Texas, Tennessee & Nebraska dominate while Notre Dame is exposed + More Week 2 reaction 🏈

Intro hello and welcome in it's a Sunday takeaway version of always college football we appreciate you being here as you guys know that have been with us for a while on our Sunday show it's kind of streaming Consciousness okay you need to check back in tomorrow that's our upon further review show and that's when we dive a little bit deeper because today is kind of surface level reaction so if you're looking for just a touch deeper we'll do that tomorrow on Monday show the 10 things we learned but today we kind of dive into some initial thoughts on what we sawest yesterday kind of putting a bow on Saturday's activities let's start we usually start in chronological order not usually by the biggest story or the biggest game or the most surprising outcome we'll start in chronological order and we will start with the Texas Longhorns um Wow win the coin toss take the ball right down the field that resulted in a touchdown wiped out by the penalty right that was a clinic yesterday a clinic by the Longhorns and Steve sarkeesian from the very beginning to involve the tight end like gunar Helm to be able to continue to get Quinn Yer super comfortable by being outrageously outrageously efficient on third down especially in the first half they were eight of 10 on third down in the first half while holding Michigan to just one of five on third Downs in the first half that thing was 243 at halftime and it felt like it could have been a lot more it felt like there was was plays that were left on Texas could do whatever they wanted vs Michigan the field by the Longs and couple plays that were wiped out had the missed field goal what have you that was a really impressive impressive start their receivers and we've kind of talked and wondered about this Texas right looked like to me their receivers have a lot of juice now last year you think about what Xavier worthy was and how we saw on Thursday just how good he is by the way in the NFL in his debut but how good he was after the catch right it's looking more and more and we said this on Thursday's show in the preview it's looking more and more like this Texas wide receiver group all of their receivers now can operate after the catch I mean that I think about half of their total receiving yardage was actually after the catch in this particular game so very very impressive performance by their offense how about their defense to hold Michigan to 80 yards rushing on 23 carries that's the lowest rushing yardage total for Michigan since 2020 they had just one carry that went for more than nine yards and it went for 12 by the way so in case you're wondering how that big run resulted that's why and people are blaming Davis Warren I think Davis Warren is who he is I think he's a fine player I don't think he's a guy that can carry you to victory this has to be a group that can run the footb football this has to be a group that can play great defense this has to be an offensive line that mows people over and they're not capable of doing that against the teams that they might face at the top of the sport Allah Texas potentially Ohio State Down the Road Penn State if they get the opportunity to play them it's going to be tough I think for Michigan this year look we said from the beginning I think Michigan and Florida State at the very beginning of the year in the preseason I said those are the two teams that are most likely to finish outside the top 25 those are the two tees that have the biggest question marks about all their fans got really upset with us we've been Pro Michigan for years years have loved what they've had have loved their personnel have loved their identity we have been super supportive of the Wolverines on this show they're not the same team they're not even close and while the game on Saturday was decisive it could have been worse that's the scary thing if you're Michigan it could have been worse there's a lot still to play for for sure but turnover s offensive line play the secondary which is supposed to be a strength having Corners opposite will Johnson getting picked on they got some problems at Michigan and while I think they're still going to be a tough team to beat I don't think they're anywhere near the top of the Big 10 even though Penn State we'll talk about them in a minute Oregon we'll talk about them in a minute I think really Beyond Ohio State there's a lot of question marks right now kind of across the board for in the Big 10 so Michigan bad performance but Texas man we and we're going to find this out as the season goes along was that about and we'll ask this question about a bunch of teams this week was that more about Michigan being average or was that more about Texas being dominant I happen to think it's a little bit more of Texas kind of having a bit more of a takeaway about how great that team might be and Michigan kind of is who we thought they were they're a solid team they're an eight and4 9 and3 team maybe this year but man they're going to have their hands full and Texas I think is a legitimate National Championship Contender we've thought that for a while so not super surprised by the performance yesterday thought they'd win convincingly they did they did so in dominant fashion was were just super impressed with what they did on both sides of the ball let's go next to the 230 window and the 230 window was an intriguing one 2:30 Central Time by the way uh Notre Dame Notre Dame was never a real treat in the CFP Notre Dame I we' praised Notre Dame for their performance last week and how they figured things out in the fourth quarter and going on the road and showing a level of toughness and and all that stuff like they deserved tons of credit for their Victory against texasa and the way they won it and the way they kind of took over the game as the game went along and made the critical plays as the game went along but I still don't recall on this show ever jumping to a conclusion that Notre Dame is all of a sudden a national championship Contender I don't know where people thought that like A&M's an 8-4 team they beat him and they they looked good in the process A&M might not even be an eight and4 team by the way I think that's probably their ceiling maybe it's slightly beyond that but about an eight- win team beating them the way they beat them and didn't really have me feeling as if Notre Dame all of a sudden has joined the ranks of the elite I think Notre Dame's a good solid team I think playoff Contender I think they'll still probably be in a good position to get in the playoff but man they they're just not Elite offensively and and they didn't showcase any level of elite play when they played A&M like I think their backs are good the offensive line played pretty good down the stretch but that offensive line and that offense really in general not good the interception too by Riley Leonard I know look he was a little bit banged up they say he has an upper body injury into the first half all this other stuff but that interception with six minutes left was just it's just an in excuse usable decision I mean it's an inexcusable it just can't happen you absolutely can't happen you give the ball back to them they're at the 50 yard line they can go down kick the game-winning field goal just can't happen the guy's play too much football to make a mistake like that I think Notre Dame has a lot of soul searching to do and Marcus Freeman hasn't quite figured out the recipe you read about their preparation this week super physical Tuesday practice super physical Wednesday practice trying to jump start the engine not allowing them to kind of rest on their Laurels because they've run into this situation in the past hey they're reading their press clippings a bit great performance great win and then boom come back the next week not not good right we've seen them play poorly in weeks two in the past so Marcus Freeman maybe adjusting his approach and it just hasn't taken yet but here's the issue I think your quarterback is inconsistent throwing the football he has been from day one I think gley Leonard's a great athlete I think he's got a ton of ability with the ball in his hands but I do think he's in in throwing it that's who he's been and I just don't know at this point if Notre Dame their defense did an amazing job by the way like the defense they held Northern Illinois without a touchdown the final 50 minutes in the game they the offense really had no opportunity Notre Dame had 11 possessions two ended in interceptions five ended in putts and two ended in Block field goals like how it just too many mistakes from Notre Dame and I I wonder too as we continue to move forward the four team playoff right the four playoff and we've kind of hypothesized about this throughout the offseason the four team playoff you had to be nearly perfect to make the playoff right like the F like you didn't have an opportunity to stray you had to be great you couldn't lose more than one if you did you were likely going to be on the outside looking in so you had to thread the needle now in the 12 team playoff era guys are going to let their guards down guys are going to have subpar performance and I think we're going to have more inconsistency potentially at the top of the sport because Notre Dame all week was saying oh you're in the playoff punch their ticket to the playoff with that win against A&M the schedule's easy yeah but everyone can still get you if you play poorly and you refuse to execute heartbreaking defeat for Notre Dame but still a lot to play for and a lot to improve this is the first win by Northern Illinois by the way over a top 10 opponent uh in the first by a Mac team against an AP top five team the Mac was previously 0 and 51 so just to put that loss in perspective by Notre Dame credit to Northern Illinois they took it to him and hey they were not afraid they actually I think in many ways handled the line of scrimmage better than most teams at the G5 level would do against a group like that let's go next to the night cap Tennessee and NC State just a Tennessee’s defense is elite couple of notes here we've spent all offseason talking about nicoo eam malava and and it's understandable and the Tennessee offense and how exciting it's going to be and Joe Milton was really the issue last year so now that they're going to get improved quarterback play this Tennessee team goes from being a solid team good team to now a potentially great team all that's well and good I thought Nico had his ups and downs in the game but let's just acknowledge what this team really is they're an outfit that can kill you on defense they they can wear you out on the defensive side and I think Grayson McCall he's going to be sore today and that NC State offense 143 yards of offense that was an incredible performance by Tim Banks his defensive staff he's the defensive coordinator there at Tennessee incredible performance it never felt like NC State could get anything manufactured offensively just completely locked down all over the field how about these for a couple numbers that I that I came across as I was kind of reading up on the game this morning doubl digigit tackles for loss 16 different players accounted for 13 tackles for loss they held NC State to 39 rushing yards had three takeaways two in the second half and Tennessee just completely shut them down completely shut them down in the best possible way so I think it's look Nico we're all hyped up about his potential as we should be and he's going to he's a Young quarterback he's going to have some Growing Pains there's going to be weeks where he's Elite and there's going to be weeks where maybe he isn't so good Tennessee has the defense that will keep them in every game regardless of how their offense plays and ultimately hey when you score 50 you're winning the game but the defense gave that Tennessee offense so many different opportunities to be in those positions and the Run game and everything else like I'm very bullish with what I saw on Tennessee this past weekend because hey I know that they're going to score Josh Hy's always scored but the defense man that's the difference between being a good team and elite team and they have guys on the defensive line that can flat out take over the game let's go to another game in the night cap Nebraska and Colorado Nebraska was a buzz saw against Colorado how about the fact that Colorado in just a complete buzz saww by the way I mean Colorado got crushed along the line of scrimmage how about Nebraska six sacks interception to the house four pbus uh just over 50% completion percentage complete dominant performance by their defense absolutely amazing and I I think to the Past defense to we know that this is a good group upfront defensively but Nebraska's back end man they did a great job and many people after the performance that we saw from Colorado thought hey you know what they they're may be a little bit better up front no they're not they're they're not better up front and frankly when you watch Colorado shador Sanders holds the ball too long I mean we can blame the offensive line we can blame all these other things there were a few different times on Saturday night where I felt like he held it way too long and that Ball's got to get out I mean your quarterback you have to help your offensive line to an extent and I know he's trying to keep his eyes downfield he's trying to hold it and allow it to make plays you got to get the ball out I mean your offensive line struggling get the ball out help him out and I I need to go back and and probably chart how long he held it the time that it took between snapping when he released the ball but I would have bet it's probably in the mid threes three three and a half which is on the high side and that's ask a lot that offensive line to hold up for that long to allow those excellent receivers to break loose the other thing I would say too is that Colorado they're way too one-dimensional man and I know that they're down 28 nothing or whatnot but they're way too onedimensional like the threat of the Run has to be there to an extent it has to be there and there it just wasn't so tremendous amount of credit from Nebraska the defensive performance was exceptionally good offense good early not quite as good in the second half so still things to kind of figure out but hey they they didn't make any critical mistakes that would put them in position to kind of give the momentum back to the Buffalo so I I thought it was a and by the way wasn't it fun to just see Nebraska re-engaged I mean Nebraska has gone through some hard times man there's no denying that Nebraska has been on The Struggle Bus for nearly 20 years feels like no I'm not saying they're back yet I'm not going to go that far just yet but it's feeling like things for Nebraska are trending in the right direction are they not I I hope Nebraska fans sense that as well because from the outside looking at it it just feels like there's an energy there's a momentum there's a naturally a lot of excitement but Matt rule is a program Builder and almost feels like well I don't think Colorado's a good program I don't I think they're fine I think they're explosive I think they're exciting I think they're fun to watch and I hope that things can get going for Prime I don't think you can necessarily put a bow on Nebraska and say oh yeah they're big 10 contenders just yet I don't know if I'm going to go that far because of the win against Colorado but I do think that in time whether it's this year next year the year after that I'd be shocked if Matt rule doesn't have this group in position to start hanging banners like I think he's that good and I think the the steps that they've already taken from year one to year two feels like the improvements they're not incremental they're significant so very exciting for them let's go next to Oklahoma State and Arkansas this is an early game so I said chronological order Oklahoma State services Arkansas clearly not the case like I said streaming Consciousness um watching the first half I'm sitting there thinking man Arkansas is going to be a problem for a lot of folks right Arkansas is going to be a team that's going to be real tough to handle they're explosive they have good weapons they have fast quarterback that can create a lot with his legs defensive line can take over the game and then you look at the box score it's like man how did aransa lose this game they had 650 yards of offense and they held Oklahoma State to just three 385 well there were a lot of missed opportunities I feel like for Arkansas they could have been up probably 287 they could have been up maybe 28 zip instead you have punts fumbles uh you have Ramsay missed the field goal and then they give it up on down so there were missed opportunities missed assignments uh and then you got to also give credit to Oklahoma State who started to get a little bit better field position there in the second half and a team that never pressed the panic button I mean it was understandable when you look at Oklahoma State man they're in a hole at home against the team that they were favored against a lot of Buzz about Oklahoma State punching their ticket to the playoff veteran roster Elite running back well the running game's not going the running game was Bad News Bears I mean they ran for 59 yards in the game so to see the passing game kind of elevate to neutralize that Gap was impressive Oklahoma state does not win that game last year Alan Bowman would not have been capable I think of throwing their way to Victory last year but this year when olly Gordon bottled up things not really going your way this team just weathered the storm made some adjustments defensively in the second half and found a way to get it done at the very end just a tremendous resolve from Oklahoma State yesterday and battling back flipping the script at halftime and then ultimately winning the game game in overtime let's go to some close calls Penn State my goodness I Penn State escapes Bowling Green mean defensively when was the last time we saw Penn State play that poorly defensively in the first half I mean I I I really I mean they averaged giving up almost eight yards of play on 36 naaps think about that 24 points 286 yards and nearly eight yards of play two Bowling Green if that was against Ohio State think about what that might have looked like well what the heck happened at halftime because in the second half Bowling Green was held to just 89 total yards three points and three yards a play and and not to mention a couple turnovers that were forced that made this thing look a whole lot better so the tackling was terrible it was a really poor performance but if there's one thing that I know I know that Penn State overall this season is going to be pretty salty on defense defense I'm not super concerned about that but that was a little bit of a eyebrow raising moment when I'm watching them in the first half just didn't look like it looked like there were imposters wearing Penn State uniforms that is not the defense that I've come to expect in Happy Valley over the last handful of years so glad to see that things got corrected after halftime but fortunate there because that thing was ugly there in the first half speaking of a ugly Oregon they're two- Oregon has yet to look impressive this season 0 but I'm not sure you can have a less impressive start to the season a season that's expected to contend for a new championship in the new league a season that's expected to contend for a potential National Championship all that stuff is great but man they got issues right now and here's what's concerning yeah they won the game tons of credit tons of respect for Boise State they're a giant killer Boise State's always been an elite program not at all surprised to see them go to Eugene and give Oran all they want but at the same time when you need multiple returns for touchdowns to have TZ Johnson and Noah Whittington go back on a punt and kickoff return respectively for touchdowns and you had moments in the passing game that looks pretty good but the offensive line man like this is supposed to be one of the strengths of the team one of the better offensive lines not just in the Big 10 but in the entire country and yet Dylan Gabriel I mean he was sacked four times in the first half uh this was a group that gave up I think five sacks last year so kind of frightening here in the first couple weeks to see Oregon what's supposed to be a strength of their team the line of scrimmage looking like it's everything but a strength so they got to get that situated and I thought that things were handled appropriately by Dan Lanning there after the game saying we got things to figure out we got to coach them up like we got to get better 100% agree with that because there's a lot of room for improvement from the Oregon Ducks Georgia rolled Ohio State rolled Bama slow start early figured things out Some SEC teams looked good and some didn’t and poured it on there in the fourth quarter but not a great performance through three quarters of action uh actually I mean everything but being a great performance up 14 13 they're through three fourth quarter they outscore South Florida 28-3 still some things to iron out that one just not just never really had much rhythm going there in the first half it was just not a great performance by any stretch of the imagination but it was nice to see Jam Miller and Jaylen Miller will kind of get going as this game went along uh ol Miss continues to look outstanding very impressed with what I saw from them uh Missouri shutting out Buffalo 38 nothing defense has been the question mark for Missouri coming into the season I'm not sure they've been challenged yet but still very very impressive how about the the performance by South Carolina we were on the call South Carolina's defensive line and secondary frankly all three levels of their defense they are I'm not sure that they SEC Championship Contender status just yet but they got LSU coming to town next week they got ol Miss coming to town in a couple weeks they go to Alabama they have Missouri at their place late in the year like South Carolina's going to be if they can stay healthy they're going to be a huge problem for teams and whether or not their offense can manufacture enough points to pull off upsets is to be determined but I'm telling you man that defense and that defensive line in particular they are unbelievably disruptive so anyone that has South Carolina on the schedule be super careful and that starts with LSU who did not play great I might add this past weekend against uh Nicholls but either way be careful next week Houston and Oklahoma really a tremendous performance defensively from Houston uh wow I mean I I did not anticipate that one being super competitive but Houston's defense and Willie Fritz and that group man they gave Oklahoma all they wanted and made things very difficult for the Sooners there is the game went along never really had a whole lot going offensively a decent start my goodness man that was a real close call as the game went along they hung on for dear life 1612 uh few other games that we'll get to Illinois nice win over ranked Kansas team maybe we're a year early on Illinois people kind of liked them last year maybe they were just a little bit too far out in front of their skis Auburn goodness gracious what color jersey are you wearing they had how many turnovers five um a lot of people crushing pton Thorne I thought there were a couple bad decisions for sure I also did not think the wide receivers played well whatsoever that was a group that was supposed to be significantly improved I thought the receivers based on what we saw week one massive regression and then the decision- making for pton Thorne he was pressing and trying to do a lot a couple picks there at the end that made the score look even worse just not good decision-making not a good performance from Auburn whatsoever that's a black eye I think for pton Thorne and for Hugh FES thought for sure they were going to be 4 and0 when Oklahoma came to town here in a couple weeks obviously big loss and huge win for Cal Justin Willcox their head coach and the ACC Syracuse gets a big win Over Georgia Tech hey Kyle McCord baby nearly 400 yards of offense and four touchdowns so that was a big win as well and then Clemson bounces back into big way against AB State people thought that game would be close Clemson puts it on them 66 points in the process five touchdowns from their quarterback Cape kumnick if we missed your Game cawk trophy I I get I got to watch that game we were go we were on at the exact same time did not get a chance to watch it I was doing South Carolina Kentucky that game was going on on CBS I believe I have not had a chance to watch it I'm going to watch it we will revisit it on Monday edition of always college football thanks for being here like I said streaming Consciousness if we missed your game if we didn't highlight your team check back with us again tomorrow that's our upon further review show so we'll talk a little bit deeper a little bit more about some of the big storylines coming out of the week and for all of us here at always college football for Mark Jake Jack the other Jack I'm Greg we hope you have an amazing Sunday Monday and remember it's always college football hey guys it's Greg maroy thanks for watching Always college football make sure you like rate and subscribe to ESPN's YouTube channel and wherever you listen to your podcast