2025 Week Zero Preview: There's Whiskey in the Jar
Because it's never too soon to start thinking about football. Let's dive into the Week Zero schedule and get a taste for what's coming soon.
Iowa State Cyclones v Kansas State Wildcats. Aviva Stadium, Dublin, Ireland. 11:00 AM CT. ESPN.
Man, these Ireland games are something else. We shipped Frost's Nebraska and Fitz's Northwestern (both soon to be fired!) up to Dublin a few years ago. Last year, we exported Georgia Tech's then-unlikely destruction of then-#10 Florida State (massive lol). Now we're doing Farmageddon on the Emerald Isle. This should be fun, especially if the Cyclones fans travel well and drink too much (the second of which is almost guaranteed).
Fresno State Bulldogs at Kansas Jayhawks. 5:30 PM CT. Fox.
What chucklefuck scheduled these games?! There are four FBS games across the day. In what way did it make sense to start three of them an hour apart? At any rate, Leipold's Kansas squad is looking to bounce back after a pretty lousy 2024 season. Jason Daniels, destroyer of Illinois in 2023, is still there. And they're back at the Booth, after having an entire season of "home" games in Kansas City, MO.
Sam Houston Bearkats at Western Kentucky Hilltoppers. 6:00 PM CT. CBSSN.
Must they spell it "BearKats?" Is nothing sacred? At any rate, long-time Sam Houston coach K.C. Keeler is gone, having fled to greener pastures at Temple. Keeler led the Bearkats through a particularly impressive stretch in the late 2010s, making the FCS playoffs six out of eight years and landing a title in 2021. The switch to the FBS was a rough one, with a 3-9 record for their first year in C-USA in 2023. But Keeler righted the ship, went 9-3 in 2024, finished in the top third of the C-USA, and won the New Orleans Bowl to boot. And then he booked it for Philadelphia. After such a storied program leader, who could possible take on the mantle?
Oh. They hired Phil Longo, previously seen managing Wisconsin's Dairy Raid offense over the past two years. Longo returns to Texas after a previous stint as OC for Sam Houston in 2014-2016 to take his first FBS HC role.
On the other side, Tyson Helton is still coaching for the Toppers, having gone 8-5 or better every year but one in his six year tenure. In this era of CFB, that's pretty damn metronomic.
Stanford Cardinal at Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors. 6:30 PM CT. CBS.
Stanford's schedule spans something like 7 timezones this season. Why is a California-based school flying out to Hawai'i and also taking in at least 5 games on the Atlantic seaboard? Well, something something PAC-12 something something Atlantic Coast Conference something something money. This really should be a nightcap game at 9:30 CT or something, but again: scheduling chucklefucks. This game is starting at 1:30 PM local! It just feels wrong.
