The Hlist: Week 1 football stuff you need to know

1. Keep Your Eye on Ball: Iowa has lost two straight games to Mid-American Conference teams. Next up is Western Michigan, in Iowa City on Sept. 21. Then comes Ball State, on Sept. 6, 2014, in Iowa City.

Ball State's last game against a Big Ten team was a 41-39 win at Indiana.

2. Notre Dame-Michigan? Yawn? Notre Dame Coach Brian Kelly kind of downplayed the rivalry his school has with Michigan during a Sunday teleconference.

"I really haven't seen it as one of those historic, traditional Notre Dame rivalries," Kelly said. "I've seen it as just one of those great football games that Notre Dame has played.

"For me, I've been in Michigan a long time, I've always felt the Notre Dame-Michigan game was a big regional game. But in the Notre Dame history books, this game has (been) played, but obviously there have been some years where it hasn't been played for a number of years."

It's been played every year since 2002. You think about Notre Dame's football rivalries, and USC comes immediately to mind. But who would be No. 2 if not Michigan? Purdue? Navy?

3. It May Not Be the Year of the Dawg: Georgia doesn't understand you're supposed to start the season slowly.

First, the Bulldogs lost at Clemson, 38-35, in possibly the best matchup of Week 1. Now it hosts South Carolina Saturday. Three weeks after that, LSU comes to Athens.

Georgia will play without its No. 1 receiver, Malcolm Mitchell, who tore an ACL Saturday. How? By landing awkwardly after leaping to chest-bump with the Dawgs' Todd Gurley after Gurley's 75-yard touchdown run.

The Hlist fully expected bruised ribs to be caused by one of those particularly exuberant chest-bumps. This is even worse. Mitchell tore an ACL and is done for the season.

4. Know Your FCS When Scheduling: Oregon and Oregon State took two different paths in scheduling season-openers.

Oregon brought in FCS Nicholls State, which went 1-10 last season and finished the year with a 77-3 loss at Oregon State.

Oregon State, meanwhile, hosted Eastern Washington, which went 11-3 a year ago and advanced to the FCS national semifinals.

The Ducks gained a school-record 772 yards in beating Nicholls State, 66-3. The Beavers lost to Eastern Washington, 49-46. Oregon State was 9-4 last year. But it was 3-9 in 2011, when it opened the season by losing to FCS Sacramento State.

5. Bret Bielema Loves Reggae Music: Just thought you'd like to know that about the Arkansas coach. Click here for details.

6. A 72-year-old Unbeaten Streak is Intact: Mercer University of Macon, Ga., played its first football game in 72 years Saturday, defeating Reinhardt University of Waleska, Ga., 40-37. It was Reinhardt's first football game since the 1920s.

A standing room-only crowd of 12,000 stuffed Mercer's stadium. Tickets for the game sold out 27 minutes after they were put on sale.

What a game it was. There were eight lead-changes. The game was decided on Josh Shutter's 31-yard field goal with three seconds left.

"Just couldn't let my boys down," said Shutter, a converted Mercer soccer player from Sinking Spring, Pa.

7. Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Samm: Someone who was remotely involved with Saturday's Northern Illinois-Iowa game made it into the New York Daily News on Monday after being featured on Deadspin the day before.

Her name is Samantha Goudie, and I get the distinct feeling she won't be invited for dinner at University of Iowa President Sally Mason's house anytime soon.

8. Quote of the Week: "It was a horrible, horrible job of coaching" -- San Diego State Coach Rocky Long after his Aztecs lost to FCS Eastern Illinois, 40-19.

San Diego State is at Ohio State on Saturday.

"You wanted to talk about next weekend all along in fall camp," Long said. "I told you about it.  I told you not to.  I told you how good Eastern Illinois was.  I told you.  I told you a long time ago, but nobody wanted to listen."

The Hlist still doesn't.

And there's this bonus from Texas high school football: