Week 2 already has the feel of a weekend that can shake up the AP top 25.
A handful of teams that earned serious attention from voters after opening weekend now head into games that can turn quickly if the first quarter goes sideways. Some are stepping into hostile road environments. Others are carrying playoff hopes into matchups that look manageable on paper but can get messy in a hurry.
The biggest danger spot belongs to the nation’s top-ranked team, which heads to Austin for a primetime rematch with Texas. After a dominant home opener, this is a different test entirely: a major road game, one of four such trips on the schedule, and a setting where the home side opened as a slight favorite. Texas brings back plenty of experience, a more dangerous receiving group, and Arch Manning back under center, plus the kind of continuity and crowd energy that can rattle even the best visitors.
That puts a lot on Julian Sayin and Jeremiah Smith. They’ll need to handle a physical defense in a night-game atmosphere, and if the offense starts slowly or turns the ball over, the whole thing can tilt fast.
Texas, though, is staring at its own pressure point. The Longhorns are lined up against the No. 1 team in the country, one that comes equipped with the best wide receiver in the nation, a quarterback with far more experience, and a defense that remains one of the most imposing in college football despite losing key tacklers from last year.
For Texas, a home loss would immediately bring back questions about Manning’s progress and where the Longhorns fit in the SEC championship chase and the College Football Playoff picture. Manning has to keep the offense rolling, and the secondary and front seven have to keep Smith from taking over.
Michigan is another team worth watching closely. The Wolverines needed a last-second, controversial one-yard miracle to slip past Western Michigan, then still dropped out of the AP poll.
Even so, there’s enough experience on the roster and enough defensive toughness under Kyle Whittingham to make them dangerous. That matters here because this is the first real road test for the Sooners, and Michigan will have extra juice after last year’s loss in Norman.
There are still questions around whether John Mateer and the OU offense have actually taken a step forward, especially after last season’s meager rushing numbers and shaky blocking.
Alabama also walks into a tricky spot with redshirt freshman quarterback Keelon Russell coming off a strong debut through the air and on the ground in a rout of East Carolina. But recent history has not been kind to early road trips under Kalen DeBoer, and Kentucky’s crowd, along with a new and confident staff led by Will Stein, could make this a much tougher night than the rankings suggest.
The Wildcats have improved through the transfer portal and will try to get after the young quarterback while testing Alabama’s early run game and blocking. If the Tide start slowly or struggle to protect, Kentucky can hang around and make it a game.
Then there’s the Big 12 rematch between BYU and Arizona, a game with a built-in edge after last season’s double-overtime thriller that the Cougars escaped. Arizona has been circling this one, with Noah Fifita back at quarterback and a clear chance to make an early conference statement.
BYU’s Week 1 rout may have raised expectations, but it also sets up a classic trap possibility if execution slips. Even at home, these early league games against quality opponents can go sideways fast.
A loss in the Big 12 opener would complicate BYU’s path in a crowded league and raise fresh questions about how consistent the Cougars really are against better competition.
In Other News...
Ryan Coleman-Williams Already Faces Pressure After Alabama's Opener
Ryan Coleman-Williams gave Alabama an encouraging offensive jolt in the season-opening win over East Carolina, finishing with a team-high 130 receiving yards and showing why he was one of the most closely watched pieces of the passing game. Even with the production, his opener also came with some pointed scrutiny, as dropped passes and questions about his blocking tempered the buzz around a strong first outing.
Derek Meadows said Coleman-Williams has handled the attention with a focused mentality and a steady presence the rest of the way, the kind of response Alabama needs from one of its top targets. Meadows also voiced confidence in the receiving corps as a whole when it comes to doing its part in the run game and on the edge, a detail that should matter as the Tide turn their attention to Kentucky. [Read more 🡒]
Alabama Already Looks Right To Avoid Florida State's Biggest Mistake
Florida States 27-24 loss to SMU was another rough reminder of how quickly a promising start can turn into a slog when the standard slips. Under Mike Norvell, the Seminoles have gone from an upbeat rise to a program wrestling with the same issues over and over, and the frustration has become impossible to miss for a fan base that expected better after the early success.
For Alabama, the larger lesson is less about one game than about how carefully a post-Saban coaching search had to be handled. Norvell was part of the conversation for the Tide in the wake of Nick Sabans retirement, which shows how wide the net was cast, but this kind of late-season unraveling is exactly the sort of path Alabama had to avoid if it wanted stability at the top. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan Finish Just Reopened One Painful Alabama Debate
A strange finish at Michigan Stadium stirred up an old football grievance that Alabama fans know all too well. When a clock issue put one second back on the board in a recent Big Ten game, it gave Michigan one last chance to finish off Western Michigan, and it was hard not to think of the kind of ending that can linger for years when the final tick gets handled in a controversial way.
For Alabama, the memory goes back to its own painful extra-second moment, the sort of game that still gets replayed in conversation whenever late-clock decisions come up. Former Tide player Kevin Norwood has already said he wishes that extra time had never been restored, which tells you how deep those endings can cut when a team feels like a game turned on something that should have been over. [Read more 🡒]