Week 2 Gameday Kickoff: QB issues for Michigan, Buckeyes-Horns and more

In a world ... where chaos reigns. Where the law no longer applies (assuming there's a friendly local judge). And where no one is safe from an all-powerful portal. Suddenly, two groups of heroes emerge. Coming this weekend ... Smith. Manning. Bevo. Brutus. It's ... "Buckeyes-Horns II: The Search for Sark." This star-studded sequel is well worth the wait. A year ago, the original Texas-Ohio State matchup was a tad more low-budget. It featured Julian Sayin in his first career start on one side. On the other was Arch Manning, billed as the next great leading man but soon to be revealed as a star still mastering his craft. The result was an often stilted performance that felt a bit more "Weekend at Bernie's" -- Jeremiah Smith and Collin Simmons trying to prop up a couple of corpse-like offenses -- than "The Godfather." Ohio State managed just 203 yards of offense but escaped with a 14-7 win. The reviews were mixed. Sayin, the critics declared, was an up-and-comer to watch, a bit player who proved worthy of bigger roles to come. Manning, those same critics lambasted, had been all slick marketing and industry buzz, another Hollywood nepo baby who now seemed destined for little more than work off-Broadway (or maybe the lead on "CSI: Austin"). But that game lacked context. Back then, we didn't know that Sayin would indeed blossom, but that Ohio State would still fall prey to another, more dangerous enemy lurking within its own conference. Manning did struggle for a while. But by October, he had found his muse -- or, at least, Ryan Wingo -- and finally appeared destined for the star turn so many had predicted. In the end, the 2025 original wasn't a sneak peek at a national championship game, but it was, like all good origin stories, a scene setter, the story of how our heroes discovered their powers and waged their first battle -- fighting to something close to a draw. Now comes the sequel, and following the standard model, those same stars return, but they're joined by a new cast of powerful allies. Ohio State bolstered its defense with Earl Little Jr., Christian Alliegro and John Walker. Texas loaded up on offense with Cam Coleman, Hollywood Smothers and Raleek Brown. Somewhere, Samuel L. Jackson is calling his agent and asking how he didn't get cast. The setting, too, has shifted from the friendly confines of The Shoe to DKR, where a seething beast remains perched on the sideline, destined to intimidate and confound all visitors. But enough about Matthew McConaughey. Bevo will be there, too! And as with all sequels, the stakes have gotten higher, too. Ohio State is still licking its wounds after falling to Indiana in the conference title game, then to Miami in last year's playoff. Texas is still hungry, eager to prove its exclusion from the playoff last season was a dismal mistake, and now Steve Sarkisian & Co. aim to get their revenge, as college football is ready to deliver a true epic. Following a Week 1 true tearjerker as Michigan fans executed the saddest field storming in history, UMass went full "Goodfellas," leaving Rutgers in a hole somewhere in the New Jersey pine barrens, and "Disclosure Day" came for Clemson as Lane Kiffin revealed Clemson's roster was actually just 22 guys Dabo Swinney met in a Chick-fil-A drive thru, Week 2's headlining act can't just be another overwrought sequel. It needs to be a masterpiece. Ohio State-Texas may not be the hero we deserve, but it's the one we need right now. When the dust settles and the credits roll, the narrative of the 2026 season will have begun to take shape. Either Manning's redemption arc will capture the nation's hearts, or the critics will deliver another scathing review: Two horns down. Jump to: Top games | Under-the-radar Upset alert | Heisman five Power rankings | Two-minute drill The rest of the week's headliners It's possible the Big Ten issued its explanation of the extra second using the "Stranger Things" font as a means of foreshadowing the utter horror that's to come in this one for Michigan as it hosts Oklahoma. Since winning the national championship in 2023 (while throwing for just 140 yards in the win over Washington), Michigan's QB play has been atrocious. In 27 games, the Wolverines have thrown 24 touchdown passes ... and 24 interceptions. Their 5.8 yards-per-dropback over that span ranks 109th nationally -- behind Michigan State! And here's a stat truly from the upside-down: QB A: 55.7% completions, 4 TD, 5 INT, 600 passing yards QB B: 57.3% completions, 1 TD, 0 INT, 524 passing yards QB A is Bryce Underwood's past four games, if you don't count the extra second he got in Week 1. QB B? That's Davis Warren, the guy Michigan happily cast off as its starter after the 2024 season through just two games -- one of which came against Miami. Indeed, in his past seven games, Underwood has thrown just five touchdown passes with eight picks. And it might be easy to blame Underwood. Michigan fans certainly are. But here's the hard truth: From 2014 to '20, Michigan's QB play was bad. The Wolverines posted a 55.2 QBR, completed less than 60% of their throws and had a 1.8 TD-INT ratio. From 2024 through Week 1, they have a 52.1 QBR, are completing just a tick better than 60% of their throws and have a 1.0 TD-INT ratio. It's bad, but it's largely who Michigan has been. The outlier was the playoff era of 2021-23, when Michigan had a 73.1 QBR, completed 66% of its throws and had a 3.5 TD-INT ratio. Oh, and the Wolverines were 40-3 in that span vs. FBS opponents. Underwood certainly doesn't seem like the answer, and Oklahoma certainly doesn't seem like the defense he will get healthy on either way. But the problems at Michigan run deep at the QB position, and Kyle Whittingham has his work cut out for him trying to fix them. On the upside, Cam Rising is just one TRO away from getting a 14th year of eligibility. These two teams won in Week 1 by a combined score of 120-7. Granted, they played teams even worse than Clemson, if that's possible. Cutter Boley threw for six touchdown passes in Arizona State's opener against Morgan State, setting up yet another bit of evidence that Kenny Dillingham is the nation's best QB whisperer. (Though this shouldn't be in dispute ever again after he turned Jeff Sims into a competent player.) Texas A&M has sights set on a national championship, and this will be the Aggies' first real test. An early-season battle to identify which team is most likely to push Texas Tech atop the Big 12. Also, fun fact: Last week was the eighth straight season a Bachmeier started Week 1 at QB in an FBS game. Hank Bachmeier started for Boise State (2019-22), Louisiana Tech (2023) and Wake Forest (2024), and Bear Bachmeier started for BYU (2025-26). They're a combined 8-0 in those games. Oregon was a popular national championship pick before the season and nearly fell to Boise State in Week 1. Oklahoma State was an underdog playoff pick by some insiders, but the Cowboys fell to Tulsa for the second straight year. So, this one's big -- if only to show some competence on both sides. One note, Pokes QB Drew Mestemaker's past three games: 59% completions, six touchdowns, seven interceptions, 6.0 yards per pass. Winner gets to build the new Kansas City Chiefs stadium in their state. Loser has to take the Royals. The Cy-Hawk game promises many things: Punts. Low scores. Corn. What's not to like? Under-the-radar games of the week Georgia Tech was embarrassed at home by Colorado in the opener, with the Buffs calling 46 designed runs -- nine more than in any other game in Deion Sanders' tenure there. DeSean Bishop might rush for 900 yards in this one. There's a case these are the top two Group of 6 teams in the country, but another loss for Boise State would put the Broncos in a tough spot in the College Football Playoff race. It would be nice, though, to see a Group of 6 team making a stink about strength of schedule for once. An early showdown between two of the favorites in the American, but one where South Florida needs to flex a bit more muscle. USF narrowly escaped Florida International in Week 1 despite mustering just 208 yards of total offense. It was the fewest total yards by a winning team in the American since Temple beat East Carolina with just 135 yards in 2014. In a different, more fair universe, this would've been the "Pac-12 After Dark" matchup of the week with Nico Iamaleava throwing for eight touchdowns in a 12-overtime thriller that ended at 7:30 a.m. on the East Coast. Upset alert Last week, we accurately predicted Western Michigan would give Michigan fits, Tulsa would dominate Oklahoma State, and UMass would pull a stunner over Rutgers. Not in this column, of course, but we definitely told our friend we met at summer camp who lives in Canada who you don't know. Here are the teams that should be on high alert to avoid an upset in Week 2. Virginia Tech (home vs. Old Dominion) The James Franklin era at Virginia Tech got off to a rollicking start against VMI, with a 73-3 win highlighted by a defense that racked up 18.5 tackles for loss. (VMI had 43 rushing attempts and finished with four fewer yards than we did.) But no one was worried about the Hokies' opener. It's Old Dominion that has been the thorn in the side of each of Virginia Tech's past two coaches. In 2018, the Monarchs set fire to the Justin Fuente era with a 49-35 win. In 2022, ODU toppled Brent Pry's Hokies 20-17 in a game that also involved coaches getting stuck in an elevator and the Hokies' locker room getting robbed. And somehow the 2025 game was even more embarrassing, with Old Dominion rolling 45-26. So, if Franklin is really ushering in a new age of championship-caliber play at Virginia Tech, it needs to start here. And, at the very least, add some extra security around Luke Reynolds' lucky copy of Action Comics No. 1 he keeps in his locker for every game. Last year, Illinois rolled to a 45-19 win in Durham, but the final score didn't really tell the story. Duke actually outgained Illinois despite 13 fewer minutes of possession time. The reason? Five turnovers. Don't expect the same thing this time around. In its opener against Tulane, Duke showed it plans to run Nate Sheppard (227 yards, two touchdowns), play elite defense (Tulane was 3 of 16 on third and fourth down) and avoid putting the ball in the air as often as possible. Penn State DC D'Anton Lynn said this game will be Temple's Super Bowl, which, if he means the Owls will look like they just ate 36 wings and fell asleep during the halftime show, he's right. Still, this is a unique experience for the Owls, who'll be shocked to see so many fans in the seats for a home game. In Week 1, Tulsa pulled off an emphatic upset of Oklahoma State, while Sam Houston dropped a frustrating game to Troy. So, this would seem like an obvious W for the Golden Hurricane, right? Well, last year after Tulsa beat the Pokes, it proceeded to lose its next five straight. And, look a little deeper at Sam Houston's loss, and it sure looks like a game it easily could've won, with a chip-shot field goal after a bad INT proving to be the difference. Purdue racked up 523 yards and dominated Indiana State 44-19 in Week 1, proving it can beat basketball schools that once developed an NBA Hall of Famer. Now comes Wake Forest, and Tim Duncan ain't walking through that door. Post-Week 1 Power Rankings Each week, we'll recap the best and most impactful performances from the previous week's games. 1. LSU Tigers 2. The theory that time is just an artificial construct and we're actually living in all moments at once 3. UMass Minutemen, New England's premier college football program 4. Miami Hurricanes 5. Mood lighting in Tallahassee 6. Tulsa Golden Hurricane 7. Debuts for James Franklin, Matt Campbell and John Sumrall 8. Second-half Notre Dame Fighting Irish 9. Kamario Taylor highlights 10. Deion Sanders learning you can also run the football Unranked: Clemson Tigers; Dabo Swinney's explanations for Clemson's performance; Losing to Tulsa (not-mullet version); Rutgers; non-enhanced replay Heisman five Putting together a list like this, one week into a new season, raises an important question: Should a Heisman ranking be predictive, based on who is most likely to be worthy of consideration at year's end, or reactive, based on who has performed the best on the field in actual games so far? The answer, we think, is to instead rely on a complex formula combining high-level data manipulation with a small (approximately 95%) amount of our own unfounded opinions. 1. Either Texas QB Arch Manning or Ohio State QB Julian Sayin In last year's matchup, the pair combined to throw for just 296 yards. Then they each combined to throw for more than that in a game by themselves 10 times throughout the rest of the season. Whichever QB wins this duel will become the early favorite for the Heisman. 2. LSU QB Sam Leavitt In his LSU debut, Leavitt was elite, throwing for 230 yards, rushing for 113 and accounting for three touchdowns. Once LSU adds Justin Jefferson and the ghost of Red Grange to its roster, Leavitt's Heisman campaign should really take off. And then, in 2030, he can sue LSU for unretiring his No. 10 jersey and giving it to its top recruit: Patrick Mahomes wearing a wig and Groucho Marx glasses and a fake ID saying his name is "I.B. Passin." 3. Miami WR Malachi Toney Yes, his QB is going to be in the race, too, which complicates matters, but the Canes' offense might be the one example where the guy behind center isn't as critical to what they want to do as the guy catching the passes. Toney had 12 catches for 234 yards and three touchdowns in Miami's opener against Stanford, and it might've been more if he hadn't decided to take it easy on the Cardinal in the second half. Toney is a kind and merciful overlord. 4. Florida RB Jadan Baugh Baugh had 160 yards and three touchdowns on just 11 carries in Florida's thrashing of Florida Atlantic. That's a hard sentence to type. Not because we're not fans of Baugh's heroics, but because our autocorrect keeps saying "Florida" and "thrashing" shouldn't be in a sentence together in that order. 5. Pitt QB Mason Heintschel Pitt's impressive sophomore threw seven TD passes to seven different receivers in a dominant win over Miami. Which Miami? Sorry, we're not taking follow-up questions. Two-minute drill A quick around-the-horn of other key matchups, stats and showdowns in Week 2. In keeping with its core philosophy of never letting its non-conference strength of schedule fall below a Mike Norvell buyout number, Indiana hosts Howard this week. Fun fact: "Howard Indiana" is the name Lane Kiffin uses to check into out-of-town hotels. UMass and Tulsa pulled off big upsets in Week 1, but that doesn't mean it has been a good start to the year for the Group of 6. Overall against Power 4 competition, the G6 was 2-26 and was outscored by an average of 26.7 points per game. That continues a trend that has seen the non-autonomy FBS schools go from winning about 25% of their games against the Power 5 in 2019-20 to less than 14% in 2024-25. Nashville is famed for its country music and bachelorette parties. Newark, Delaware, is famed for that time Mike Brey got on stage with Love Seed for a cover of "Just a Girl" at the Stone Balloon in 1997, and bank holiday parties held via Zoom. In other words, the Delaware-Vanderbilt showdown in Week 2 will determine, once and for all, which city really knows how to party. Dabo Swinney seems to think the road to 11-1 starts this week against Georgia Southern, but that's perhaps a tick optimistic. Clemson has lost 17 of its past 40 games vs. Power 5 competition. Prior to that, the Tigers had lost just 17 of their previous 122 games vs. Power 5 opponents dating back to 2012. So yes, Swinney will probably try to force-feed a bit of crow after a likely win against the Eagles, but the road ahead remains incredibly rocky. Kamario Taylor had 413 yards and five touchdowns in Mississippi State's opener. He'll now head to Minnesota, where we assume JJ McCarthy will be on the sideline furiously scribbling notes like, "So you can throw the ball forward, too." Georgia State travels to Kennesaw State, though to get there from Atlanta in time for kickoff, the Panthers actually left during Week 12 of last year. If Western Michigan-Michigan requires the "Stranger Things" font from the Big Ten, Rutgers at Boston College will be recapped entirely in Comic Sans.