College Football News and Notes: Week 2 Snoozers and Stunners

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Week 2 of the college football season gave us the usual suspects getting the usual blowouts and some teams that produced some surprises. Only two weeks in and we already have some teams looking to get out of an early hole. This is also the year college football goes to a 12-team format for the playoffs. So let’s take a look at this past weekend’s action.

#1 Georgia hosted Tennesse Tech and the result was an expected 48-3 blowout. The Dawgz were led by QB Carson Beck’s five touchdowns. The same can be said when Western Michigan took the trip to #2 Ohio State and came out on the short end of a 56-0 stomping. Crazy stats for the game included first downs at 30-6, and total yards 683-99 in favor of the Buckeyes. #6 Ole Miss handled Middle Tennessee 52–3 and #12 Miami had their way with Florida A&M 56-9 for the list of some snoozers.

What makes college football so much fun are the games that mean so much, even the early games. With the new setup for the playoffs, there will be more meaningful football earlier than normal. Florida St is the perfect example of how starting 0-2 does not necessarily mean their season is over. Losses to Ga Tech and then Boston College do not mean the playoff hopes are gone for the Seminoles, but they have made the climb up that mountain harder. The good news is they have the rest of the year to make up ground but they cannot make any mistakes.

#3 Texas rolled into Ann Arbor to face the defending and #10-ranked Michigan Wolverines. The highly-anticipated matchup never lived up to any billing as Texas ran away with this one, 31-12. Michigan lost many players due to graduation and rolled out a new team that could not keep up with the Texas offense. Longhorns’ QB Quinn Ewers was 24-36 for 246 and three touchdowns and the Michigan offense was just 3-12 on third down conversions.

In one of the stunners of the day, Northern Illinois went to South Bend and took down the #5 Fighting Irish. It was a tight game that saw NIU make the statement that they were there to win. The Irish were coming off an impressive win over Texas A&M and were trying to close out the Huskies and go 2-0 on the young season. When QB Riley Leonard’s deep pass was picked off by Amariyun Knighten with 5:55 to go, the stage was set for a dramatic finish. NIU took over at midfield. They would rink and dink themselves to the ND 19 where Kanon Woodall would hit the go-ahead field goal to make it 16-14 Huskies. The Irish had the ball with 24 seconds left at their own 37. They would get the ball in field goal position but the attempt was blocked by Cade Haberman. NIU wins 16-14 in a huge upset.

The other stunner for the state of Illinois saw the Fighting Illini hosting the #19 Kansas Jayhawks. Down 17-10 to start the fourth, Illinois would get a Kaden Feagin 1-yard touchdown run and add a late field goal to complete the upset, 23-17 over the Jayhawks. With the loss, Kansas will more than likely drop out of the top 25 poll. It was the first win over a ranked non-conference team for Illinois since they beat #22 Arizona St back in 2011.

In other action:

#14 Tennessee boat raced #24 NC State 51-10 to make a top 10 case for themselves in the new poll. Freshman QB Nico Iamaleava finished 16-23 for 211 yards, two touchdowns and two picks. RB Dylan Sampson was a beast running for 132 yards on 20 carries and two scores.

#7 Oregon avoided the upset bug by just getting by a game Boise St. team, 37-34. The two teams would trade punches in the fourth quarter to the tune of 24 total points. Ashton Jeanty ran for 192 yards on 25 carries with three scores. He almost single-handedly beat the Ducks on his own but a 34-yard field goal as time expired gave Oregon the win.