On the first episode of the 2017 season of Wake Up, College Football, Dan Rubenstein and Richard Johnson look at the biggest topics of the week and try to answer the following questions:
• Even with the spectacle of a top-three matchup, championship winning coaches in Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher, promising young QBs in Jalen Hurts and Deondre Francois, are there meaningful stakes in the Alabama-Florida State matchup or is it just the best college football TV show airing this weekend?
• Who has the easiest road to the College Football Playoff? We talk about how Wisconsin and Washington could be those teams given their schedules, plus USC and Michigan certainly have the talent to be in the conversation (notably at QB with Sam Darnold and the Trojans), but have what looks like a rocky calendar ahead.
• What are the chances that Dabo Swinney and Clemson are able to repeat as champs, even without Deshaun Watson, who may just be the best player in program history?
• Which new coach is closest to reaching the College Football Playoff. Big schools like Texas, LSU, and Oregon made big hires in Tom Herman, Ed Orgeron, and Willie Taggart, respectively, but is there perhaps a coach outside of the major conferences who might be the answer?
• Which division appears to be the deepest heading into 2017?
... and our Week 1 picks, plus some off-the-radar game recommendations!