If Week One of college football can be defined by the words anticipated and hyped, Week Two can typically bedefined as anticlimactic and boring. For the most part, matchups are determined by one of two factors–throwing a smaller school with some sort of connection–geographic or historic–to a larger school with a huge stadium and season-ticket holder base the chance for a nice payday at the cost of a blowout. That would tend to explain the predominance of scores we saw from yesterday’s proceedings that under Little League rules would have been suspended midway through the third quarter. Ohio State 70, Grambling 0. Miami (Florida) 45, Bethune-Cookman 3. Alabama 73, Louisiana-Monroe 0. Et cetera. Et cetera.
But every now and then we get what appears to be such a charity extension turn into something with a surprising level of competitiveness and even more rarely an outright upset. Such was the case in Gainesville where the homestanding Florida Gators were ostensibly throwing a bone to the American Conference’s South Florida Bulls. We were certainly put on notice when USF was able to shock Group of Six kewpie doll Boise State with a convincing beatdown in Week One, albeit on their home and (for the Broncos) atypically green turf. But few outside of the Tampa metro likely anticipated what unfolded yeserday, as THE ATHLETIC’s Joe Rexrode noted:
There’s a strong early favorite in the throng of College Football Playoff hopefuls from the Group of 5.
There’s a rising name in the coaching ranks.
There’s a seat that’s quickly heating up again.
South Florida 18, No. 13 Florida 16 in The Swamp is a result with that kind of reach. Especially considering the devastating lack of discipline the Gators (1-1) showed late: defensive lineman Brendan Bett spitting in the face of a USF lineman and getting a 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty and ejection with 2:04 left.
It’s South Florida’s first win over Florida in four tries and first road win over a ranked opponent since a 2011 win at Notre Dame. The last time the Bulls beat two ranked opponents in the same month was September 2007, the season they climbed to No. 2 in the nation. This year’s Bulls count as the only team in college football with two ranked wins, having started with a 34-7 home win over then-No. 25 Boise State.
And Alex Golesh, the former Tennessee offensive coordinator who went 7-6 in each of his first two seasons at USF, is a safe bet to be mentioned in connection with vacated jobs at the Power 4 level if this team continues to play at the level it has demonstrated through two weeks.
Meantime, a team that travels well helped a somewhat smaller football school get a big-time playdate in a much larger and more comfortable venue. Being able to play in the climate-controlled environs of Allegiant Stadium when the outside temperature is in triple digits makes for a much more enjoyable afternoon for UNLV’s Rebels than their usual outdoor haunt offers, and the presence of the UCLA Bruins gave them that chance.
But once again, we did have hints of something other than a courtesy game unfolding when the Bruins were blown out in their home opener by their one-time Pac-12 opponent Utah Utes last week. And while they did at least save some face down the stretch last night, the end result was yet another loss, as the LOS ANGELES TIMES’ Ben Bolch reported:
This wasn’t close, no matter what the scoreboard said. This was a full-blown debacle.
Given a chance to quickly right things after a season-opening blowout loss, UCLA instead doubled down on disappointment.
Even with an inspired comeback that fell short after a Nico Iamaleava pass was tipped and intercepted with 52 seconds left, the Bruins’ 30-23 loss to Nevada Las Vegas on Saturday night at Allegiant Stadium showcased many of the same problems that had plagued them a week ago.
Where are the Bruins now? In a scary place. They are 0-2 for the first time since they lost their first three games in 2019 on the way to finishing 4-8.
A year after losing two games over the season’s first three months on the way to helping Tennessee reach the College Football Playoff, Iamaleava has already absorbed that many losses after two games as a Bruin.
The cautionary tale is not to draw too much out of such a small sample size. This said, the way that USF rose to the occasion and UCLA continued to play uninspired and erratic ball, especially at the outset, can’t be dismissed as abbreative any more.
And I for one have switched out my favorites and alerts accordingly.
Courage…