College football Week 2 roundup with the 5 things that matter, winners and losers, overrated and underrated aspects to the weekend, and what it all means
College Football Week 2 Roundup
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College Football Week 2 Roundup
CFN 1-131 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Week 2 Scoreboard | Week 3 Early Lines
What 12-Team Playoff Would Look Like
Hot Seat Coach Rankings
AP Rankings | Coaches Poll
Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak
– Sun Belt, Fun Belt One Really Big Thing
– Bama’s close call: Most Overrated Thing
– Michigan’s roll: Most Underrated Thing
– This is going to be weird: What It All Means, Week 2
Winners & Losers From Week 2
Winner: College Football Playoff expansion
Originally the powers-that-be were pumping the brakes on when the 12-team expansion was going to happen. Contracts, bowl deals, various plans all require years to put together, and they aren’t as easily broken as many fans think, and … of course there’s a way to do it. It’s now being hinted that the expanded playoff might come as soon as the 2024 season. But for now …
Loser: Bowl ties and affiliations
Here’s the good and the bad of this last weekend. To look ahead a few months from now, the rise of the Sun Belt means some of the earlier bowls will be more interesting. The problem is that the Sun Belt bowl ties are awful.
No offense – every bowl is beautiful – but unless ESPN can rig it so a slew of Power Five teams can take over spots reserved for Group of Five programs, the best bowl tie-in for the Sun Belt is the … R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl? The Frisco? The LendingTree, or the Boca Raton?
Winner: Georgia Southern QB Kyle Vantrease
To keep with the Sun Belt theme this week, 1) remember, Georgia Southern was an option-running, little-throwing program not all that long ago, 2) Kyle Vantrease spent five years at Buffalo and hit the 300-yard mark just twice in 35 career games with 25 total touchdown passes, and 3) last year Clay Helton was fired by USC after a tough Week 2 loss, and this year his team’s win over Scott Frost sparked a regime change at Nebraska. But I digress on that last part.
In two games at Georgia Southern, Vantrease is 2-0 throwing for 367 yards and four scores against Morgan State, and 409 yards and a touchdown against Nebraska. He’s currently No. 2 in the nation in passing yards per game, just three yards an outing behind Tulsa’s Davis Brin.
Vantrease has thrown for 767 yards in the two games. 2019 Georgia Southern threw for 968 yards and nine touchdowns in 13 games.
Loser: Florida passing game
The Gators are hardly a loser with an offense that features a top 10 overall draft pick talent in Anthony Richardson, but the O has yet to throw a touchdown pass in two games. As great as 15 is, his two picks – especially a tough pick six – were costly against Kentucky. The team has just 311 passing yards in two games.
Winner: Washington State QB Cameron Ward
The transfer from Incarnate Word was supposed to raise the level of the Washington State passing game and the offense as a whole. The numbers might not be astronomical – 428 yards and four scores with two picks in two wins – but he was strong in the opener against Idaho, and he came up with a slew of clutch, strong throws with 200 yards and a score to get out with a win, which leads to …
Loser: Wisconsin vs Power 5 teams in September
Wisconsin had three home games and one neutral site date in Chicago against Power Five programs over the last two Septembers. It went 0-4. The last win over a Power Five program was against Northwestern in late 2019 – the 2020 season started in October.
It lost to Penn State and Michigan in Camp Randall in 2021, and got rocked by Notre Dame in Soldier Field. This last Saturday it lost to Washington State, and now it’s not looking good to avoid 0-5.
The next – and last – September game against a Power Five team this season is at Ohio State.
– Sun Belt, Fun Belt One Really Big Thing
– Bama’s close call: Most Overrated Thing
– Michigan’s roll: Most Underrated Thing
– This is going to be weird: What It All Means, Week 2