College football Week 2 is in the books and here are the biggest winners and losers from the second full week of the 2023 college football season.
There were some big-time matchups on the schedule in College Football Week 2 and the results are going to have a major impact on the College Football Playoff race.
The most important outcome was the Texas win over Alabama. The Longhorns’ 10-point win over Alabama was the first double-digit home loss for the Crimson Tide in the Nick Saban era.
It’s worth asking if the Alabama dynasty is over. But what does it mean for Texas and the rest of college football? We examine that and more in our biggest winners and losers from College Football Week 2.
Winner: Texas playoff hopes
There was a buzz about Texas all offseason and finally, the Longhorns delivered on their potential with a sea-changing 38-28 win over Alabama.
Quinn Ewers found Xavier Worthy for a 44-yard touchdown in the second quarter and that set the tone for the biggest win Texas has had in years. Steve Sarkisian was looking for a defining win and got it on Saturday against his former boss Nick Saban.
As far as Texas playoff hopes, they got a huge boost on Saturday. Now, Texas just needs to win the Big 12 title with one loss and the Horns are dancing in the four-team playoff.
Even a two-loss Big 12 champion Texas could have an argument depending on the rest of the field, but they hold a tiebreaker over Alabama and that card will matter when comparing the Longhorns to other College Football Playoff contenders.
Texas should be a top-five team after that win though and if they can win the Big 12, they’ll be in the College Football Playoff.
Loser: Texas A&M football
The hope was that Texas A&M football would turn things around this season with the addition of Bobby Petrino as the offensive coordinator.
The offense has been better, but Texas A&M football suffered another bad loss on Saturday, on the road against Miami by the score of 48-33.
It’s one thing to lose, but to lose by double digits, against a Miami program that also struggled last season, is just a bad look, especially since the stadium was half empty.
Despite all of the talent, the defense is bad. Tyler Van Dyke is looking like the QB Mario Cristobal thought he was inheriting and tossed five touchdowns. Miami didn’t even run for 100 yards and went over 400 total against the A&M defense.
Offensively, Texas A&M football turned the ball over three times and failed to reach 100 yards rushing. It doesn’t mean the season is a failure, but the hot seat is getting warmer for Jimbo and this early-season loss doesn’t help.
Winner: Colorado
Colorado football was one of our winners from Week 1 of the college football season, and the Buffaloes are back after dismantling Nebraska 36-14 on national TV.
There was talk that Nebraska would be able to beat up Colorado in the trenches. The Huskers did run for over 200 yards, but Jeff Sims was a disaster and Colorado took advantage.
Shedeur Sanders was spectacular and completed 31-of-42 passes for 393 yards and two touchdowns. The game was tied 0-0 late in the second quarter when Sanders just took over.
All his playmakers like Travis Hunter and Dylan Edwards helped too, as did a defense that forced four Nebraska turnovers.
Some wondered if Colorado was a fluke after last week, but the Buffaloes look for real. Colorado State is up next, then we’ll see the Buffs play Oregon and USC.
After two weeks of college football, you can’t say any quarterback has been better than Sanders who is a legit Heisman candidate. Hunter might be too.
Can Colorado win the Pac-12 or be a real contender this college football season? We need to see more to believe that, but this program is back and all the credit goes to Coach Prime.
Loser: Nebraska football
Just like Colorado, Nebraska football also made our list of college football winners and losers from Week 1, however, the Huskers were a loser, just like they were in Week 2.
You don’t just get here by losing a game. It was the way that Nebraska football lost. It showed the massive difference between the Huskers and Colorado, a team that won one game last season.
It’s hard not to ask why couldn’t have Matt Rhule done the same thing. One reason it hasn’t happened so far, or, perhaps the No. 1 reason Rhule has failed so far is Jeff Sims.
He’s been terrible at quarterback, leading just three scoring drives in two games. Yes, there was a missed field goal, but in four drives inside the 30, he has fumbled twice, thrown an interception, and Nebraska football has scored three points.
The Huskers have a pretty good defense. They finished with eight sacks against Colorado, which was the most since the Big 12 title game in 2009. But Nebraska has 24 points in two games and seven of those were in garbage time against CU.
That’s not going to cut it and we’ll see if Nebraska football can recover from choosing Jeff Sims to be its starting quarterback this season.
Winner: Pac-12
The Pac-12 conference is probably going to cease to exist, at least in terms of major college football, but the league is going out with a bang.
Washington State upset 19th-ranked Wisconsin on Saturday night, beating the Badgers for a second straight season and adding another feather in the cap of the Pac-12, which went 2-0 in Big Ten-Pac-12 games on Saturday, thanks to the Colorado win.
Oregon almost got upset but survived. USC rolled again and Colorado is the biggest story in all of college football right now.
Utah also rallied to beat Baylor, while Washington has dominated through two weeks, not to mention Oregon State and Washington State — the two final Pac-12 holdovers — are also 2-0.
The offseason was terrible for the Pac-12 conference, but so far, the 2023 college football season couldn’t have started better.
Loser: SEC
Alabama could be on this list, but if the Tide win out, and win the SEC title, they’ll be in the playoff. Yet, it wasn’t great for the SEC for Texas to beat the Crimson Tide or to see Texas A&M football get beat in an ACC-SEC matchup — the same thing that happened to South Carolina and LSU last week.
Georgia looks great. Tennessee does too, but the SEC has lost three head-to-head matchups with the ACC and the idea of the super deep league is taking a hit. Florida also lost to Utah for instance.
There is no shortage of quality teams in the SEC, however, the start hasn’t been ideal for those who say the league is better than the rest of college football.