Best of Week 2: Arch’s signature win and two incredible turnarounds

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  Kyle BonaguraSep 13, 2026, 12:51 AM ET

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  • Covers college football.
  • Joined ESPN in 2014.
  • Attended Washington State University.

Anyone who changed the channel, say, halfway through the third quarter of Saturday's high-stakes matchup between No. 1 Ohio State and No. 4 Texas seemingly had good reason. With the Buckeyes leading 23-3, everything about the way the game had unfolded suggested the finish would bring more of the same.

Texas and quarterback Arch Manning didn't live up to the moment. The Longhorns had struggled to generate much of anything offensively, and Manning was headed toward another disappointing performance against the Buckeyes.

What followed was the kind of response that can alter a season -- and, with that, a legacy.

After scoring just three points on their first eight drives, Manning guided the Longhorns on three straight touchdown drives -- the last capped by a 1-yard touchdown run from Hollywood Smothers with 25 seconds left to shock Ohio State, 24-23.

This wasn't Texas relying on big plays, either. The Longhorns' final three drives went for 15 plays for 91 yards, 13 plays for 72 yards and 12 plays for 73 yards -- 40 plays for 236 yards over three drives -- with a healthy mix of runs and passes that kept Ohio State off balance.

For Manning, the turnaround was especially significant. By the end, he had turned what looked destined to become another round of uncomfortable questions into the biggest win of his career. This wasn't a comprehensive, leave-no-doubt showing, but in Week 2 that hardly matters. Manning exorcised his Ohio State demons and, in the process, raised expectations that were already plenty high.

Austin wasn't the only site of a bounce-back performance on Saturday.

A week after Michigan needed a miracle to get by Western Michigan the Wolverines responded with a gritty, 17-10, win against No. 11 Oklahoma. Suddenly, Michigan is 2-0, with an Oklahoma-sized notch on its belt and a reasonable path to the playoff.

The turnaround in Stillwater, Oklahoma, was even more pronounced.

Oklahoma State's FBS losing streak extended to 21 games last week with an embarrassing loss to Tulsa, but the Cowboys responded with a stunning win against No. 6 Oregon, 39-31. It was a much-needed win for the program and a reminder that Week 1 in college football is often a mirage.

Back in the old days -- call it pre-2021 -- there was a fairly reliable formula for setting expectations about an upcoming college football season.

Returning starters + returning quarterback (yes/no) + returning offensive production + experience + cumulative recruiting stars + coaching staff continuity = projected win total.

It wasn't perfect, obviously. Preseason polls routinely became obsolete within a few weeks. But the inputs made sense, and if you followed the sport closely enough, it was possible to begin a season with a reasonably informed idea of what to expect.

With rosters turning over at a pace that would have been unimaginable a few years ago, there are now too many moving pieces for even the most plugged-in observers to fully understand the landscape before anyone plays a game.

It all adds up to make Week 1 especially misleading.

We watch one game, compare it against expectations that were built on incomplete information and try to find meaning. Sometimes those conclusions are right. Just as often, they require continued recalibration.

It's Week 2 when we collectively realize, "Ahh, maybe that wasn't really an upset. Maybe Team X just isn't very good." Or the opposite. A shaky Week 1 performance suddenly looks a lot less concerning when the opponent turns around and beats someone else.

We still don't know nearly enough, but for the first time, there is context. And in a sport where our preseason assumptions are becoming less reliable by the year, context changes everything.

Their margin for error is gone.

Utah State even gave Washington a scare on the road a week after losing to FCS Idaho State at home and LSU slept-walked through a half against Louisiana Tech before winning 45-14.

Week 1 welcomes us back; Week 2 starts giving us context.

Jump to:
What's next for Oregon | BYU's big win
Boise's the G6 leader | Closing bell

What's next for Oregon

Oregon started the year at No. 2. Its quarterback, Dante Moore, might be the first pick in the NFL draft and there was every reason to expect the Ducks to compete for a national title after going 26-3 over the past two seasons. Their Week 1 win against Boise State was underwhelming, but it seemed fair to give them a pass -- Hey, the Broncos might be a playoff team!

The assumption was that Oregon would seamlessly move on despite losing both coordinators -- Will Stein (Kentucky) and Tosh Lupoi (Cal) -- but that's worth reconsidering.

Next week, the Ducks have a chance to regroup with FCS Portland State coming to Eugene, but it's right back into the pressure cooker after that with a trip to USC. This team is too talented and Dan Lanning is too good a coach for them to completely fade, but this is unfamiliar territory. They hadn't lost a game in September since Lanning's first game in charge, against Georgia in 2022, and hadn't lost to an unranked team since an OT loss at Stanford in 2021.

For now, all that national title discourse can be set to the side. The Ducks need to play their way back into the Big Ten conversation first.

Big win for BYU

If we broke up the Big 12 preseason media poll into tiers it would look something like this:

Tier I - Texas Tech
Tier II - BYU, Arizona, Houston, Utah
Tier III - TCU, Arizona State, Kansas State, Oklahoma State
Tier IV - Everyone else

Last year, Arizona and BYU went a combined 20-4 in the regular season, and it was reasonable to allow for the possibility that both teams would be better this season, making Saturday's matchup in Provo the most compelling conference game of Week 2. The matchup didn't deliver a memorable viewing experience, but that won't matter for BYU, which erased a 3-point halftime deficit to win 28-17.

The Cougars don't play Texas Tech or Houston, so this could -- could -- wind up as their toughest game in Big 12 play. Either way, it was an important win for BYU and is a gut punch for the Wildcats, who were hoping for a magical run in Noah Fifita's fifth season.

Meanwhile, in Corvallis, Oregon, Tech got all it could handle from Oregon State in a 28-24 win. A week after a pedestrian win against Abilene Christian, the Red Raiders don't look like a team poised to steamroll through the conference again. That doesn't mean they still shouldn't be viewed as the favorite, but the early returns are that the gap is closing.

Boise State scores first win for the Pac-12

As big an opportunity as its trip to Autzen Stadium was last week, this week's visit from Memphis always figured to be more pivotal for Boise State. A loss at Oregon was forgivable -- a close loss, even helpful. A loss to Memphis, though, would have been a problem for the Broncos' playoff hopes.

Although Boise's loss at Oregon last week no longer has the same shine with the Ducks losing to Oklahoma State, the Broncos backed their performance up with an impressive win at home against Memphis. After falling behind 17-3, Boise was dominant the rest of the way in a 38-20 win that kept its playoff path intact.

With the Pac-12 and American expected to be the top Group of 6 conferences, this game could carry significant weight come playoff selection time. If Boise and Memphis eventually emerge as conference champions and are compared directly, the head-to-head result makes the argument easy. And even if the committee is comparing different teams from the Pac-12 and American, Boise's win still matters as a data point in determining the relative strength of the two conferences.

The closing bell

Buy: Big Ten replay reviews

We called for live transparency into the replay process in this space a week ago and the Big Ten delivered. Being able to go behind the scenes as replays are being reviewed is a major enhancement to a game's broadcast and props to the conference for recognizing the disaster that occurred a week ago and wasting no time to implement the obvious solution.

Sell: "It's that deep."

Kansas' attempt to turn a nonconference college football game on the 25th anniversary of 9/11 into a some kind of historical referendum on moral superiority between Kansas and Missouri was, to echo Mizzou coach Eli Drinkwitz, weird. Meanwhile, on Sundays, a good chunk of Kansas fans will shift their football allegiance to a team from ... Missouri.

Hold: Penn State

Matt Campbell is off to a 2-0 start, but winning comfortably against Marshall and Temple is the bare minimum. We'll check in again with Penn State on Sept. 26, when it hosts Wisconsin, but the first real test might not be until USC visits Happy Valley Oct. 10.

Buy: Mississippi State

The Kamario Taylor era has arrived with the sophomore quarterback turning in a dynamic performance in the Bulldogs' comprehensive win against Minnesota on the road. The heat turns up dramatically with five ranked opponents over the next six games, but he's a talent to keep an eye on.

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Kamario Taylor throws 22-yard TD pass to Zion Ragins

Hold: UCLA

At 2-0, the Bruins are a borderline buy in their first year under Bob Chesney, but it's going to take a bit more convincing despite a 28-10 win against San Diego State. With Purdue and Maryland up next, though, there's a good chance they'll surpass their win total from last season (three) before the end of September.

Buy: Alabama

Second-half Alabama, to be more precise. The Crimson Tide looked vulnerable and trailed Kentucky 17-13 at halftime, before they delivered one of the best halves of the Kalen DeBoer era to win 45-17. QB Keelon Russell has some growing to do, but if Alabama's defense keeps delivering short fields to work with, he'll be just fine.

Hold: Florida

The Gators are 2-0 and have outscored their opponents 118-24, but that doesn't mean much when those opponents are FAU and Campbell.

Buy: Oregon State WR Jesse Legree

The true freshman was sensational for a consecutive week, catching eight passes for 240 yards and a pair of touchdowns against Texas Tech. His two-game total (both against ranked teams): 13 catches, 376 yards, 3 touchdowns.

Sell: Miami scheduling Florida A&M

The Hurricanes set all sorts of offensive records in a 77-7 win against Florida A&M but it was a game that never should have been played. We all know the reason it was -- or in this case, the $760,000 reasons -- but there has to be a better way to support HBCU football financially than staging this type of matchup. Miami obviously isn't the only FBS power that engages in this sort of scheduling, but this is about as egregious as it gets -- and it feels worse because it was the college football game being played Thursday night (as opposed to Indiana's against Howard which was drowned out by a full slate of Saturday games).