in awe from afar when he broke in with the Mariners.
Chris Rusin, Rockies pitcher who gave up Ichiro’s 3,000th hit: “I watched him growing up. I went to a couple of Tigers games and they just happened to be playing Seattle. Never thought I’d be playing against him or pitching against him, let alone giving up the 3,000th hit.”
Christian Yelich, teammate with Marlins, 2015 to 2017: “I grew up watching Ichiro as a kid. In middle school, high school and stuff like that. So when we first signed him, I was like, ‘Oh s—, I’m going to be playing with Ichiro. That’s crazy.’ And you don’t have very many moments like that. At least, I didn’t in the big leagues where you’re playing catch with a guy in the outfield and you’re kind of like, ‘Oh s—, I’m playing catch with Ichiro right now.’ That’s a weird feeling. And he was so normal too, though. He was a great teammate and a good friend and it was an awesome experience playing with him and getting to watch him achieve a bunch of milestones because it was later in his career, so it felt like every game he was passing or tying somebody.”
A front-row seat to the Ichiro show
Randy Winn played 115 games batting one spot behind Ichiro in the 2004 season, when he set an MLB single-season record with 262 hits. Winn referred to his spot in the order as a “pleasure” because he benefited from how much energy Ichiro absorbed from opposing pitchers, either during long at-bats or consistently applying pressure on the bases.
Winn: “He had three 50-hit months. I’m fortunate enough to have one in my career, and it felt like I fell out of bed every day with two hits in my pocket. It was amazing. I’m serious. You went to the park every day like, ‘Oh, I already got two hits? Wow, this game is easy.’ He did it three times in one year! I can’t even fathom. That to me is so mind-blowing, I can’t even put it into words.”
When Winn arrived in Seattle in 2003, he worried about a potential language barrier while sharing the outfield with Ichiro. Winn quickly learned it was a nonissue — Ichiro spoke far more fluent English than he realized. Winn was intent on giving Ichiro his space, but he often sought opportunities to pick the brains of great players. One spring, he saw an opening with Ichiro. The two stayed back while most of the other veterans traveled for a Cactus League game, and Winn approached Ichiro in the weight room to ask him about his mindset leading off games.
“Randy,” Ichiro replied, “I want five.”
“What?” Winn responded.
“Five,” Ichiro said in perfect English. “Every day, I want five hits.”
“That’s the expectation,” Winn said. “‘I put myself in a position where I expect to get five hits. I expect to execute and get five hits.’ And then I was like, ‘Heh, OK, now I understand why you get 262 hits.'”
Unforgettable moments
Long after the initial frenzy of his arrival in 2001, Ichiro captivated the sport again as a 42-year-old in pursuit of his 3,000th hit in the majors (in addition to the 1,278 he collected in Japan). He reached the milestone while playing for the Marlins in 2016 — hitting a stand-up triple at Coors Field in Colorado.
Rusin: “The atmosphere, it was crazy. You could kind of feel the crowd was expecting something because for a Miami/Colorado game to have quite a few fans there, and it got pretty loud when he gets up to the box. You kind of could feel it a little bit.
“I think I went 2-and-0 on him and then I left a cutter over the middle of the plate. He kind of pulled off of it, hit off the end of the bat, and it traveled further than I thought it was going to go, and the outfielder kept going and going and going. I was like, ‘Please don’t go out. Just not a home run. I’ll take anything but a home run.’ And it went off the wall and he ended up getting a triple, and I think I ended up getting out of the inning. But yeah, anytime you faced a hitter like that in a big situation where he has something on the line or whatever, you don’t want to be a part of it, but as long as it’s not too bad, it’s OK. It’s not too bad to be a part of it.
“Then after the game, I’m sitting at my locker and I got all the media around me wanting to talk about giving up that hit and I explained everything and then at the end I said, ‘The only thing that I asked for is you go back and ask him for an autographed bat. By the time he leaves, just send it over.’ And by the time I left the stadium, he had already sent the bat over and signed it. Great guy.”
Yelich: “After he got it, we were in the outfield together playing catch the next half inning, warming up for the bottom of whatever against the Rockies at Coors Field. And I remember playing catch with him and me thinking, ‘Don’t you dare throw this ball over Ichiro’s head and have him go running to the wall to go get this ball or something.’ With all these cameras and people watching him right now, all over the world, you just don’t want to airmail it in the outfield and send him running. That’s what I remember thinking.”
It wasn’t just milestones but Ichiro’s ability to make any moment extraordinary. There’s perhaps no better example than his unreal April 2001 throw from right field to get A’s outfielder Terrence Long at third base.
Long: “When he threw me out at third, early in the year we were in Seattle, same scenario, ball hit to right field, but it was a little bit more towards the gap, and I went first to third, no problem. So this time I’m thinking, ‘OK, I went first to third one time before,’ but this one was right at him. And I watched the replay. I was already three or four steps across second before he got it. So I’m thinking, there’s no way he’s throwing me out, and I’m running, and then you can look at the third baseman’s eyes and you can see him looking at this ball. And I’m saying to myself, I’m like, ‘OK, this ball is about to pass me.’ So I was like, two things are going to happen. Either way it goes, you’re going to be on ESPN forever. So the smart thing to do is just slide, just to make it look close. The worst thing I could have done was just go in, stand it up, and it would’ve been even more embarrassing. So I was like, ‘I’m just going to slide.’ But as soon as I got ready to slide, you see this ball come right past me. I was like, ‘Oh my God, there’s no way he just made that throw.'”
Even routine plays became the stuff of legend when Ichiro stepped onto the field.
Salmon: “We were playing in Seattle one year, and the grass always has a dew on it, a dampness to it. Anyway, he hit a line drive at me. This is along the lines of how hard he hit the ball. They just rocketed off his bat. And it was just going to be a nice easy one-hopper. And I came up to get it, and it hit the ground and it skipped so hard. I didn’t get my glove down in time, and it hit me in the nuts. And literally, I did everything I could to keep from rolling over or whatever. I mean, I picked up the ball and I threw it in and I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ And I was walking around the outfield and I swear it was burning so bad down there. I figured I must be bleeding. And I kept trying to glance down looking at it like, ‘Am I bleeding?’
“I’m 200 feet away. That ball, it hit the ground and it just had so much on it. It looked like a normal line drive, one-hop routine, and it skipped on me — but he hits the ball so hard that you really got to be on your toes. And I remember hearing infielders talk about that. He’d hit a hard one- or two-hopper that would just get through, past the infielder, because the ball came off that different.”
Joe Girardi, manager with Yankees, 2012 to 2014: “My favorite Ichiro story is actually when he played with the Mariners against us. I remember him taking Mariano Rivera deep [a walk-off] in a game, throwing the cutter inside and it getting hit. He had the ability to pull his hands inside and hit the ball out of the ballpark. And when you would watch him take BP, he hit ball after ball after ball out. But he knew his game was getting on base and stealing bases. So he never tried to be something that he wasn’t. The ground that he covered was incredible and people just didn’t run on him, or he probably would’ve had a lot more assists. And it’s a guy that had over 500 stolen bases. So I don’t know if he could really ask a player to do much more.”
Legendary skills and work ethic
None of his achievements would have been possible without a combination of baseball skills and work ethic that set Ichiro apart from his contemporaries.
Cameron: “He was a locker mate of mine and he was my right fielder for the three years that we played together. What jumps out is just his consistency. His consistency and his work ethic. He calls it a word in Japanese: it’s called Kaizen, and in Japanese that means never-ending [or continuous improvement]. So he was never satisfied. And I don’t think he really worked off the numbers other than the fact that he loved the idea of getting base hits. The guy was driven about getting base hits and obviously that’s evident in that he came over here and played all those years and got 3,000-something hits and has the all-time hit record in a season. So he was driven by that, although he had the capability of hitting the homer, which I don’t think everyone really knew that.
“The guy used to go in even on off-days and work out. It was every day for him. That’s all he knew. I always used to ask him, ‘What drives you to do this kind of stuff?’ He’s like, first of all, his name means ‘the one.’ So he’s destined to be this one person. And he was also very particular about everything that he did, from his bats to having his own special bat case with a humidifier there. He was a competitor.”
Mark Teixeira, teammate with Yankees, 2012 to 2014: “I got to see Ichiro at his best. There were only a handful of players in baseball that I thought were more impactful to the game. I just thought he was one of the top five players in all of baseball when I played against him.
“What impressed me the most is that he worked harder, took his job more seriously than anybody I’ve ever played with. And this is a guy who was a Hall of Famer, a legend in Japan. He could have just kind of ridden off into the sunset. He wasn’t even playing every day, but yet, he took his craft more seriously than anybody.”
Girardi: “I think his durability was absolutely incredible. Coming over here at 27 years old and playing really every day until he was 41. It was amazing. I’m looking at his stats when he was 41 years old. He appeared in 153 games and he worked really hard. There’s really three facets of the game and he was really good at all of them. Offensively, just his bat-to-ball skills were absolutely incredible and [he] had the ability to hit a home run — in a sense — when the team needed it.”
Beyond all of his other gifts, it was that unparalleled ability to put the bat on the ball that stands out most to those who watched Ichiro — or attempted to get him out.
Mark Buehrle, opponent with White Sox, 2001 to 2015 (Ichiro hit .409 in 66 career at-bats against him): “He was so good with making contact and just putting the ball where he wanted to. I remember a game — I think he had all the hits during that game — he got on first base after his third hit, and I had run over to cover. It was like a base hit through the right side of the infield. And I went over to cover and he was standing on first base and I just threw my arms up. ‘Are you sh–ing me?’ And he just did his whole, ‘My bad,’ shrugging his shoulders. But he was just so good at putting the ball where he wanted to. I swear he would put it where guys were not at.
“I think the only time that I ever moved any position guys on the infield was against him. There was a game, he got two hits between third and shortstop. And I remember the third at-bat. I looked over at [third baseman Joe] Crede and I’m like, ‘Scoot over, he hits the ball right there every time, scoot over.’ So I pointed [him to] move over towards the shortstop and what’s Ichiro do? He hits it right down the freaking line, right where Crede would’ve been at. And I’m like, ‘Yep, I’m never moving anybody ever again.'”
Those who have witnessed his batting practice over the years swear there is another element to Ichiro’s game that defies his modest 119 career home runs.
Long: “He just hits, hits, hits — but what impressed me the most about that guy was batting practice. His first couple of rounds, he is just working on his line drives and then his last round of BP, he hits balls further than anybody I’ve ever seen. And still to this day, people don’t believe it. I’ve watched him take BP a lot. He hits balls farther than any of the big guys you can name in that era in batting practice.”
Olerud: “You watch him take batting practice and I would put him against any home run hitter in Major League Baseball because he just hit one home run ball after the other and way, way out. It was impressive how far he could hit the ball home run-wise and then get in the game and he’d go to slapping the ball the other way and running hard out of the box. It was just so different. And so for me, it was always, ‘Hey, you practice like you play in the game.’ And I never really asked Ichiro what his thinking was in batting practice, but he kind of blew that theory out of the water.”
Bob Melvin’s first managing job was in 2003 with the Mariners. Ichiro was a megastar in the United States by that point, and yet Melvin called him the easiest player he ever coached. He was so committed, so regimented, that Melvin often joked that his only job was to inform Ichiro what time the game started. But when Melvin first came on board, he was given a different task — to schedule days off for Ichiro as often as he could. Ichiro never wanted to take them, but he often needed them. So Melvin identified an early date on the calendar that, in his mind, made sense — Saturday, May 3, in the middle of a weekend series against the White Sox.
Melvin informed Ichiro earlier that week he would not be in the starting lineup for that game and reminded him the day prior. He told him not to take batting practice and to make it a point to arrive at the ballpark later than he normally would. If he needed him, Melvin said, it wouldn’t be until the eighth or ninth inning anyway. Then Melvin walked into the dugout half an hour before the first pitch and saw Ichiro sitting on the bench in full uniform — batting gloves on, bat to his side, one of his knees twitching uncontrollably.
“I’m ready,” Ichiro declared.
Melvin: “Just then, this kid walked by with an Ichiro jersey on. And he looked at me and he just kind of nodded his head to the kid. And it just dawned on me that people come to watch him play, and he’s very aware of it. And he’s an entertainer, as well. And he wants to put on a show. And here we are in Chicago, the only time that year playing the White Sox, he’s not in there, and it was almost his way of telling me, ‘That’s one of the reasons I don’t want days off.’ I just looked at him and I said, ‘I get it.'”
One-of-a-kind personality
Two things were clear about Ichiro’s off-field persona: He was really into fashion, and his comedic timing was impeccable.
Those two traits collided one afternoon in the mid-2000s. Kangaroo court was being held, and one of the Mariners’ players proposed fining Ichiro $500 for wearing another one of his eccentric, fashion-forward, Italian-inspired outfits that seemed more appropriate for a European runway than a major league clubhouse.
Raul Ibanez, teammate with Mariners, 2004 to 2008, and Yankees, 2012: “So Ichiro stands up very calmly and starts speaking very eloquent Japanese in a calm, very distinguished cadence. And then the translator goes, ‘Ichiro-san wants to know how much we’re going to fine you for making him watch all the s— that you guys wear every day.’ It was sometime in September, I think everyone on the 40-man roster was there, and the whole room erupted.”
When Ichiro returned to Seattle as a 44-year-old in 2018, it was Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto who orchestrated the deal with longtime agent John Boggs in early March, in the middle of spring training. But Dipoto had never met Ichiro.
A news conference was scheduled at the Mariners’ facility in Peoria, Arizona. Dipoto and Boggs agreed that the front office people could wear polos and khakis and Ichiro would probably conduct his news conference in his baseball uniform. So, a casual affair. Then that morning, a row of black SUVs pulled into the parking lot. Ichiro hopped out of one of them.
Dipoto: “I’d be conservative in saying I think he’s wearing about a $20,000 suit, his hair perfectly groomed and jet black, and he’s got on what I would qualify as the nicest pair of sunglasses I’ve ever seen. He walks in and spreads his arms out and says, ‘Jerry!’ I looked at him, and my first instinct, I like give him a little backhand slap in the chest. I said, ‘I thought we were going casual.’ And he looked at me and laughed. He said, ‘This is casual for me, my friend!'”
Ichiro’s ability to surprise with his style and wit was evident from the beginning — whether it was with an umpire …
Boone: “One of my favorite moments was: He’s running out for Opening Day and the second-base umpire [Kerwin Danley] was kind of following him out to right field and everybody thought [Ichiro] didn’t speak English. And I believe the line he dropped on him because Danley came right over to me and he said, ‘I can’t believe what Ichiro just said to me.’ I said, ‘What?’ He said he was running by Ichiro and he kind of gave him the, ‘Hey, good luck to you’ this and that kind of thing. And Ichiro kind of looked at him, he said, ‘What’s happening, home slice?’ and kept running to right field. That stuck with me. That was funny. That’s how he was.”
… or when he charmed the game’s greatest players at his first All-Star Game in 2001.
Sweeney: “[AL manager] Joe Torre gives this beautiful speech, you know, ‘You guys are the best in the world in this locker room. Take a look around. You’re in an elite class. There’s only 70 people in the world that are going to play in this game tonight, and you’re one of them.’ And you look around, you see Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera, and you’re looking around the room going, ‘Oh my gosh, this is great.’ So at the very end, we’re all kind of in this feeling of you’re in a cathedral, but yet you’re in a baseball locker room at the same time, and you’re going, where do we go from here? And Joe Torre says, ‘Anybody have anything to add?’ And we’re kind of like, how can you top Joe Torre? And we look around and Ichiro stands up, raises his hand — where’s he going with this? And he goes, ‘Let’s go kick their motherf—ing ass.’ And the place just erupted, the whole locker room.
“It was something I’ll never forget. So then every year in the All-Star games to follow, it just was like, OK, whoever the manager is, you can say whatever you want, but No. 51 always gets the last word. And it was just an unspoken thing — you look over and you see Jeter, the greatest players of our time. And when the manager would get done, it was like, OK, that was good, but wait until you hear what Ichiro has to say. He gets the last word.”
It wasn’t always easy
Sweeney’s first year playing with Ichiro was in 2009, just after Ichiro had led Japan to a World Baseball Classic title. It came with a lot of stress — amid reports of issues between Ichiro and some of his Seattle teammates and a bleeding ulcer.
Sweeney: “I had heard about Ichiro being alienated by his teammates. Some of them were jealous of him, some of them weren’t incorporating him into the team as they should. And I was in shock. I’m like, this guy’s the greatest hitter of all time. How can you not embrace this incredible player? So we go into spring training, Ichiro is in the corner locker right next to Griffey Jr. Then I’m next to Junior and I’m sitting around the locker room looking and saying, man, we have four future Hall of Famers in this locker room. It’s Ichiro, Griffey Jr., Adrian Beltre and Felix Hernandez. And I’m going, man, how can we not win here? We have to find a way to unify this locker room.
“So during spring training, we did little things to bring our team together. We’d meet up for dinners and do fun things in the locker room together. And about halfway through spring training, the WBC started. So Ichiro was obviously on Team Japan and they win and Ichiro shows back up with five days to go before Opening Day in Minnesota. And he goes to our team doctor and says, ‘Look, I don’t feel good at all.’ So they find out he has a bleeding ulcer and he’s deathly ill. They’re treating him in the hospital. But Ichiro was bound and determined to be ready for Opening Day. But the stress of putting his country on his back, he literally put the country of Japan on his back by representing them in the WBC. He willed the Japanese team to win the WBC championship in 2009, and then he tries to get back to a team that just six months before had turned their back on him and kind of ostracized him and put him on an island. They didn’t embrace him.
“And he has all this internal stress going on, which leads to a bleeding ulcer. And Ichiro met with the doc and said, ‘I’m playing for Opening Day.’ And the doctor actually called the owner and said, ‘Ichiro’s adamant that he wants to play for Opening Day, which is in like four days, and I’m in no position as a team physician to allow that to happen.’ Ichiro asked him what’s the worst thing that could happen. And the doc says, ‘If this bleeding ulcer, which is actively bleeding, if it ruptures, you could die.’ And Ichiro looked him square in the eyes and said, ‘I’ll take my chances.’ And the owner of the team had to step in.
“So as we went into Minnesota, Ken Griffey Jr, myself, Adrian Beltre, Felix Hernandez, we got the team together and we said, ‘Hey, look, in the past, this is a teammate that you all have pushed to the side, but here’s what he was willing to do for you. He’s willing to die for you to play in tonight’s game.’ So it was very emotional. This is a time to honor him. This is a time to open up our arms to him and really bring him into the team. So that night in Minnesota, our clubhouse manager, Teddy Walsh, we asked for Ichiro’s jersey, and we hung it in the dugout, in the Metrodome. And Ichiro told me that when he watched the game that night from a hospital bed back in Seattle, he knew that there was something different. He had teammates for the first time since his rookie year, he felt that loved him.
“So the team ended up just falling just short of the playoffs. On the last day of the season, we carry Griffey off on our shoulders thinking he was going to retire and sail off into the sunset. Carlos Silva [a Mariners pitcher, who reportedly had his issues with Ichiro] was so moved by his love for Ichiro, he thinks what the hell, I’m going to put Ichiro on [my] shoulders and carry him off.
“There’s this beautiful image of us carrying Griffey Jr. off the field as a hero’s exodus, and then Carlos Silva throwing Ichiro up on his shoulders, carrying him off just because he loves his teammate. And Ichiro told me that that was the most fun he had in the major leagues since his rookie year. He said the way his teammates loved him, the way his teammates celebrated him brought him great joy again in baseball for the first time since his rookie year.”
Week 1 is finally here and there’s plenty to know about ahead of this weekend. Top 25 matchups will be played, and many freshmen will have the chance to show if they can shine under the bright lights for the first time.
All eyes will be on No. 1 Texas-No. 3 Ohio State as the Longhorns travel to the Horseshoe Saturday. What can we expect to see from Texas quarterback Arch Manning and Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith in Week 1? No. 9 LSU travels to No. 4 Clemson in a tough road matchup to start off the season. While Brian Kelly and LSU have yet to win a Week 1 matchup the past three seasons, will this be the game that changes that? As we look forward to a jam-packed weekend, we take a look back at some of the best quotes of the offseason.
Our reporters break down what to know entering Week 1.
Jump to:
Expectations for Arch and Jeremiah
LSU-Clemson | Freshmen to watch
Offseason quotes
Texas-Ohio State preview
What do we need to see from Arch Manning Week 1?
We can expect Manning to take some deep shots, especially to receiver Ryan Wingo, who Manning has raved about all offseason. The Longhorns weren’t great at stretching the field last season with Quinn Ewers, but whenever Manning got in, he looked to make big plays. Texas’ offensive staffers said this spring they keep reminding Manning that he just needs to keep the offense moving forward and to take the easy throws when he can, especially while breaking in four new starters on the offensive line. Similarly, Manning, who has open-field speed, has been reminded by everyone — including his grandfather, Archie, who liked to run around a little bit — to get down or get out of bounds, and not to drop his shoulder and try to run anyone over. Manning doesn’t have to be “superhuman” or “do anything that is extraordinary,” Steve Sarkisian said on Monday. But a solid performance on the road at No. 3 Ohio State to open the season would set the Longhorns on a national championship trajectory. — Dave Wilson
What can we expect from Jeremiah Smith in his sophomore debut?
Smith noted during Big Ten media days last month that with a year of experience behind him, he expects to play even faster this season. That’s a scary proposition for the rest of college football, considering Smith put together one of the greatest true freshman seasons in college football history, capped with his game-clinching reception that lifted Ohio State to a national championship. The Longhorns were one of the only teams to keep Smith in check last year, holding him to just one catch for three yards. Of course, the attention on Smith allowed Carnell Tate and Emeka Egbuka to thrive, combining for 12 receptions in the 28-14 Buckeyes win. Still, Smith said he has been waiting for this opportunity to face Texas again. How new quarterback Julian Sayin performs could dictate the quality of Smith’s opportunities. Either way, Smith is primed to put on a show on the big Week 1 stage. — Jake Trotter
What each team needs to capitalize on to win
LSU: Four starters from last year’s starting offensive line were selected in the 2025 NFL draft, but that doesn’t mean LSU was elite up front. The Tigers ranked last in the SEC in rushing offense and mustered just 1.5 yards before contact on dropbacks, ahead of only Vanderbilt. This year’s unit will need to improve dramatically on that clip if LSU wants to contend for a playoff berth and that starts with the opener against Clemson. Clemson’s defensive front, manned by Peter Woods and T.J. Parker, is stout, and new coordinator Tom Allen will have his sights set on making LSU one-dimensional. The key to getting the ground game going will be a youth movement in the backfield led by Caden Durham and five-star freshman Harlem Berry. — David Hale
Clemson: As Hale mentioned, Clemson needs to dominate up front — as much as that sounds like a cliché. LSU coach Brian Kelly said he planned to rotate as many as eight offensive linemen in the opener, which is a nod to team depth, but may not be conducive in the type of environment they will be playing in. Clemson is eager to show that it has vastly improved in its front seven under new defensive coordinator Tom Allen, who brings a far more aggressive approach with his scheme. That aggressiveness was missing a year ago, as Clemson struggled to stop the run and consistently get after the quarterback with its best pass rushers. Clemson ranked No. 85 against the run a season ago while Penn State, where Allen coached, ranked No. 9. The same can be said on offense, where a veteran offensive line must help Clemson get the ground game going. Cade Klubnik was more effective as a passer last season because the Tigers had balance in their ground game. Converted receiver Adam Randall gets the nod at running back, and true freshman Gideon Davidson is expected to play. — Andrea Adelson
Five freshmen to watch in Week 1
Bryce Underwood, QB, Michigan, No. 1 in 2025 ESPN 300
Underwood shook the recruiting world with his late-cycle flip from LSU to the in-state Wolverines last November. Ten months later, ESPN’s top 2025 recruit is set to be the program’s Week 1 starter when No. 14 Michigan hosts New Mexico on Saturday.
Underwood’s elite arm talent, pocket awareness and mobility has impressed the Wolverines’ coaching staff since he arrived on campus in January, as has his accelerated knowledge of the game. The young quarterback will get his first chance to flash that talent alongside fellow Michigan newcomers in running back Justice Haynes (Alabama transfer) and wide receiver Donaven McCulley (Indiana) in Week 1 before Underwood and the Wolverines stare down a much stiffer challenge against an experienced, Brent Venables-led Oklahoma defense on Sept. 6.
Elijah Griffin, DT, Georgia, No. 3 in 2025 ESPN 300
For the first time since 2021, the Bulldogs landed the state of Georgia’s top-ranked prospect in the 2025 cycle, and Griffin already appears poised to be a Day 1 contributor for the No. 5 Bulldogs.
Like many of the elite defensive line talents before him at Georgia, Griffin possesses top-end traits — speed, physicality and SEC-ready size at 6-foot-4, 310 pounds — that have had onlookers drawing comparisons to former Bulldog Jalen Carter throughout the spring and summer. Griffin’s maturity and ability to pick up the defense has also stood out as he vies for snaps along a revamped Georgia defensive line that returns multiple starters from a year ago. Whether or not he starts against Marshall on Saturday, Griffin is expected to play early and often in a significant role within coordinator Glenn Schumann’s defense this fall.
Dakorien Moore, WR, Oregon, No. 4 in 2025 ESPN 300
Moore has been one of the nation’s most productive high school playmakers in recent seasons, and his elite speed and playmaking talent are expected to earn him early opportunities this fall as he steps into an unsettled Ducks wide receiver group.
Missing top 2024 pass catchers Tez Johnson (NFL), Traeshon Holden (NFL) and Evan Stewart (injury), No. 7 Oregon is screaming for fresh downfield producers in 2025. The Ducks have plenty of experienced options between Florida State transfer Malik Benson and returners Justius Lowe, Gary Bryant Jr. and Kyler Kasper, but none offer the brand of electricity Moore presents. One of ESPN’s highest-rated wide receiver prospects since 2006, Moore should be an asset for first-year starting quarterback Dante Moore as soon as Oregon takes the field against Montana State on Saturday.
Demetres Samuel Jr., DB/WR, Syracuse, No. 223 in 2025 ESPN 300
Samuel reclassified into the 2025 class to enter college a year early. At just 17 years old, the 6-1, 195-pound freshman is set to feature prominently for the Orange this fall starting with Syracuse’s Week 1 matchup with No. 24 Tennessee on Saturday in Atlanta.
A speedy tackler from Palm Bay, Florida, Samuel has legit two-way potential, and the Orange intends to make the most of it in 2025. Syracuse coach Fran Brown announced earlier this month that Samuel will start at cornerback against Tennessee while also taking snaps at wide receiver, where the Orange are replacing their top two pass catchers from a year ago. With Travis Hunter in the NFL, Samuel stands as one of the most intriguing two-way talents across college football.
Jayvan Boggs, WR, Florida State, No. 284 in 2025 ESPN 300
Boggs joins the Seminoles after hauling in 99 receptions for 2,133 yards and 24 touchdowns in a wildly productive senior season at Florida’s Cocoa High School last fall. Listed as a starter in Florida State’s Week 1 depth chart, he has an opportunity to pick up where he left off in 2025.
Boggs combines a thick build with sudden route running and knack for yards after the catch. Alongside transfers Gavin Blackwell (North Carolina), Duce Robinson (USC) and Squirrel White (Tennessee), he’s positioned to emerge as a reliable downfield option from the jump within a new group of Seminoles pass catchers around Boston College transfer quarterback Tommy Castellanos, starting with Florida State’s Week 1 meeting with No. 8 Alabama (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC). — Eli Lederman
Notable offseason quotes
“I depend on Depends. … I’m making a joke out of it, but it is real. It is real. It is real. If you see a port-a-potty on the sideline, it is real, I’m just telling you. You’re going to see one at practice, on the sideline [in games].” — Colorado coach Deion Sanders, joking about his cancer recovery.
“But since we’re in Vegas, it seems like the right time to say it, our theme for this team is double down.” — Oregon coach Dan Lanning, on expectations coming off last year’s undefeated regular season.
“We figured we would just adopt SEC scheduling philosophy, you know? Some people don’t like it. I’m more focused on those nine conference games. Not only do we want to play nine conference games, OK, and have the [revised] playoff format [with automatic qualifiers], we want to have play-in games to decide who plays in those playoffs.” — Indiana coach Curt Cignetti on criticism of the Hoosiers’ light nonconference schedule.
“The recent NCAA ruling to not punish players that weren’t involved is correct. However, this ruling also proves that the NCAA as an enforcement arm no longer exists.” — Former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer, on the sanctions against rival Michigan.
“They don’t have Nick Saban to save them. I just don’t see them stopping me.” — Florida State QB Tommy Castellanos to On3 in June about the opener vs. Alabama.
“I’m 21 so I can do shots at a bar.” — Texas quarterback Arch Manning, joking after being asked about how he has to carry himself in public.
“They can have their opinion. We’re going to handle all that on Aug. 30.” — Clemson DE T.J. Parker on the battle over the stadium nickname “Death Valley” between Clemson and LSU.
“I still have the [Catholics versus Convicts] shirt. I do. It’s well documented that’s as intense if not the most intense rivalry that at that time it felt like the national championship went through South Bend or Coral Gables. Intensity was high, physicality, the edge that game was played with was next level.” — Miami coach Mario Cristobal on the Notre Dame rivalry. Cristobal played in the game and will now coach in it as Miami opens vs the Irish.
“Be delusional … It means no cap on the jar, no limitations, dreaming big. With the College Football Playoff where it is, as Indiana showed last year, anybody can get there. If we’re delusional enough to know we can do that, we can get there … Take the cap off the jar. Limitless.” — Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck, speaking at Big Ten media days.
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Bill Connelly
After months of posturing and debate about playoff length and conference schedules and future collective bargaining agreements, the college football offseason has ended, and the actual games — the things we live for — have begun. More teams than usual seem capable of making national title runs, and all the predictable contenders seem to have far larger question marks than usual.
Week 1 gives us a case in point: For the first time, the No. 1 team in the preseason polls is beginning the year as an underdog. Arch Manning and top-ranked Texas will ring in the season against Ohio State in Columbus, and the host Buckeyes are 1.5-point favorites.
If history offers us parallels, they aren’t kind to the top team. In 1988, Florida State took a new starting quarterback and a preseason No. 1 ranking on the road to start the season against the defending national champion, a Miami team that had prevented the Noles from winning the title the year before. That’s almost exactly the situation Texas is facing in Columbus. The Seminoles were listed as 4-point favorites — until Saturday, the smallest advantage on record for a preseason No. 1 — but the result was a total knockout for the champs. FSU gained only 200 yards and turned the ball over six times; starter Chip Ferguson threw two picks and got benched in the third quarter.
With all due respect to Chip Ferguson, I’m guessing Manning isn’t going to get benched Saturday in Columbus. Call it a hunch. But in 2025, even No. 1 isn’t a favorite. Weird.
Texas-Ohio State is one of three top-10 headliners in an epic Week 1 that also features LSU’s Saturday night trip to Clemson and a Sunday night Notre Dame-Miami battle that conjures up memories of 1988. And there’s so much going on outside the main events! Let’s walk through everything you need to know as we brace for a huge Week 1.
All times Eastern.
Jump to a topic:
Texas-Ohio State | LSU-Clemson
Notre Dame-Miami | Bama-Florida State
Learning from blowouts | Chaos superfecta
Week 1 playlist
Buckeyes, Horns and immediate playoff stakes
No. 1 Texas at No. 3 Ohio State (Saturday, noon, Fox)
Ohio State and Texas make their games count. These two blue bloods have faced each other four times (2005, 2006, 2008 and 2024); all of them were battles between top-10 teams, two were three-point Texas wins, and the last one was decided by a classic Jack Sawyer scoop-and-score.
Because Texas lost to Ohio State in the very last game it played, it would typically make sense to look back at that affair. But damned if just about all of the most instrumental players from that game aren’t gone.
Ohio State is the defending national champ and might have the two best players in college football in receiver Jeremiah Smith and safety Caleb Downs. Ryan Day’s recruiting machine is almost without peer, but it’s difficult to totally trust a team with a redshirt freshman quarterback (Julian Sayin), two new coordinators (Brian Hartline on offense, Matt Patricia on defense) and massive turnover on both lines.
Led by Anthony Hill Jr., Texas might have the best linebacking corps in the country, and its running backs look strong, but the Horns also have virtually the same turnover on the lines, they are replacing four of last year’s top six passing targets, and they have a quarterback with such massive expectations that every incomplete pass he throws will seem like a disappointment.
Arch vs. nearly unprecedented hype
Arch Manning has thrown for 969 career yards and has started two games, but he enters the year as the Heisman favorite. ESPN BET lists his odds at +650, solidly ahead of Clemson’s Cade Klubnik and LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier, who have combined for 12,952 career yards. As far as favorites go, Manning’s résumé is almost as light as anything we’ve seen: Only Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa, who began 2018 as the favorite after throwing for the national title-winning touchdown the season before, entered with fewer career yards (636).
Of course, Tagovailoa was awesome in 2018. If Manning matches his numbers, he’s doing well. And while we didn’t get a conclusive sample in 2024, what we saw of Manning was dynamite.
• His 87.5 QBR would have ranked third nationally if he had enough dropbacks to qualify.
• His 15.4 yards per completion would have ranked fifth.
• His 67.8% completion rate would have ranked 11th.
He did make mistakes, though. His 2.2% interception rate, stemming from a pair of picks against Louisiana-Monroe, would have ranked 42nd nationally. And his 27.3% sacks-to-pressures ratio — a general look at your ability to either escape pressure or get rid of the ball in time — would have ranked an alarming 116th. With a brand-new offensive line, he could end up taking quite a few hits this season, especially against Ohio State.
Manning starts out against Patricia, of all people. A longtime Bill Belichick protégé, Patricia hasn’t coached in college since 2003, and for that matter he hasn’t been particularly successful in any given job since 2016. When he talked about his defense this offseason, he mentioned being multiple and adaptable to what his personnel do best. When “multiple” goes wrong, it ends as a “trying to do everything, mastering nothing” situation. Still, if you’re catering to a defense’s talent, you could do worse than having linebacker Sonny Styles, corners Davison Igbinosun and Jermaine Mathews Jr. and, of course, Downs at the back. Pass rushers Kenyatta Jackson Jr. and UNC transfer Beau Atkinson should be awfully menacing too.
Jeremiah Smith vs. hype vs. Malik Muhammad
Manning will be trying to rack up yards with an unproven receiving corps. Returnees DeAndre Moore Jr. and Ryan Wingo were excellent in flashes, but Moore’s 9.4% drop rate was awful, and Wingo mostly disappeared down the stretch. Most of the other options will be newcomers or redshirt freshmen.
New Ohio State starting quarterback Sayin, however, will have some pristine options. Junior Carnell Tate was probably the best No. 3 WR in the sport last season (now he’s No. 2), and Purdue transfer Max Klare has major expectations at tight end. Oh yeah, and there’s also that guy who just put together the best true freshman season of all time for a wide receiver.
Smith caught 76 balls for 1,315 yards and 15 touchdowns and lit the CFP on fire with 290 yards and four TDs in the first two rounds. He enters 2025 as the best player in the sport.
Of the 20 best true freshmen ever, a few got hurt and missed some games in their second year (Ron Dayne, Adrian Peterson, Derek Stingley Jr.) and a few were about the same as sophomores (Philip Rivers, Jalen Hurts, Andy Katzenmoyer, Tony Dorsett, Harold Perkins Jr.). But Hugh Green got even more sacks, Jonathan Taylor and Herschel Walker rushed for even more yards, and Luke Kuechly made even more tackles. Smith is going to be awesome this season.
Of course, I only referenced Smith’s first two playoff performances above. In his third playoff game, against these Longhorns, he caught one ball for 3 yards. He ended up serving as a decoy as Texas bracketed him and forced other receivers to beat them. For all the turnover up front, Texas still has cornerbacks Jaylon Guilbeau (a dynamite nickel who moved out wide) and Muhammad and safety Michael Taaffe in the back. If anyone can frustrate Smith in 2025, it will probably be Texas. And it will be interesting to see whether Tate, Klare and the supporting cast can give Sayin what he needs and whether Sayin has the patience to deliver a huge first-start victory.
In an era with an expanded playoff, a game like this doesn’t pack the same level of national title importance as it once would have, but it’s still going to have a ridiculous atmosphere, and it will tell us a lot about two teams with huge expectations and huge question marks. Can’t wait.
Current line: Buckeyes -1.5 | SP+ projection: Buckeyes by 6.3 | FPI projection: Horns by 0.7
An immediate ‘prove-it game’ in Death Valley East
No. 9 LSU at No. 4 Clemson (Saturday, 7:30 p.m., ABC)
If you ask me which two top-10 teams I have the most questions about heading into 2025, I will say Clemson and LSU. (If you ask me for two more, I’ll probably say Texas and Ohio State. That makes Saturday just about perfect!)
Since Trevor Lawrence left in 2021, Dabo Swinney’s Clemson teams have been solid but not elite — the Tigers have averaged 3.5 losses per season with an average SP+ ranking of 18.5. They’re first in returning production this year, however, with quarterback Cade Klubnik, a lovely receiving corps featuring Antonio Williams and high-upside sophomores Bryant Wesco Jr. and T.J. Moore, and future NFL D-linemen Peter Woods and T.J. Parker.
Woods and Parker couldn’t stop the Tigers from ranking 113th in yards allowed per (non-sack) carry last season, however, and with that receiving corps Klubnik still averaged only 11.8 yards per completion. He completed some big downfield shots when the Tigers trailed Texas by double digits in the first round of the CFP, but that’s an awfully small sample on which to base expectations.
New coordinator Tom Allen should coax more out of the defense, and maybe the sophomores’ explosiveness will prompt more aggressive playcalling from Garrett Riley. But Clemson was a preseason top-10 team each year from 2021 to 2023 and finished outside the top 10 each time. The Tigers must prove they deserve the benefit of the doubt. And hey, they might do just that — it’s nice to have continuity when almost no other top team does.
LSU certainly knows about struggling with expectations. Brian Kelly’s Tigers began 2023 ranked fifth and finished 12th, then started out 13th last year and ended up unranked. They’ve started 0-1 for three straight years.
Defense has been the issue for Kelly in Baton Rouge, but the Tigers took a step forward under coordinator Blake Baker last year, improving from 52nd to 34th in defensive SP+. Kelly signed a trio of transfer ends in the hopes of sprucing up the pass rush, but I really like the defensive spine: Tackles Bernard Gooden (a USF transfer) and Dominick McKinley (a blue-chip sophomore) are disruptive, and linebackers Harold Perkins Jr. and Whit Weeks are dynamite attackers if/when healthy. If the defense improves to even just a top-25 level, this is a playoff-caliber team.
It makes sense that Nussmeier and Klubnik are starting out with the same Heisman odds, as they produced incredibly similar stats last season.
Nussmeier is less likely to scramble and more likely to throw picks, but he gets the ball out quicker than Klubnik and takes fewer hits. Nussmeier lost three of last year’s top four targets, but he still has excellent slot man Aaron Anderson and high-upside transfers Nic Anderson (Oklahoma) and Barion Brown (Kentucky). If either of two tantalizing athletes — all-or-nothing wideout Chris Hilton Jr. or hulking blue-chip sophomore tight end Trey’Dez Green — take another step in their development, this will be a dynamite receiving corps.
We’ll see about the run game. LSU ranked 93rd in rushing success rate last season, and now the offensive line has four new starters. If Clemson’s defensive front is better able to live up to its press clippings, this might be a damning matchup for the visitors.
Current line: Clemson -4 | SP+ projection: Clemson by 2.1 | FPI projection: Clemson by 0.9
Notre Dame’s floor vs. Miami’s ceiling
No. 6 Notre Dame at No. 10 Miami (Sunday, 7:30 p.m., ABC)
We get another ferocious game Sunday evening, and based on what we saw at the end of last season, this is a pretty clear “floor vs. ceiling” affair. Marcus Freeman’s visiting Fighting Irish have as much of the former as you could want. Notre Dame battled injury after injury in 2024 but advanced all the way to the national title game because of pure depth in the trenches and the secondary. Even with sturdy players such as center Pat Coogan and DTs Howard Cross III and Rylie Mills gone and potential O-line star Charles Jagusah missing the start of the season because of a summer UTV accident, it’s hard to even pretend to worry about either unit.
The Irish secondary survived an injury to star Benjamin Morrison last season and continued to thrive because replacement corner Leonard Moore was just that good. Whether it’s Moore and safety Adon Shuler in the back, Jaiden Ausberry and Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa at linebacker or Bryce Young and Boubacar Traore on the edge, there are top-notch sophomore defenders everywhere you look.
On offense, juniors Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price form the best RB duo this side of Penn State, and after slot man Jaden Greathouse enjoyed a star turn in the CFP, he was joined by senior transfers Malachi Fields (Virginia) and Will Pauling (Wisconsin). Like most of the top 10 teams, Notre Dame is breaking in a new QB — redshirt freshman CJ Carr — but the support system around him is strong.
If Notre Dame is the high-floor team, Miami is the high-ceiling team. The Hurricanes had the best offense in the country thanks to No. 1 NFL draft pick Cam Ward & Co., but the defense let them down terribly in late-season losses. With a total reset in the passing game — former Georgia quarterback Carson Beck will throw to sophomore blue-chipper Joshisa Trader and transfers such as CJ Daniels (LSU) and Keelan Marion (BYU) — regression is almost inevitable. But the offensive line is one of the best that Notre Dame will see, and if new coordinator Corey Hetherman and some transfers can raise the defense by more than the offense falls, that’s a net gain.
With a healthy Rueben Bain Jr. up front, complemented by tackle Akheem Mesidor and a particularly exciting transfer in linebacker Mohamed Toure (Rutgers), the Hurricanes’ defense has potential. But Miami’s success Sunday and beyond might come down to whether a completely rebuilt secondary, led by sophomores Xavier Lucas (Wisconsin corner) and Zechariah Poyser (Jacksonville State safety), holds up. It sure didn’t last year.
Current line: Irish -2.5 | SP+ projection: Irish by 1.0 | FPI projection: Irish by 1.1
Can FSU spring a surprise on Lee Corso Day?
No. 8 Alabama at Florida State (Saturday, 3:30 p.m., ABC)
At age 90, Lee Corso will be making his final appearance on “College GameDay” on Saturday morning. He has been part of college football’s DNA since he showed up in Tallahassee to play for Florida State in the early 1950s, and he has been the sport’s gregarious uncle on GameDay for nearly 40 years.
GameDay is in Columbus, not Tallahassee, but FSU will still have a chance to make Lee Corso Day extra memorable by scaring a pretty loaded Alabama team. Even with defensive tackle Tim Keenan III expected to be out with an ankle injury, Kane Wommack’s Bama defense is loaded at every level from LT Overton up front to corners Domani Jackson and Zabien Brown in the back.
New Bama starting quarterback Ty Simpson needs to only be good, and his supporting cast should take it from there. Running back Jam Miller is out, but sophomore Richard Young is a yards-after-contact machine, receivers Ryan Williams and Germie Bernard are excellent, and the offensive line might be the most proven in the SEC.
Whatever pressure Simpson is facing, FSU coach Mike Norvell is facing even more. It shouldn’t be possible for a team to crater from 13-1 to 2-10 in a single season, but that’s what the Noles did in 2024, and with two new coordinators and about 16 new starters, they’re one of the biggest mysteries of 2025. Offensive coordinator (and former Bama beater) Gus Malzahn should know what to do with dual-threat QB Thomas Castellanos, who is certainly confident enough. But we’ll see if a completely remodeled offensive line holds up. The FSU defense should be a step ahead of the offense and could test Simpson with new pass rushers Jayson Jenkins and James Williams and new corner Jeremiah Wilson. It might take only a couple of turnovers or big plays to make this one interesting, but the Noles obviously bear the burden of proof.
Current line: Bama -13.5 | SP+ projection: Bama by 14.3 | FPI projection: Bama by 17.1
What to learn in blowouts
The headliners are enormous, but three other top teams, with plenty of major questions themselves, have it much easier in Week 1. SP+ projects Penn State, Georgia and Oregon to win by 110.2 combined points; there shouldn’t be much intrigue here. But we can always learn something about teams no matter who they’re playing, so here’s one thing to watch for before these games enter garbage time.
Nevada at No. 2 Penn State (Saturday, 3:30 p.m., CBS)
Nevada scared playoff-bound SMU early last season but got wrecked by portal departures and shouldn’t provide much resistance in Happy Valley. Any questions we have regarding Drew Allar and the Penn State passing game will probably have to wait, but with Chubba Purdy throwing to Marcus Bellon and others, the Nevada passing game might have a little spice, so let’s watch how the PSU secondary, which lost three of last year’s top five players, performs.
Current line: PSU -44 | SP+ projection: PSU by 43.8 | FPI projection: PSU by 38.9
Marshall at No. 5 Georgia (Saturday, 3:30 p.m., ESPN)
Marshall returns only three starters from last year’s Sun Belt championship team; new coach Tony Gibson has quite the chemistry experiment ahead. I like some of the Herd’s additions in the secondary, though — namely corners Boogie Trotter and Marvae Myers — so let’s see what Georgia’s receiving corps can do, especially transfers Zachariah Branch and Noah Thomas. Quarterback Gunner Stockton didn’t get enough from his WRs in the CFP last year.
Current line: Dawgs -39.5 | SP+ projection: Dawgs by 37.0 | FPI projection: Georgia by 29.4
Montana State at No. 7 Oregon (Saturday, 4 p.m., BTN)
Honestly, Montana State, the defending FCS runner-up, might be better than either Nevada or Marshall this season, especially up front. Oregon’s offense is taking on a massive remodeling job, with basically one returning starter, and a strong MSU defensive line led by tackle Paul Brott and end Kenneth Eiden IV could tell us quite a bit about how a transfer-heavy Ducks offensive line might hold up this year.
SP+ projection: Ducks by 29.4 | FPI projection: Ducks by 24.9
Week 1 chaos superfecta
We’re once again going to use this space to attempt to will chaos into existence, looking at four carefully curated games with pretty big point spreads and mashing them together into a much more upset-friendly number. We scored upsets in 10 of 14 weeks last season. Here’s hoping for an even better/messier set of results this time around.
This week’s superfecta has an SEC theme: According to SP+, Alabama (81% at Florida State), Tennessee (85% vs. Syracuse), Texas A&M (90% vs. UTSA) and Mississippi State (84% vs. Southern Miss) have only a 52% chance of going 4-0 in Week 1. Which favorite is most vulnerable? My guess is MSU against a remodeled Southern Miss, but the odds for all four are similar.
Week 1 playlist
Here are some more games you should pay attention to if you want to get the absolute most out of the weekend from both information and entertainment perspectives.
Friday evening
Tarleton State at Army (6 p.m., CBSSN). Tarleton State leaped all the way to second in my FCS SP+ rankings following Saturday’s 42-0 pounding of Portland State, and while I figure that’s probably an overreaction, the Texans are a likely playoff team and could test Army if Dewayne Coleman and the new Black Knights backfield are slow to gel.
SP+ projection: Army by 5.9 | FPI projection: Army by 11.3
Georgia Tech at Colorado (8 p.m., ESPN). We get an ode to 1990 in Boulder; we also get a knowns vs. unknowns battle. Tech has Haynes King, Jamal Haynes and an excellent offensive backfield, but CU has Kaidon Salter, a talented crop of transfers and no idea if the pieces fit together.
Current line: Tech -4 | SP+ projection: CU by 0.4 | FPI projection: CU by 0.5
Auburn at Baylor (8 p.m., Fox). One of the bigger vibe-setters of Week 1. Will the Jackson Arnold reclamation project at Auburn take root? Because with solid QB play, Auburn has top-15 potential. Meanwhile, can Sawyer Robertson and Baylor capitalize on last season’s late gains? If so, the Bears are obvious Big 12 contenders. (Then again, who isn’t?)
Current line: Auburn -2.5 | SP+ projection: Auburn by 1.0 | FPI projection: Baylor by 0.4
Early Saturday
Syracuse vs. No. 24 Tennessee in Atlanta (noon, ABC). Syracuse came from out of nowhere to win 10 games in Fran Brown’s first season, then lost almost all of its surprisingly awesome offense. The Orange have a chance to surprise all over again, but QB Steve Angeli will begin his starting tenure against a Tennessee defense that drove a CFP bid last season and returns quite a bit of talent. Joey Aguilar and the Vols offense have questions to answer, but the D is why they’re favored.
Current line: Vols -13.5 | SP+ projection: Vols by 16.5 | FPI projection: Vols by 15.3
Northwestern at Tulane (noon, ESPNU). Over the past four seasons, Northwestern has averaged a 118.3 offensive SP+ ranking. SMU transfer Preston Stone takes over at QB, but how much of a difference can he make? And can the Wildcats scare a Tulane team with power-conference talent but lots of new starters?
Current line: Tulane -6 | SP+ projection: Tulane -15 | FPI projection: Tulane by 6.0
Saturday afternoon
Old Dominion at No. 20 Indiana (2:30 p.m., FS1). There’s almost nowhere for Indiana to go but down following an 11-win playoff campaign in Curt Cignetti’s first season. But the Hoosiers still have stars in receiver Elijah Sarratt and linebacker Aiden Fisher, and they should comfortably dispatch a perpetually rebuilding Old Dominion team. If they don’t, that’ll be a red flag.
Current line: Hoosiers -22.5 | SP+ projection: Hoosiers by 25.9 | FPI projection: Hoosiers by 15.3
South Dakota at No. 22 Iowa State (3:30 p.m., Fox). I hope Iowa State stayed hydrated, got some rest and fended off jetlag after last week’s victorious trip to Ireland because South Dakota should be one of the best teams in FCS. The Cyclones tend to attempt the bare minimum in these games — average score of their past six FCS games: 28-14 — but the Coyotes might force them to dig deeper into the playbook.
SP+ projection: ISU by 21.4 | FPI projection: ISU by 18.0
Saturday evening
UTSA at No. 19 Texas A&M (7 p.m., ESPN). I surprised myself with how high I was on A&M this season, but while the Aggies’ ground game should carve up a new UTSA defensive front, quarterback Owen McCown and the Roadrunners should properly test the A&M defense. If they show well, this might be the only time all year in which UTSA isn’t favored.
Current line: A&M -22.5 | SP+ projection: A&M by 20.6 | FPI projection: A&M by 18.8
Rice at Louisiana (8 p.m., ESPN+). The Scott Abell experiment is upon us! Abell has brought his delightful option offense to Rice, and our first glimpse of it will come against a Louisiana defense with seven or eight new starters. That could create some glitches, though there’s nothing saying the Owls will slow down a talented new Cajuns offense.
Current line: Louisiana -13 | SP+ projection: Louisiana by 15.4 | FPI projection: Louisiana by 6.1
Late Saturday
Georgia Southern at Fresno State (9:30 p.m., FS1). Is Kansas just really good or was Fresno State’s 31-7 loss in Lawrence a sign of growing pains to come in coach Matt Entz’s first season? We’ll find out as Georgia Southern brings a prolific passing game and experienced defense out west.
Current line: FS -1.5 | SP+ projection: GS by 2.9 | FPI projection: FS by 0.2
California at Oregon State (10:30 p.m., ESPN). Four-star freshman quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele won the starting job right out of the gate at Cal. Oregon State, meanwhile, turned to former Texas and Duke signal-caller Maalik Murphy. Neither defense looks amazing on paper, so both QBs could have a shot at a fast start. Who takes advantage?
Current line: OSU -3 | SP+ projection: Cal by 1.3 | FPI projection: Cal by 1.3
Hawaii at Arizona (10:30 p.m., TNT). In his first collegiate start last year, Hawaii’s Micah Alejado threw for 469 yards. In his second start last Saturday, he beat Stanford despite an ankle injury. Will the Legend of Alejado grow further in Tucson, or will Noah Fifita and an angry Arizona, coming off of a massively disappointing 2024 season, push the Warriors around?
Current line: Arizona -14.5 | SP+ projection: Arizona by 10.5 | FPI projection: Arizona by 14.1
Utah at UCLA (11 p.m., Fox). It’s Big 12 vs. Big Ten, but it’s Pac-12 After Dark at heart. Can Nico Iamaleava made a big, early splash at UCLA? Or will Utah, with a stout defense (but a new defensive front) and a completely new offense handle its old conference rival?
Current line: Utah -6 | SP+ projection: Utah by 4.7 | FPI projection: UCLA by 0.5
Colorado State at Washington (11 p.m., BTN). Washington quarterback Demond Williams Jr. looked great in a late-2024 cameo, and now he’ll run the show. That’s likely to go quite well, but a transfer-heavy Huskies defense will be tested by quarterback Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi, receiver Armani Winfield and a high-level CSU passing game.
Current line: UW -20 | SP+ projection: UW by 19.8 | FPI projection: UW by 15.0
Sunday
Virginia Tech vs. No. 13 South Carolina in Atlanta (3 p.m., ESPN). Another big vibe-setter: Neither of these teams has begun a season well in a while, and both need to do so in 2025. Can a remodeled Tech defense slow down LaNorris Sellers and a super-physical SC offense? Can a remodeled Gamecocks defense slow down Kyron Drones and a speedy but brand-new skill corps?
Current line: SC -8 | SP+ projection: SC by 9.1 | FPI projection: SC by 5.6
Monday
TCU at North Carolina (8 p.m., ESPN). Bill Belichick’s first UNC team doesn’t seem to be overflowing with talent, but I’m fascinated by what offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens might do with quarterback Gio Lopez. TCU, meanwhile, seems to perform opposite to expectations every year — the Frogs made the national title game out of nowhere in 2022, crashed to 5-7 as the preseason No. 17 team in 2023, then won six of their last seven to win nine games under the radar in 2024. I’m considering them a major Big 12 contender this year … which probably means Belichick’s Heels win this one by 10.
Current line: TCU -3 | SP+ projection: TCU by 5.0 | FPI projection: TCU by 2.1
Smaller-school showcase
Let’s once again save a shout-out for the glorious lower levels of the sport. Here are three games you should track.
FCS: No. 22 Richmond at No. 15 Lehigh (noon, ESPN+). Richmond makes its debut in an increasingly strong Patriot League by visiting the reigning champ. The defenses seem to have the advantage — ace pass rusher Matt Spatny keys an outstanding Lehigh front, but linebacker Carter Glassmyer and the Richmond defense are projected 11th in my defensive SP+ rankings.
SP+ projection: Lehigh by 1.0
NAIA: No. 4 Morningside at No. 3 Benedictine (2 p.m., local streaming). The NAIA season gets underway with a pair of heavy hitters — No. 2 Keiser visits No. 7 Indiana Wesleyan on the Team1Sports app (the one you probably downloaded to watch Hawai’i home games in the past), and in this one, three-time national champion Morningside visits a Benedictine team that reached the semis last year and beat Morningside 48-45 in a Week 1 epic.
SP+ projection: Morningside by 4.6
FCS: No. 14 Sacramento State at No. 3 South Dakota State (7 p.m., ESPN+). Two of the biggest mysteries in the FCS top 15 face off. New coach Brennan Marion welcomes 40 transfers to Sac State, including more than 30 from FBS, while SDSU takes the field with its third head coach in four years (Dan Jackson) and without 21 FBS-bound transfers. Do transfers trump culture at the FCS level? Or is SDSU just going to keep right on SDSU’ing?
SP+ projection: SDSU by 15.9
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David Purdum
The point spread on Saturday’s Texas–Ohio State showdown has been dropping all week, with one influential sportsbook moving the Longhorns from underdogs to favorites on Thursday.
As of Friday morning, Ohio State was a consensus 1-point home favorite, with some sportsbooks, including ESPN BET, at -1.5.
The Buckeyes opened as a 3-point favorite months ago, but sportsbooks have been reporting a steady stream of money on the Longhorns throughout the summer, causing the line to move toward Texas.
Sportsbook Circa, known to cater to professional bettors, had seen enough interest on the Longhorns to move them to a 1-point favorite on Thursday. Derek Stevens, the owner of Circa, said on VSIN that a $550,000 bet on Texas preceded the move to Longhorns -1. The line had ticked back to pick ’em by Friday at Circa.
“It seems like the public is moving the line,” Chris Bennett, sportsbook director at Circa, told ESPN. “We’ve seen a lot of interest in Texas, but not from the usual suspects, and by that I mean a subset of sharp customers we have a lot of history with.”
The Buckeyes have not been a home underdog since 2018 against Michigan and have been favored by less than three points at Ohio Stadium only once since 2012. If the line holds with Ohio State as the favorite, Texas will become the first team ranked No. 1 in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 to be an underdog in its first game.
“The perception is that Texas is just more experienced than Ohio State,” said Ed Salmons, veteran football oddsmaker for the Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas. “Arch Manning is considered a much better quarterback than the Ohio State quarterback [Julian Sayin]. Both are such unknowns, no one really knows.”
Salmons said it became obvious over the summer that the betting public was supporting Texas and that, once the line dropped from the opening number of Ohio State -3, it had the potential to move all the way to the Longhorns being the favorite.
“The public right now likes Texas, but we’ll see the day of the game,” Salmons said. “Sometimes you think that, and then all of a sudden you’ll see these big Ohio State bets. It’s a game we’re expecting a ton of handle on.”
The bulk of the betting action, both on the moneyline and spread, was on Texas at Caesars Sportsbook as well, but some of the bigger bettors had not weighed in on the marquee matchup of Week 1.
“There has not been a lot of wise guy action thus far,” said Joey Feazel, lead football trader for Caesars Sportsbook. “I believe that says more to the true variation of this game and not knowing exactly what you are going to get from either side of the ball. I expect we will see some action closer to game time.”
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