While Notre Dame enjoyed some cheeseburgers most of the rest of the country battled it out on the gridiron. Last week we learned the bottom of the SEC had a rough start, however, week two brought us the return quite possibly of a dominant LSU program that hasn’t really been an elite team since 2011.

The Week’s Biggest Loser: Chip Kelly

UCLA dropped to 0-2 this season and now 3-11 in Kelly’s short tenure with the Bruins. A pair of defeats to quality G5 programs like Cincinnati and San Diego State aren’t too surprising in a vacuum. However, the Bruins are 128th nationally in yards per play and easily look like one of the worst offenses in the country. They face Oklahoma this weekend and will need prayers they don’t suffer their worst loss of the modern era.

The Week’s Biggest Winner: Joe Burrow

Burrow quietly had a very impressive week one then backed it up with a dominating performance in Austin this weekend. Go ahead, put him atop your Heisman list for now. He’s 2nd in passer rating, 5th in passing yards per game, and tied for the national lead with 9 touchdown passes. To date, he has the country’s best win and might finally be the answer to all of LSU’s offensive woes.

18 Stripes Top 20 Poll

RANK TEAM RECORD LAST WEEK
1 Clemson (+1) 2-0 24-10 Win vs. Texas A&M
2 Alabama (-1) 2-0 62-10 Win vs. New Mexico State
3 LSU (+4) 2-0 45-38 Win vs. Texas
4 Ohio State (+1) 2-0 42-0 Win vs. Cincinnati
5 Georgia (-2) 2-0 63-17 Win vs. Murray State
6 Oklahoma (-2) 2-0 70-14 Win vs. South Dakota
7 Wisconsin (+11) 2-0 61-0 Win vs. Central Michigan
8 Notre Dame 1-0 BYE
9 Auburn (+1) 2-0 24-6 Win vs. Tulane
10 Texas (-4) 1-1 45-38 Loss vs. LSU
11 Florida (+1) 2-0 45-0 Win vs. Tenn-Martin
12 Michigan (-1) 2-0 24-21 Win vs. Army
13 Penn State (+4) 2-0 45-13 Win vs. Buffalo
14 Virginia (-1) 2-0 52-17 Win vs. William & Mary
15 Utah (-1) 2-0 35-17 Win vs. Northern Illinois
16 Oregon (-1) 1-1 77-6 Win vs. Nevada
17 USC (NR) 2-0 45-20 Win vs. Stanford
18 UCF (+2) 2-0 48-14 Win vs. FAU
19 Iowa State 1-0 BYE
20 North Carolina (NR) 2-0 28-25 Win vs. Miami

 

OUT: Washington, Stanford

IN: USC, North Carolina

Clemson moves into the top spot with a solid win at home over a quality A&M program. It’ll be hard to keep the Tigers in the top spot for long with a weak schedule the rest of the way. What is their most difficult game remaining? Going by our rankings today it’s actually a visit to North Carolina in a few weeks.

Alabama dominated, of course.

The LSU win was fun in that Texas came out looking pretty good, too. We could probably complain about the defenses but the reality is that both offenses looked really dangerous. Suddenly, Alabama has a whole lot more to worry about and in a way the Longhorns still have a path to the playoffs if they can win the Big 12 conference.

I bumped Ohio State up on the basis that ripping apart one of the best AAC teams is pretty impressive.

We’re still several weeks away from Oklahoma truly being tested although they are averaging a national-best 10.92 yards per play thus far. Georgia’s cake walk to the Notre Dame game continued with another easy win. It should be noted that SP+ has the Dawgs at No. 3 right now just ahead of LSU following week two.

From top to bottom there’s a case to be made that Wisconsin has been the most complete team so far. They lead the country in fewest points (0) and yards per play on defense (2.13) and have been good not great on offense. Back-to-back shutouts has moved the Badgers all the way up to 7th in our rankings.

Auburn didn’t exactly set the world on fire against Tulane, especially on offense. Skepticism is warranted.

Florida’s win in week zero over Miami looks a lot less impressive, if it ever did.

We were nearly treated to a wonderful upset by Army over Michigan, but alas. I will say Army was pretty lucky to be in the game with only 243 yards. Even still, Michigan was under 5 YPP and boy does their offense look hilariously mediocre through 2 games.

Penn State looked completely out of sorts in the first half against UB and then unloaded on the MAC team. The Nittany Lions have been super productive with Sean Clifford under center which could be an interesting wrinkle added to the Big Ten this year.

Virginia and Utah are basically the same team to me. Fair?

Nevada is supposed to be a pretty good G5 team based on their recent history and defeating Purdue in the first week. Oregon blowing them out to such a degree dropped Nevada hard in the most recent SP+ rankings.

So, uh USC might be good now? Lightly regarded true freshman quarterback Kedon Slovis would be the talk of the week if it wasn’t for Burrow and the fact that the Trojans’ win over Stanford kicked off at 10:30 eastern. Slovis looked amazing (5 incompletions, 377 yards, 3 TD) to the point where I’m half expecting him to play terribly against BYU this weekend.

Brandon Wimbush was nursing an injury and didn’t play for UCF against FAU. The freshman Dillon Gabriel had a super weird stat line (7 of 19 for 245 yards and 3 total TD) and could keep the job. By the way, UCF hasn’t lost a regular season game since November 26, 2016 and that bowl loss to LSU (their only loss since 12/17/16) certainly looks a lot better now that we’ve seen Sir Joseph Burrow become a Heisman candidate.

Mack Brown for Coach of the Year? The Tar Heels surprising rise in 2019 doesn’t look super sustainable by any means (+7 in point differential, +0.83 YPP, 56th SP+ ranking) but they’ve already beat a pair of Power 5 teams and appear poised for at least 6 or 7 wins this year.

Week 3 Games to Watch

Pitt (+17) at Penn State – The Nittany Lions have taken the last two in this series by a combined score of 84-20. Thus far, the Pitt offense has not proven it should keep up inside Beaver Stadium. Nittany Lions 37-10. 

Stanford (+7.5) at UCF – The Cardinal get quarterback K.J. Costello back for this game which should be one of UCF’s most challenging games this season. Likewise, traveling back east after getting embarrassed by USC should be extremely difficult for a reeling Stanford team. They’ve done really well in the past fighting off these types of losses but not this time, although I bet it’s really close. Knights 29-24.

USC (-4.5) at BYU – A bit of an interesting line as USC picked itself up from near doom last week with an offensive performance that was awfully impressive. You’d think BYU might have a let down after their emotional win at Tennessee. Perhaps the thinking is BYU’s defense puts in a heck of a shift at home? Trojans 34-23.

Arizona State (+13.5) at Michigan State – I’m buying stock in skinny freshman quarterback Jayden Daniels and think this is an ugly game that makes MSU sweat a lot more than they’re ready for this weekend. Spartans 27-21.

Iowa (-2.5) at Iowa State – Seventeen spots separate these programs in the latest SP+ rankings. I think we’re due for Matt Campbell to beat his in-state rival. Cyclones 34-31.

Florida (-8) at Kentucky – Quarterback Terry Wilson is injured which should allow Florida to roll here in a revenge game from last year’s historic defeat. Gators 42-22.

Oklahoma (-23) at UCLA – This spread jumped an incredible 6 points from the opening line. What was Vegas thinking? It may be that this Rose Bowl crowd is due to be extremely sparse, sleepy, and disinterested. I don’t know what else to say. Sooners 48-9.