College Football's September Showdowns: 20 Early Games You Can't Miss

This year's college football season officially kicks off on Sept. 1, and although we still may be a little more than three months away from watching our favorite teams take the field, you can already tell the excitement is steadily building.

Luckily, we won't have to wait long for the real action to start because there are a number of key early-season showdowns that should captivate even the most fair-weather college fans.

Usually September is a time for big teams to pad their schedules with soft, easy, small schools as they try to work out the kinks for conference play. But every year, there are always at least a few early-season matchups that stand out from the rest.

Last year’s highly anticipated Virginia Tech-Boise State Monday night opener turned out to be one of the most exciting contests of the season, and it proved that there’s fun to be had outside of the traditional conference rivalries.

So get your calendars out, because it’s time to have a look at which September college football games you’re going to want to tune in for this season.

Last season, TCU manhandled star QB Robert Griffin III and Baylor 45-10, outgaining the Bears by nearly 300 yards.

The Horned Frogs were a well-oiled machine, scoring on their first five offensive drives on their way to building a 35-3 halftime lead.

Baylor should have a much better shot to compete this year for two reasons: This game will take place in Waco, and TCU will be playing without Andy Dalton under center for the first time since 2008.

The Horned Frogs still have a formidable defense, led by Tank Carder and Tanner Brock, one of the best linebacker duos in America, but it remains to be seen how smoothly the offensive ship will run with a new captain at the helm.

The Jerry Dome will play host to this mega-matchup, pitting the Pac-12 and SEC against each other in an early-season top-10 tussle.

The Oregon Ducks are coming into the year flying high after a dominating, undefeated regular season performance in 2010.

Last year, Oregon’s offense was by far the most potent in the country, but it’s a unit that’s yet to face the caliber of defense that it will see in Dallas to begin this season.

Oregon QB Darron Thomas and RB LaMichael James are a dynamic backfield duo, but LSU has plenty of firepower up front to slow down their fast-paced tempo.

The LSU offense, led by talented yet highly inconsistent QB Jordan Jefferson, will play the biggest role in the outcome of this game.

If the Tigers can finally break through and start putting up the points that they’re capable of, Oregon could be in some major trouble.

The last time Boise State tried to sow its oats against Georgia back in 2005, the result wasn’t pretty.

A 48-13 smackdown let the Broncos know exactly where they stood in the college football hierarchy.

Those were different times though, before Chris Petersen and before Kellen Moore.

This Boise team has proved it can hang with anybody, and Georgia should be no exception.

The Bulldogs have one of the SEC’s best quarterbacks in sophomore Aaron Murray, but they will also walk into the Georgia Dome with their fair share of question marks.

Boise State is a program that has to continually prove itself to the college football world, and here is yet another opportunity for the Broncos to show they belong.

This Monday night opener will mark the coaching debuts of Maryland’s Randy Edsall and Miami’s Al Golden at their respective new schools.

Edsall and Golden are two of the most respected coaches in the college game, and it should be interesting to see how each of them handles his first season on the job.

If you were to look at these two teams on paper, they both look like they’re a notch below the cream of the ACC crop, but each of them has enough talent to make a considerable run this season.

The two squads come into the year off very different 2010 campaigns.

The Terrapins, by all accounts, overachieved last season, finishing with nine wins, while the Hurricanes, a team that was expected to compete for a conference championship, floundered and finished just 7-6.

Last season’s meeting, which Miami won 26-20, was decided by a last-minute touchdown pass, and it wouldn’t be surprising if this year’s game also went down to the wire.

I’ll admit I thought last year’s Alamo Bowl was going to be a shootout. However, that shootout turned out to be definitively one-sided, as Oklahoma State completely dismantled Arizona 36-10.

You have to keep in mind, though, that the Wildcats were coming into that game on a dismal four-game losing streak, and they were still reeling from a heartbreaking loss to archrival Arizona State.

This year, this looks like a matchup of two evenly matched teams with two very talented quarterbacks.

Arizona’s Nick Foles and Oklahoma State’s Brandon Weeden are two of the top senior signal callers in the country.

Both are capable of producing offensive fireworks, and it doesn’t hurt that Foles and Weeden each have a top-notch receiver to toss the ball to.

Arizona’s Juron Criner and Oklahoma State’s Justin Blackmon are both worth the price of admission, and it should be fun to watch them try to outdo each other in this one.

Do you know how beautiful and majestic the setting is for a night game at the Big House?

Of course you don’t, because it’s never happened before.

This season, Michigan and Notre Dame, two of college football’s most prestigious programs, will show the world what night football is like in front of over 100,000 maize-and-blue-soaked fans when the two meet for the first ever game under the lights in one of college football’s most storied stadiums.

After a tune-up against Western Michigan in Week 1, this will be new Michigan head man Brady Hoke’s second game on the sidelines.

In last season’s clash, Michigan QB Denard Robinson announced his talents to the college football world by torching the Notre Dame defense for over 500 yards of total offense and three scores.

Something tells me that Manti Te’o, Harrison Smith and the rest of the Irish defenders are still a little agitated about being embarrassed by Robinson last year.

After a 20-year layoff, the storied Penn State-Alabama rivalry was renewed last season, and Alabama turned out to be far too much to handle for the Nittany Lions and their young QB Robert Bolden.

The Crimson Tide shut down Penn State’s offense in the 24-3 victory, and RB Trent Richardson showed that he was a force to be reckoned with.

Richardson rushed for 144 yards and a TD and proved he was every bit as talented as his Heisman-winning counterpart Mark Ingram.

This year, the Tide defense once again looks like one of the best in the nation, and it certainly won’t be easy for the Nittany Lions to move the ball down the field.

Luckily, Penn State will have the benefit of its home crowd, one of the largest in all of college football, backing it for this one, and it should be interesting to see how new Alabama QB A.J. McCarron deals with all the hostility he’s going to face in Beaver Stadium.

Life without Cam Newton won’t be easy, and we’re going to find out awfully quick just how hard it’s going to be for Auburn when it hosts the steadily improving Mississippi State Bulldogs in Week 2.

Last year, the Auburn defense stifled QB Chris Relf and the Mississippi State offense and allowed just 14 points and 246 total yards. But the Tigers are really going to miss DT Nick Fairley, who was the star of last season's meeting.

It was obvious that the Mississippi State spread attack lacked rhythm and cohesion in last year’s game, but the offense drastically improved from the beginning of last season to the end, and this year should be a different story.

Without Fairley clogging up the middle, Relf, RB Vick Ballard and the rest of the offensive crew should have enough room to rack up yardage on a more consistent basis.

After a mediocre showing in 2010, the BYU Cougars are hoping they can turn things around this season as they try to sail the rough waters of independence.

BYU will dive right in with tough trips to Ole Miss and Texas to start the season.

If the Cougars want to quickly boost their reputation on the national college football scene, taking down Texas in Austin would certainly help.

There’s no doubt that the Longhorns are the more talented team, but you have to wonder what kind of psyche and attitude they'll be playing with after last year’s disastrous 5-7 campaign.

BYU QB Jake Heaps is a rising star, and he might just have enough moxie to give the Longhorns a real run for their money.

The Sooners absolutely embarrassed Florida State when the two played in Norman last year.

47-17 sounds bad, but it doesn’t even do the beatdown that occurred proper justice.

Oklahoma QB Landry Jones was the star of the show, throwing for 380 yards and four TDs.

Now that the setting shifts to Tallahassee for a game under the lights, you have to wonder if things will be different this year.

Florida State obviously wasn’t prepared for such a monumental test early on last season, but this is a Seminoles team that made great strides on both sides of the ball as the 2010 season wore on, and they are sure to use last year’s loss as motivation.

Florida State’s new starting QB E.J. Manuel will be the key player in this game.

If Manuel can handle the pressure of such a spotlight moment, the Seminoles definitely have a shot to pull off the upset of the No. 1-ranked Sooners.

Florida State has one of the most talented and athletic defenses in the country, and you would have to expect that it will do a better job of slowing down Jones, Ryan Broyles and the rest of the explosive Oklahoma skill players.

In last season’s meeting between these two, Miami came up short in its bid to avenge its 2003 Fiesta Bowl loss.

The Hurricanes were overmatched and overpowered by Ohio State, as the Buckeyes rolled to an impressive 36-24 victory at the 'Shoe.

This year’s tilt will have a bit of a different vibe, though, since this is one of the early-season games that the "Ohio State Five" will have to sit out.

In last year’s game, QB Terrelle Pryor put up 346 yards of total offense and scored two TDs, RB Boom Herron finished with 113 yards and a TD and WR DeVier Posey hauled in four catches for over 100 yards.

Obviously, it won’t be easy to replace all three of those key offensive playmakers, and when you add that to the fact that the Buckeyes will be breaking in seven new defensive starters, you can clearly see the type of uphill battle they’ll be facing.

This early-season test is going to be a mental and emotional gut check for Ohio State, and it certainly won’t be easy for the Buckeyes to escape Dade County with a perfect record and their national championship dreams still intact.

Stanford QB Andrew Luck, a Heisman hopeful and No. 1 pick favorite, will face his first major test of the season when he travels to Tucson to face QB Nick Foles and the Arizona Wildcats.

Last season, Luck threw for nearly 300 yards and hit two scoring strikes in a 42-17 rout, but this year’s contest promises to be much more competitive.

Arizona appears to have one of the best defenses in the Pac-12, and Foles is definitely capable of going toe to toe with Luck in a heated quarterback battle.

After making the much-scrutinized decision to return to Stanford, Luck has a lot riding on this season.

If the star quarterback slips up early on, he will start hearing some second-guessing.

Take a look back at Auburn’s national championship run last year, and you’ll see a few instances where the Tigers were in great danger of slipping up and blowing their undefeated season.

The first came when they nearly fell to Clemson in Week 3.

After rallying from a 17-point first half deficit, Auburn ended up barely escaping with a 27-24 overtime victory when Clemson kicker Chandler Catanzaro missed a post-penalty do-over field goal attempt that would have kept the game going.

Last year’s battle of the Tigers definitely lived up to the billing, but this year the scene shifts to South Carolina.

Clemson will be looking for redemption on its home turf, and Auburn will definitely have a fight on its hands.

Both teams will be breaking in new quarterbacks this season, but Clemson is the squad with the most overall experience.

It wouldn’t be surprising to see this one come down to another close finish.

It’s rare that you see two college football teams meet twice in one season, and when those two games are so vastly different, that makes it even more peculiar.

Considering Nebraska had so thoroughly dominated Washington in their first matchup of the season, most people expected that the Cornhuskers would cruise to an easy win when the two met in the Holiday Bowl.

It was obvious, however, that Bo Pelini’s bunch had packed it in for the season after failing to capture the Big 12 title and make it to a BCS game.

Now the two will meet for a rubber match of sorts, this time in Lincoln.

Washington will have new quarterback Keith Price under center, which might not be a bad thing since Jake Locker played so poorly against the Nebraska defense.

The Cornhuskers are absolutely loaded on the defensive side of the ball once again, so Price might not fare much better, but the Huskies will be able to lean on emerging star RB Chris Polk to carry a good amount of the offensive load.

New Pittsburgh head coach Todd Graham is making some big changes to the Panthers’ philosophy, and it should be interesting to see how quickly the team can adjust to the offensive and defensive changes.

Pittsburgh will have two tune-ups against Buffalo and Maine before it heads to Iowa City to battle Kirk Ferentz’s crew, so it should be able to work out a few kinks before its first major test.

Iowa will also have some early-season adapting to do now that QB Ricky Stanzi is off to the NFL.

Not only does Ferentz have to replace Stanzi, he also has to plug a few key defensive holes.

Expect the Hawkeyes to be very reliant on stud RB Marcus Coker.

The 6'0", 230-lb. powerhouse is capable of punishing any defense he faces, so the Panthers will have to make sure they put on their big-boy pants if they have any hope of containing him.

For Pittsburgh, the main player to watch is QB Tino Sunseri, who struggled mightily at times in his first year as a starter.

If Sunseri shows improvement, this one should be a hard-fought fight to the finish.

If you happen to be a fan of offensive shootouts, you probably won’t be too anxious to put on the tape of last year’s West Virginia-LSU game.

The Mountaineers and Tigers combined for just 407 yards and three offensive scores with the bout's wear-you-out pace, and LSU eventually ended up winning 20-14.

With Air Raid specialist Dana Holgorsen now calling the shots for the West Virginia offense, this year’s contest is shaping up to be a much more exciting affair.

If it can get by a few early tests, LSU will likely come to Morgantown with a top-five ranking attached to its name, but the Tigers are sure to have their hands full trying to slow down the West Virginia offensive attack.

If QB Geno Smith can ease into a consistent rhythm, the LSU secondary, which will be without departed star CB Patrick Peterson, might take a few big blows to the chin.

There’s no denying that the LSU roster is loaded with more athleticism, size and strength, but I know from experience that night games at Mountaineer Field are their own special animal, and there’s always a chance for a few unexpected twists and turns.

Many are already handing preseason No. 1-ranked Oklahoma the Big 12 title, but the Sooners must deal with a few worthy contenders before they can call themselves champs.

Oklahoma State and Texas A&M are the two teams that look the most capable of overtaking Oklahoma.

Going into the season, both will be ranked in the Top 15, and both will have their sights set on conference dominance.

This will be a key Big 12 bout that could give the winner the momentum needed to make a charge at a conference crown.

In last season’s meeting, Oklahoma State rallied from a 21-7 halftime deficit to prevail 38-35.

You have to remember, though, that this game occurred before the quarterback switch from Jerrod Johnson to Ryan Tannehill. Johnson turned the ball over five times and basically handed the Cowboys the game.

Tannehill is too efficient to let that happen.

The 12th man is sure to be rocking and rolling for this one, and the Aggies should be motivated to make up for last year's disappointing loss.

Last year’s Arkansas-Alabama meeting in Fayetteville was one of the most anticipated games in the history of the Arkansas program.

The Razorbacks had No. 1-ranked Alabama on the ropes for nearly the entire game, and they entered the fourth quarter with a 20-14 lead. But it all suddenly slipped away, and the Tide eventually won 24-20.

Even though both teams will be breaking in new quarterbacks this year, both squads look like they have what it takes to compete for the SEC West division crown.

It should be a treat to watch Arkansas RB Knile Davis and Alabama RB Trent Richardson, two of the best backs in the country, try to one-up each other.

Last year’s contest kept you on the edge of your seat, and this one should be just as much fun.

Last season, Oklahoma arrived in Columbia, Missouri in mid-October with an unblemished record and a fresh, new No. 1 ranking.

That all changed after a 36-27 defeat at the hands of Blaine Gabbert and the Tigers.

Missouri derailed the Sooners’ train to a national title, and you better believe that coach Bob Stoops and his gang will remember it.

Before last year’s upset, Stoops was 7-0 all-time against Missouri, and the coach will have payback on his mind when the two meet in Norman this season.

When people start talking about the new Pac-12 conference, it seems like the first two teams that come into the conversation are Oregon and Stanford. But this is a conference that is going to run deep with competition this season, and there are definitely a few overlooked teams that could make noise.

Two of those teams are USC and Arizona State.

USC weathered a transition year in 2010, under new head coach Lane Kiffin, and the Trojans now look ready to regain their swagger.

Arizona State, on the other hand, has the look of a sneaky talented type of under-the-radar team that could really open some eyes.

Every conference game is going to be crucial this year, but this one looks like it should be a good early barometer to see just how good these two teams really are this season.