The first week of the college football season kicked off with fanfare Thursday night, thanks to 16 games that served up a great appetizer of what’s in store during the rest of the weekend. The competition for the top of the night between No. 17 Pittsburgh and West Virginia was up to its billing, as the Panthers got away with a 38-31 victory in a thrilling finish.
The Mountaineers led 31-24 with 10:37 remaining in the first edition of Backyard Brawl since 2011, but the Panthers finally came out thanks to the green light of the intercept from 56 yards to come back down from the back corner of MJ Devonshire with 2:58 remaining. It was the first of two selections of six during Thursday’s procedure, the second coming from Purdue’s Chris Jefferson against Penn State. Nittany Lions narrowly escaped this foul for a dramatic 35-31 win.
Those two results were only among a handful that stood out from Thursday’s events. In other notable games, No. 12 Oklahoma State held out a late charge from central Michigan to win 58-44. The Cowboys had six touchdowns total from quarterback Spencer Sanders, but their defense looked suspicious in the second half. Elsewhere, seed No. 22 Wake Forest tackled VMI with a 44-10 win, Tennessee dominated Ball State 59-10 and Missouri overcame the slow start to beat Louisiana Tech 52-24.
College football scores, schedule: week one
No. 17 House 38, West Virginia 31 – “Pitt Six” wins it for Panthers
No. 12 Oklahoma State 58, Central Michigan 44- a summary
Tennessee 59, Ball State 10- a summary
No. 22 Wake Forest 44, VMI 10 – a summary
UAB 59, Alabama A&M 0 – a summary
Missouri 52, Louisiana Tech 24 – a summary
Penn State 35, Purdue 31- The Takeaway: Clifford rallies late Nittany Lions
Minnesota 38, New Mexico State 0 a summary
Fresno State 35, Cal Poly 7 – GameTracker
Check out the entire first week scoreboard
