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Live-ish Blog: Notre Dame, Texas A&M Among Upsets in Wild College Football Week 2

Sports Illustrated is tracking all of the stats, oddities and wackiness of college football.

Richard Johnson

In this story:

Week 1 of college football had everything fans could have asked for, including a triple-overtime in Texas and a 7–3 victory for Iowa. The Week 2 slate features some easier-looking games for top teams like Georgia and Ohio State, but there’s still room for plenty of chaos.

You can catch running commentary and analysis from Sports Illustrated’s Richard Johnson throughout the day here.

All times ET. Watch college football with fuboTV: Start a free trial today.

Night

  • Stop me where you’ve heard this before: Nebraska lost a one-score game. After a 52-yard field goal missed wide left, the Huskers fell 45–42 to Georgia Southern. That’s 10 straight losses in one-score games and 5–22 in such games over Scott Frost’s entire tenure. It’s almost unthinkable that a team could be this bad in these situations and it’s a conundrum that defied conventional wisdom and is undoubtedly deeply frustrating for the Huskers’ program. Frost came into the season on the hot seat, and this 1–2 start will do nothing to get him any closer to being off of it. As much as Frost’s buyout is, maybe it won’t sting as much as the $1.4 million the Huskers paid Georgia Southern in a losing effort. 
  • How about Kentucky? The Wildcats earn Mark Stoops the mark of the all-time winningest coach in Kentucky history with a 26–16 win over Florida. The Gators could not take advantage of numerous special teams mistakes by the Wildcats and UK got better over the course of the game as the offensive line gelled to look reminiscent of the Big Blue Wall we’ve seen for much of Stoops’s tenure. Kentucky beats Florida in consecutive years for the first time since 1977. Anthony Richardson just looked off in this game—many of the things that came easy in the win over Utah simply weren’t in this contest, and he was kept wholly in check in the run game. Without that added element, Florida’s offense had nothing in the way of explosive plays in this home loss. Two interceptions, including one pick-six, really got UK moving in the right direction.
  • In the late game, BYU pulled out the trickeration to take a second-half lead over No. 9 Baylor.
  • FIRST HAIL MARY OF THE SEASON
  • There’s no telling how many times this has happened, but with a pick-six to end the game, Kansas beats West Virginia 55–42 and wins in overtime by double digits.
  • Anthony Richardson is not having a good day today. His second interception again on an underneath route produces a disastrous result and Kentucky goes up 7 in Gainesville. 
  • FCS Eastern Kentucky takes down the MAC’s Bowling Green in seven whole overtimes:
  • Single safety occupied with a slot WR underneath? Watch Jordan Addison go over the top for six big ones. This USC offense is cookin’ with gas early.
  • How about this from Kentucky’s Dane Key? Kentucky’s offensive line has struggled so far tonight, but if they can give Will Levis some time, it’s clear Key’s here to play tonight.

Midday

Another ranked team falls—this time, it's Houston:

After the win regarding Houston coach Dana Holgorsen’s favorite caffeinated beverage:

  • For the second week in a row, Houston is headed to OT:
  • The giant killers strike again: Appalachian State took down a Texas A&M team that came into the year hot off of a recruiting title, but it hasn’t translated onto the field just yet.
  • Let’s recap a wild midday window: First, Marshall dispatched Notre Dame 26-21 outmuscling an anemic Irish offense and beating the Fighting Irish on the road. That was the first shockwave of the window ... before Washington State beat Wisconsin, 17-14 (also on the road) in a wacky game of their own using a late turnover to put a bow on it.
  • Well here’s a new one … Texas A&M was trying to tie the game up against App State. Instead their kicker hit a field goal fat? The Aggies remain in deep trouble at home.
  • For the second time in the Wisconsin-Washington State game, a quarterback threw an interception ... which was then fumbled. This time, it was the Badgers' turn:

Unfortunately, Wisconsin fumbled it back to Washington State two plays later.

  • Just in case you’re wondering how Texas A&M’s game against App State is going … halfway through the fourth, they’re down 17-14 to the Mountaineers and it’d be more if not for a kick return for a TD.
  • At this point we have to ask if Iowa is capable of scoring more than seven points. It is deeply unclear. (The Hawkeyes fumbled two plays after this.)
  • Just your garden-variety gain of yardage for Washington State here …
  • If you hadn’t been paying attention to the rock fight in Notre Dame stadium things just got very interesting.

The 20-point favorite Irish have been out-muscled most of the day by Marshall, and the dam may have just broke late with this pick-six to go up 11 points late. Steven Gilmore (yes, Stephon’s little brother) does a great family impersonation here to house this.

  • Not bad from Maryland. Not bad at all:
  • Iowa, as per usual, says YOU SHALL NOT PASS (or, run I guess):
  • This is simply to note for the historical record: Iowa has scored seven points against in-state rival Iowa State ... and they didn’t need a safety or a field goal to do so. 
  • Early housecall for Pitt with some beautiful blocking and *The Chicks voice* wiiiiiiiiiide open spaaaaaaaaces for an Israel Abanikanda 76-yard touchdown. 

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Noon

  • Alabama wins what was unexpectedly an incredible football game 20-19 after a late Will Reichardt field goal gives the Tide a hard-fought victory. This game had just about everything including Texas playing their absolute hearts out particularly on defense where the horns were fast and physical, something severely lacking from the program in recent years and can be attributed in part to the addition of former TCU head coach Gary Patterson as an assistant coach. But when the game was on the line, Bryce Young did Bryce Young things both on this fourth quarter touchdown:

… and this key third down for the Tide late in the game where Texas brought a blitz and Young beat it singlehandedly.

There’s a reason he won the Heisman last year and it’s plays like these. Bama’s offense was certainly not what we’ve come to expect from the Tide, but Young lifted them when it mattered the most and the Tide survived. 

  • Texas-Alabama remains outta this world. We catch our breath for the end of the game after a third quarter involving one of the strangest reffing decisions anyone’s ever seen. 

In the third quarter of Alabama-Texas, a key call deep in Alabama territory led to a lot of confusion. At the end of the day, it was called an incomplete pass.

  • Roll Tide?
  • The Northwestern Wildcats may be down, but at least they're creating moments like this:

Alabama and Texas are tied 10-10 at the half—not exactly the score we thought we’d see. It’s been quite the half in this game.The Horns came out firing with multiple deep shots to Xavier Worthy to test Bama’s corners while using as many blockers as possible to keep Dallas Turner and Will Anderson at bay. The first half pivoted for Texas on offense, however, when quarterback Quinn Ewers went down with an apparent injury to his non-throwing arm/shoulder.

ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported just before the start of the third quarter that the Longhorns starter will not return for the remainder of the contest after undergoing an X-Ray in the locker room.

Last year’s starter Hudson Card came into the game and Texas’ offense was certainly less effective, but still took some shots when they could. The other story is how well Texas’ defense has played keeping Bama’s firepower largely at bay. The Tide have also been sloppy with 11 first-half penalties, eight of which came on defense.

But Texas will be kicking itself for a missed opportunity on an impressive late first half drive where Texas opted to kick the field goal and take the sure points, that ended up being not-so-sure in the end. 

  • Things are heating up in Miami ... on the sidelines:
  • It's called "complimentary football":

Oh this is not good … Quinn Ewers goes down with a tough injury after hitting a huge shot play to get Texas knocking on the door of tying this game at 10 early.

Texas has to be kicking itself that this ball hit the turf for an incompletion on this deep shot. The Longhorns seemingly emptied the playbook on a really nice scripted opening drive, with plenty of different ways to get down field—including this shot play, making sure Big Will Anderson Jr. (top of the screen) is taken care of. After 15 plays, they kicked a field goal in the red zone to get something out of it, but the bad news came a play later when Alabama scored a touchdown.

  • Northwestern went down 21–0 early to Duke, but this is one play that went right for the Wildcats:
Published
Richard Johnson
RICHARD JOHNSON

Richard Johnson is known for his college sports expertise. He co-hosts the “Split Zone Duo” podcast and co-authored The Sinful Seven: Sci-fi Western Legends of the NCAA. Richard was the 2022 winner of the Edward Aschoff Rising Star Award, and previously appeared as an analyst on the SEC Network show “Thinking Out Loud.” He established an early career with ESPN and SB Nation before joining Sports Illustrated in 2021 and lives in Brooklyn.

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