College Football Week Two Winners and Losers

Week two of college football is in the books and in the words of Bill Belichick “we’re on to week three.” Well, not all of us as we at Beehive Sports are rolling out our week two winners and losers of college football for this past weekend’s slate of games, so let's get to it.

Winners

LSU

I said in our College Football Preview podcast that I thought LSU was legit and could make a push for the College Football Playoffs, and LSU showed that I was 100% right after their showing against the Texas Longhorns on the road. Previously, LSU had never won a road game against a non-conference top-10 team. Well, previously LSU wasn’t led by Jow Burrow and Ed Orgeron.

LSU made a huge statement by going on the road in a night game against a Texas team that had pronounced ‘back’ the season prior and the way in which they did it was enough to put the rest of the SEC on alert. We are so used to seeing LSU lineup under center and run the ball until they wear you down and leave town with a 17-14 victory. Well no longer. This new LSU offense is going to run you off the field with their array of weapons. Gone are the days where LSU runs for 200 yards and throws for 150. Here are the 45-38 shootouts and I’m all for it.

Clemson

Clemson is going to roll all the way to the College Football Playoffs. The Clemson Tigers absolutely smacked what was their best opponent all season in Texas A&M and not only that, but what was believed to be their second most difficult opponent - Syracuse - got dog walked by Maryland to the tune of 63-20.

The ACC is in disarray, with the Florida State Seminoles and Miami Hurricanes struggling to get a quality win, and with Wake Forrest, NC State and Virginia Tech being who they are. The ACC should be a cakewalk for the Tigers. Sure, Virginia and Boston College aren’t too shabby, but if you think either team will challenge Clemson you are off your rocker. Clemson by 100 all season long.

SEC

After a nightmare week one for the SEC, the conference seems to be back on track for the time being. Sure, they still have their trouble teams, Arkansas is embarrassingly bad while Tennessee is a dumpster fire, but their middle of the road teams seem to be finding their footing. Mississippi State put together a solid win while Missouri bounced back following their loss to Wyoming by trouncing West Virginia.

The SEC is always going to be top heavy, and yes, even a little overrated in my book. But for now, the conference has 3 of the nation’s top 4 teams according to the AP Top 25. But what is really crucial to the conference’s success is the performance of the middle tier teams like Kentucky, Texas A&M and Mizzou. After all, Alabama, Georgia and LSU need quality teams to beat up on during conference play.

Losers

Texas

They were back until they weren’t. Texas actually put up a better game than I expected them to. I was thinking that LSU would walk into Austin and beat up on a Texas team that was a touch overrated before heading home to Baton Rouge. Instead Texas fought until the very end and made the game closer than I had anticipated. So I guess the loser here really should be the Texas defense.

Big oof from the so-called ‘real DBU.’ Just a little piece of advice to the Texas defense, and more specifically the Texas secondary; You can’t go around wearing shirts that proclaim yourselves to be the real DBU and then proceed to give up nearly half of a thousand yards passing by a QB that was previously known as ‘Joey checkdown.’ That would be like if the Legion of Boom went out and gave up 450 yards passing to Alex Smith, a QB that rarely throws in the ball more than 5 yards. I already talked about the revamped LSU offense and they are very, very good. So I guess it’s not all on the Texas defense but it’s a tough look to proclaim yourself the best secondary in the country and then lay a huge egg. But hey, hook ‘em.

Pac-12

The Pac-12 is dead in the water, that is unless the Utes can save the entire conference. If you thought the SEC and ACC had less than stellar starts to the college football season, I present to you: the Pac-12. This was supposed to be the year that the Pac-12 finally made a push towards the College Football Playoff. The conference of champions - ironic, I know - had three teams that were supposed to be talented enough to make a case for a spot in the CFP come season’s end. Well, two weeks into the season and we are down to one.

Oregon and Washington are all but eliminated following the Ducks’ loss to Auburn in week one and the Huskies’ upset at the hands of Cal. That leaves Utah, arguably the Pac-12’s most sound team as the conference’s last chance. *Insert Star Wars quote here* If the Utes can run the table than they could very well have a case for the CFP, and I for one am interested if some representatives from the conference in striped shirts don’t help give Utah that extra push.

Tennessee

Oh boy, I don’t even know what to say here that the Tennessee coach hasn’t already said. I was going to compare the Volunteers to a dumpster fire but then Jeremy Pruitt went and compared the program to the Titanic, which, when the head coach compares his team to a sinking ship, that should tell you everything you need to know about the state of that program.

I am shocked that Neyland Stadium hasn’t burned to the ground as a result of Vol fans rioting in the streets, but I guess Vol fans are only interested in burning their own boats. Talk about a sinking ship.