College Football Watch Guide - Week 2

You may not have noticed it last weekend as you were most likely writing scathing emails to Brian Ferentz, but there were other football games played through Monday night. And many of them were simply tremendous.

The Week 1 entertainment value was off the charts and showed just why so many of us love the college flavor of football, preferring it to the more businesslike NFL. As much as I enjoy NFL games, they feel like an office outing for drinks and a bite to eat compared to college football’s weekend-long bachelor party of drunken revelry. Thursday’s Backyard Brawl and Penn State at Purdue (no catchy nickname given) both went down to the wire. App State and North Carolina had more combined points than there are people living in British Columbia. LSU at Florida State was one of the most whiplash inducing finishes I’ve ever seen in a football game. Hell, even the miasma that was SDSU at Iowa felt like some weird historic event you’d eventually tell your children about.

But that’s all part of the allure of college football; the feeling that at any moment, in any game, lightning could strike and you could witness something remarkable. What could we see in Week 2 of this glorious sport? Let’s look ahead and see what’s on deck, shall we?

No Thursday games in Week 2 due to the NFL season getting underway that night, so our options are pushed to Friday, September 9 with Louisville @ UCF and Boise State @ New Mexico. The nice thing here is the kickoff times are staggered, so if you’re not taking in any Friday night lights you should be able to have some football well into the night. UCF easily took care of business in Week 1, while Louisville decidedly did not, and Boise State fell to Oregon State. Neither game screams must-see TV, but I’d love to be wrong.

Saturday starts off with a bang, with FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff heading to Austin for #1 Alabama @ Texas. They’re two of the biggest brands in college football, and so much airtime this offseason was spent on whether or not “Texas is back!”. This is a tough test for the Longhorns, but if they really do want to be “back” they’re going to have to show they can at least be competitive against the Tide. And with their impending move to the SEC a competition of this caliber is only going to be more common.

If you’re looking for some hot nerd on nerd action you’re in luck this weekend. Both #23 Wake Forest @ Vanderbilt and Duke @ Northwestern are in the morning window. We could see some serious treatises on human nature and the mind-body problem Saturday morning, folks. Written exam to follow on Monday.

#24 Tennessee @ #17 Pittsburgh at 2:30 pm brings us our first top-25 game of the day, and at 3:00 begins the 69th (nice) iteration of Iowa State @ Iowa. I’ll have more thoughts in the Pants Predicts for this game but all I’ll say here is this one could be ugly in either a great way or terrible way for the Hawkeyes and right now I just don’t know which way to lean. I’ve seen Ferentz squads bounce back from terrible performances like a bungee cord so maybe we’ll see something similar.

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

I’m very interested to see #20 Kentucky @ #12 Florida and if the Gators can back up a great upset win with another solid performance. Lucky for them it’s another home game, but on the flip side it’s a conference game against a Wildcat team on the up and up with Mark Stoops at the helm. I’m about the farthest thing from a Florida fan, but when your QB can make plays like this you want to see more.

Looking at the rest of the night’s schedule...well...it’s a lot of paycheck games and record padding, so I hope you can’t wait for Southern @ LSU or Hawai’i @ #4 Michigan (really, Wolverines, at least Vanderbilt had the coconuts to play them on the road). I have a soft spot for the Pac-12 so I’ll probably tune in for #10 USC @ Stanford but the headliner of the night is definitely #9 Baylor @ #21 BYU at 9:30 on ESPN. Should be plenty of points in this one so if Iowa’s offense once again leaves us feeling dirty and unsatisfied we should be able to get our fix here.

Finish off your night with Mississippi State @ Arizona on FS1 for some SEC/Pac-12 fun and congratulations, you’ve reached the end of Week 2.

I always feel a little disappointed going into Week 2. After the five straight days of football we enjoyed last weekend, and just how entertaining they were, it’s hard to see how this weekend lives up to it. Maybe it doesn’t, maybe we got spoiled too early in the season, but just when you least expect it the stars align and we get Furman upsetting #5 Clemson.

It’s a wonderful sport we love.