This second “official” week of the year was looking rather dismal as far as matchups were concerned. The top-10 schools were all playing rollovers (who knew Phoenix University fielded a team?), and there was only one game played between ranked opponents. That said, there were some close and entertaining games and a smattering of upsets; it was just a matter of fortune to be watching.
All of the top-10 teams won their expected contests, although one school fell four positions due to a less-than-impressive victory. With all these imbalanced contests taking place, the interesting points were something that needed to be filtered through to find, but there was still some fun to be had.
Before the game against the Oregon Ducks, coach Mike Gundy was bemoaning the fact that his school is not afforded the same kind of budget to compete for talent in today’s NIL environment. In noting that Oregon spent $40 million against a meager $7 million outlay by OSU, it could have been chalked up as sour grapes. But you may see his point after just a few minutes of game time. Oregon amassed over 120 yards and a 14-0 lead, after running three plays, on the way to a 69-3 pasting of the Cowboys.
Iowa and Iowa State played their annual battle, which was the expected lengthy arm-wrestling match. The Cyclones won 16-13 on a 54-yard field goal with under two minutes to play. It was the sixth time over the past seven seasons that the winner scored less than 21 points.
Dabo Sweeney must be doing his share of yelling at Cracker Barrel today. The eighth-ranked Tigers struggled against Troy, not gaining a lead until deep in the third quarter as the Trojans dominated time of possession. This sees Clemson falling four positions.
Kalen DeBoer finally has some ammunition to appeal to the Alabama athletic director to keep his job. Not only did the Tide throttle the University of Louisiana-Monroe 73-0, but the last time they played together, Alabama lost. DeBoer did something not even Nick Saban accomplished!
After building a 20-10 lead, the Virginia Tech Hokies failed to come out of the locker room at halftime. Vanderbilt dominated so fully that it scored 34 unanswered points as Virginia Tech was outgained 307-21 total yards in the second half.
Oklahoma 24 – Michigan 13
In the lone contest of ranked teams, it was a story of two quarterbacks. Michigan paid out a fortune for Bryce Underwood, who severely underperformed with only 9 completions and no touchdowns. For much of the game he was flushed and had many erratic throws. On the other side Sooner QB John Mateer looked more impressive, playing his way into Heisman talk as he passed for 270 yards with a scoring toss, and ran in two additional TDs with 74 rushing yards.
SPORTSBALL: The Bryce Underwood experience, is it a good sign when your $10 million true freshman QB is already picking fights with Michigan teammates by Week 2? pic.twitter.com/teNleXU0Bc
— @amuse (@amuse) September 7, 2025
Mississippi State – 24 – Arizona State 20
The Sun Devils appear to exist only to defy prognosticators. While completely overlooked ahead of last season, they were division champs and went deep in the playoffs. Highly ranked this year, they proved the experts wrong again, as they fell to one of the weakest SEC schools. The Bulldogs ruled the first half with a 17-3 lead, but Arizona State was wholly insistent on its ground game. Two running backs gained over 100 yards, while passing generated only 82 in the air. Blake Shapen had a strong game with 279 yards passing and three touchdowns, the last being a 58-yard strike with 30 seconds remaining. It was shocking enough for the
South Florida 18 – Florida 16
Just when you think UF might be on the comeback trail, they go ahead and lay an egg in The Swamp. (That is biologically accurate.) The USF Bulls drove for a few hours to act as imprudent guests, and they find themselves in the top-25 after beating a ranked team for the second week in a row. Coach Billy Napier has a job at risk as his Gators shot themselves in the foot in the closing minutes with poor offense, penalties, and bad play-calling. USF had its chance after Florida passed the ball and took little time off the clock, then helped the Bulls on the closing drive with two major penalties leading to the winning kick as time ran out. The Gators have one of the toughest schedules coming up, so this will prove to be a dismal season.
Baylor 48 – SMU 45 (2OT)
This was a Texas shootout. Sawyer Robinson threw for 440 yards and four touchdowns as the Bears upset #17 SMU in Dallas. Kevin Jennings was strong for the Mustangs as well, with 295 in the air and three scoring strikes, but the SMU defense could not hold up. Baylor made two touchdown drives in the final five minutes to force overtime, where a missed field goal proved to be the difference.
Here is the Week-2 AP poll. ASU, UF, SMU, and dropped off, while Auburn, USF, and Missouri entered the list. (1st place Votes)
1. Ohio State (57)
2. Penn State (5)
3. LSU (2)
4. Oregon (1)
5. Miami
6. Georgia
7. Texas
8. Notre Dame
9. Illinois
10. Florida State
11. South Carolina
12. Clemson
13. Oklahoma
14. Iowa State
15. Tennessee
16. Texas A&M
17. Ole Miss
18. USF
19. Alabama
20. Utah
21. Texas Tech
22. Indiana
23. Michigan
24. Auburn
25. Missouri
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