College Football Week 2 Best of the Rest

Here is the best of the rest for week 2 in college football.  On Thursday I gave you what I believed would be the 4 best games of the day.   But many times that is not often the case.  Here are a few more games in college football week 2 to keep an eye on.  These games could have an impact on the college football playoff down the road.

The Cardinals season and Atlantic Coast Conference opener against Syracuse went about as poorly as it possibly could during an ugly 31-7 loss.  Now they have to try and regroup on the road in Orlando at The Bounce House.  The Knights routed South Carolina State 56-10 in their opener last Thursday, and one of the catalysts was quarterback John Rhys Plumlee, who rolled up 407 yards of offense.  Last season, Louisville beat visiting UCF 42-35 with Cunningham putting up 364 yards -- 265 yards and a touchdown through the air and 99 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.

Can South Carolina rejuvenate itself in year 2 under Shane Beamer much like Arkansas did in year 2 under Sam Pittman?  A win on Saturday in Fayetteville would go a long way, and so would the Spencer Rattler from 2 seasons ago.  Rattler threw for 200 yards and a TD in South Carolina's win over Georgia State, he was picked off twice.  In week 1, Arkansas handed Cincinnati it's first regular season loss since 2019.

Aggies QB Haynes King threw for over 350 yards but was picked off twice in the season-opening shutout win over Sam Houston.  The Mountaineers have lost their last 2 games against Power 5 opponents by 2 points each.  (At UNC in Week 1 and at Miami last year).  Their last 6 games against Power 5 opponents have been decided by a combined 20 points.  App State is 2-4 in those games.

The Mario Cristobal era opened with a bang in Week 1, as the Canes took care of Bethune-Cookman, 70-13.  QB Tyler Van Dyke was flawless in the win, and RB Henry Parrish Jr. added over 100 yards and 3 TD on the ground.  Southern Miss features RB Frank Gore Jr., the son of the former Hurricanes RB by the same name. Gore Jr. rushed for 178 yards and 2 TD in the Golden Eagles’ 4 OT season-opening loss to Liberty

Here is everything you need to know about week 2 in college football.  Week one certainly lived up to expectations as many games came down to the wire.  I expect more of the same for week 2.

The big question as it has been for many years now, is Texas Back?  The Longhorns will play Alabama for the first time since meeting in the 2010 National Championship game. This will be their first regular season matchup since 1922, a century later. Texas is 7-1-1 (.833) all-time against Alabama, the best winning percentage among teams that have played the Tide at least five times.  Alabama is favored by 20.

This is going to be one of the best games of the day in my opinion.  The Cougars as of this post are actually a 3 point favorite in Provo.  These future Big 12 rivals get together for the 2nd time in as many seasons after Baylor won 38-24 a year ago in Waco. The Bears’ QB that day was Gerry Bohanon, whom the Cougars defeated Saturday night at South Florida.  BYU takes another swing at Baylor with Blake Shapen running the Bears’ offense. The sophomore completed 85% of his passes and threw for a pair of scores in Baylor’s season-opening 69-10 win over Albany.

The bad news for Kentucky?  The Wildcats have lost 37 of 40 meetings against the Gators over the last 40 seasons.  The good news for Kentucky?  Head coach Mark Stoops is responsible for the only 2 wins over Florida in the last 35 seasons!  One of those was UK's first home win over Florida since 1986.  The other was the Cats first win in Gainesville (2018) since 1979. Florida QB Anthony Richardson came alive in Gainesville to lead the Gators to an upset over 7th-ranked Utah, their 2nd season-opening win over an AP Top 10 team.  Richardson rushed for 3 TD with 58 yards on scrambles, the most by anyone against Utah since Marcus Mariota in 2014. You can catch this game Saturday night right here on ESPN Southwest Florida.

These 2 schools have at least 2 things in common – a former head coach (Johnny Majors) and transfer QBs.  The jury
is still out for Kedon Slovis at Pitt, but 300 pass yards, 0 interceptions and a win over rival West Virginia mark a great start.  Hendon Hooker hasn’t been spectacular at Tennessee, but the Virginia Tech transfer has been just what the Vols needed. Hooker posted threw 31 Pass TD against just 3 Int a year ago.  Over the last 20 seasons, only Tua Tagovailoa's 2019 season (33TD/3Int) yielded a better TD/Int ratio among SEC QB's(min. 25 TD).  One area of worry for the Vols?  Their pass rush.  Tennessee failed to register a sack against Ball State.  The last time an SEC team failed to sac a MAC team?  That was Tennessee against Ohio in 2016.

College football week 2