Brian’s College Football Top 5: Week 2
Photo from ULM Athletics
Week 2 is a great week to learn if what we saw in week 1 was just shaking off some rust, or a sign of what’s to come.
And I think we learned quite a lot!
Here is my top 5 for week 2.
Honorable Mention: Arkansas Razorbacks
Arkansas went on the road, outgained Oklahoma State 648-385, had more time of possession, went 11-19 on third downs, and still lost in double overtime simply from terrible turnovers, awful clock management, missed field goals and just overall poor play down the stretch.
Just an absolutely remarkable way to lose. One of the best I’ve seen.
Honorable Mention 2: South Carolina Gamecocks
There were questions about South Carolina’s offense this season. Questions that weren’t necessarily answered by their 23-19 win over Old Dominion in week 1.
Those questions probably still aren’t answered, but if the Gamecocks defense plays the way they did against Kentucky each week, it’s not going to matter how the offense looks.
Kentucky starting quarterback Brock Vandagriff, who had the idea of Facebook stolen by his friends, had a net yardage of 1 before getting benched.
That’ll work for SC.
5. California Golden Bears
Experts expected Auburn to win big. Star running back Jaydn Ott wasn’t 100%. It was on the road.
None of it mattered. Cal played excellent defense, winning the turnover battle 5-0, and pulling off the upset.
Justin Wilcox is, in my opinion, a top 5 most underrated coach in this sport.
4. Illinois Fighting Illini
Did Kansas basically give that game to Illinois? Yeah, pretty much.
Did Illinois drain clock and string together long offensive drives to limit the amount of damage Jalon Daniels can do? They sure did, and they pulled off the home upset.
Hey, if your opponent is going to give you the game, you best take it.
3. Texas State Bobcats
G.J. Kinne is a star, man.
Kinne, in just his second season as the Bobcats head coach, took over a team that many, including myself, frankly forgot was a division one program, made them bowl eligible in year one, and just blew the doors off of UTSA, who has become a darling in the G5 world, 49-10.
I assume Baylor’s athletic department is drawing up Kinne’s contract right now.
2. Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks
Bryant Vincent had two stints at UAB, including one as an interim coach in 2022. UAB went 7-6 and won the Bahamas Bowl that year.
Despite that, UAB decided to hire Trent Dilfer as the head coach instead of Vincent.
Vincent left for New Mexico to become their offensive coordinator, and this offseason was hired to be the head coach at ULM, one of the hardest jobs in college football.
And who does he face week 2? None other than his old pals at UAB.
And ULM absolutely crushed the Blazers 32-6.
You have to imagine that Vincent is extremely satisfied with that.
1. Northern Illinois Huskies
All week, people were talking about Notre Dame’s easy route to the playoffs and how the Irish would be 11-0 heading into their rivalry game against USC.
But while everyone was discussing that, Northern Illinois was just lurking in the shadows.
They out possessed Notre Dame, outgained Notre Dame, flat out outplayed Notre Dame.
Sure, turnover luck was on their side, but that shouldn’t take anything away from the Huskies, who were 28.5 point underdogs, getting the upset win in South Bend.
You can never overlook the MAC…
