Each week during the college football season, TeamFB7 will dole out “Game Balls” to the top individual performances around the sport.
Week 0 of the college football schedule provided a limited slate of games and just a tease of the drama, theatrics and unraveling narratives to come in the weeks and months ahead.
But even with only eight FBS games taking place Saturday, there were more than enough superlative individual performances worth spotlighting, including an early gem from a Heisman Trophy dark horse, a well-traveled quarterback playing perhaps the best game of his collegiate career, a sixth-year QB finding new life in a fresh start and more.
Normally, we’ll use this space to dole out 10 “Game Balls” to the most deserving standouts of the week, making it a most exclusive list when more than 100 teams around the country are active. For Week 0, we’ll limit the list to five honorees.
As always, that means other deserving candidates just missed the cut — including an honorable mention here to TCU running back Jeremy Payne (25 carries for 142 yards, 5 catches for 27 yards in a loss) — but these were the five best of the best …
Virginia QB Beau Pribula
It was fair to wonder, doubt even, whether Virginia would be able to carry over the momentum it created last season in winning a program-record 11 games and finishing with its highest standing in the final AP national rankings (No. 16) in 30 years.
Especially considering the Cavaliers lost almost all of their offensive catalysts and playmakers to graduation or the NFL.
Beyond that, it was also fair to be skeptical about Pribula taking the torch from Chandler Morris at quarterback given that it seemed like Missouri was just fine seeing the quarterback transfer out after just one season as its starter.
So, Virginia and its new QB made quite the resounding statement Saturday in dominating ACC foe NC State, 34-8, a year after the Wolfpack handed the Cavaliers one of their only two regular-season losses. Pribula completed 9 of 11 passes for 155 yards, 2 TDs and 0 INTs and also led the team in rushing with 110 yards on 15 attempts.
We’ll take the L here on our prediction for an NC State upset on the road. That was driven largely by the perceived advantage at QB for the Wolfpack with third-year starter CJ Bailey over Pribula.
Whoops!
While Bailey was thoroughly shutdown by Virginia’s impressive defense (just 12-of-23 passing for 84 yards, 0 TDs and 1 INT with 33 rushing yards), Pribula was simply sublime.
He was efficient as a passer but also picked his spots for big plays down the field, connecting with Xavier Brown for a 45-yard touchdown down the seam in the second quarter and then a 47-yard deep-strike touchdown to Da’Shawn Martin early in the third quarter for a commanding 24-0 lead.
How about this for a stat — per ESPN, those two plays were more completions of at least 15 air yards than Pribula had all of last season (1)!
After three years spent mostly in the background as a reserve at Penn State, Pribula transferred to Missouri last year and threw for just 1,941 yards, 11 TDs and 9 INTs with 297 rushing yards and 6 scores in 10 games. While he nobly missed just two games after dislocating his ankle in late October and returned for the end of the regular season, it was an underwhelming campaign overall. Pribula didn’t stay around for the team’s bowl game, hopping in the transfer portal to seek another fresh start.
It figures Virginia’s passing attack may be a little more limited going from Morris to Pribula, but if the dual-threat quarterback adds the rushing element he provided Saturday, that shouldn’t matter. His 110 rushing yards were 32 more than his previous single-game high.
The fifth-year senior had an 18-yard run to jumpstart a field goal drive on Virginia’s second possession. After a quick interception by the Cavaliers defense to set up prime field possession, Pribula immediately broke free for a 22-yard run and later 6 more yards to do most of the work on a 4-play, 32-yard touchdown drive for a quick 10-0 lead.
Then on the opening drive of the second half, Pribula went 3-of-3 passing with completions of 20, 8 and the 47-yard touchdown strike in succession.
It’s only one game, but who knows, maybe Pribula is going to make Mizzou miss him after all — while keeping UVA rolling right where it left off last year.
USC QB Jayden Maiava and WR Trent Mosley
In remains to be seen if coach Lincoln Riley can finally get the Trojans over the hump and into the College Football Playoff in his fifth season in Los Angeles, but if that happens then it will surely be largely due to the play of Maiava.
The fifth-year senior was already a dark horse Heisman Trophy candidate entering the season, and he only furthered that standing Saturday in completing 25 of 29 passes for 286 yards, 2 TDs and 0 INTs along with a rushing TD in USC’s 42-26 win over San Jose State.
Maiava led the Trojans to a dominating 35-3 lead through three quarters with five touchdown drives in seven possessions before watching the fourth quarter from the sideline after a remarkably efficient and impressive season debut.
Maiava, who started his career at UNLV with a breakout redshirt-freshman season in 2023, took over as USC’s starting QB late in the 2024 season and then last year threw for 3,711 yards, 24 TDs and 10 INTs with 6 rushing TDs.
Continuing to cut down on the turnovers is the next step for the cannon-armed and plenty-mobile veteran QB. If he does that and looks as dialed in as he was in this game, USC indeed has the talent to challenge for that long-elusive playoff spot.
What made Maiava’s performance even further impressive Saturday, beyond the efficiency and that it all came in three quarters, was that he didn’t have his top two receivers available. USC chose to sit sophomore Tanook Hines and high-profile NC State transfer Terrell Anderson due to injuries, so Maiava was working with almost an entirely new set of targets from last season and down two major weapons.
On that note, true freshman Trent Mosley gets a share of the Game Ball here after leading the Trojans with 7 catches for 118 yards and a TD in his first college game. He also had a 41-yard punt return.
Mosley’s 118 receiving yards are the most by a Trojans true freshman in his debut since JuJu Smith-Schuster had 123 receiving yards versus Fresno State in 2014. Even more impressive, Mosley is the first Power Four freshman with at least 7 receptions, 100 yards and a TD in his debut since Purdue’s Rondale Moore in 2018.
“He kind of just did what he does in practice,” Riley said of Mosley. “I don’t think anybody here is very surprised. That’s kind of what it looks like most days.”
Florida State RB Ousmane Kromah
Florida State fans, already out of patience with coach Mike Norvell after back-to-back disastrous seasons, won’t feel especially reassured by the Seminoles’ season-opening 34-17 win over New Mexico State after seeing their team leading by just 10 points late in the fourth quarter as 31.5-point favorites.
But they have to be encouraged by the performance and potential of Kromah as the sophomore running back rumbled for 115 yards and a TD on just 14 carries (8.2 yards per carry), plus a 7-yard reception.
Kromah finished third on the team with 408 rushing yards as a true freshman last year, behind quarterback Tommy Castellanos (now at Texas Tech) and fellow running back Gavin Sawchuk (now at Northwestern). But his single-game season-highs topped out at 12 carries for 63 yards with a long run of 23 yards — marks he flew past in his 2026 season debut.
Kromah ripped off a 52-yard run in the fourth quarter to spark a field goal drive, showing good patience to read his blocks before accelerating through the hole and showing elusive moves for a running back of his size (6-foot-1, 216 pounds). He later punched in a 1-yard TD late in the fourth quarter for the game’s final points. Meanwhile, his lone reception went for a key third-down conversion to set up a touchdown at the end of the first half.
Florida State has options in the backfield as Samuel Singleton Jr. got 9 carries for 42 yards and a TD and Texas transfer Quintrevion Wisner had 4 carries for 34 yards, but Kromah looks to have the inside track to being the featured back in that attack with Saturday only helping his cause considerably.
North Carolina DL Xavier Lewis
Coming off a 4-8 finish in Bill Belichick’s debut season with only two wins over Power Four opponents, North Carolina delivered one of the true surprises of Week 0 in a 15-10 victory over TCU in Ireland — after getting embarrassed by the Horned Frogs to start the 2025 season.
The defense was the story of the day, holding TCU scoreless over the final three quarters, and Lewis had his imprint all over the shutdown performance.
After totaling just 8 tackles (4 solo) and half a sack as a true freshman last season, he broke out Saturday with 7 tackles (5 solo) and 4.5 tackles for loss, including 2 sacks.
But his biggest play of the day came on fourth-and-1 from the UNC 5-yard line late in the third quarter and the Tar Heels trying to hold on to that tenuous lead. Lewis helped collapse the TCU offensive line on a rushing attempt while getting credited on a combined tackle for loss to stuff the aforementioned Payne, who was having a big day otherwise.
TCU coach Sonny Dykes would later lament not going for field goals in that situation and others.
The Tar Heels’ offense didn’t overly impress Saturday, but the defense sure did in holding TCU to 281 yards and one conversion on five fourth-down tries.
Stanford QB Davis Warren
Warren is getting one final chance to prove himself as a college quarterback in his sixth year, after four seasons at Michigan (with nine starts in 2024) before sitting out last season rehabbing a torn ACL.
It’s just one game, but he made the most of his Cardinal debut Saturday, completing 22 of 34 passes for 310 yards, 1 TD and 0 INTs along with 31 rushing yards in a 37-27 win over Hawaii.
Warren struggled in his shot as a starter for Michigan two years ago, throwing for just 1,199 yards, 7 TDs and 9 INTs in nine games. He was held under 200 passing yards in all but one of those games, peaking at 204 yards.
Well, it was against a Mountain West defense, but nonetheless Warren had a career performance Saturday.
That included a 57-yard catch-and-run connection to JonAnthony Hall on third-and-long early in the first quarter to key Stanford’s first touchdown drive and then completing 5 of 5 passes for 58 yards on a 7-play go-ahead scoring drive to give the Cardinal the lead for good with 1:41 left in the game.
Hawaii had scored three straight touchdowns in a frenetic fourth quarter rally to overtake the lead before that drive.
“I’m just happy that we have a quarterback that can lead us through that and stay poised in that type of situation because it’s definitely not easy,” running back Micah Ford, who scored that final touchdown, said, per the AP.
