Early season games have never been more dangerous in college football.
Rather than build teams with depth and continuity though the painstaking development of high school recruits, teams remake their roster from year to year through the transfer portal.
Even some of the nation鈥檚 elite programs are still getting organized when the campaign begins.
On another front, danger lurks among the Group of 5 and even some FCS schools that are hired to play warm-up games against Power 5 opponents. Competitive parity is a thing in college football.聽聽
So as Missouri looks to deliver a breakthrough season and grab its spot on the national stage, two things jump about its 2-0 start.
First, there is great value in a gradual ramp-up in the schedule. The Tigers had plenty to clean up during the first two weeks and they got to do that in low-stress wins over Murray State and Buffalo. Now they should be ready to face a very good Boston College team.
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Second, Missouri powered through some mishaps and finished off those victories with some efficiency. After seeing some other results in the first two weeks 鈥 like Notre Dame losing to Northern Illinois 鈥 that can鈥檛 be taken for granted.
Writing for , Brandon Marcello assessed the landscape:
Week 2 was a reminder to never underestimate the frequency of upsets, even when everything聽seems聽so clear cut in favor of the big dogs.聽
Northern Illinois delivered the biggest upset of the week -- and perhaps the season -- with its 16-14 shocker at No. 5 Notre Dame. Nationally ranked Kansas fell to Illinois. NC State was bludgeoned by Tennessee. No. 4 Alabama struggled through three quarters against pesky South Florida. No. 8 Penn State looked asleep against a feisty and well-coached Bowling Green.
There are no guarantees in the sport, even when the favorites win. AP Top 25 teams have lost six games to unranked opponents in the first two weeks of the season, the most since 2000. With so many top-15 teams nearly choking and playing with their food in Week 2, you can bet more upsets are on the way.
Big 12 challengers Oklahoma State and Kansas State had to rally for nonconference wins against Arkansas and Tulane, respectively. No. 15 Oklahoma didn't quite look ready for the SEC in a 16-12 win against Houston, a team that was thrashed at home by UNLV in Week 1.聽
And what about Oregon, the team so many -- including myself -- labeled as Ohio State's primary challenger in the Big Ten? The Ducks, err, Cardiac Quacks, pulled out a late-night squeaker against Boise State to remain undefeated, but not without raising more questions about their offensive line.
THE GRIDIRON CHRONICLES
Here is what folks have been writing about college football:
Brett Friedlander, Saturday Down South: 鈥淐al endeared itself to its new conference cousins by taking down an SEC opponent on Saturday. New coaches continue to energize Boston College and Syracuse. And Virginia finally appears to have turned the corner and is heading in the right direction. The ACC has as much quality depth as it鈥檚 had in ages, which is nice. But to anyone other than those in Berkeley, Chestnut Hill, Charlottesville, Upstate New York and the league office in Charlotte, the improvement to the middle of the conference standings is little more than a tree falling in a remote forest. It might make noise when it hits the ground. But it will go unnoticed if there鈥檚 nobody around to hear it. That鈥檚 why the best thing to happen to the ACC in Week 2 of the college football season was Clemson looking like Clemson again. Yes, I know it was Appalachian State, a team Clemson should never have trouble beating anywhere 鈥 especially Death Valley in a home opener 鈥 regardless of the Mountaineers鈥 history of monumental upsets. But it鈥檚 not the result or the opponent that mattered here. The aesthetics of the performance are much more important.鈥
Pete Fiutak, College Football News: 鈥淕eorgia聽is awesome. Everything against that team this year has to be cheerfully blown off. All the worries about the Clemson program, and Dabo Swinney, and the season were in hyperdrive after a painful 34-3 loss to No. 1 Dawgs - and wow did things change up fast. Appalachian State聽is supposed to be good enough to win the Sun Belt title, and it might be, but it just caught a two-piece with no fries from the Tigers. You all worried about the Clemson offense? Try 712 yards and five touchdown passes on a 24-of-26 day from Cade Klubnik, and a renewed attitude for the entire team at just the right time. Beat NC State, then Stanford, and then take out Florida State on the road, and that Georgia thing might just be a forgotten blip.鈥
Andrea Adelson, : “Florida State's first two games exposed not only flaws in what should have been team strengths but also a general lack of cohesion and leadership that has led to mistrust on the field. What's more, all of this played out with a national television audience watching and with the school's lawsuit against the ACC challenging the grant of rights as a backdrop. The Seminoles have not looked fast, explosive or powerful. Rather, they allowed Georgia Tech and Boston College to be the aggressors, dictating exactly how the first two games of the season would go. Meanwhile, offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Alex Atkins will miss his third game Saturday as he serves an NCAA-mandated three-game suspension for recruiting violations. Norvell has vowed to be better as his team attempts to hit the reset button on its season against Memphis. The question, of course, is this: Is it too late?”
Brad Crawford, : “Can you hear it? That's the sound of Texas knocking on the door of its first national title game appearance since 2009 if this team's heightened level of elite play continues. In the prelims, the Longhorns are this beauty contest's overwhelming favorite to best Georgia at the top of the polls. We've only tasted the appetizer, but no team nationally has looked more impressive over the first two weeks of the season coming out of Saturday's beatdown of Michigan. The defending national champions were punched in the mouth, kicked in the stomach and left in the alley by a squad on a mission to impress. This is exactly what the SEC thought it was getting in the College Football Playoff contender.”
Matt Hayes, USA Today: 鈥淏y the time it ended last weekend, Oklahoma had 252 total yards, punted eight times and averaged 5.2 yards per pass attempt in a four-point win over Houston.聽 All of that ugly underscored a growing narrative that 鈥 fair or not, real or not 鈥 has taken hold. Texas is is new SEC darling, the Sooners are the team tagging along. Even though Oklahoma and coach Brent Venables have won two of three games against Sarkisian and Texas, even though one of Texas鈥 two losses in last year鈥檚 breakout season was to the Sooners, there鈥檚 skepticism in and outside Norman.聽 The same Oklahoma that couldn鈥檛 stop anyone in Venables' first season lost twice by a combined eight points in the 2023 regular season to straighten the curves. That is, until Arizona thumped the Sooners in the Alamo Bowl, and until fans booed often last weekend during the uninspiring win over a rebuilding Houston team that was blown out by UNLV a week earlier. If you think that鈥檚 a problem, let me introduce karma: In two weeks, after this weekend鈥檚 home game against Tulane, Oklahoma will play its first SEC game against white-hot Tennessee.聽It was Vols coach Josh Heupel, who won a national title in 2000 as a plucky quarterback at Oklahoma, who helped kickstart the Sooner鈥檚 two decades of dominance over Texas with a Heisman Trophy finalist season. And it was Heupel who was summarily fired as offensive coordinator after the 2014 season 鈥 a move that, to this day, still motivates him.鈥澛
MEGAPHONE
鈥淲e gotta to start having some kind of accountability to this. I understand that this is a free and open world, that everybody is not a journalist. Everybody is not an analyst. Everybody really hasn鈥檛 put in a lot of work to do what you all do. I鈥檓 thankful for many of y鈥檃ll that take your job and your craft serious, and consequently you get facts before you run with false narratives. But please know that stuff affects people. Me. You鈥檝e been attacking me my whole life, so I鈥檓 good, but other people that鈥檚 involved, band members, Buffs faithful and alumni and all that, sometimes they don鈥檛 know what to believe, and often times in life we believe the first thing we hear, in which we shouldn鈥檛.鈥
Colorado coach Deion Sanders, whining about his critics.