The National, 9/4/12: Brevity.

And Finally, Week One Ends; Commence Two-Day Weekend: The winner of the Virginia Tech/Georgia Tech game has won the Coastal Division every year since the ACC expanded. The main takeaway from last night's meeting between the two schools must then be this: neither one of them wants to play in an empty Bank of America Stadium on December 1, because they both tried their damnedest to lose last night before finally coming to their senses and trying to win.

The Hokies scored on their first possession, and then went comatose on offense. For me, the highlight of the game was watching Virginia Tech long-snapper Joe St. Germain airmailed a snap over punter A.J. Hughes's head, but that's just because watching Beamerball turn into a blooper reel amuses me. That failure led to the Yellow Jackets' game-tying touchdown half a minute into the second quarter, and for the next two hours real-time the ACC wasted everyone's evening. Georgia Tech took the lead immediately after the field flipped to start the fourth quarter on a 32-yard David Scully field goal, and the air pretty much rocketed out of Lane Stadium. But then, halfway through the quarter, Logan Thomas hit Demitri Knowles for a 42-yard touchdown pass which Knowles hauled in despite being tackled before the ball even got to him, and things got interesting again. On Georgia Tech's final possession of regulation, Paul Johnson apparently remembered that the rules of football do in fact allow a player to, under certain circumstances, throw the ball forward through the air to a teammate; a key play mid-drive was a 20-yard strike from Tevin Washington to B.J. Bostic on fourth-and-six, a throw Washington threaded through coverage to preserve the possession. With only 44 seconds to go, Washington hit Deon Hill from 10 yards out and the Jackets had retaken the lead at 17-14.

The Hokies took over with excellent field position after the kickoff went out of bounds, and Thomas connected on a pair of 20+ yard strikes to get Virginia Tech into field goal range; Cody Journell, who'd missed a field goal which would have given the Hokies a touchdown lead earlier in the quarter, converted from 41 yards out to send the game into overtime. Georgia Tech again used the pass to get closer, but Washington suffered a complete brainfart on third down. Surrounded by orange jerseys, rather than taking the sack and settling for three points, Washington uncorked a desperate heave right into the hands of VPI's Kyle Fuller. The Jacket defense stood firm at the goal line on VIrginia Tech's possession, but Journell was able to chip in a 17-yarder to give the Hokies the win (and, of course, the Coastal division title, right?).

Post-game analysis from Gobbler Country's Chicago Maroon here, and From the Rumble Seat's LilBroey700 excises his demons here.

Now that week one is over with, we have to suffer two whole days without college football before Week Two begins with Cincinnati/Pitt. The horror. THE HORROR.

Man, Eff Cancer: Northern Illinois has placed control of their offense in the hands of assistants Rod Carey and Joe Tripodi while offensive coordinator Mike Dunbar moves to less strenuous duties in order to concentrate on a battle with cancer. K-State has long had a relationship with NIU; if you'll remember, back in the day Bill Snyder and Joe Novak had a very warm relationship, and the Huskies were a regular opponent. Novak even welcomed Snyder into his locker room post-game after each brutal defeat to offer his team words of encouragement. I can't speak for the younger Catfans here, but to me NIU has always been a little like family, if only that precocious cousin I'd see at Thanksgiving every year, and I've always taken a little pride in the Huskies' rise to mid-major prominence, especially since the staff there has often said we helped them get there... so my thoughts and prayers are definitely with Coach Dunbar at this time.

To the Surprise of Nobody at All: Both the coaches, who had LSU #1, and the AP poll, which had tabbed USC for the top spot, changed their minds this week and installed Alabama as the consensus #1 team in the land. Michigan fell to 19th in both polls. Auburn departed the coaches' poll, replaced by Louisville (who had been #25 in the AP poll anyway); Boise State was knocked out of the AP poll, replaced by Notre Dame. K-State moved up one slot in each poll after Saturday's win.

OH, Aggie, You Scamp: Someone, though Texas A&M insists it wasn't them, placed a billboard in Gainesville touting Texas A&M as the cleanest program in the SEC. That would be Texas A&M, the team which has been nailed for major NCAA violations more than any SEC program not named Auburn. A certain blogger may have lost his freakin' mind on Twitter when this story hit.

Diablerie: TOG FCS and D-II recaps ... Bill C gives an early read on the Heisman race. Collin Klein is not even mentioned, because Bill HATES US, MAN. ... Jason Kirk presents Week One of the BCS Eliminator ... Bill Hanstock compares the coaches' poll to sitcoms ... and Kirk joins Spencer Hall for Shutdown Fullback's Week One Recap: