Week 2 of college football was nuts. It took me back to 2007 when all hell broke loss, starting with then-FCS Appalachian State handing No. 5 Michigan one of the worst losses in its history, getting paid to block a field goal at The Big House to burn the moment into the minds of Ohio State fans and other fanbases that despise the Wolverines.
15 years later, I’m hoping we’re going in that direction again. It might be because my favorite school made the case for the Sun Belt to replace the Pac 12 in the power five, but we’ll get to that in a second.
I’ve done this post (almost) every season since 2014 or 2015, I can’t remember, but we are here to look at the Good, Bad and the Ugly of Week 2.
Here’s how I break it down:
THE GOOD: FCS over FBS team
THE BAD: Power 5s losing to Group of Five schools
THE UGLY: FBS teams destroying FCS teams
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THE GOOD
Holy Cross 37, Buffalo 31
-No, it is not the Holy Cross Rudy got into after telling his sob story to the Priest, these are the Crusaders of the Patriot League. They knocked off Buffalo, the team you easily forget is in the MAC. The Bulls with 34 second left, tied the game with a field goal, leaving Holy Cross with little time to get into field goal range.
But who needs a field goal when you’re Holy Cross and you toss up a 45-yard Hail Mary as time expires?!
The most recognition Holy Cross athletics has received since they were mentioned in the Boston College basketball point-shaving scandal in the late 1970s. Congrats, Crusaders!
THE BAD (a.k.a. Rise of the Sun Belt)
Marshall 26, (8) Notre Dame 21
As a Notre Dame fan, this game was hard to watch. Like a fool, I looked at the 21-10 loss at (2) Ohio State in week 1 as a moral victory. “Hey, at least they weren’t down by 28 at halftime!”, I said to myself. Of course Marcus Freeman would get his first win in front of the Notre Dame Stadium crowd on a sunny Saturday, where nothing could possibly go wrong.
Again, I’m a fool.
Notre Dame’s offense, which looked slightly better than Iowa’s in week 1 (which isn’t saying much), continued the struggles it had in the 2nd half against the Buckeyes, and Tyler Buchner handed them an upset on a silver platter with a pick six. Not only that, backup Drew Pyne followed that up with an interception of his own when Buchner left with what is now a season-ending injury, only to seal the loss and give another inferior football program its greatest win in team history at Notre Dame, which has happened a lot more since the days of Charlie Weis.
Notre Dame is pulling out its green jersey for this Saturday’s home game against Cal, and these green jerseys stink! Give me the 2005 USC game green jerseys or the 70s throwbacks.
The green jerseys are supposed to come out for big games, like, I don’t know, Clemson? But Cal? Well, Drew Pyne will look good getting sacked and throwing picks in this, I guess…
Appalachian State 17, (6) Texas A&M 14
All the hype surrounding the Aggies entering the 2022 season, and two weeks in, Jimbo Fisher and company took on the role of pre-national title Georgia by losing at home in a game everyone expects them to win.
What makes this upset by the Mountaineers even better is the video from A&M’s “Midnight Yell Practice”, where its overall-clad leader pulled out every stereotype about Appalachia, as Saturday’s App State win made this video go viral…
I’m so happy they expanded Kyle Filed so more Aggies fans could watch Texas A&M fail.
Unlike Marshall upsetting Notre Dame, there’s always the possibility that Appalachian State could beat you. They almost knocked off North Carolina in Week 1, but couldn’t win with 61 points and that led to Mack Brown doing a dance I can only call “the windshield wipers”…
Georgia Southern 45, Nebraska 42
The best 3-9 team in the country last season fired their head coach Scott Frost after this one after being kind enough to not leave him behind in Ireland after the opening loss to Northwestern in Week 0.
If there’s anything that made me feel better about being a Notre Dame after the dumpster fire of a performance against Marshall this past Saturday is knowing I could be a Cornhusker fan, which is way worse.
Outside of the “It’s Corn” viral video, Nebraska is irrelevant, and I can prove it.
What conference are they in?
Did you think Big 12 at first? Sorry! It’s the Big Ten.
See?! We haven’t cared about Nebraska for THAT long.
At this point, the Huskers moving to the Big Ten seems like an act of charity by the conference, who will soon add USC and UCLA. The only upside for Nebraska is that they’ll save the Trojans and Bruins money on jet fuel being the shortest flight on the schedule if the Big Ten puts both in the west division in 2024.
“I can’t imagine a more beautiful thing!”- The Corn Kid
THE UGLY
LSU 65, Southern 17
As a Notre Dame fan who lives in Cincinnati, I learned to hate Brian Kelly in the same way Bearcat fans do. He left my team before the big bowl game to somewhere better. Although, we could have that debate about whether or not LSU will be better than his tenure at Notre Dame.
Everyone who isn’t an LSU fan enjoyed Kelly falling on his face in the opener in New Orleans against Florida State, who haven’t been the same since Jimbo.
So what do you do after a loss like the one LSU had to start the season? Simple, you go back to Baton Rogue and have your cupcake in the form of Southern, as the Tigers scored 51 of their points in the first half.
This is the only highlight worth showing from the game…
I can’t blame this LSU fan. He wants a good look at the team which will soon find itself losing at Auburn in a few weeks.
WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN
(1) Alabama 20, Texas 19
Texas was almost back but failed, and Alabama fans are freaking out after a near-loss in Austin. So we all win.
SEAN GALLAGHER HAS THOUGHTS 