College Football Random Thoughts From Around the Country: Week 2

After an excellent opening week for the SEC, Week 2 was a weekend to forget. Two teams suffered high-profile losses. Even the wins were less than spectacular.

ESPN GameDay Predictions:

	Kirk Herbstreit	Desmond Howard	Lee Corso
Champ	Ohio State	Stanford*	LSU
Runner-up	LSU	TCU	Oregon**
Semi	Arizona State*	Texas A&M	Baylor
Semi	Oklahoma	Michigan State	Ohio State

*Lost Week 1; **Lost Week 2

Auburn 27 Jacksonville State 20 - OT

As bad as Tigers QB Jeremy Johnson looked against Louisville, his performance against the FCS Gamecocks failed to quell the charging doubters. At least his two interceptions were less than the three he tossed against the 'Ville. Excuse-makers are saying that as a pocket passer Johnson does not fit into Gustav Malzahn's scheme. Soooo.... whose fault is that? DC Will Muschamp has yet to turn the defense into the 1985 Chicago Bears. His squad gave up 438 yards on Saturday. To make things worse for Aubie, Louisville suffered a home loss to Houston 34-31.

By all accounts, Jax State should have won this game but their head coach John Grass unwisely took a knee with 39 ticks and the ball at their own 35 after Daniel Carlson kicked off out-of-bounds. Even if they don't convert, you make Auburn sweat and keep them on their heels. Resigning to overtime swung momentum back to Auburn.

D'OH! (Photo by Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports)

HOLY Toledo 16 Arkansas 12

Wow. This past week, Bret Bielema was complaining about Ohio State's schedule when clearly he was not concerned about his own schedule. Former Alabama quarterback Phillip Ely threw for 237 yards and the Toledo defense held Arky to 103 total rushing yards. Alex Collins gained only 54 yards on 20 rushes. This team clearly misses injured RB Jonathan Williams. The Razorbacks shelled out $1 million for the honor of this smackdown.

LSU 21 Mississippi State 19

The Tigers took a 21-6 lead into the fourth quarter. Dak Prescott (34/52, 335 yds, 1 TD, 1 INT) brought the Bullies back to a two-point game but the lack of a running game (43 yards) hurt them. Leonard Fournette was the only highlight with a career high 28 carries, a career high 159 yards, and all three scores for LSU.

Oklahoma 31 Tennessee 24 – 2 OT

After 18 minutes and 46 seconds of play, the Vols took a 17-0 lead over the shocked Sooners and then decided... that was good enough. Oklahoma came backed to tie the game with 40 seconds remaining and win it in the second overtime when Joshua Dobbs threw an interception to end the game. It is still difficult to say how good either of these teams are but both have the recipe for "spoiler" in their conference.

SPEAKING OF SPOILERS

BYU 35 Boise State 24 - The Cougars ruined any chance the Smurfs had at crashing the party. Thank you, BYU.
Kentucky 26 South Carolina 22 - How long will SC tolerate the Steve Spurrier farewell tour?
Michigan State 31 Oregon 28 - The Ducks are not eliminated yet. However, there is no room for error with Utah, Arizona State, Stanford, and Southern Cal still on the schedule.

SEC MEH

Georgia 31 Vanderbilt 14 - UGA QB Greyson Lambert was dreadful. His replacement Brice Ramsey was not much better. Following the script, Mark Richt ran Nick Chubb (19-189) and Sony Michel 12-56). A pick-six and a punt return for a TD saved the Dawgs from embarrassment.
Florida 31 East Carolina 24 - The Gators had 12 penalties (two unsportsmanlike conduct) for 105 yards, a fumble and an INT but managed to sneak by the Pirates for an ugly win.
Missouri 27 Arkansas State 20 - The Good Maty Mauk/Bad Maty Mauk show continues as he went 16 for 36 for 148 yards, 3 TD, and 2 INTs. Ailing RB Russell Hansbrough could only muster 5 carries for 15 yards.
Texas A&M 56 Ball State 23 - Kyle Allen (10-13, 126 yds, 3 TD, 0 INT) is clearly the best signal caller for this team. Yet he was again forced to share time with freshman Kyler Murray (9-14, 65 yds, 1 TD, 0 INT). Freshman Kwame Etwi picked up 116 yards on 12 carries.
Ole Miss 73 Fresno State 21 - Back-to-back 70+ points games for the Rebs but 14 given up in the 2nd quarter and and a TD in the 3rd quarter.
Alabama 37 Middle Tennessee 10 - The Crimson Tide was never in danger but Nick Saban was not pleased with many facets of the game.

GRAB BAG

Michigan 35 Oregon State 7 - Harbaugh gets his first Michigan win over a weak PAC team.
Notre Dame 34 Virginia 27 - UVa fought back to take a late one point lead but to no avail.
Utah 24 Utah State 14 - The Utes quietly roll along.

Nomnomnom (Photo by CB969 - RBR Sports)

Florida State 34 South Florida 14 - Jimbo Fisher must still be mad at Dalvin Cook because he is trying to kill the guy. 30 carries for 266 yards.
Ohio State 38 Hawaii 0 - The defending champs looked pretty pedestrian.
TCU 70 Stephen F. Austin 7 - The Frogs' lame opponents tour continues.
Baylor 66 Lamar 31 - see above.
Clemson 41 Appalachian State 10 - First Wofford and now this?
Georgia Tech 65 Tulane 10 - Two 60+ points wins over doormats.

ZZZZzzzzzzz (Photo by Mike Zarrilli/Getty Images)

SOMEBODY HAD TO WIN:

Georgia State 34 New Mexico State 32 - Two of the worst teams in FBS. So, awful, I cannot even finish thi

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BAMA STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE

Arky (1-1) has ruined it for everyone else.
Wisconsin (1-1) stomped Miami (OH) 58-0.
La-Monroe (1-1) beat Nicholls State 47-0.
Charleston Southern (1-1) lost to Troy 44-16.

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ELIMINATED:

All non-Power 5 teams (BYU and Notre Dame are still alive)

LOUISVILLE
BOISE
WAKE FOREST
IOWA STATE
MARYLAND
RUTGERS
OREGON STATE
ARKANSAS (sorry, there's no coming back from that debacle)
Texas
Penn State
Colorado
Wazzu
Washington
Purdue
Nebraska
Minnesota
Kansas
Unc
Vandy

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Krazy Kristi's "SHUT UP!" of the Week goes to the granola capital of the world Oregon who saw both of their FBS schools lose to teams from the oven mitt state. Also, the professional trolls like Danny Kanell who already had Jeremy Johnson in New York receiving the 2015 Heisman.

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• No black jerseys to report for the Crimson Tide! Reuben Foster was shaken against MTSU but looked good during Monday's practice. Reggie Ragland said earlier in the day he got a stinger in his shoulder, but that he felt good.
  
• Arkansas leading wide receiver Keon Hatcher will miss at least six weeks after undergoing surgery for a foot injury. That's gonna hurt the team as much as it hurts Keon.
• Another big owie belongs to the Vols as senior All-SEC linebacker Curt Maggitt could be out for "an extended period of time" after injuring his hip Saturday.
• Notre Dame is 2-0 but their season is basically over with quarterback Malik Zaire out for season with a broken right ankle. I'd bet Brian Kelly wishes he had tried a little harder to convince Everett Golson to stick around South Bend for one more season.
• Gators star defensive back Vernon Hargreaves is questionable for this weekend’s game against SEC East foe Kentucky.
  

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ADOPT-A-TEAM
South Alabama got spanked 48-9 by a ticked off Nebraska team. I think that is all we need to say about that.

A couple of teams to keep your eyes on:

• After upsetting Penn State last week, Temple (2-0) handed Tommy Tuberville's Cincinnati a 34-26 home loss. Any team that does that is okay in my book. Running back Jahad Thomas has run for 135 and 193 in the two games.
• Head Coach Justin Fuente has built a nice little program at Memphis. The Tigers move to 2-0 after smacking Kansas in the jaw 55-23 in a game in Lawrence, KS. They host Ole Miss on October 17.
  

STAT OF THE DAY

Against Boston College, FCS/HBCU Howard managed a grand total of two first downs and 11 total yards of offense: 4 passing, 7 rushing. (Enter your Urban Meyer joke here.) The Eagles won 76-0. By the way, BC's quarterback is freshman Troy Flutie, nephew of the 1984 Heisman winner Doug Flutie.

HEISMAN HYPE
With the exception of one year, the Heisman Trophy voting is basically a hype award. That being the case, we'll bring you "Who Will Win" and "Who Should Win".

• Who Will Win - Running back Dalvin Cook is making headlines after FSU beat up on another cupcake. But his off-field issues might bug some voters. Trevone Boykin's TCU helped pad his stats (18-27, 285 yds, 4 TD, 1 INT) against marshmallowy soft Stephen F Austin (that is a school, not a single person). Nobody from Ohio State was exceptional in an underwhelming 38-0 win over Hawaii.
  
• Who Should Win - UGA's Nick Chubb grounded out 189 but could not find the end zone against Vandy. Derrick Henry kept his numbers (18-96, 3 TD) close enough to stay in the running. UCLA QB Josh Rosen had a pretty drab day against UNLV (22-42, 223 yds, 1 TD 1 INT). He drops out.
  

ABC's Saturday Night Football (Oregon-Michigan State) scored 6.93 million viewers. Alabama-Wisconsin grabbed 7.85 million sets of eyeballs in Week 1.

Saturday, September 19, 2015

SEC:

Nevada at Texas A&M 11am/12noon, SEC NETWORK- The Aggies are little scary.
UConn at Missouri 11am/12noon, ESPN - zzzzz
Auburn at LSU 2:30/3:30, CBS- LSU could basically eliminate Auburn with a big win.
Northwestern St at Mississippi State 3pm/4pm, SEC NETWORK- Mullen is a wuss.
Austin Peay at Vanderbilt 3pm/4pm, SEC NETWORK- The 'Dores might just get a win!
South Carolina at Georgia 5pm/6pm, ESPN - Is this the winnable game that UGA blows this year?
Texas Tech at Arkansas 6pm/7pm, ESPN2 - The Hogs can still salvage the season with a win here. A loss could start a tailspin.
W Carolina at Tennessee 6pm/7pm, ESPNU- Vols licking their wounds should win big.
Florida at Kentucky 6:30/7:30, SEC NETWORK- Can UK take that next step? Can UF?

NATIONAL GAMES OF INTEREST:

Thursday: Clemson at Louisville 6:30/7:30, ESPN - Clemson has played nobody to this point. The 'Ville is reeling.

Friday: Florida State at Boston College 7pm/8pm, ESPN - A distant road game for the 'Noles. BC Shoulda-coulda-woulda beat FSU last season.

Air Force at #4 Michigan State 11am/12pm, ABC- Sparty is looking to make a run.
Troy at #24 Wisconsin 2:30/3:30, BTN - Strength of schedule fodder for Bama.
#14 Georgia Tech at #8 Notre Dame 2:30/3:30, NBC - I know who I am rooting for. Buzzzzz.
Nebraska at Miami (FL) 2:30/3:30, ABC or ESPN2 - The Huskers won last year 41-31.
Colorado at Colorado State 6pm/7pm, CBSSN - The Rocky Mountain Showdown.
Cal at Texas 6:30/7:30, FOX - A Longhorns loss would be epic.
Stanford at #6 SoCal 7pm/8pm, ABC- Elimination game for the Trees.
SMU at #3 TCU 7pm/8pm, FSN- yuck.
Iowa State at Toledo 7pm/8pm, ESPNews- The Phillip Ely Show.
#19 BYU at #10 UCLA 9:30/10:30 FOXS1- During commercials, check this game out.

#ALABAMA

Ole Miss at ALABAMA 8:15pm/9:15pm, ESPN - Bama is favored by 6.5.

#RollTide!