The 2014 college football season is officially three days old. Within those three days, this is what we've seen:
- A national title contender lose its Heisman Trophy favorite quarterback for the season.
- USC endure a week straight out of one of Barnum and Bailey's three tents, and then find a way to run 105 plays with 62 scholarship players.
- Steve Spurrier lose his second season opener in a quarter century as a head coach, and first in a decade at South Carolina by allowing a school-record 680 yards of total offense.
- The top-ranked defending national champions begin their title defense in the same stadium where the champion will be crowned four and a half months from now, and immediately receive a greater challenge than it saw at any point during the regular season. Unranked Oklahoma State had the ball with less than five minutes to play and 50 yards of FieldTurf ahead of darting quarterback J.W. Walsh until P.J. Williams forced and then recovered a fumble.
- Nick Saban and Lane Kiffin went on the most awkward first date of all time as No. 2 Alabama struggled to separate itself from a team that missed a bowl a season ago.
- LSU nearly see its FBS-record 45-game regular season non-conference winning streak come to an end in a resounding thud, only to see Les Miles eat some grass and drink some tiger blood as the Tigers completely flattened Wisconsin in the fourth quarter.
- Georgia turn a 21-21 halftime deadlock into a 45-21 statement win behind a 198-rushing yard, four total touchdown performance by Todd Gurley.
- Auburn gave one of its quarterbacks the first half and promptly saw him complete 12-of-16 passes for 243 yards and two touchdowns, and then play another quarterback in the second half and witnessed him ignite a running game that finished with 302 yards on the ground.
- Popular national title pick UCLA traveled cross-country and spent much of its Saturday afternoon getting pushed around by a team that went 2-10 last season.
Again, this season is three days old. We've barely gotten started. Madness hits the West Coast next week. USC at Stanford in the afternoon, and Michigan State at Oregon at night.
We already know this historic 2014 season will arrive at a destination completely foreign to this 145-year old sport. But the ride to get there will hit all of us in ways we never could have imagined.
And that's what makes this the best sport in the world.