Beautiful, wasn’t it? The sights, sounds and stories from across the country on the first full weekend of the college football season brought us all back to a sense of normalcy.

Camp Randall was jumping around again. Fans at Kinnick Stadium were waving to the children across the street. LSU fans drank the Rose Bowl out of beer before the opening kickoff.

Nature is healing.

All 14 B1G teams were in action in Week 1. When that happens, you know there are going to be plenty of overreactions. So let’s dive right in:

Come on, Indinia

Look good, feel good, play good. We’ve all heard that, right? Well, The Hoosiers were actually on the opposite side of that. We should’ve known disaster was afoot when one of the jerseys was misspelled for Saturday’s game against Iowa.

In case you missed it, “Indinia” was actually the team playing Iowa on Saturday. So maybe the jury is still out on “Indiana.”

Can we be serious for a moment? How on God’s green earth does a mistake like this happen before a game of this magnitude? It was just a humiliating day all around for IU.

The Pen(ix) is not mightier than “The Swarm”

Speaking of Indinia…

Edward Bulwer-Lytton clearly wasn’t referring to Saturday’s Indiana-Iowa game when he coined the famous phrase. And if he was, he knows nothing about college football.

Typically, “The Swarm” is a term reserved for Iowa’s recruiting classes, but there was really no other way to describe what the Hawkeye defense did to Michael Penix Jr. and the Indiana offense on Saturday. The quarterback completed fewer than 50% of his passes, threw 3 interceptions and didn’t get the Hoosiers into the end zone once.

Bulwer-Lytton wanted to live in a world that favored diplomacy over violence. Iowa chose violence. It was the right decision.

Have you seen the Penn State-Wisconsin box score?!

In the words of Ron Swanson, “My question is, what the hell?”

Seriously, have you taken even 10 seconds to try and unpack the box score from the Top 25 showdown in Madison? At first glimpse — OK, after staring at it for more than 5 hours — I’m still not sure how the Badgers didn’t win the game by multiple touchdowns.

https://twitter.com/SchutteCFB/status/1434381352544182272?s=20

Wisconsin had the ball for NEARLY 43 MINUTES, ran 95 plays, picked up 29 1st downs and still managed to score just 10 points. Even the discrepancy in the turnover column doesn’t seem like enough for Penn State to win this game, but clearly it was.

Hopefully this final stat line finds its place in the College Football Hall of Fame. You may never see anything like it again.

P.J. Fleck needs to have a chat with Reese Bobby

First off, I’m a big fan of Fleck. I understand his approach can wear on people, but clearly it works for his team. All that matters is that his players believe in him.

Having said that…

Fleck broke out a NASCAR reference during his postgame presser after Thursday night’s loss to Ohio State. Not gonna lie, the Minnesota head coach does not seem like a “hug the inside!” or a “bumpin’ is racin’!” kind of individual. That’s really not the point, though.

“The Daytona 500, that’s the first race of the year,” Fleck said after the game. “We got a flat tire on the backstretch. Still found a way to come in second. …There’s still a race for the cup.”

Obviously Fleck doesn’t buy into Reese Bobby’s, “If ya ain’t first, you’re last,” approach to sports. Which is weird in college football, because that’s literally the case every Saturday.

Now Playing: Bell-Durham

Apparently Purdue has a pretty good 1-2 punch, huh? Please don’t yell at me fore my witty puns and awesome dad jokes.

David Bell and Payne Durham (awesome name for a tight end, by the way) combined for 254 receiving yards and 2 touchdowns on 15 catches. Both averaged over 16 yards per reception in Purdue’s win over Oregon State.

Purdue’s two pass-catchers delivered plenty of knockout blows on Saturday, even when they were on the ropes. Late in the game, Durham connected on 2 haymakers to solidify a win for the Boilermakers. It was nice to see the two show a lot of fight down the stretch.

OK, that’s enough.

Nebraska: For the love of God, figure out special teams

That’s it. That’s all I have to say on that.

Put a cork in the Champaign, the honeymoon is over

The feelings of euphoria are now over. Illinois spent all last week with hearts in its eyes after beating Nebraska in Week 0. Now, it’s back to reality after a 37-30 loss to UTSA. It’s pretty fitting, because most honeymoons only last a week anyway.

Illinois looked like Wile E. Coyote trying to stop the Roadrunners’ offense on Saturday. The Fighting Illini had a plan in place, but speed and skill triumphed over strategy again.

Don’t get me wrong, this is not to bash Bret Bielema. He’s still the right guy for the job. It’s just affirmation that he isn’t a miracle worker and couldn’t fix the Illini overnight.

Hell of a week sitting atop the B1G West standings, though, wasn’t it? Bielema would probably consider the last seven days of the honeymoon phase “borderline erotic.”

How pissed was Mike Hankwitz Friday night?

Are you familiar with the image of Shooter McGavin’s reaction when Happy Gilmore sank an impossible putt to win the Gold Jacket? I’m assuming that was the same reaction the former Northwestern defensive coordinator had when watching the Wildcats on the field Friday night.

Kenneth (was not a) Walker (but more of a runner) eviscerated Northwestern’s defense for 264 yards and 4 touchdowns on 23 carries in a 38-21 victory. Payton Thorne completed 15-of-25 passes for 185 yards and a touchdown.

Northwestern had no answer.

Pat Fitzgerald welcomed Hankwitz back to Evanston for Friday night’s game to serve as an honorary captain. He was in the building, why didn’t he figure out a way to get Hank a headset when things were going wrong?

He should’ve called Scott Frost at halftime to inquire about adding an extra analyst to the staff.

What’s the deal with ex-Michigan players, amirite?

I’ll be honest, that intro was just a way for me to sound hip and with it. Yes, that last sentence essentially halted any progress I had made.

But, honestly, what is going on with players who left Michigan? Zach Charbonnet was electric again for UCLA, rushing for 117 yards and 1 touchdown on 11 carries and also hauling in a 35-yard catch in the Bruins’ 38-27 victory over LSU.

THAT WASN’T EVEN THE BEST PERFORMANCE BY A FORMER MICHIGAN PLAYER FOR THE DAY!

My apologies for shouting. In this case, though, it’s warranted. Former Michigan walk-on quarterback Ren Hefley threw 10 touchdown passes in Presbyterian College’s 84-43 win over St. Andrews. The Wolverines had 9 touchdown passes in 2020.

In the words of Billy Bob from Varsity Blues, “Ten! A (bleeping) ten!”

East Coast football is back!

Well…maybe. It’s still too early to tell, but how about the performances from Maryland and Rutgers on Saturday?

The Terrapins looked solid on both sides of the football, racking up nearly 500 yards of offense and forcing 4 turnovers on defense. Rutgers scored 61 (!!!) points in a huge victory over Temple to open the season. The Scarlet Knights had 5 takeaways in that game, as well.

We’re going to find out a lot more about these two teams as the season progresses, but Maryland and Rutgers both looked a lot better this weekend. I guess that’s not much of an overreaction, is it?

Let’s try this: Maryland and Rutgers are Ohio State’s biggest challengers in the B1G East!

Too far?