Week 2 - In Review

Week 2 delivered. Conference play is yet to start and blue-bloods are already embarrassing themselves on a national stage. Week 2 was packed with action, and I watched it all. For those of you who prefer to leave their coaches on a Saturday afternoon in early September, I’ve recapped everything you need to know right here.

Bama @ Texas

Bama snuck out of Austin with a 1-point win, needing some last-minute heroics from their Heisman-winning quarterback, Bryce Young, and their kicker, Will Reichard, who sealed the game late with a short field goal. Texas QB Quinn Ewers was knocked out of the game early with a shoulder injury, and backup Hudson Card rolled his ankle early, playing most of the game on one leg. Despite these hurdles, Texas played a great game. Their defense looked great, completely shutting down Alabama’s offense in the second and third quarters. Alabama’s offensive line struggled in both pass and run pro, which was foreign to see. This is the first Alabama team since Julio Jones that they don’t have a clear first-round WR on the roster, and it showed against Texas. Jermaine Burton came over from Georgia via the transfer portal this season, but he hasn’t emerged as Bryce Young’s top target. In fact, the top receiver for Bama this week was RB Jamyr Gibbs, who was utterly neutralized in the run game. Alabama was penalized 15 times, with usually disciplined Will Anderson lining up offsides several times, and taking a bad personal foul. The real turning point for this game was a blown call on a third-down sack and safety of Bryce Young. As Young was being dragged down in the end zone, he threw the ball several yards away from him, landing well in front of the line of scrimmage. The call should have been intentional grounding resulting in a safety as it occurred in the end zone. Instead, the referee inexplicably calls roughing the passer with targeting, neither of which occured. After reviewing the targeting call and recognizing the egregiousness of their call, they make up a lie that they just meant to call targeting and not the non-reviewable roughing the passer. Despite this, they ruled that it was an incomplete pass, and Alabama punted it away. There were a couple other missed calls that should have gone Texas’ way, but didn’t, and Alabama was able to escape with a 1 point win. Texas has a lot of reason for optimism after this game, while Alabama has some things to iron out before conference play.

Notre Dame, Texas A&M

The Sun Belt was out for blood on Saturday, taking down 2 top-10 teams. App State went into to College Station and beat Texas A&M 17-14, while Marshall trounced Notre Dame in South Bend. A&M paid App State $1.5 million to come play that game. Being Notre Dame is private, what Marshall was paid for that game wasn’t disclosed, but I imagine it’s in that same neighborhood as the App State payday. Notre Dame and A&M both struggled mightly on offense. I find it easier to explain away Notre Dame’s loss rather than A&M’s. Notre Dame QB Tyler Buchner couldn’t make a throw to save his life, but made a few plays with his legs. It’s Marcus Freeman’s first home game with the Irish, and never should Notre Dame be losing at home to Marshall, but he just took the program over this year. It may take some time to instill the culture that he wants to instill. Or maybe this is the beginning of an underwhelming reign under Freeman; the point is that there is still a lot of room for hope, which isn’t necessarily true for A&M.

A&M looked disgusting on offense. Frankly, they looked pretty disgusting on defense too. I mean, the box score is shocking. The Aggies had the ball for only 18:30 of this game. The defense was on the field, surrendering first down after first down, for almost 75% of this game! App state had 22 first downs, A&M had 9. The second of A&M’s touchdowns came on a kickoff return by their only capable player, Dev0n Achane. This is unacceptable for a team that just spent $30 million on a recruiting class. Imagine paying all that money just to start Haynes King at QB when you have a proven SEC passer, Max Johnson, on the bench. Johnson played his freshman season at LSU last season, being one of the few semi-bright spots for the 2021 Tigers. A&M has a brutal next 4 games, playing Miami at home this week, Arkansas at home next week, then on the road at Mississippi State (whom I LOVE), and another road game at Alabama. There is a very real possibility A&M doesn’t win any of those games, though I give them a good chance against Arkansas at home. There should be a serious concern in College Station because if A&M has as disappointing a season as I believe they can, a lot of those expensive recruits are going to leave in the transfer portal this winter. Especially considering a coaching change would be an insanely expensive endeavor.

Nebraska

Goergia Southen went into Lincoln this weekend and beat Nebraska 45-42 as a 23-point underdog. Not to brag, but I had Georgia Southern ML +1050. Nebraska’s offense looked good, gaining 548 yards and 31 first downs. The only issue is Georgia Southern looked like the 2019 LSU Tigers, putting up 642 yards, getting 35 first downs, and going 9-13 on third down. Nebraska has some guys on defense, and it truly is mind-boggling how talent like that could perform this poorly. There’s a case to make that Scott Frost wasn’t just bad, but made everyone around him significantly worse. Nebraska AD Trev Alberts promptly fired Frost Sunday morning, which is especially interesting for 1 reason…or 7.5 million reasons, rather. Scott Frost’s buyout would have dropped from $15 million to $7.5 million on October 1st of this year. Alberts could have waited not even 3 weeks for the buyout to drop, but instead decided it was worth $7.5 million to get Frost out ASAP. Another factor that I’m sure played into Albert’s decision was the fact the Big Noon Kickoff is coming to Lincoln this Saturday for the Cornhuskers matchup with former conference rival, Oklahoma. I’m sure Nebraska didn’t want that broadcast to be focused solely on when Frost would be fired, and rather can focus more on the future with Mickey Joseph taking over as the interim head coach. An incredibly disappointing end to what started as an incredibly hopeful Scott Frost-era. I may write more about what exactly happened in those 5 years, but in the meantime, here are some hilariously bad Scott Frost stats presented by reddit-user u/HentaiHerbie:

Big Ten West

Nebraska wasn’t the only Big Ten West team to lose a close one to an inferior opponent. Wisconsin got out-Wisconsin’d by Washington State, and Iowa State was able to outlast Iowa. Both of these teams struggled on offense. Wisconsin is now on year 3 of the Mertz failure, who is operating with what appears to be an offensive line slightly below Wisconsin’s usual standard. Wisconsin can and probably will rebound, but I have no faith in Iowa to turn it around. That offense is horrendous. QB Spencer Petras went 12-26 for 92 yards and an interception, which is actually an improvement from week 1, believe it or not. Kirk Ferentz hired his son Brian Ferentz to be his offensive coordinator, and I’m not sure Brian has ever coached football before. If you told me Brian was just a trouble kid and his dad gave him this job so he’d stop spending all his time smoking weed in his basement, I’d believe you. Minnesota trounces their second straight cupcake to remain the only undefeated team in the division.

Some QBs Who Impressed

Freshman Drake Maye at UNC looks like the real deal. Through 3 games, he has 930 yards, 11 touchdowns and 1 interception. It’s a shame he plays on a team with tissue paper for defense. BYU QB Jaren Hall throws a gorgeous ball and made some clutch plays with his legs. He’ll be a fun one to watch the rest of the season, and the schedule is there for a Heisman-esque season. Caleb Williams continues to make it look easy, which it might honestly be with Mario Williams and Jordan Addison on the outside, and Travis Dye in the backfield. Oregon State QB Chance Nolan lead a gutsy comeback that included a walk-off rushing TD.

Other Notes and Observations

-Perennial laughingstocks Duke, Kansas, and Illinois all seem to have serviceable football teams. Lance Leipold at Kansas may be poached for another job sooner than later.

-Kansas State looks like they could be serious Big 12 contenders after beating up on Missouri 40-12.

-The Fun Belt is going to be exactly that this year. I already love Georgia State this upcoming week.

-Washington might end up being a lot better than people think.

-Tennessee looks like the real deal as they went into Pitt and won