2022-23 NCAA Football (Week 2)

Games I saw (some of):

(1) Alabama 20-19 Texas

I was impressed with Texas's pass rush and pass defense in general; on the other hand, I'm not nearly as impressed with QB Brice Young as the general consensus (what does he do that's really good?). Yeah, he had two good drives to close the game but there were many times (many times!) throughout the first three quarters where the replay showed he had pass options that he just didn't see (or over threw). I dunno, man, Alabama doesn't seem quite as crisp as usual on the O-line, QB or in the defensive backfield. Of course, I thought that last year and they were in the championship (in a game that was closer than the score would indicate), so I guess I'm just overreacting again. Texas came away deflated but they looked pretty good, I expect them to be ranked soon enough. 

(10) Southern Cal 41-28 Stanford

USC did whatever they wanted, Stanford mostly just sucked. The Cardinal tacked on some points late to make it look close, but it was not close. I think, though, I was more un-impressed with Stanford than I was impressed by USC, so not sure what to think of this result. 

Top 25

Handled their business

(2) Georgia, (3) Ohio State, (4) Michigan, (5) Clemson, (7) Oklahoma, (10) Southern Cal, (11) Oklahoma State, (13) Utah, (14) Michigan State, (15) Miami, (16) Arkansas, (18) North Carolina State, (20) Kentucky, (21) Brigham Young, (22) Mississippi, (23) Wake Forest

Won but did not impress

(1) Alabama. Barely stealing a victory from an unranked team with a 2nd string QB....hmmmmmmmmm....

Bad beat

(9) Baylor. I was expecting Baylor to come up bigger, but BYU is a good team that can sling it around. Tough L but not an embarrassing one. 

(12) Florida. Losing to Kentucky for the second straight year used to get coaches fired in Florida (and, well, most everywhere else, too), now it's just a bad beat. 

(17) Pittsburgh. Pitt and Tennessee made for a close match, I thought UT took better advantage of their opportunities before halftime. A loss to an SEC squad isn't the end of the world.  

(25) Houston. Losing on the road to a solid Big 12 squad is not a bad L, though it does probably push them out of any championship talk. I'm still in on Houston being a good squad, though. 

Not so good

(6) Texas A&M. Oh man, when are the big bad teams gonna learn to stop scheduling Appalachian State? A&M, we hardly knew ye. 

(8) Notre Dame. Just never got the offense going, I thought after a tough L to Ohio State, the Irish would be ready to bust out but they did not show up. Bad, bad loss. 

(19) Wisconsin. I've been hearing the skepticism about Wisconsin coming into this season and it seems to be justified. Washington State isn't some cream puff but you schedule them because you were planning on beating them. 

Next week's intriguing matchups:

(12) Brigham Young @ (25) Oregon (curious to see how Oregon bounces back from that UGA thrashing and if BYU can keep the winning going)

(22) Penn State @ Auburn (not as juicy as previous years, the Nittany Lions could really use a throwdown W here)

Mississippi State @ Louisiana State (SEC West matches are always a good time, even when both teams are down)

South Florida @ (18) Florida (curious to see if the Gators can get back on track)

UT-San Antonio @ (21) Texas (if the Longhorns can throw a beatdown on San Anton, that would be a head-turner)

(13) Miami @ (24) Texas A&M (oh, A&M, the game you had circled on the schedule is just an afterthought now...tsk tsk)

Fresno State @ (7) Southern Cal (Fresno always plays the Trojans tough, we'll see if they can't sneak an upset here)

(6) Oklahoma @ Nebraska (jk, lol! Remember when this was must-see TV?)