It was a pretty poor week for hoping parity would be coming our way as the usual suspects strengthened their resumes in the first full Saturday of college football. Still, we saw some absolute bangers of games littered throughout the weekend.
Our Fighting Irish lost but still we rise.
Here’s the new 18 Stripes poll heading into week 2.
18 Stripes Top 20 Poll
| RANK | TEAM | RECORD | RESULT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alabama | 1-0 | 55-0 W vs. Utah State |
| 2 | Ohio State | 1-0 | 21-10 W vs. Notre Dame |
| 3 | Georgia | 1-0 | 49-3 W vs. Oregon |
| 4 | USC | 1-0 | 66-14 W vs. Rice |
| 5 | Clemson | 1-0 | 41-10 W vs. Georgia Tech |
| 6 | Florida (NR) | 1-0 | 29-26 W vs. Utah |
| 7 | Texas A&M | 1-0 | 31-0 W vs. Sam Houston St. |
| 8 | Oklahoma (+3) | 1-0 | 45-13 W vs. UTEP |
| 9 | Arkansas (+6) | 1-0 | 31-24 W vs. Cincinnati |
| 10 | Tennessee (+2) | 1-0 | 59-10 W vs. Ball St. |
| 11 | Miami (+3) | 1-0 | 70-13 W vs. Bethune-Cookman |
| 12 | Notre Dame (-4) | 0-1 | 21-10 L at Ohio State |
| 13 | Utah (-7) | 0-1 | 29-26 L at Florida |
| 14 | Michigan (-1) | 1-0 | 51-7 W vs. Colorado St. |
| 15 | BYU (+2) | 1-0 | 50-21 W at USF |
| 16 | Texas (+2) | 1-0 | 52-10 W vs. UL-Monroe |
| 17 | Air Force (+3) | 1-0 | 48-17 W vs. N. Iowa |
| 18 | Oklahoma State (-9) | 1-0 | 58-44 W vs. Central Michigan |
| 19 | Wake Forest (NR) | 1-0 | 44-10 W vs. VMI |
| 20 | Michigan State (-1) | 1-0 | 35-13 W vs. WMU |
National Storylines
The Top 3 all impressed in different ways, especially Georgia utterly dismantling Oregon and nearly doubling them up in total yards. As suspected, Bo Nix didn’t come through with just 173 passing yards and 2 interceptions with no touchdowns.
Florida could be a problem. Quarterback Anthony Richardson was efficient through the air and ran for 106 yards and 3 scores. Utah looked pretty good themselves running and throwing for 200+ yards apiece. Don’t count them out on the national scene, and especially in the Pac-12.
The Cincinnati-Arkansas game was really fun. In the end, the Hogs had just a little more but I was impressed with a new-look Bearcats team going swing for swing against a quality SEC team.
I didn’t include Wake Forest in the pre-season poll after the news of quarterback Sam Hartman being away from the team for a while. In stepped Mitch Griffis who didn’t miss a beat going 21 of 29 for 288 yards and 3 touchdowns in their opener.
I’m sure we’ll be talking about Brian Kelly a lot this year. After LSU’s opener on Sunday night with the whole country watching it would be outrageous not to talk about what the heck happened inside the Caesars Superdome.
It was a tight game throughout but Florida State ended up taking a 24-10 lead early into the 4th quarter. The LSU offense didn’t have much outside of quarterback Jayden Daniels who threw for 209 yards and ran for 114 yards. All other Tigers accounted for 39(!) rushing yards. Daniels led a touchdown drive to close the gap to 24-17, LSU got a stop, but they fumbled the punt return away (their 2nd of the day). The Seminoles took over at the 8-yard line, got it down to the 1-yard line, and they fumbled.
With 1:20 remaining, Daniels led the offense on a 99-yard drive capped off by a 2-yard touchdown strike with no time remaining. What a comeback! But, the extra point was blocked and LSU lost. LOL.
OUT:
No. 10 NC State
You’re NC State and supposed to be a cool, underdog story this year. I’m not leaving you in our Top 20 after you get slightly outplayed by East Carolina and only survive thanks to a missed field goal with 4 seconds remaining. You’ll have to earn my trust back.
No. 16 Iowa
Combining for 286 yards against South Dakota State is a joke. But, we know what you’re up to Hawkeyes. More below.
Opponent Watch
Ohio State (1-0): Well, they weren’t leading at halftime. They didn’t stop the count then, though.
Marshall (1-0): Without star running back Rasheen Ali, the Herd rumbled for 380 yards on the ground anyway in a 55-3 win over Norfolk State. Poor Norfolk only completed 6 passes and were out-gained by 498 yards.
California (1-0): Purdue transfer Jack Plummer threw for 3 touchdowns in a 34-13 win over UC Davis. The Cal defense struggled at times as the Golden Bears only out-gained the Aggies by 28 yards.
North Carolina (2-0): The Heels won their week 0 game against FAMU and followed that up with a game-of-the-year nominee and absolutely insane 63-61 win over Appalachian State. UNC led 41-21 in the 4th quarter then allowed 40 points to the Mountaineers. New quarterback Drake Maye has 10 touchdowns and is averaging 388 total yards per game so far. He could be a problem but so is giving up almost 7 yards per play to a Sun Belt team.
BYU (1-0): The Cougars led 38-0 before halftime in a 50-21 route of USF on the road in Tampa. BYU’s offense looked really efficient while throwing for 261 yards and running for 312 yards.
Stanford (1-0): The Cardinal brushed aside a -3 turnover difference to defeat mighty Colgate 41-10 in front of an assembled crowd of dozens.
UNLV (1-0): Tall, left-handed redshirt sophomore quarterback Doug Brumfield looked sharp going 21 of 25 for 356 yards and 4 touchdowns in an easy 52-21 win over Idaho State. Brumfield heads into the weekend being 2nd nationally in passer rating.
Syracuse (1-0): As 3.5-point home dogs, the Orange sprung one of the more surprising upsets of the season so far defeating Louisville 31-7 inside the Carrier JMA Wireless Dome. Syracuse quarterback Garrett Schrader played well with 237 passing yards, 95 rushing yards, and 3 total touchdowns.
Clemson (1-0): I was prepared to re-arrange the entire poll this Tuesday morning following Clemson’s slow start against Georgia Tech. They’d eventually take control in the 2nd half for an easy but not super impressive win. DJ Uiagalelei was just okay, while star freshman QB Cade Klubnik looked sharp leading a touchdown drive late.
Navy (0-1): Navy limited Delaware to just 202 total yards but lost 3 fumbles in an embarrassing 14-7 loss at home. The Middies completed 5 passes for 135 yards and then stumbled to 184 rushing yards on 63 carries.
Boston College (0-1): Well, blowing a 21-12 lead in the 2nd half while losing to Rutgers (22-21 final score) without their starting quarterback probably isn’t the way Boston College and Phil Jurkovec wanted to open their season. Jurkovec was sacked 4 times, and hurried quite a bit. That Eagles offensive line does not look good, paving the way for 29 yards on 28 attempts.
USC (1-0): Caleb Williams finished 19 of 22 for 249 yards with 68 rushing yards in just 3 quarters of play before taking a seat as USC destroyed Rice 66-14 in the Coliseum. The Trojans defense chipped in with 3 pick sixes, too.
Week 2 Games to Watch
Louisville (+5.5) at UCF
Quite the bold scheduling strategy to open up on the road in the ACC and then turn around for another road game in the Bounce House. I imagine Louisville folks are pretty upset about this, especially after getting blown out by Syracuse.
Alabama (-20) at Texas
The Tide always seem so damn good in games like these. It’s a marquee opponent without any weird SEC voodoo (at least not yet Texas still has to wait a while to join the league) that occasionally besets them later in the season. Sure, you can think “what if that home crowd gets Texas going” but suddenly it’s 24-3 Alabama mid-way through the 2nd quarter and half of Austin is working on their post-game plans.
South Carolina (+8.5) at Arkansas
South Carolina took a while to get going last week against Georgia State and didn’t cover themselves in glory with a win. RIP to the Spencer Rattler Heisman hype? Still, watch out for Arkansas looking tired following a tough win in their opener.
Appalachian State (+17) at Texas A&M
Speaking of looking tired, Appalachian State has to be exhausted after their near-upset of North Carolina and now has to fly halfway across the country to the House of the 12th Man. A&M always seems to be so hit-or-miss with their offense but I’d be tempted to take a cover for the Aggies here.
Tennessee (-6.5) at Pittsburgh
This is a sneaky huge game for both of these teams. A win here and I think people will start looking at either side a lot differently. I like the Vols and their explosiveness. I wouldn’t bet on a cover, though. Potential amazing uniform matchup here, too.
Iowa State (+3.5) at Iowa
I am absolutely convinced to my core that Iowa played possum in week 1 just so they can come out and beat Iowa State yet again. The Hawkeyes might even go crazy and do something like produce over 250 yards of offense this weekend.
Kentucky (+4.5) at Florida
Usually this isn’t a game Florida has to be worried about. The Gators only lost once in this series during my entire life up until 2018. Since then, the Wildcats have taken 2 out of the last 4 games, including last year. This will be a tough game to the end.
USC (-9) at Stanford
You know I have bought stock in resurgent USC. If they don’t win by at least 20 I’ll be disappointed.
Baylor (-3.5) at BYU
BYU just played former Baylor quarterback Gerry Bohanon in their opener. This looks like a terrific matchup of very good offense (BYU) versus very good defense (Baylor) but I’m not sure what we’ll see when Baylor has the ball. This will be a 10:15 ET kickoff in Provo, let’s get wild.
I only watched the first half of Clemson but was not impressed by them on offense at all. Especially since GT is very, very bad. Growing increasingly convinced they will switch to Klubnik by the time of the Notre Dame game.
While talking about our ACC friends, the FSU win was hilarious but the rest of the conference had a pretty rough go. Virginia Tech lost to in-state Old Dominion (prob not going to help recruit Hampton Roads like they intended.)…As mentioned above, UNC continues to be totally fraudulent and could have lost…NC State deserved to lose and would have if the kicker made one of two late kicks…BC lost to Rutgers.
Yeah, but how bout that Gene Chizik North Carolina defense?
I’m amazed at how many stupid coaching decisions we’ve seen already. I have no idea what Norvell was thinking dicking around at the LSU goal line instead of just doing three victory formations and kicking a FG to go up two scores with under a minute left. Instead he calls a pitch out that gets fumbled, and LSU goes 99 yards with 1 second left when they snap the TD play.
Then Kelly doesn’t even consider going for two when the FSU defense was totally gassed, especially since the left side of his line didn’t realize they are supposed to block on FGs and XPs.
Klubnik looked really good in that small sample size. DJU looked slow, even after losing 30 lbs, and very ordinary. I expect a qb change for Clemmy too. Dabo has done that a couple times before.
Brian Polian, now king of LSU’s special teams (2 blocked kicks, 2 muffed punts)
Couldn’t have happened to a better guy (BK that is, I have no problem with Polian, other than him not being a great ST coach).
I mostly liked Kelly and was pretty defensive of him, but man this is funny. LSU just did a speedrun of every legitimate criticism of him in 12 years at ND.
Only 9 years and 12 more games left on that contract!
*Maybe 11 games, should I assume bowl eligibility?
You should not assume bowl eligibility. The back half of LSU’s schedule this year is going to be rough, even if they improve. No 2010-esque November turnaround coming to save Kelly this time, I think.
I wonder if he cares? He’s looked like a guy with a $90 mil guarantee since he got there. Pretty casual in the post game presser.
Yeah, during the game even, he seemed to be just looking around the Super Dome, not necessarily interested in the on-field activities.
I only watched the 2nd half of the game, but it really seemed like no one spoke to him (and he spoke to no one) most of the game. He felt very detached almost the entire time. Not sure if this was also the case when he was at ND or I was just watching him a bit more carefully.
The Athletic Dept at BYU has been busy. As an Independent, they loaded up on future football games. Now with BYU joining the Big 12 next year, which plays only three non-conference games, they are canceling future games en masse. Even multi-games with Utah State got the ax, though Utah is still on the schedule. Few come with penalties for cancelations. As an independent, they don’t have the conference buyouts that the three AAC teams joining the Big 12 have. BYU has four more future games remaining to cancel or move to a different year. In realigning the B12, Baylor may be in the same division.