Week Zero Guide: Games to Watch
As Iowa Football prepares to kick off its campaign next weekend against Albany, the national spotlight turns to Week Zero—a brief but meaningful appetizer to the full college football season. It’s a limited sample, as this weekend’s slate features just five games, but there are still a couple of games to keep an eye on, including big-time matchup in Ireland. Here are the top games to watch for week zero of the college football season.
***All betting odds/lines are provided by Bet MGM***
Must Watch Game of the Week: #22 Iowa State vs #17 Kansas State (Dublin, Ireland)
Game Info: Saturday, August 23rd – 11:00am CT – ESPN Line: Kansas State -3
Outside of having it as a yearly game that includes Notre Dame, the Aer Lingus College Football Classic in Dublin doesn’t make a ton of sense to me, but you can’t dispute that this is a great matchup to kick off the ’25 college football season. Two ranked teams with expectations to be in contention to win the Big 12, this is a really important game. The quarterback matchup with Rocco Becht and Avery Johnson will be the main headline outside of the game itself. A couple other players to watch, Kansas State running back Dylan Edwards and Iowa State defensive tackle Domonique Orange. Iowa State won 29-21 (-2) in Ames last season and has won five of the last seven meetings.
Fresno State at Kansas
Game Info: Saturday, August 23rd – 5:30pm CT – FOX Line: Kansas -12.5
Debuting their season at the newly renovated David Booth Memorial Stadium, the Jayhawks aren’t playing host to a game that would normally be one you’d seek out to watch. That being said, for week zero, this one isn’t half bad. Both Kansas and Fresno State are both expected to be bowl worthy teams, with Jalon Daniels at quarterback for the Jayhawks and Rice transfer EJ Warner for the Bulldogs. Kansas brought in plenty of transfers, including former Hawkeye running back LeShon Williams. Speaking of running back, Fresno State has a decent duo with Bryson Donelson and Elijah Gilliam. Even if this ends up being a 35-21 type game, that’s plenty good enough to watch.
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Sam Houston State at Western Kentucky
Game Info: Saturday, August 23rd – 6:00pm CT – CBSSN Line: WKU -10.5
I know, I know this is a CUSA matchup with a double-digit point spread, but this is week zero, so we will take what we can get. The Hilltoppers were picked second in the preseason CUSA media poll and have averaged 8.0 wins per season under Tyson Helton (7th year). They lost seven starters to P4 but did bring in Abilene Christian quarterback Maverick McIvor who threw for nearly 3,900 yards last season. Sam Houston State is coming off a fantastic 10-3 season in year two as an FBS program, but they return just eight starters. The Bearkats do have a couple of All-CUSA players returning on the offensive line.
Stanford at Hawaii
Game Info: Saturday, August 23rd – 6:30pm CT – CBS Line: Hawaii -2.5
The Rainbow Warriors have become a week zero staple and the only thing wrong with this year’s opener is that it’s at 6:30pm instead of 10:00pm. Not much of a Hawaii test. Stanford is led by first-year head coach Frank Reich and they’ll have former Oregon State starter Ben Gulbranson, but they were picked last in the ACC preseason poll. As for Hawaii, they went 5-7 last season, but lost three games by a combined eight points and now return 15 starters. The wide receiver duo of Nick Cenacle and Pofele Ashlock combined for over 1,300 yards last season, so they’re the players to watch.
