The Aggies put together one of their worst offensive performances of the SEC era in a 17-14 loss to Sun Belt foe Appalachian State on Saturday. Texas A&M ran just two offensive plays in App State territory until the final drive of the game. Suddenly, the Aggies go from a dark horse playoff contender to an afterthought with nine lost games to go. That’s how quickly fortunes can change in college football. And in a jam-packed Week 2, the Aggies aren’t alone. No. 8 Notre Dame also lost a Sun Belt game to Marshall on a shocking pick-six by quarterback Tyler Buchner. No. 25 Houston fell in double overtime against rival Texas Tech thanks to a monster game from Red Raiders quarterback Donovan Smith. No. 24 Tennessee and No. 20 Kentucky also had upsets with No. 17 Pittsburgh and No. 12 Florida, respectively. Then reigning Mountain West champion Utah dropped an embarrassing 35-7 decision to FCS Weber State. UIW also topped Nevada 55-41 and Holy Cross shocked Buffalo 37-31 in a last-second Hail Mary for three FCS upsets in a week. Here are more winners, losers and overreactions from the chaotic Week 2 of the college football season.
Winners
Kansas: Don’t look now, but the Jayhawks are on a winning streak after beating West Virginia 55-42 at home. Kansas is 2-0 for the first time since 2011, and won a Big 12 opener for the first time since 2009. The 55-point performance is the most since … well, Kansas’ last Big 12 win over Texas. Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels was incredible with 215 yards passing and 82 yards rushing in the win. This is a serious Power Five team at last, and coach Lance Leipold is a star. USC offense: Putting up 66 points against Rice was a nice starter, but all the fireworks came out for the Pac-12 opener against Stanford. The Trojans scored 35 first-half points with shocking ease, scoring on their first five drives of the first half before rallying to a 41-28 victory behind 14 unanswered Stanford scores. If you thought Jordan Addison was good before, playing in one of the most stacked receiving rooms in college football certainly helps. He had 172 receiving yards and two touchdowns by himself. The offense is already of national caliber. Next week against Fresno State is a marquee matchup and an even better test for the defense.
Defeated
Notre Dame: Struggling to move the ball against Ohio State at The Horseshoe is one thing. Facing huge offensive issues at home against Marshall? This is something completely different. The Fighting Irish threw three interceptions and averaged just 3.5 yards per carry against the Sun Belt squad. Marcus Freeman became the first Notre Dame coach since Lou Holtz to start 0-2 and the first Fighting Irish coach ever to start a career 0-3. Nebraska: We’ve had enough. Put this program out of its misery. On the same day that Adrian Martinez dropped 40 points for Kansas State against Missouri, Nebraska lost 45-42 to Georgia Southern, a No. 5 seed in its own Sun Belt division. Snapped a 214-game home hitting streak when scoring more than 35 points. Nebraska changed quarterbacks, assistants, coordinators and players. It doesn’t work for Scott Frost. At some point, the guy in the bigger office needs to be held responsible for these annoying shows.
2nd week overreactions
Alabama’s receivers aren’t title-caliber: When Jameson Williams and John Metchie III were injured last season, the Alabama offense suddenly fell to Earth. Nick Saban had an entire offseason to build the unit, adding a pair of highly touted signings in Jermaine Burton and Tyler Harrell while developing more freshmen. Early returns are worrisome, to say the least. Heading into the fourth quarter, Alabama receivers had just three total catches for 14 yards in a 20-19 win over Texas. No receiver finished with more than 40 yards receiving despite accurate passes from Heisman Trophy-winning QB Bryce Young. Oh, and by the way, a strong performance against Utah State became much less impressive after the Aggies lost to Weber State. Fortunately, Traeshon Holden and Ja’Corey Brooks had a couple of catches in the fourth quarter to set up the game-tying touchdown, and Jahmyr Gibbs was huge in the passing game. But with so much blue-chip talent at receiver, these kinds of performances from the passers are embarrassing — and little for the title. Sun Belt is the best Group of Five conference: It wasn’t a perfect weekend, but the Sun Belt made a good case for the best Group of Five championship in college football. The Sun Belt became the first Group of Five conference to beat multiple top-10 opponents since 2003, as Appalachian State and Marshall knocked off Texas A&M and Notre Dame, respectively. It wasn’t just that. As previously mentioned, Georgia Southern shocked Nebraska. South Alabama blew past Central Michigan in an important non-conference matchup, while Georgia State pushed North Carolina to the edge. Oddly enough, the only bad spot was Coastal Carolina needing a late score to beat Gardner-Webb, but the Chanticleers can handle a bad game. It doesn’t hurt that all three of the presumed AAC contenders — Houston, Cincinnati and UCF — are coming off losses now. The sun zone can steal the position of the New Year’s six.
