There was only one game featuring two top 25 teams during this past weekend of college football, but three top 25 teams lost, making for a major shake-up in the sport. And we’re just two full weeks in. You should never overreact, but some things do become clear as day, even at this point. Here are our 10 takeaways from Week 2 of the season.
Billy Napier is DONE at Florida. Book it.
He was on the hot seat last November before closing out with five straight wins, but the Gators’ streak was overrated. They beat an LSU Tigers team that quit on the season after losing to the Alabama Crimson Tide, an Ole Miss Rebels team that exerted all its energy beating the Georgia Bulldogs and then won a meaningless bowl game.
Outside of the bowl, D.J. Lagway was never that great, but the winning streak and his play in the bowl led to him being overhyped. Well, now Florida is 1-1 with a loss at home to the South Florida Bulls, and the season is about to get derailed. They will be underdogs for certain in their next four games and possibly next six. There’s no way Billy Napier survives. It’s over.
USF is the Go5 CFP favorite
One week after beating the Group of Five team to make the College Football Playoff last year, Alex Golesh’s team scored a huge Power Five win on the road. There’s nobody else at that level that is a greater favorite to represent one of those five conferences in December. Maybe like last year, the Group of Five team will be better than the Big 12 team.
Golesh has truly built up the program early in his third year on the job. The team he beat may actually hire him to be its head coach next year. Tennessee Vols fans know all too well how good of an offensive mind he has, but he’s proven he can win with elite defense as well, so he’s just head coach material, and he’ll be a force in the right place after a year.
Oklahoma is BACK after beating Michigan
John Mateer and that Washington State Cougars offense is working with Brent Venables and the Sooners. OU scored a huge 24-13 win over the Wolverines in the one top 25 matchup this past weekend, and that’s a good sign for a program desperate to move on from the Jackson Arnold debacle that was last year, even though Arnold is playing well this year for the Auburn Tigers.
Anyway, OU may be back, but Sherrone Moore and Michigan could just be in trouble. This was a 7-5 program last year, and the Connor Stalions scandal just seems to be a cloud hanging over the program. As a result, this game could have been more about their issues than OU’s turnaround. We need to see more from both teams before making a judgment.
Mississippi State pulls off a huge upset
The worst team in the SEC last year stabbed the Big 12 champion from last year in the heart. Despite Cam Skattebo’s departure, the Arizona State Sun Devils returned everybody and seemed poise for a deep run. Instead, they learned what it’s like to have to travel cross country and play in front of those cowbells in Starkville on a Saturday night.
Jeff Lebby’s Bulldogs looked ugly in their season-opening win over the Southern Miss Golden Eagles, but they were on the road and breaking in a lot of new transfers. Now, they’re in position to reach 4-0 before they host the Vols in what could be a huge Sept. 30 matchup. ASU, for its part, should be concerned, as this loss followed an ugly 38-19 season-opening win over Northern Arizona.
Texas, Alabama look like they’ll be fine
NEVER overreact to how a powerhouse program looks in the first two weeks of the college football season, especially if they’re breaking in a new quarterback. Urban Meyer and the Ohio State Buckeyes lost their second game to the unranked Virginia Tech Hokies at home when they won the national championship in 2014. Give the Texas Longhorns and Alabama Crimson Tide a break.
Arch Manning rebounded from a touchdown loss to the defending national champions, ironically OSU, to account for five touchdowns against the San Jose State Spartans. Kalen DeBoer showed by leading his team to a 73-0 win against the Louisiana Monroe Warhawks that this offense can be elite with Ty Simpson, and maybe the Florida State Seminoles on the road are just better than we thought. They certainly look it.
Mizzou, ISU and Baylor win HISTORIC non-conference rivalry thrillers
An old Southwest Conference and old Big 12 rivalry were both renewed. Both involved comebacks in shootouts. The SMU Mustangs came back from 14 down in the fourth quarter to eventually beat the TCU Horned Frogs 48-45 in overtime, and the Missouri Tigers came back from a 21-6 deficit to beat the Kansas Jayhawks 42-31 in the old border war.
Then a regular non-conference rivalry lived up to its billing, as always, with the Iowa State Cyclones beating the Iowa Hawkeyes in the exact opposite fashion, winning 16-13, which is commonplace for this rivalry. As the college football landscape changes in the future, these are the type of games that need to happen more often. Leagues may change, but rivalries can stay.
Why all the ugly wins by top 25 Power Four schools?
Maybe it was the weather in the south, but college football powerhouses were struggling to put away awful programs. Georgia only beat the Austin Peay Governors 28-6, the LSU Tigers only beat the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs 23-6, and despite beating the South Carolina State Bulldogs 38-10, the South Carolina Gamecocks trailed them 3-0 after the first quarter.
Outside of the SEC, the Clemson Tigers trailed the Troy Trojans 16-3 before coming back to win 27-16 in the second half. That certainly made LSU’s win over them look worse, and as we just mentioned, LSU struggled severely. UGA, to be fair, had a weather delay that took them even more out of rhythm, but it could also relate to more parity in the sport.
What has happened to Oklahoma State?
Mike Gundy is a man, and he’s two years from 60. Somehow, though, he seems to have learned less about the game of college football. Coming off a 3-9 season, the Cowboys lost 69-3 to the Oregon Ducks over the weekend. That follows them beating the UT-Martin Skyhawks just 27-7 to open the season and then Gundy chirping all week. All of a sudden, Vol fans may be grateful they failed to hire Gundy twice.
Of course, Oregon remains a very elite team, and Dan Lanning knows how to pour it on against inferior competition, but this was an insane drubbing. Yes, Oregon may be that good after finishing the regular season undefeated last year, but this seems to have everything to do with Oklahoma State. One of the offensive legends of the sport the last 20 years may be seeing his career come to an end.
Heisman race
- Dante Moore
- Diego Pavia
- Luke Altmeyer
- John Mateer
- Beau Pribula
This is going to change radically week to week until we have a larger sample size, but Dante Moore lighting it up for Oregon against a Power Four school requires him to be No. 1. Diego Pavia did the same thing for the Vanderbilt Commodores against the Virginia Tech Hokies, and Luke Altmeyer helped the Illinois Fighting Illini score a huge road win with big numbers over the Duke Blue Devils.
Of course, Mateer was the star of the weekend, and we already mentioned him leading OU to a victory over Michigan. The reason he’s not higher right now, though, is because of our questions surrounding Michigan, and efficiency outweight big numbers for him in that one. Beau Pribula of Mizzou is in a similar boat, but he balled out against Kansas.
Top 10
- South Florida
- Iowa State
- Auburn
- LSU
- Ole Miss
- Georgia Tech
- Nebraska
- Illinois
- TCU
- Tennessee
Schedule strength finally carries weight but only barely with the small sample size. We still have to weigh whether or not a team beat a Power Four school, if they beat such a school away from home and if they beat a team that made the CFP. Every one of the teams in our top 10 fits two of those three categories. South Florida fits all three, which is why they’re No. 1. Yes, they should be No. 1.
Tennessee is No. 10 because they are the only ones without a road win. Their Power Four win was at a neutral site. Other schools came close, as OSU’s win over Texas meets two of the three criteria, but making last year’s CFP carries the least weight. Vandy and South Caroilna have wins away from home vs. Power Four teams, but both are over VT, who is now 0-2, which is why that win carries less weight.
FSU, Miami, Mississippi State, Mizzou, OU, the Tulane Green Wave, the N.C. State Wolfpack and the Michigan State Spartans all have Power Four wins, but they are at home. As a result, they didn’t do enough to make this list. We will obviously change things in the near future, but this is what it has to look like at the start of the season, as college football rankings should be about a body of work.
