Last week gave us a controversial clock in Ann Arbor. This week gave us a collapse in Columbus, a catastrophe in Eugene, and a reminder that college football remains completely unqualified to behave sensibly.
Just when fans thought they had started to understand the 2026 season, Week 2 arrived wielding a cricket bat and shattered every carefully assembled narrative.
Texas looked beaten.
Ohio State looked untouchable.
Oregon looked like a playoff contender.
All three statements were true.
Then, suddenly, inexplicably, they weren’t.
Meanwhile, Michigan went from national punchline to ranked giant-killer in the space of seven days, Group of Six programmes continued their campaign for relevance, and somewhere in America an athletics director undoubtedly looked at his carefully constructed five-year plan and quietly started sweating.
Welcome to Week 2.
Texas, Ohio State and the Art of Leaving the Room Too Early
There are sporting collapses.
There are historic collapses.
Then there is whatever Ohio State managed to produce in Austin.
With less than seven minutes remaining, the Buckeyes led Texas 23-3. The game appeared over. Fans were probably already discussing rankings, championship paths and where this victory would sit amongst Ryan Day’s finest wins.
Then Texas woke up.
The Longhorns scored 21 unanswered points in the final minutes, with Arch Manning engineering an extraordinary comeback before new running back provided the perfect Hollywood (Smothers) ending (see what I did there?) crashed over for the decisive score with just 25 seconds remaining in a stunning 24-23 victory.
British sports fans have a phrase for moments like these:
“They’ve absolutely bottled it.”
Harsh? Possibly.
Accurate? Also possibly.
Texas now finds itself atop the college football mountain, with many expecting the Longhorns to become the new No. 1 team after knocking off the previously top-ranked Buckeyes.
For Ohio State, the questions have already begun.
For Texas, the season suddenly feels very real indeed.
For neutral fans? It was magnificent entertainment.
Oregon’s Trip to Oklahoma State Was Supposed to Be a Routine Business Meeting
Oregon arrived in Stillwater as more than a three-touchdown favourite.
The Ducks departed as the proud owners of one of the season’s most baffling defeats.
Oklahoma State stunned Oregon 39-31 after piling up 554 yards of offence and repeatedly carving through a defence many expected to compete for a national championship.
The most amusing part?
This Oklahoma State team had lost to Tulsa! in Week 1 and entered the game carrying all the momentum of a supermarket trolley with a broken wheel.
Then suddenly Drew Mestemaker looked like a Heisman candidate, the Cowboys looked reborn, and Oregon looked like a team that had accidentally wandered into somebody else’s fairytale.
The Ducks have not completely fallen apart. The AP Poll still kept them ranked.
At No. 21.
After beginning the season with genuine title aspirations. [opb.org], [ncaa.com]
College football is the only sport where one Saturday can transform “national contender” into “we’ll revisit this later”.
As a Florida State supporter, I can confirm disaster doesn’t always lurk around the corner.
Sometimes it rents the house next door and learns your schedule.
Michigan’s Most Important Victory Wasn’t the One on the Scoreboard
After the Western Michigan controversy, Michigan spent an entire week being laughed at.
National pundits questioned the offence.
Fans questioned the coaching.
The internet questioned absolutely everything.
Then the Wolverines quietly went out and beat Oklahoma 17-10.
Was it pretty?
Good heavens, no.
Michigan seem committed to proving that forward passing is merely an optional lifestyle choice.
But the Wolverines played ferocious defence, forced key turnovers and completely changed the national conversation.
One week ago they looked like a team heading for crisis.
Today they look like a team nobody particularly wants to play.
A thoroughly Michigan solution.
A Quick Word About Group of Six Football
Because somebody has to.
Every season the Group of Six spends September waving its arms furiously and shouting:
“Hello! We exist!”
Sometimes the wider sport listens. Most times, it doesn’t.
Boise State continued strengthening its résumé and appears firmly in the conversation for a national ranking after already proving highly competitive against Oregon and adding another quality result to its profile.
Meanwhile, Western Michigan’s Week 1 performance against Michigan suddenly looks considerably better after the Wolverines followed it up by beating Oklahoma.
And let’s not forget that one of the stories of the weekend came from the subdivision below FBS, where Montana State extended its winning streak to 17 games by defeating Nevada.
The lesson remains the same every year:
Ignore the smaller programmes at your peril.
They’re normally only one Saturday away from ruining somebody’s playoff ambitions.
Boise State continue doing the annoying thing that Boise State always do: winning football games and forcing everyone to take them seriously.
As opposed to certain Power Conference programmes who spend considerably more money to achieve considerably less.
Again, absolutely no comment from this Florida State fan.
The Service Academies Continue Their War Against Forward Passing
A quick update from our ongoing investigation into service academy football.
They still refuse to throw.
Army, Navy and Air Force remain committed to proving that the forward pass was a mistake introduced by civilisation’s enemies.
Somewhere, analytics experts are building intricate spreadsheets featuring expected points, route trees and advanced passing efficiency.
Meanwhile Army’s game plan remains:
- Run left.
- Run right.
- Run directly through your soul.
Never change, gentlemen. Never change.
The Small Story That Makes College Football Different
Whilst much of the country was busy arguing about Texas, Oregon and whether Michigan are now good again, one of college football’s most beloved traditions quietly took centre stage out in Boulder.
Ralphie.
For those unfamiliar, Ralphie isn’t a mascot.
Ralphie is a very real American bison who leads the Colorado Buffaloes onto the pitch before home games, accompanied by handlers who are simultaneously displaying incredible athleticism and an alarming disregard for self-preservation.
Every sport has traditions.
College football has traditions that sound entirely insane!
A live 300lb bison thundering across the field before kick-off certainly falls into that category.
The thing that makes Ralphie special is that nobody involved seems to find it remotely strange anymore.
Imagine explaining it to a newcomer.
“Right, before the game starts, they release a bison.” “Why?” “Tradition.”
“Fair enough.”
And that’s college football in a nutshell.
The sport is built on thousands of wonderful little customs that make absolutely no logical sense.
Some schools fire cannons. Some touch lucky rocks. Some march bands through town centres.
Some have mascots with backstories longer than most streaming series. And Colorado have Ralphie.
In an era of conference realignment, media rights deals and endless playoff debates, it is reassuring that college football still finds room for traditions that exist purely because somebody started doing something decades ago and everyone collectively decided it was brilliant.
Quite frankly, the sport needs more live bison and fewer committee meetings.
As a Florida State supporter, I would happily run alongside a bison every Saturday if it guaranteed consistent fourth-quarter execution.
The Week 2 Awards Nobody Asked For
Most College Football Result: Michigan 17, Oklahoma 10
Two proud powers.
A top-ranked showdown.
A combined offensive performance that occasionally resembled two people trying to assemble Swedish branded furniture without instructions.
Most Dramatic Collapse: Ohio State
Leading by 20 points with seven minutes left and somehow losing should require paperwork, or at least a gambling commission investigation
Biggest Reality Check: Oregon
Pre-season dreamers entered Stillwater. Existential philosophers left with their tail feathers firmly between their legs
Most SEC Thing Ever: LSU
LSU quietly continued winning while the rest of the country descended into madness.
The SEC’s greatest skill may be letting everyone else create headlines while still ending up with four teams in every playoff discussion.
Most Relatable Fan Experience: Florida State supporters.
The good news is that there have been plenty of changes in Tallahassee! New coordinators. A rebuilt football operation. An NFL-style front office structure. New personnel people. New processes. New organisational charts.
New meetings about the meetings…
At this point, Florida State have made so many structural changes that the football programme is starting to resemble a management consultancy presentation.
The theory is sound. The strategy is sensible. The PowerPoint probably looked fantastic.
Now we’d quite like to see the bit where the on -field product starts improving.
As a Noles fan, I remain cautiously optimistic.
Which, historically speaking, is exactly when Florida State screw me.
Final Thoughts: The Season Has Officially Started
Week 1 creates excitement.
Week 2 creates clarity.
Or at least it’s supposed to. Instead, we got chaos.
Texas announced itself as a national title contender. Ohio State discovered that games last four quarters. Oregon discovered that rankings do not tackle running backs. Michigan rediscovered respectability.
The Group of Six kept reminding everyone that college football’s middle class remains dangerous.
And the rest of us were reminded why Saturdays in the autumn are so gloriously addictive.
We’ve only played two weeks. The rankings are already broken. The playoff picture is already changing. The overreactions are already reaching peak performance.
In other words, college football is in the most perfect health.
Of course, some of us would quite like the madness to continue happening to other teams for a change.
Speaking purely as a Florida State supporter, I have seen enough character development to last several lifetimes.
Long may the madness continue.
