On Saturday – The Upset in the Swamp and More from Week 2
Welcome back, everybody, to the latest edition of On Saturday. Week two of the college football season is officially in the books. Going in, many normies called this a weak slate of games, but those with a keen eye, like myself, saw that some good football was coming. For some reason, games always seem to get wild in the weeks people sleep on. This past Saturday kept to that theme. We had upsets, walk-off field goals, overtime, shootouts, and more that I probably won’t even have time to get into.
Week Two Headlines
Boomer Sooner Downs Big Blue
The primetime marquee matchup this past Saturday saw Michigan head down to Norman, Oklahoma, for a top-25 matchup against the Sooners. The winner of this game would gain a boost in the eyes of many in the CFB world and feel like a real playoff team. If you take a glance at the latest AP Polls, you’ll see that it was Oklahoma who got that boost, jumping up five spots to 13th after defeating Michigan 24-13.
The game followed relatively close to the script outline in the Week 2 preview article. OC Chip Lindsey opted to lean slightly heavier on the run than he did in week one, trying to take some of the load off true freshman QB Bryce Underwood; however, Underwood only dropped back five fewer times than he handed it off. When the ball was in his hands, though, he struggled, completing only 37.5% of his passes for 149 yards. It’s tough to blame Underwood or overreact to his performance. He’s played one college game and was now playing in a very tough environment, against a very good defense, led by a very smart defensive mind in Brent Venables, who has a graveyard behind him of past freshman QBs who faced his defenses. A bright spot for Underwood is that he only took one sack; that’s not too bad considering OU opted to bring the heat, blitzing on 17 of Underwood’s 26 dropbacks. Running Back Justice Haynes also followed up his strong Wolverine debut with a 125-yard performance. He also had Michigan’s lone touchdown when he took the first play of the third quarter 75 yards to the house. However, that long run also shines a light on how the whole offense struggled. If we remove that run, the team’s rushing total drops to 76 yards, and their average per carry gets cut in half. It was an all-around great game for the Sooners’ defense outside of that run, as Michigan finished with a 29% success rate and went 3-14 on third down.
Meanwhile, my prediction that veteran QB John Mateer and the Sooners would find a way to attack the Michigan D first was correct. Immediately. They took their opening drive 75 yards downfield for the game-opening touchdown on a Mateer touchdown pass to Deion Burks. It was the first of three touchdowns for the QB, who also picked up a rushing touchdown in the second and third quarters. The Sooners closed the game out by imposing their will and going on an over eight-minute drive for a field goal that took the clock down inside of two minutes and put them up two scores. Along with his three tuddies, Mateer completed over 60% of his passes, totalled over 340 yds, and picked up 18 of Oklahoma’s 22 first downs. Mateer showed off the skills I highlighted in my SEC preview and has now jumped up odds boards for the Heisman, sitting just behind LSU’s Garret Nussmeier. It was a great win for the Sooners, but the frustrating part is that it could’ve been bigger. They had some missed opportunities. Mateer did throw one pick, they fumbled away a punt return, missed a field goal, and there were a few throws Mateer probably wanted back. He has this habit of side-arming things sometimes, and it caused some balls to sail on him.
I got the information I needed from this game to slot these teams into their appropriate tiers, both of which are good places to be. Michigan is a good team with a future star QB and is in a year of development as they work back to being a contender. Meanwhile, Oklahoma hit the portal to supplement their rosters, most notably to get the QB they needed, and are in “win-now mode.” For Brent Venables and Co., it’s playoffs or bust.
The Upset In The Swamp
The 13th-ranked Florida Gators played host to the USF Bulls this past Saturday in a game where many, myself included, felt USF could put up a fight despite being 18-point underdogs. However, I expected that the fight would last two to three quarters max before Florida pulled away for a somewhat comfortable win. In hindsight, I wish I had leaned in 100% on USF and not been so measured. If I did, I could take an even bigger victory lap over the Bulls walking into Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, and upsetting the Gators 19-16.
Considering the players involved, I thought that we were going to see some firepower going on in this one. Instead, the offensive highlights were scarce, with nothing but field goals in the first half, leading to the Gators’ halftime lead of 9-6. That same (lack of) energy continued until late in the third quarter when Bulls QB Byrum Brown connected on a deep shot to Keshaun Singleton for a 66-yard touchdown. The Gators then suffered a serious special teams malfunction on their next series as the ball sailed over the head of the punter and eventually made its way out of the back of the endzone for a safety. The special teams God was on Florida’s side later, however, when a big punt return (and a tacked-on penalty) gave them the ball on USF’s twenty-yard line. They cashed in on the short field and took a 16-15 lead after a touchdown pass from DJ Lagway to Eugene Wilson. The chances of an upset looked slim after USF missed a long field goal try with only 2:52 left in the game. All the Gators had to do was pick up a couple of first downs, and they would survive. Sounds simple, but Florida failed terribly. They went three and out, threw the ball twice for some reason, and only killed 27 seconds. Still, USF got the ball back at their own 11, and the Gators are a big, bad SEC defense; they should be able to wrap this up, right?
Wrong.
They imploded instead. Second play of the drive, Florida DB Dijon Johnson gets called for PI, giving The Bulls a free 13 yds and first down. The next play was a run that went nowhere, but after the play, Gator DE Brendan Bett had a total lapse of common sense when he spat on a USF player. I’m not talking Jalen Carter spitting down at Dak Prescott, I’m talking full-on sprays spit into the face mask of another player. This got him ejected and gave the Bulls a first down 15 yards farther down the field. After taking a couple of bad penalties, Brown made Florida pay by hitting his receiver, Alvon Isaac, deep, picking up 29 yards and setting his team up on the Gator 32. USF continued to work the ball deeper into Gator territory. The whole time, HC Billy Napier clung to his timeouts way past the point of the Bulls getting into easy field goal range. He also opted not to just let The Bulls score once they had the ball inside the 8-yard line and the clock was inside 20 seconds. Instead, Napier allowed the opposition to whittle the clock down to the 3-second mark and kick the walk-off winner. A twenty-yard FG, he put his chips in the basket of the kicker, shanking a chip shot or his special teams getting a block. The latter of which happens at an alarming low rate.
While this upset was big on paper, it wasn’t that surprising. All the pieces were there to set it up. Florida was at home as a big favorite against a scrappy team, with a big showdown against LSU coming up next. That’s all the criteria needed for a trap game, but this goes beyond that. The other reason why this upset was not a shocker comes down to the culture and current state of the Gator program. Billy Napier has continually failed to meet expectations as head coach in Gainesville and has been on the hot seat for the last two seasons. The strong finish last season, along with the talent on this roster, gave a lot of people hope and raised expectations. So much so that Florida, despite being unranked last year, was the 13th-ranked team in the country. However, when you watched them Saturday, you saw the same team that it has been for the past three years under Napier. Sloppy, outplayed physically, and undisciplined, committing 11 penalties for 122 yds. The worst aspect was how lifeless their offense was, something that falls heavily on Napier, because he calls the offense. Interestingly enough, during last season, when the program publicly announced he would be back in 2025, part of the deal was that he would hire someone to call the offense. However, after they finished the year on a four-game win streak, that was let go, and the change was never made. I don’t want to speak too harshly of Napier because, from everything I’ve seen as someone on the outside, he seems like a good dude. The painful truth of the matter, however, is that nothing has changed with this program because the man steering the ship hasn’t changed and has shown no signs of doing things differently.
#16 Iowa St. Take Home The CyHawk Over
Rivalry games are part of the fabric of what makes sports so great. Just because it’s a rivalry game doesn’t mean it will be an entertaining one. Iowa St. reigned victorious in what was a slow-moving, field goal-heavy game where the offenses had as good a chance of putting you to sleep as they did at putting up points. Both teams failed to reach 240 yards of total offense and averaged less than 5 yards per play. They also both finished with a negative EPA per play, Iowa St. a bad -0.09 and Iowa a god awful -0.26. If we look at their EPA with explosive plays removed, the numbers are the exact same…because they both had a zero explosive play rate…because there was literally not a single explosive play in this game. WOO! Midwest football, baby!
The good news, for me, is that I successfully hit on my bet of Iowa under 19.5.
It’s a smart practice not to overreact to an offense’s performance in their first game of the season; however, Iowa looked so bad on offense that I am almost positive it was not an outlier. I singled out the poor week one performance of The Hawkeyes’ new transfer QB, Mark Gronkowski, in last week’s column, so I won’t put him on blast again, but let’s just say that it was once again not pretty. While I expected to see Iowa struggle to move the ball, I overestimated the Cyclones’ ability to. I knew it was unlikely that they would come out of the gate strong, but I thought as the game went on, the Hawkeyes’ defense would start to wear down and ISU could hit some chunk plays. On the contrary, the offense was void of any big-play ability. QB Rocco Becht was efficient, with a 66.7% completion rate, and avoided making any big mistakes, but it was an underwhelming performance. Iowa St. barely pulled out the win here, and their victory over Kansas St. looks less impressive by the week after the Wildcats lost to a bad Army team 24-21.
Game ball goes to Cyclone Kicker, Kyle Konrardy, who was a perfect three for three on his field goal attempts, including an impressive 54-yarder that put his team up 16-13 inside of two minutes remaining. The Hawkeyes did get one more chance with the ball to tie things up. They started the drive with a six-yard completion to get things moving and then went sack, sack, incompletion. If Iowa’s offense was better, I’m talking average, Iowa St. is possibly losing this game or at least going to overtime. The old saying is, “They don’t ask how, they ask how many,” except when it comes to the college football playoff committee.
They tend to ask how.
A Texas Style Shoot Out
Going into the weekend, this was the P4 game many had circled as a high-scoring affair, and it delivered. After over 1000 total yards of offense were put up, the final score of the game was 48-45 as Baylor defeated #17 SMU in double OT. Like a fool, I didn’t bet the over, but don’t worry, I still hit my Baylor over 14.5 in the first half bet. We should have known we were in for a wild one when this was the first play of the game.
Can we start every game with a Romello Brinson deep ball TD? Asking for a friend. pic.twitter.com/JTjaFuvaY8
— SMU Football (@SMUFB) September 6, 2025
The Mustangs extended their early lead to 10 points until the second quarter, when Baylor started fighting back. The Bears put up 21 points in the second frame; unfortunately, they gave up two more touchdowns, including ANOTHER 75-yard TD pass. Did I mention Baylor has a terrible defense? The scoring disappeared for a little bit after halftime, and we headed into Q4 tied at 24. This is where SMU appeared to pull away. They restarted the scoring with a 40-yard touchdown run by RB T.J. Harden, and after a costly Baylor fumble on the next drive, the Mustangs found the endzone again. Halfway through the fourth now, the Bears were down, but not out.
Que the Sawyer Robertson comeback.
The Baylor QB came out firing, throwing two tuddies in the last five and a half minutes of the game. Robertson first hit Josh Cameron for a 48-yard score and later delivered a strike to Kobe Prentice for a 21-yard score and the tie with only 34 seconds left on the clock. SMU had a shot at a 57-yard field goal as time expired, but it was no good, and we headed to OT. Baylor got the ball first and stayed hot, once again getting into the endzone. While SMU answered, they messed up and opted to kick the XP to extend OT in favor of going for two and the win. The football gods punished them for that decision as they had the ball first in 2OT and came up empty-handed after missing another field goal. After which, Baylor picked up a first down to shorten the distance, and Connor Hawkins kicked the game-winning field goal.
There are many takeaways from this game. This loss severely hampers SMU’s chances of returning to the playoffs without winning the ACC, which will be much harder with this year’s schedule compared to 2024. QB Kevin Jennings and the Mustang offense have enough to score against top ACC teams, but this defense is a problem. Meanwhile, if Baylor had any semblance of a defense, they could win the Big 12. The biggest thing I need everybody to do is put some damn respect on the name of Sawyer Robertson. The senior QB carried the load for the Bears offense once again as he threw for over 400 yards, four touchdowns, and had five big-time throws. He’s a talented big-time playmaker in an up-tempo spread offense. He should be in Heisman conversations, and if this defense can just get enough stops to avoid the Bears losing more than three games, Robertson could be headed to New York.
Mizzou Victorious in The Border War
The rivalry between Missouri and Kansas is legit, and its roots go deep. “The Border War,” as it is known, traces all the way back to events that led up to the civil war known as Bleeding Kansas. Not gonna lie, the first time I learned this information and looked into it, it kind of took me out of the game. It’s a bit much.
I was running up against a deadline last week and didn’t get a chance to cover this game in my preview, but it was one I was really looking forward to. Mainly because, through two games, Kansas has looked good, and QB Jalon Daniels has been hot. Meanwhile, Mizzou stuffed their box score in their season-opening 61-6 win over Central Arkansas, and new QB Beau Pribula balled out. For both of these teams, though, this was the first game where they would be facing a legit level of competition. It was time to find something out about these teams.
The Tigers scored first, but Kansas immediately responded and then made the first big pendulum swinging play when their defense forced a fumble and took it to the house. The Jayhawks would tack on another tuddy to make it 21 unanswered as they went into the second quarter in control 21-6. This was where Mizzou turned the tide, scoring 15 unanswered to put things back where they started and tie the game going into halftime. They traded the lead a couple of times in the second half until the Tigers eventually pulled away in the fourth. Pribula hit wideout Brett Norfleet for a 27-yard tuddy, and then on their next offensive drive, when Kansas needed to get a defensive stop to give their offense another chance, Tiger RB Jamal Roberts sealed it when he broke off a 63-yard touchdown run for the 42-31 Border War dub.
First things first, I still think Kansas is a better team than last year, and they could be in the mix for the Big 12 if their defense can figure things out. With that said, Mizzou really flexed some muscle in this one. Look at the way they responded and took over this game. After giving up 21 points in the first quarter, 14 of which were offensive, they held the Jayhawks to 10 the rest of the way. In the end, Kansas only gained 28 yards rushing as part of their 251 total, went 3-11 on third down, and only had the ball for 19:33 of the game. The score looks different, but this was really three quarters of domination by HC Eli Drinkowitz and his team. They tore the Kansas defense up both ways. They ran over them for 261 yards, with both RBs Jamal Roberts and Ahmad Hardy breaking the 100-yard mark. Pribula went 30/39 for 334 yds and 3 tuddies passing with 126 of those yards going to wideout Kevin Coleman. Speaking of Pribula, he, along with Hardy and Coleman, was all part of The Tigers’ big transfer portal haul this offseason. It’s only two games, and I still need to see them play a good defense, but this was a big-time performance by Mizzou, who have now cracked the AP Poll at the 25th spot. We’ll get more answers in two weeks when the team plays host to LaNorris Sellers and the Gamecocks.
Other Games to Note
#20 Ole Miss 30 - Kentucky 23
This was a tough, gritty win for Lane Kiffin and his squad. It was also a little bit of revenge, too, after UK walked onto Ole Miss’ turf last season and gave them their first L of the season. This time around, Ole Miss had to deal with having a green QB facing a Mark Stoops defense; they turned the ball over twice and lost the TOI battle. They managed to fight through it with sophomore RB Kewan Lacy having another big game for 138 yards and a touchdown. Despite Austin Simmons struggling at times, the QB did manage to feed transfer wideout Harrison Wallace III, who had a big 117 yards and picked up four first downs. It wasn’t pretty, but they found the offense they needed to win. It also helped that Kentucky has poor QB play.
With all that said, the main thing I need to address from this game is why UK Head Coach Mark Stoops hates me. Seriously, Mark, what the hell did I ever do to you? For those who aren’t aware, the line on this game was Ole Miss -9.5. The Rebels finally managed to cover that when they kicked a field goal to go up 30-20 with roughly a minute left. The Wildcat managed to pick up some garbage yardage and ended up with the Ole Miss 21 with 13 seconds left on the clock. It was first down as well, so they could’ve just taken a couple shots to the end zone because, ya know, the game was over. Instead, Bob Stoops’ SOB Brother MARK decided to kick the meaningless field goal! Why did he do this? I STILL DON’T KNOW!
Mississippi St. 24 - #12 Arizona St. 20
Okay, I’m just going to get this out of the way now. Dear Mississippi State and its fans, I’m sorry. I went scorched earth when writing about Miss St. last month. It was at the end of my very long SEC preview that I was a little cranky. Going into this game, I heard a lot of people whose opinions I respect pick the Bulldogs to get the home upset, so I was already preparing for the possibility that I would need to issue this apology. MSU jumped out to a quick 17-0 lead before going into halftime up 17-3. After the break, however, their offense completely disappeared, and the Sun Devils stormed back. They scored twenty unanswered points, kicking a field goal for the lead with only 1:38 left on the clock and Miss St. out of time-outs. It appeared that the Bulldogs had collapsed, and my hubris was safe. After all, the team had mustered up only 61 yards of total offense up to this point in the second half. I was confident they wouldn’t be able to move the ball into field goal range, and they didn’t. They called game instead.
BLAKE SHAPEN TO BRENEN THOMPSON!!!!!!!!!! IT’S A MIRACLE IN MISSISSIPPI!!!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/MEBGxGnWak
— Mr Matthew CFB (@MrMatthew_CFB) September 7, 2025
Call it the Mississippi Miracle, call it karma for me crapping on this team, it doesn’t matter what you call it, all that matters is it was awesome. Davis Wade Stadium was going wild like only college football stadiums can, and the cowbells were clanking as obnoxiously as ever. This was a big win for this team and an eye-opener for me. I was wrong, Mississippi State has improved from last year and is moving in the right direction. They’re probably not finishing with a winning record or making a bowl game, but they could beat my ugly 3-9 prediction.
#6 Oregon 69 - Oklahoma St. 3
Mike Gundy really shouldn’t have given Dan Lanning bulletin board material. For those who missed it, we can add OkSt. HC Mike Gundy to the list of coaches who have publicly used the “That team spends more money than we do” excuse. In the lead-up to this game, Gundy made some comments on his radio show, throwing shade at Oregon and NIL in general. He erroneously claimed The Duck spent 40 million on their team last year, said teams should play non-con games against teams with similar budgets, as well as saying it will cost Oregon a lot of money to keep QB Dante Moore, and even brought up Phil Knight, who is a big donor to Oregon. Lanning was asked about it during a presser and gave what was in many ways a professional response, but one line stuck out: “We spend to win. Some people save to have an excuse for why they don’t.” You could hear it in his voice and see it on his face. A beating was coming.
The final score was 69-3. The Ducks put up over three hundred yards on the ground and through the air while holding Gundy’s squad to 211 total yards of offense. It was the worst loss Ok St. has suffered since before there was television. Gundy poked the bear, and the bear bit back. Intentional or not, what Gundy said came across as undercutting a program’s success. Making it sound like they don’t work for it, they just bought it. Whether the comments actually bothered Lanning or not, who knows, but he’s one of the best coaches in college football, so he used it. Watch this clip of him talking to his team in the locker room. If you don’t immediately get up and run through a wall, you have no pulse.
They don’t make ‘em like Dan Lanning anymore
— Unnecessary Roughness (@UnnecRoughness) September 9, 2025
pic.twitter.com/Xhq2NOveMs
Syracuse 27 - UConn 20 (OT)
After taking a thumping from Tennessee in week 1, Syracuse HC Fran Brown and his team were looking for a better performance in their home opener against a lower level of competition in UConn. Instead, they narrowly avoided disaster. The Orange spent most of the game playing from behind and were down 17-6, midway through the third. They managed to rally and scored two touchdowns inside the final six minutes to take a 20-17 lead with only 48 seconds left. Despite the little amount of time remaining, Cuse couldn’t put things away and gave up a field goal drive to the Huskies, sending things to overtime. QB Steven Angeli, who attempted 53 passes in the game, hit Justus Ross-Simmons for his second tuddy of the day and the score to start OT. The Orange defense managed to stop UConn on the following possession and finally put away the independent program. Needless to say, Fran Brown was not happy with how his team performed. They may have won, and the game may have ended, but Brown kept his players on the field, making them run sprints. The second-year head coach already won me over last year, but I like him even more after he pulled a Herb Brooks and told his team, “AGAIN”. If you know, you know.
On Saturday Shout-Outs - Week 2
This week’s shout-outs have a theme. It’s not the most exciting thing when top teams face weak competition by comparison, such as FCS teams. Sometimes, however, it can be fun to keep an eye on those games just to see the destruction and ridiculous numbers that get put up. Those are the players I’m highlighting this week.
I knew who I was giving the first shout-out to before I even started typing this section. That player is Ohio State QB Julian Sayin. The freshman QB was overshadowed going into and during week one by all the Arch Manning talk. He didn’t put up numbers against Texas, but he was efficient, smart, and kept the train on the tracks in his first collegiate start against one of the best defenses in the country. This week, he let loose as The Buckeye crushed the visiting Grambling State Tigers 70-0 (Seriously? How many Tigers are there in college football?) Sayin went 18 of 19 for 306 yards and four touchdowns in the first half before taking a seat to relax on the bench. Also, his one incompletion was an interception, so technically every pass he threw was caught.We didn’t get to see a lot of it against Texas, but peep the highlights. This kid throws a beauty of a ball.
Next up is Florida State WR Duce Robinson. Coming off the big win against Alabama, the Seminoles played host to East Texas A&M who they smoked 77-3. More like Least Texas, am I right? Robinson was one my favorite receivers in the portal this past winter and he balled out in this game, catching five passes for 173 yards and two touchdowns. Not only is he a size mismatch for defenses at 6’6” 222 lbs, he’s got some wheels. The junior hit a max speed of 20.7 mph when he blew past the entire A&M secondary for an 82 yard tuddy, which was the longest passing touchdown for FSU since 2019. Let’s go DUUUUUUUCE!!
Another Big Ten shout out. This one goes to Nebraska Cornhusker QB Dylan Raiola. You may have heard of Raiola. He was one of top prospects of the 2024 class as well as the biggest recruit in Nebraska football history. Oh,he’s also the kid who models his entire game, and appearance, after Patrick Mahomes. It’s actually getting a little weird now, because Raiola’s tight end Luke Lindenmeyer, also just got engaged. Whether admiration or obsession, I have to give the Mahomes doppelganger a shout out after showing off in his team’s 68-0 win over Akron. The sophomore QB went 24 of 31 for 364 yards and tossed four tuddies in a game that showed me a step forward from Raiola in a weird way. The competition was weak, but seeing a high ceiling player like him appear to effortlessly torch that weak competition, is a sign he’s coming into form.
One final shout out this week and it goes to USC WR Ja’Kobi Lane. There are other players who put up bigger numbers in the game as The Trojans racked up 755 yards of offense and beat Georgia Southern 59-20. WR Malaki Lemon, QB Jayden Maiva and RB Waymond Jordan all put up monstrous numbers that eclipsed Lane’s 91 yards and a touchdown. However, Lane had arguably the highlight of the week on his touchdown catch.
WHAT A CATCH!! TOUCHDOWN USC 🔥 @uscfb pic.twitter.com/ausmlH7H1W
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 6, 2025
It bordered on disrespect. That poor defensive back probably had friends or family watching the game and Lane treated him like a toddler. If there was ever a time to get up and hit someone with a “too small” taunt it was after this tuddy here. The 15 yard penalty would’ve been worth it.
That’s it for my Week Two recap. Thanks for reading and bring your eye balls back here to Talent Alone in a couple days as I preview Week 3 along with giving out those spicy 100% can’t miss money making betting locks.
