Top 10 games of Week 2: Texas-Michigan, Tennessee-NC State among marquee matchups with playoff implications
Blink and we’re already just days away from Week 2 of the college football slate.
The first full opening weekend of the 2024 season delivered several classic games, a couple upsets and way too many FCS snoozers. This Saturday has more intriguing FBS-on-FBS matchups, including a couple of Group of 5 contenders hoping to bank a Top 25 upset to have in their bag come December when the 12-team College Football Playoff field is decided.
So here’s the Top 10 games of the Week 2 schedule, starting with a couple honorable mentions that just missed the cut.
Honorable Mention: UTSA at Texas State, No. 17 Kansas State at Tulane, Cal at Auburn, Baylor at No. 11 Utah, Texas Tech at Washington State
10. No. 21 Kansas at Illinois (7 p.m., Big Ten Network)
The Big 12-Big Ten showdown is a fun matchup between two programs looking to gauge where their team’s truly stand before conference play starts later this month. The Fighting Illini fell to the Jayhawks 34-23 last season, but this game is projected to be more competitive with just a 5-point spread.
On Tuesday, Illinois announced that Saturday’s game is its first sellout in eight years, and its eying its first win over a ranked nonconference team since 2011.
Kansas has legitimate Big 12 title hopes, but a win over the Jayhawks could be the difference between Illinois making the postseason or not, so this once might mean more to the team in Orange & Blue.
9. No. 23 Georgia Tech at Syracuse (12 p.m., ESPN)
After starting the season 2-0, the Bees are ranked for the first time in a decade, and Brent Key is hoping to keep that momentum rolling in a road date with Syracuse in the Carrier Dome. With Florida State’s early season faceplant and the continued questions around Clemson’s offense, the ACC (aside from Miami) looks wide open.
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Georgia Tech has a chance to start 2-0 in the league, while the Orange, which won Fran Brown’s opener 38-22 over Ohio, have one of the easiest schedules among all Power Conference teams. Kyle McCord looked great in his debut with the Orange (354 yards and four touchdowns), but Syracuse could have a tough time stopping the Yellowjackets’ spread-option attack after allowing close to 300 yards on the ground to the Bobcats.
8. App. State at No. 25 Clemson (8 p.m., ACC Network)
Talk about a not-too-fun turnaround. A week after getting pasted by No. 1 Georgia, Clemson must get off the mat and host one of the frisker G5 teams this season in App. State. The good news is the game is in Death Valley, where the Tigers typically are very, very hard to beat.
Still, Joey Aguilar might be one of the most underrated quarterbacks in the country, and the Mountaineers’ funky offense has the ability to challenge a Clemson defense that wilted against the Bulldogs due to depth limitations. The Tigers were not able to run the ball at all against UGA, but Phil Mafah should have more room to operate against an App. State defense that allowed 183 rushing yards to ETSU in Week 1.
For Clemson, this is about washing away the stink of Week 1, while App. State has a chance to secure one of the best wins any G5 team with playoff hopes could have.
7. South Carolina at Kentucky (3:30 p.m., ABC)
Two SEC also-rans, you say? Not interested? Well, this is a spicer matchup than it reads on paper (or your screen du jour) because these two head coaches do not seem to have lot of love lost between one another.
Mark Stoops has taken multiple veiled shots at Shane Beamer, and South Carolina’s head coach made sure to fire back when the Gamecocks upset the Wildcats 17-14 last season. Beamer has won two straight in the series, but South Carolina barely beat Old Dominion last weekend while Kentucky is considered a fringe Top 25 team that might host College GameDay in Week 3 (No. 1 Georgia comes to town) if it takes care of business.
6. Arkansas at No. 16 Oklahoma State (12 p.m., ABC)
The Hogs stomped Arkansas Pine-Bluff 70-0 in their opener, as transfer quarterback Taylen Green did his best Lamar Jackson impersonation in Bobby Petrino’s offense (over 300 total yards, four touchdowns). But now Arkansas will face a defense with a pulse, and the Razorbacks better be ready to stop Ollie Gordon and the Pokes’ tandem at receiver.
Mike Gundy is no stranger to these sorts of matchups, but this is precisely the type of game Sam Pittman desperately needs to win to slowly separate himself from continued hot seat talk. Steal an upset in Stillwater, and there’s a real path for Arkansas to start the season 4-1 by the end of September.
5. Boise State at No. 7 Oregon (10 p.m., Peacock)
The Ducks nearly saw their 2024 season vandalized in a way-too-close-for-comfort win over FCS Idaho, but they squeaked out a 24-14 win and now welcome one of the Group of 5 favorites in Boise State.
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The Broncos are considered a top-tier contender for the 12-team College Football Playoff auto-bid as potentially one of the highest-ranked conference champions, and they have one of the best overall players in the country in tailback Ashton Jeanty (267 rushing yards and six touchdowns!).
The problem? They struggled to stop Georgia Southern’s offense and now must tangle with Dillon Gabriel, Evan Stewart & Co., in a get-right game for Oregon.
4. Iowa State at No. 21 Iowa (3:30 p.m., CBS)
The Cy-Hawk Game is coming to America’s most-watched network, as the storied series gets center-stage Saturday afternoon in Iowa City. After a slow first half, the Hawkeyes actually looked buttoned up offensively! Cade McNamara threw three touchdowns to Iowa wideouts — matching last season’s total in one game. Freshman Reece Vander Zee looks like the most promising Hawkeyes wideout since Marvin McNutt Jr? On the other sideline, Iowa State has some offensive giddy-up, too, with quarterback Rocco Becht (267 and two touchdowns in the opener) and speedster Abu Sama III, who barely played in Week 1 after getting dinged up on a hurdle.
And yet this classic rock fight series still has a total at 36.5 because Phil Parker’s defense remains a pill to play against and the Cyclones are really beat up at linebacker.
3. No. 24 NC State vs. 14 Tennessee (Charlotte, 7:30 p.m., ESPN)
The country will get its first chance to catch Nico Iamaleava in primetime against Dave Doeren’s typically salty defense — led by corner Aydan White. Tennessee’s phenom quarterback set a school-record for first-half passing yards (315) in his first regular season start last weekend, and he’ll be eying another monster performance against a Wolfpack team that struggled to stop FCS Western Carolina in Week 1.
The Wolfpack needed a fourth-quarter rally to beat Catamounts, and while it was a bit of a surprise that they remained ranked in the AP Poll Top 25, they have a chance to score a marquee win — and give the ACC some much-needed national credibility after a mostly disastrous start for the conference.
2. Colorado at Nebraska (7:30 p.m., NBC)
The rekindled Big 12 rivalry would be the game of the weekend if it wasn’t for the Top 10 showdown in Ann Arbor. The hype around both programs hasn’t slowed to start the season, but one of these two teams looks a lot differently than it did a year ago. At least we think.
The Cornhuskers have seriously upgraded at quarterback with 5-star freshman Dylan Raiola, and their collection of playmakers (namely transfer wideouts Isaiah Neyor and Jahmal Banks) is much improved, too. Meanwhile, Deion Sanders’ team looks … the same? Colorado is deeper along the offensive and defensive lines, but the Buffs still got pushed around in the trenches against North Dakota State in the opener.
Shedeur Sanders is fantastic and Travis Hunter is the best individual talent in college football, but this is still likely a below-average team.
1. No. 3 Texas at No. 10 Michigan (12 p.m., FOX)
A classic helmet game between two bluebloods being played on a college campus. Perfection.
As for the actual matchup, the Wolverines, which boast the nation’s longest active winning streak, are catching a touchdown at home after their offense barely showed a pulse in the win over Fresno State. What was an unknown entering the season (who would play quarterback between Alex Orji and Davis Warren), is now a concern, as Sherrone Moore rotated both quarterbacks with Warren the thrower and Orji the runner.
Now Michigan must match points with a Texas team that features all sorts of firepower. If the Wolverines have any hopes of engineering an upset, they need their DT duo create all sorts of havoc and have Kalel Mullings and Donovan Edwards lean on a potentially leaky Longhorns run defense.