A good concert set list whips the crowd into a frenzy, then settles in for a bit. Maybe you go with a quiet-loud combo — Pearl Jam’s old “Release”-into-“Corduroy” starter pack is a personal favorite — or maybe you just start with the fastest, loudest song you’ve got. Either way, you probably have to shift back into third gear for a bit to get the vibe properly established for two-plus hours.

With Week 2 of the college football season, we settle back into third gear. Week 1 was weird and fun and told us a lot about plenty of top (or expected-to-be-top) teams, and now it’s time to dial back the stakes for a bit. Saturday leads off with a huge Texas-Michigan tilt in Ann Arbor, but for the most part it’s going to be a head-on-swivel day — prepare to move around to any number of potentially close and interesting (and mostly non-marquee) games.

The encore is guaranteed to be frenzied, at least. Between Texas Tech-Washington State, Boise State-Oregon, Mississippi State-Arizona State and Oregon State-San Diego State, we are going to see points and silliness to the extreme. Be prepared to stay up late.

Let’s preview Week 2!

Jump to a topic:
Michigan-Texas | Nebraska-Colorado
CyHawk time | Tennessee-NC State
Stay up late | Chaos picks
Week 2 playlist | Small school showcase

Michigan’s title defense officially begins

This week’s headliner is one hell of a helmet game. In January in the College Football Playoff National Championship game, Michigan stomped a Washington team that had just beaten Texas in the semifinals. Eight months later, Texas is favored in Ann Arbor.

A lot can change in a single offseason, especially in the transfer portal era. Texas returns its head coach (Steve Sarkisian) and starting quarterback (Quinn Ewers) and came into 2024 ranked 41st in returning production. Michigan, meanwhile, lost head coach Jim Harbaugh, quarterback J.J. McCarthy and nine other offensive starters. The Wolverines ranked 126th in returning production, and new head man Sherrone Moore elected to start former walk-on Davis Warren at QB. One week into the season, Michigan ranks 122nd in yards per dropback, and Warren is 101st in QBR.

These teams left drastically different impressions last week. Texas ran roughshod over Colorado State, covering the spread by 17.5 points in a 52-0 win. Michigan, meanwhile, led Fresno State just 16-10 with six minutes left before putting the game away with a Colston Loveland touchdown catch and Will Johnson pick-six. (Loveland, one of the nation’s best tight ends, caught eight balls for 87 yards; Michigan wideouts caught six for 34.)

That Texas is favored makes sense, but the matchups might make this more of a tossup. You have to nitpick to find any flaws in a 52-point win, but Texas got away with an ultraconservative passing game last week. Twenty-five completions from Ewers and backup Arch Manning were thrown an average of just 3.9 yards downfield, and the only pass Ewers threw 20 or more yards downfield was picked. (He was 2-for-6 on passes at least 10 yards downfield.)

Sarkisian is the master of stealing yards with the short passing game, but Michigan’s defense is still excellent, and Johnson’s game-clinching pick-six came on a quick pass behind the line. Per Sports Info Solutions, Texas suffered a 10% blown run block rate last week, which ranked 96th; Longhorns backs averaged just 1.8 yards per carry before contact (69th), and Michigan held Fresno State backs to minus-1 yard per carry before contact. There’s a chance that the Wolverines are able to render the Horns one-dimensional and make lots of stops.

Texas, of course, will probably do the same. Michigan backs Donovan Edwards and Kalel Mullings ran semi-efficiently last week, and Colorado State’s Justin Marshall rushed 25 times for 106 yards against the Horns. But even if this becomes the type of defense-and-ball-control game Michigan wants, at some point either Warren or Alex Orji will probably have to complete a third-and-long pass. Last week the Wolverines were 0-for-6 on third-and-7 or longer.

It won’t take many big plays to make the difference in this one. Ewers might need to attempt riskier passes for the Horns to generate chunk plays, but Michigan had no explosiveness whatsoever against Fresno State: Warren averaged 7.9 yards per completion, and only two of 61 Michigan snaps gained 20-plus yards. Texas appears both more likely to break a big one and more likely to suffer a defensive breakdown that allows one.

This one’s not a must-win for either team. Both still have two other SP+ top-15 teams on the schedule, so there are future opportunities for marquee wins. But this will tell us a lot about Michigan’s upside and Ewers’ playmaking abilities, and it should be a blast to watch.

Current line: Texas -7.5 | SP+ projection: Texas by 6.5 | FPI projection: Texas by 10.1

A big Colorado-Nebraska game? What year is this?

There was a time when Colorado-Nebraska ruled the world. Or at least the Big Eight/Big 12. From 1989 to ’96, the Buffaloes and Cornhuskers met six times as top-10 teams; when Colorado scaled the mountain to become a genuine national title contender in 1989-90, Tom Osborne’s Nebraska was the Big Bad the Buffaloes first had to conquer. (They did so both years.) When Nebraska became the sport’s dominant power in the mid-1990s, confirmation came in the form of easy wins over top-10 Colorado teams.

CU trailed off in the late 1990s but still managed to give NU hell every year. And when Gary Barnett’s Buffaloes embarrassed No. 2 Nebraska in 2001, 62-36, it was a blow from which the Frank Solich era at NU never really recovered. In fact, Nebraska hasn’t recovered: 2001 is the last time the Huskers finished in the AP top 10.

Saturday’s reunion in Lincoln doesn’t quite pack the same gravitas. Nebraska has finished under .500 for seven straight years, and Colorado has done so for 16 of the past 17 full seasons. It’s a jarring run of ineptitude for both programs. But there’s hope surrounding both programs, and that provides this game with quite a bit of meaning.

With a win, Nebraska would be 2-0 for the first time since 2016. Second-year head coach Matt Rhule is the master of the second-year leap — his second Temple team went from 2-10 to 6-6, and his second Baylor team went from 1-11 to 7-6 — and all-world freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola looked the part against UTEP in Week 1, completing 19 of 27 passes for 238 yards and two touchdowns in a 40-7 romp. Receiver Isaiah Neyor, a former Wyoming star who suffered through injuries at Texas, found his footing as well, catching six passes for 121 yards and a score. After allowing 78 yards in the first quarter, the Huskers’ defense gave up just 128 yards the rest of the way.

Colorado, meanwhile, fended off a typically sound North Dakota State, overcoming a 20-14 deficit with a 17-0 run and surviving a late Hail Mary attempt to win 31-26. It was neither a momentous performance nor an epic pratfall, but the fact that Shedeur Sanders was sacked only once in 35 pass attempts was a positive sign for the Buffaloes’ potential improvement on the offensive line. (Colorado running backs rushing 16 times for just 42 yards: a less positive sign.)

We’ll learn a lot about both teams Saturday. We know how good Sanders and receivers Travis Hunter and Jimmy Horn Jr. are, but Nebraska’s defensive front should properly test CU’s line, and at the very least, Colorado’s pass rush could force Raiola into some quicker decisions (even if the CU secondary passed no tests last week). It definitely seems like NU has the edge at home, but having the best two or three players in a given game is sometimes enough in itself.

Current line: Nebraska -7.5 | SP+ projection: Nebraska by 10.5 | FPI projection: Nebraska by 4.1

Wait, does Iowa have an offense now?

Per SP+ playoff projections, there are 55 teams with at least a 3% chance at a CFP bid, and there are nine Week 2 games between those teams — some obvious (Texas-Michigan, Tennessee-NC State), some less so (Cal-Auburn and, because of the epic uncertainty in the ACC following FSU’s and Clemson’s disastrous starts, Georgia Tech-Syracuse). Iowa-Iowa State is probably the second-biggest game of the week from a playoff perspective, and the key could be… Iowa’s exciting offense? Do I have that right?

OK, I just checked my notes again and that is indeed correct.

These are, relatively speaking — and I do mean relatively speaking — heady times for the Hawkeyes’ attack. They gained 492 yards in last week’s 40-0 win over Illinois State, and while the Redbirds are an FCS unit (albeit a pretty good one), it was the most yards Iowa had gained in a game in almost five years. The Hawkeyes averaged just 235.4 and 251.6 yards per game over the past two seasons, an almost comical level of ineptitude that led head coach Kirk Ferentz to finally move on from offensive coordinator (and son) Brian Ferentz.

In Tim Lester’s first game calling plays, the Hawkeyes led just 6-0 at halftime, with quarterback Cade McNamara completing 8 of 17 passes for 74 yards. But they scored five touchdowns in the second half, with McNamara going 13-for-14 for 183 yards; three different tight ends caught passes, and two different wideouts caught touchdowns, including true freshman Reece Vander Zee, who had two. Kaleb Johnson finished with 119 rushing yards, too.

With all due respect to Illinois State, the real tests begin this week. Iowa is scheduled to face eight defenses currently in the defensive SP+ top 25, and the first on the docket is Iowa State. The Cyclones held a typically decent North Dakota offense to 4.1 yards per play in a 21-3 win, and even with linebacker Caleb Bacon injured, they should offer plenty of resistance.

Granted, so will Iowa’s defense. The Hawkeyes have finished in the defensive SP+ top three for five straight seasons, and while Illinois State had a few bursts of rushing success last week, the pass defense looked as dominant as ever. ISU quarterback Rocco Becht was one of the Big 12’s best late last season, but he struggled, as most do, against Iowa last season. Iowa State gained 91 yards in its first three snaps against North Dakota but slowed down considerably from there and stalled out in UND territory multiple times.

The past five games in this series have averaged just 29 total points. That the over/under is currently 35.5, per ESPN BET, seems optimistic to me. What say you, Cade and Rocco?

Current line: Iowa -3 | SP+ projection: Iowa by 7.8 | FPI projection: Iowa by 8.9

Nico & Co. in prime time

A lot of this week’s analysis is basically “Team A did these things in a blowout of an FCS team, while Team B did these things in a blowout of an FCS team.” So be it — FBS-FCS games are part of the circle of life, and you get to build confidence, play backups, give your fans an easy win, etc. — but it can be difficult to figure out if we learned anything real after some of these games.

It was less difficult with Tennessee’s and NC State’s respective Week 1 games. Tennessee played what is currently the No. 32 team in my FCS SP+ rankings (Chattanooga) and blew the Mocs’ doors off 69-3. NC State played the No. 46 team (Western Carolina) and trailed into the fourth quarter before finally putting the game away 38-21. Relatively equal competition, vastly different results. The Volunteers rose from 14th to ninth in SP+ following the blowout, and the Wolfpack fell from 29th to 37th.

NC State’s main stars eventually came through. Grayson McCall threw for 318 yards, running back Jordan Waters finally got going and finished with 20 carries for 123 yards (it was 14 for 35 after three quarters), and playmaker Kevin Concepcion caught nine balls for 121 yards and three scores. Once the Pack got going on the ground, the game ceased to be competitive. Plus, a large chunk of WCU’s 361 total yards came in two drives. It might have just been a slow start for State. It happens.

Tennessee, however, did not start with even the slightest slowness. Former blue-chipper Nico Iamaleava began his first season as starting QB by completing 22 of 28 passes for 314 yards. He led six touchdown drives and a field goal drive on the Vols’ first seven possessions. Tennessee had some big-play issues last year, but Bru McCoy, Tulane transfer Chris Brazzell II and Dont’e Thornton all caught passes of 20-plus yards, and Dylan Sampson needed only 12 carries to gain 124 yards and score three times. The defense made only five tackles for loss, but all-world end James Pearce Jr. played just 16 snaps.

Tennessee has massive upside and a chance to make a statement on what should be a lovely Saturday evening in Charlotte, North Carolina. NC State has a chance to restart its season after an uncostly misstep. SP+ and FPI think the former is more likely than the latter.

Current line: Vols -9 | SP+ projection: Vols by 14.2 | FPI projection: Vols by 19.1

play

Can Michigan pull off the upset against Texas on Saturday?

Mike Greenberg, Dan Orlovsky and Harry Douglas discuss the potential impact of a Michigan upset against Texas on Saturday.

Greatest. Night session. Ever.

Even when a Saturday isn’t as loaded as others when it comes to marquee games, we still get treats. And I cannot overstate how excited I am about the silliness potential of Saturday night.

Not even including three other potentially entertaining matchups — Liberty at New Mexico State (10:15, ESPN2), Northern Arizona at No. 20 Arizona (9, ESPN+) and Sacramento State at Fresno State (9, MW Video) — we’ve got five games with solid track meet potential and, in three cases, tight point spreads.

Texas Tech Red Raiders at Washington State Cougars (9 p.m., Fox)

Tempo and scoring are down so far this year, but last week’s Texas Tech-Abilene Christian matchup featured 103 total points, and even overtime-free Wazzu-Portland State had 100. Tech’s Behren Morton went 30-for-42 for 378 yards and five touchdowns, and Wazzu’s John Mateer needed only 11 completions in 17 attempts to nearly match Morton (352 yards, five scores). It was fate that these two teams would meet up at this moment. Bring me all your fireworks.

Current line: Tech -2.5 | SP+ projection: Wazzu by 4.3 | FPI projection: Wazzu by 5.2

Boise State Broncos at No. 7 Oregon Ducks (10 p.m., Peacock)

Idaho forced Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel to dink and dunk last week — he was 41-for-49 but for only 380 yards — and the Ducks had to win with defense. They might find BSU’s offense much tougher to corral (Ashton Jeanty and Sire Gaines combined for 425 yards from scrimmage and eight touchdowns against Georgia Southern in a 56-45 win), but they might also find the Broncos’ defense easier to navigate (Georgia Southern scored 45 points in three quarters).

Current line: Ducks -19.5 | SP+ projection: Ducks by 20.5 | FPI projection: Ducks by 13.5

Mississippi State Bulldogs at Arizona State Sun Devils (10:30 p.m., ESPN)

Blake Shapen was excellent in MSU’s easy win over Eastern Kentucky last week (247 passing yards, 44 rushing yards, 4 total TDs), and Jordan Mosley looks like a potentially awesome No. 1 WR. But no one overachieved against projections in Week 1 more than ASU. The Sun Devils were 6.5-point favorites over Wyoming but won 48-7 with a balanced combo of 258 passing yards and 241 rushing yards. Either or both of these teams could turn out to be 2024 overachievers.

Current line: ASU -6 | SP+ projection: MSU by 2.4 | FPI projection: ASU by 2.4

Oregon State Beavers at San Diego State Aztecs (10:30 p.m., CBSSN)

A ground-based track meet. The OSU combo of Jam Griffin and Anthony Hankerson rushed 44 times for 315 yards and four scores last week against Idaho State, while SDSU’s Marquez Cooper, reunited with head coach Sean Lewis — Kent State’s coach when Cooper twice rushed for 1,200 yards there — carried 27 times for 223 yards and two scores against Texas A&M-Commerce.

Current line: Beavers -6 | SP+ projection: Beavers by 5.3 | FPI projection: Beavers by 10.8

Utah State Aggies at No. 13 USC Trojans (11 p.m., BTN)

No, I’m not sure USU has much to offer here, though the Aggies did both rush and throw for over 300 yards against Robert Morris last week. But after what USC’s Miller Moss did against LSU last week — 27-for-36 for 378 yards and at least two completions to seven different receivers — aren’t you pretty excited for the encore? (What’s with the concert references this week? Has it been that long since I’ve seen Pearl Jam?)

Current line: USC -28.5 | SP+ projection: USC by 25.5 | FPI projection: USC by 27.4

Week 2 chaos superfecta

Each week, as a fun reminder that college football is never too far away from something chaotic, I’m looking at four games with pretty big point spreads and mashing their SP+ win probability odds together. Last week, I noted that SP+ said there was only a 48% chance that Georgia (over Clemson), Penn State (over WVU), Oklahoma State (over SDSU) and Florida State (over Boston College) would all win, and sure enough, they didn’t! (Thanks, FSU!) So that makes us 1-0.

This week’s superfecta features Oregon (90% win probability vs. Boise State), Utah (84% vs. Baylor), Auburn (82% vs. Cal) and Kansas State (79% at Tulane). SP+ says there’s only a 49% chance they all win. What’s your guess?

I’m going with Auburn. The Tigers enjoyed an endless array of big plays against Alabama A&M but never faced a third-and-long and never had to throw the ball. Cal wasn’t amazing against UC Davis, but the Golden Bears should get star running back Jaydn Ott back after last week’s injury, and the defense should be good enough against the run to force Auburn’s Plan B a bit. We’ll see.

play

Steve Sarkisian excited for Texas’ 1st game with Michigan since 2005 Rose Bowl

Steve Sarkisian talks to Scott Van Pelt about Texas’ upcoming matchup with Michigan and what it’ll take to win a national championship.

Week 2 playlist

Here are some more games you should pay attention to if you want to get the absolute most out of the weekend, from both information and entertainment perspectives.

Friday evening

BYU Cougars at SMU Mustangs (7 p.m., ESPN2). BYU looked awfully good last week, winning 41-13 against a Southern Illinois team that should contend for a spot in the FCS playoffs. Jake Retzlaff, who won a crowded QB race, threw for 348 yards and three scores. The Cougars will get a stiffer test from an SMU team that hasn’t completely gotten on track yet this season: The Mustangs barely beat Nevada in Week 0 before playing to projections against Houston Christian.

Current line: SMU -11.5 | SP+ projection: SMU by 11.1 | FPI projection: SMU by 12.6

Duke Blue Devils at Northwestern Wildcats (9 p.m., FS1). Duke is led by havoc master Manny Diaz now, so naturally the Blue Devils lead the nation in sack rate and are second in tackles for loss after Week 1. They’ll create plenty of negative plays against Northwestern, but the Wildcats’ own defense looked the part in last week’s 13-6 win over Miami (Ohio). Don’t expect points here, but any major ambitions for either team require a win in this relative tossup.

Current line: Northwestern -2.5 | SP+ projection: Duke by 5.1 | FPI projection: Northwestern by 1.7

Early Saturday

Arkansas Razorbacks at No. 16 Oklahoma State Cowboys (noon, ABC). The Razorbacks and Cowboys beat two very different FCS teams last week in UAPB and South Dakota State, respectively, but now comes a real test for both. OSU is as tough and physical as ever but gave up a few explosive plays in Week 1, and Arkansas QB Taylen Green and RB Ja’Quinden Jackson averaged 13.5 yards per carry last week. This should be a fun noon complement to Michigan-Texas.

Current line: OSU -7.5 | SP+ projection: OSU by 7.4 | FPI projection: OSU by 2.3

No. 17 Kansas State Wildcats at Tulane Green Wave (noon, ESPN). This is another one of those nine games between teams with at least a 3% CFP chance, though Tulane probably has more at stake with a chance at a marquee power-conference win. (K-State could lose but still make the playoff by winning the Big 12.) Green Wave QB Darian Mensah was almost perfect against Southeastern Louisiana last week, but the K-State defense is quite an upgrade in competition.

Current line: K-State -9 | SP+ projection: K-State by 12.8 | FPI projection: K-State by 2.2

Troy Trojans at Memphis Tigers (noon, ESPNU). Troy looked like the rebuilt team that it is in Week 1, falling in the last minute to a sprightly Nevada. The Trojans could still make life hard for Memphis if the Tigers are looking ahead to next week’s prime opportunity against Florida State, though. Can quarterback Seth Henigan, receiver Roc Taylor & Co. maintain their focus and retain their spot near the top of the Group of 5 hierarchy?

Current line: Memphis -18.5 | SP+ projection: Memphis by 18.3 | FPI projection: Memphis by 4.6

No. 23 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at Syracuse Orange (noon, ACCN). PLAYOFF STAKES ON THE LINE (technically)! In this unexpectedly topsy-turvy ACC, lots of teams are now hoping to make a run. Syracuse’s offense performed better than projected in last week’s win over Ohio, but Haynes King and the physical Georgia Tech attack are overflowing with confidence after a 2-0 start.

Current line: GT -3 | SP+ projection: GT by 0.9 | FPI projection: GT by 4.9

Pittsburgh Panthers at Cincinnati Bearcats (noon, ESPN2). I’m not sure how good either of these teams might be, but Pitt quarterback Eli Holstein looked the part in Week 1 against Kent State, and defensive tackle Dontay Corleone should be back to help a Cincy defense that was glitchier than expected against Towson. More importantly: It’s the 15th anniversary of the amazing 2009 Pitt-Cincy game, aka one of the best of the century.

Current line: Cincy -1.5 | SP+ projection: Cincy by 0.7 | FPI projection: Pitt by 2.7

Saturday afternoon

Baylor Bears at No. 11 Utah Utes (3:30, Fox). Utah’s first game as a Big 12 team playing against another Big 12 team … isn’t a conference game. (It was scheduled before the Utes joined the conference.) But it will still be both a nice test for the Utes — who checked all the appropriate boxes against Southern Utah last week — and an opportunity for Dave Aranda and Baylor to prove a turnaround might be on the way after two straight losing seasons.

Current line: Utah -15 | SP+ projection: Utah -15.7 | FPI projection: Utah by 12.1

California Golden Bears at Auburn Tigers (3:30, ESPN2). Cal nearly took Auburn down in Berkeley last year but let a win slip away. Auburn should be quite a bit better this time around, but the Golden Bears still have Jaydn Ott and quarterback Fernando Mendoza. Week 2 will tell us a lot more about both of these teams than Week 1 did.

Current line: Auburn -13 | SP+ projection: Auburn by 14.8 | FPI projection: Auburn by 14.3

South Carolina Gamecocks at Kentucky Wildcats (3:30, ABC). Safe to say, South Carolina understands how much improvement it needs after last week’s nearly disastrous 23-19 win over Old Dominion. Young Gamecocks quarterback LaNorris Sellers had a terrible first start — he’s officially 117th in QBR one week into his first year as starter — and now he’ll have to deal with a defensive front that is quite a bit better than ODU’s.

Current line: Kentucky -10 | SP+ projection: Kentucky by 11.1 | FPI projection: Kentucky by 8.1

Michigan State Spartans at Maryland Terrapins (3:30, BTN). After back-to-back eight-win seasons and top-30 SP+ rankings, Maryland is dealing with quite a bit of turnover in 2024, but new quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. and the Terps carved through UConn with minimal difficulty last week. Michigan State will offer far more defensive resistance … but we don’t know that the Spartans can move the football. They barely did against FAU in Week 1.

Current line: Terps -8.5 | SP+ projection: Terps by 16.1 | FPI projection: Maryland by 14.9

UTSA Roadrunners at Texas State Bobcats (4, ESPNU). They’re separated by only about 50 miles, and they are both harboring conference-title ambitions in 2024. The algorithms like UTSA, but the Roadrunners could be without a couple of their better offensive players in receiver JT Clark (out) and tackle Makai Hart (questionable), and the sportsbooks think that has shifted the edge to the home team. We’ll see.

Current line: TXST -1 | SP+ projection: UTSA by 5.4 | FPI projection: UTSA by 9.2

Saturday evening

No. 19 Kansas Jayhawks at Illinois Fighting Illini (7, FS1). Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels wasn’t asked to do much in last week’s easy win over Lindenwood, but damn, was it good to see him on the field again. If he’s healthy, KU’s upside is immense this year. We’ll see if that’s the case with Illinois; quarterback Luke Altmyer and the defense certainly looked the part against Eastern Illinois, at least.

Current line: Kansas -5.5 | SP+ projection: Kansas by 5.6 | FPI projection: Kansas by 6.8

South Florida Bulls at No. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide (7, ESPN). Alabama looked just about flawless against Western Kentucky last week, making loads of explosive plays and completely shutting down what should turn out to be a good WKU attack. Now comes a semi-revenge opportunity: The Tide looked listless in nearly losing to USF last September. I’m guessing Kalen DeBoer might have reminded his team about that game a few times this week.

Current line: Bama -30.5 | SP+ projection: Bama by 33.3 | FPI projection: Bama by 34.8

Appalachian State Mountaineers at No. 25 Clemson Tigers (8, ACCN). Clemson’s Dabo Swinney on Saturday after the Tigers’ blowout loss to Georgia: “When you get beat like that, that’s on the head coach.” Swinney the next day (loosely and perhaps unfairly paraphrased): “Actually, everything’s fine.” If things are indeed fine and the Clemson that Swinney saw in film study is ready to break through, Saturday night won’t be much of a problem. But if that offense is as dire as it seemed on television, App State has enough firepower to make this a pretty tricky game.

Current line: Clemson -16.5 | SP+ projection: Clemson by 9.7 | FPI projection: Clemson by 14.2

Western Michigan Broncos at No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes (7:30, BTN). Ohio State slowly rounded into form against Akron last Saturday, scoring only one touchdown in four drives before doing so in four of five. WMU’s a step up from the Zips — the Broncos made Wisconsin’s life difficult in Madison in Week 1 and did a pretty fantastic job of big-play prevention. The Buckeyes will win, but how hard they have to work might be telling.

Current line: Buckeyes -38 | SP+ projection: Buckeyes 42.8 | FPI projection: Buckeyes by 36.4

Houston Cougars at No. 15 Oklahoma Sooners (7:45, SECN). Is it possible to need a get-right game after a 51-3 win? Oklahoma used turnovers, sacks and general Temple implosions to roll to an easy win over the Owls (currently the last-place team in SP+), but the Sooners were dreadfully inefficient on offense at the same time. If last week is any indication, Houston, which began the Willie Fritz era with a 27-7 debacle against UNLV, might not offer a ton of resistance either.

Current line: OU -29 | SP+ projection: OU by 33.9 | FPI projection: OU by 31.3

Smaller-school showcase

Let’s once again save a shoutout for the glorious lower levels of the sport. Here are three games you should track.

Division III: No. 19 John Carroll at No. 3 Wisconsin-Whitewater (1 p.m., local streaming). The Division III season gets underway Saturday, and the most interesting Week 1 battle is in Whitewater. UWW has failed to make the D-III semis for two straight seasons — a shocking drought by Warhawks standards — and starts this year’s campaign against the Blue Streaks of John Carroll (who will turn around and play at No. 5 Mount Union next week). Hopefully, the game’s as good as last year’s, when UWW scored in the final minute to prevail 27-23. SP+ projection: Whitewater by 11.7.

FCS: No. 11 Incarnate Word at No. 1 South Dakota State (7 p.m., ESPN+). SDSU’s 29-game winning streak ended in Stillwater in Week 1, but now the Jackrabbits return to the FCS level to begin a run at a potential third straight national title. Their first opponent is a tricky one: UIW remains pass-happy and dangerous with former Texas A&M quarterback Zach Calzada behind center and allowed only seven points to Northern Colorado last week. If SDSU is anything less than the class of FCS, this could be a fun one. SP+ obviously thinks SDSU is still the class of FCS. SP+ projection: SDSU by 20.9.

FCS: No. 4 Montana at No. 20 North Dakota (7 p.m., ESPN+). Montana faces a Missouri Valley opponent for the second straight week. Last week the Grizzlies shut down a last-minute drive to prevail 29-24 over a game Missouri State squad. On paper, UND is better than MSU, and the Fighting Hawks are playing at home. And if last week’s 21-3 loss to Iowa State is any indication, North Dakota’s defense could cause problems. ISU punted on four of seven drives and averaged just 3.9 yards per rush. SP+ projection: Montana by 5.0.