Week 2 is where the college football season starts to separate the real contenders from the early noise, and the quarterbacks in the spotlight are the ones carrying the most weight.
Big games are lined up all over the place - Texas vs Ohio State, Michigan vs Oklahoma among them - and with those matchups come real consequences. Some teams are trying to build a path toward the CFP.
Some players are trying to get a Heisman push rolling. Either way, the quarterback is usually the one who gets judged first.
Here are five Power 4 starters who enter Week 2 with the most pressure on their shoulders.
Bryce Underwood’s situation at Michigan is already getting uncomfortable. The former top quarterback recruit in the country arrived with massive expectations, but a rocky first season didn’t do much to calm the conversation.
His Week 1 showing also failed to show much progress, and now his hold on the starting job is being questioned. Michigan needs him to develop, and if that growth doesn’t come soon, Kyle Whittingham may have no choice but to make a change, even with Underwood’s massive NIL deal.
Arch Manning is back in the kind of game that first exposed how much work he still had to do. His starting debut for Texas last season came in the loss to Ohio State, where he struggled badly.
This time around, the matchup gives him a chance to show how much he has improved. Texas has the kind of support system a quarterback dreams about - a strong offensive line, a solid rushing attack, and elite receivers - so there are no excuses if Manning wants to live up to the Top 5 NFL prospect billing that has followed him.
Oklahoma State also enters Week 2 carrying a heavy dose of disappointment, and Drew Mestemaker is right in the middle of it. The Cowboys were one of the offseason’s most hyped teams, but that buzz vanished fast after the loss to Tulsa.
Mestemaker helped drive that optimism after his breakout season, but his Week 1 struggles were a major reason things went sideways. Now Oregon comes to Stillwater after a shaky outing of its own, and Mestemaker will need to put together an exceptional performance if Oklahoma State is going to come away with a win.
John Mateer gets a major test as Oklahoma takes on Michigan. Last season, when those two programs met, Mateer was dangerous with his legs but didn’t have his best passing day.
Now he’s trying to show he’s taken another step as a quarterback, and doing it against a strong Michigan defense would send a message. A big game here could be the start of a Heisman campaign and a major move toward getting Oklahoma back to the College Football Playoff.
Devon Dampier’s Week 1 was encouraging for Utah, but it came against a cupcake opponent, so it didn’t tell the full story of what the Utes are capable of under Morgan Scalley. Week 2 changes that. Utah’s first Power 4 matchup of Scalley’s career comes against Arkansas, and if the Utes are going to prove they belong in the CFP conversation and look like a Big 12 front-runner, this is the kind of game they need to control.
In Other News...
Michigans Opener Already Sparked A Response Fans Will Notice Against Oklahoma
Rod Moore did not sugarcoat Michigans season-opening showing against Western Michigan, calling it well below the standard the Wolverines expect. The reaction inside the program was immediate, too, with team captains calling an emergency player-only meeting to address what went wrong and to reset the tone before the schedule tightens up.
The response showed up on the practice field, where the defense ramped up its physical intensity in preparation for Oklahoma. Edge defender Dom Nichols also drew attention for both his strong play and his work ethic, a reminder that Michigan is trying to turn a flat opener into a sharper, more urgent version of itself before a much bigger test arrives. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan Win Is Now At Center Of A Stunning Official Fight
The final sequence of Michigans 13-12 win over Western Michigan has turned into more than a narrow nonconference finish. A reviewed Hail Mary added one second back onto the clock, and that extra snap led to the game-winning catch that kept the Wolverines on top. The Big Ten later backed the decision after its own video review, treating the ending as a properly administered piece of officiating in a game that was already tense enough on the field.
Now the dispute has moved from the scoreboard to the offices that govern the sport. The Mid-American Conference has formally appealed to the NCAA FBS Oversight Committee and the College Football Playoff, asking them to recognize Western Michigan as the winner. For Michigan, the result stands for now, but the unusual fight over a single second has made this one of the more talked-about finishes of the season. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan Win Sparked A Debate Fans Should Care About
Michigans disputed 13-12 win over Western Michigan did more than send people scrambling through the rule book. It also reignited a familiar gripe about how college football handles the last moments of a close game, with ESPNs Rece Davis arguing that fans would be better served by a single shared game clock and by live access to replay officials conversations so the process feels less opaque.
The sequence at the end of the game made the frustration easy to understand: the broadcast clock hit zero, but replay officials restored one second after using a synchronized system, and Michigan turned that final snap into the touchdown that decided it. Officials and conference representatives backed up the replay process, and Western Michigan president Richard N. Yensen acknowledged the clocks did not match while saying he did not view the outcome as unfair, but the larger transparency debate is unlikely to fade soon. [Read more 🡒]