Poor Week Zero. It gets no love, and that just ain’t right. Football season doesn’t start next Thursday. For eight teams—including UMass and Duquesne—it’s game week.

From Kristen Cavallari (sort of) to AJ Hines (literally), we have five phenomenal reasons for you to tune into the college football opener between the Dukes and the Minutemen.

1. It’s the first game of the college football season.

This list really ought to be one reason long.

For the past seven-plus months, your fancy 65-inch 4K HD TV has been reduced to making an exhibition of “The Gong Show” and “Very Cavallari”—Ok, Kristen and Jay are awesome, but that’s not the point.

The point is that football is back, baby.

Sure, we’re all confusingly counting down to Week 1, but Week 0 is no zero in our hearts and it’s here. The alma mater of one Victor Cruz is here. The Fightin’ Dukes are here.

Grab a brew, take a seat, and let’s get this party started early.

2. UMass low-key has some star power.

The Minutemen won four games last year and, to the uninitiated, enter this season well beneath the national radar. 

UMass has some dudes.

Senior quarterback Andrew Ford tossed 22 touchdowns against just four picks in 2017 and will lead one of the nation’s most potent passing offenses once again this season.

Senior running back Marquis Young is going to start the season on the Doak Walker Award Watch List after just missing the century mark a season ago, to the tune of 982 rushing yards on 192 carries. That’s 5.4 yards per rushing attempt. #Math

And, of course, there’s senior Bryton Barr, who will begin the season on the Dick Butkus Award Watch list and may well be the best linebacker in the country without a conference.

‘Sup, Notre Dame.

3. Duquesne running back AJ Hines is legit.

In the two seasons since arriving at Duquesne fresh off of 3,400 career rushing yards at Fike (NC) HS, all AJ Hines has done is rush for 2,329 yards, 23 touchdowns, and eclipse the 100-yard mark in 13 different games.

He will begin this season on the Walter Payton Award Watch list and his name can be found across several preseason All-America lineups.

He’s a big, explosive back with a burst that has a tendency to surprise defensive backs and ruin pursuit angles—and that description would remain the same on the FBS stage.

4. UMass is going to a bowl game this year.

The Minutemen are going bowling this year. Probably. Potentially.

The road to FBS relevance is never an easy one, but this program is a lot closer than last season’s 4-7 mark would indicate.

UMass started 0-6, losing one-possession games to Hawaii (3), Temple (8), Tennessee (4) and Ohio (8), before winning four of its next five. Without Ford behind center, the Minutemen led Mississippi State by a touchdown at the half in Starkville. 

In other words, this might just be the perfect time to hop on the bandwagon.

5. Gambling on sports is legal and the Dukes are an inviting dog.

Sports betting is legal in Pennsylvania and that’s great news for Duquesne fans, whose team is a 23-point underdog at UMass on Saturday.

In their last four games played in the month of August, the Minutemen are 0-4 ATS. The Dukes, meanwhile, are winners in four of their past six on the road, and are sneaky solid on offense.

The Cover 4 doesn’t start for another week, but if it were coming out today, we’d tell you to take the points against a slow-starter and hang on for dear life.