College Football Recap: Week Two

At this point, the college football season is still in the midst of that awkward opening stage filled with intermingling between FBS powers and FCS minnows. For example, fresh off of nabbing a huge home win against Georgia, Clemson blew off some steam by beating up on a local HBCU [South Carolina State if anyone cares] in week two. Admittedly, the upstart programs from the FCS have done their best to make many of these games interesting, and have even pulled off a decent amount of wins in the past two weeks. Still, the usual outcome is a FBS team playing horribly and still walking away with a win [KUDOS to Nicholls State and Chattanooga, the two FCS teams that actually pulled off wins against FBS competition this weekend]. Week two didn't deliver a riveting schedule from top to bottom, but there was enough meat on the bone for us to come to a few realizations by the end of Saturday night. Here's all you need to know about week two. Feel free to forget anything about week two not mentioned below.   

• Ladies and gentleman...we have a Heisman race. Teddy Bridgewater is still the unquestioned frontrunner, but the reigning Heisman winner Johnny Manziel took a week off from being a super-villain in order to allow college football fans an opportunity to notice that he is playing better than ever. Bridgewater will edge out Johnny Football statistically at year's end. That's primarily because Louisville has a schedule that would be pretty manageable for some high school football programs. However, Manziel will have the marquee matchups that Heisman campaigns are often built on. Even if Teddy throws for 700 yards against Western Idaho Clown College next week [aka Kentucky], none of it matters if Johnny Manziel can take down mighty Alabama next week. This year's Heisman race is going to be a heavyweight fight between the best two signal callers in college football. Will it be Teddy's stats or Johnny's big wins? The season-long saga begins next week in College Station.

At least this guy [Shilique Calhoun] can score for MSU

• Michigan State is comically bad on offense. The good news is that they may have one of the best defenses in the country. Sparty improved to 2-0 after knocking off USF in a hideous display of something that was meant to resemble football. Five different Spartans took snaps at QB [three quarterbacks, and two running backs in a sad variation of the Wildcat], and none of them were effective. When any of the QBs did manage to get a decent pass off, it usually  ended up bouncing off the hands of an equally inept wide receiver. The best hands belonging to a Michigan State Spartan on Saturday were those of defensive end Shilique Calhoun. Calhoun scored MSU's first two touchdowns, scooping a fumble for a score and also returning an interception for six more much needed points. State's QB carousel started with Connor Cook, halftime saw Andrew Maxwell make a return, and even true freshman Tyler O'Connor took some snaps. None of them were able to provide any sort of spark for the Spartan offense. The one bullet still in the QB chamber for State is another true freshman, dual-threat Damion Terry. Terry would have likely saw time against USF, but he was recovering from strep throat. The most awkward part about State's QB struggles is the fact that all their quarterbacks seem to be good players, but none of them can force their talents to translate on the scoreboard. Next week, coach Mark Dantonio will try to hash out his QB situation against Youngstown State,  but Notre Dame is waiting in week four. 

•  The "U" is a major issue. Al Golden has worked wonders in Coral Gables, taking his program from the shame of probation to the precipice of the national title conversation. The Canes took down a hapless Florida team that was nearly as anemic as Michigan State was on offense this past weekend. Now Miami has the college football world thinking, "Why not the Hurricanes?" Wins at Florida State and in Jacksonville for the ACC Championship [likely against Clemson] will be necessary, but it surely isn't impossible to imagine Miami running the table and finding its way to Pasadena. Miami has the speed and the play makers to have a special season. We found that out on Saturday as they locked down the Gators.

The Dawgs hunkered down against South Carolina

•  Georgia is still a national title contender. The Bulldogs started the season entrenched firmly in the national title conversation, but a combination of ambitious non-conference scheduling [opening at Clemson] and unfavorable conference scheduling [South Carolina and LSU in weeks two and four respectively] made a 1-3 start a very real possibility for one of the best teams in the country. A tailspin was on the horizon after dropping the opener to Clemson last week, but the Dawgs righted the ship by outlasting South Carolina on Saturday. Though a date with LSU is two weeks away, teams such as Alabama and Texas A&M aren't on the schedule this year, meaning that a SEC title and a possible back door route to the BCS title game are still possibilities for the Bulldogs. Georgia has the look of a team that could find themselves playing Alabama in the SEC Championship for the second year in a row -- once again with a trip to the BCS title game on the line.

Devin Gardner has Michigan rolling

•  Notre Dame isn't that good, but Michigan is. For the second week in a row, the Michigan Wolverines looked great during their dismantling of the Irish. The game wasn't as close as the score indicated. Michigan was dominant for long stretches of the game, as Devin Gardner orchestrated Al Borges' pro style offense to perfection [except for his epically awful interception that was caught in the end zone]. Notre Dame, on the other hand, was exposed as a team that lacks creativity on offense and discipline on defense. Michigan has a favorable schedule until November, so it will be awhile before we know how good Michigan really is. What they have shown us so far is that they will at least be a formidable opponent for Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship game. 

• The mighty have fallen. USC and Texas were slammed back to earth with shocking losses that caused them to exit the AP Top 25. Now both schools have coaches on the hot seat, and questions on both ends of the ball. USC may have a built in excuse for the lame effort they turned in against Washington State. NCAA sanctions have robbed them of the depth that made them a juggernaut in the 2000s, now the school has just enough talent to have high expectations, but nowhere near enough to meet them. Texas has suffered a steady decline since a freak injury robbed them of a shot to beat Alabama in the 2010 national championship. Inconsistent quarterback play may be the primary culprit of Texas' demise, but as BYU showed us late Saturday night, the defense isn't quite what it used to be either. The Cougars rushed for a mind blowing 550 yards against the Longhorns, leaving many in the state to question whether coach Mack Brown has lost control of his program. It will be interesting to see how these two traditional powers will regroup during a season where expectations have been tempered early on.