Week 2 had some injuries, some upsets, and underwhelming performances. Texas A&M and Missouri lost their SEC debuts despite each of them leading at the half. Oklahoma State, Wisconsin, and Arkansas all lost to “unranked” teams this week. Two teams from Colorado lost to FCS schools: Colorado to Sacramento State and Colorado State to North Dakota State. The top two teams in the “rankings” each had underwhelming performances. Alabama played a game against Western Kentucky which they won 35-0 but that included the Tide allowing six sacks. It was one of the least impressive blowouts I’ve seen in a while. I did like, however, that Saban let McCarron finally play his game and throw it downfield. USC played against Stanford and allowed Syracuse quarterback Ryan Nassib to throw for 322 yards and 2 touchdowns. The Trojans’ only question mark is their defense and this game did nothing to silence that question. Barkley did throw for 6 touchdowns though. I was not impressed with Week 2, and based on my pick results (1-4!), Week 2 wasn’t impressed with me either.
1. I really hope he’s okay. During a kickoff in the Tulane/Tulsa game, Tulane safety Devon Walker collided with a teammate while attempting to making a tackle. He required CPR to be revived on the field and was taken away in an ambulance. He broke his neck and was scheduled to have surgery on Tuesday. I hope he’s okay and I hope he’s able to recover. However, I fear that the people who are trying to remove the kickoff from football will use this play to make their case. If you watch the play, you’ll see that this wasn’t an injury caused by the head of steam players get when covering kickoffs. Both tackling players overran the play and were coming back to make the play when their heads collided when making the tackle. The kickoff return is one of the most exciting plays in football, and it’s been messed with enough. The kickoff was moved to the 35 and touchbacks to the 25. These changes were made under the guise of safety concerns, but I think another contributing factor for such changes is to reduce, and eventually remove, plays that are flashy. I wish the best of wishes to Devon Walker and his complete and expedient recovery. I also hope the kickoff, one of a mere four plays in football that actually uses the foot on the ball, recovers strongly from this as well.
2. UCF is appealing their postseason ban. Central Florida, I learned during the Ohio State game, is appealing their postseason ban. They’re only appealing the football ban and have accepted the basketball ban and are expecting the results of that appeal at some point during this regular season. Their argument is that the majority of the violations were related to the basketball program and the former athletic director and therefore the postseason ban for football was too strong of a punishment. It will be interesting to see how it plays out because I can’t remember a case like this. UCF certainly has a chance to compete for a Conference USA title this year, their last in the conference before joining the Big East, behind running back Storm Johnson, who played pretty well on Saturday. Johnson was the third-ranked high school running back two years ago ranked behind Marcus Lattimore and Michael Dyer. He went to the University of Miami during a time of turmoil. Randy Shannon was fired and apparently Johnson and new coach Al Golden didn’t get along very well. So he left for Central Florida and played on their scout team last year (because he had to sit out a year after transferring from one FBS school to another). I’ll be following him for the rest of the year because I liked his game and I’ll be following UCF’s appeal because it’d be interesting if it’s successful.
3. Everyone is so worried about Savannah State. Savannah State lost 84-0 in Week 1 against Oklahoma State and 55-0 in a three-quarter game against Florida State in Week 2. The FSU game was stopped after three quarters due to weather and the third quarter was played with a running clock, presumably in an effort to beat the weather, but it made it look like it was more of a mercy rule kind of decision by the referees. It should be noted that Florida State only scheduled this game because West Virginia pulled out of their scheduled game unexpectedly due to its move to the Big 12. Savannah State originally had Northern Iowa (the FCS school that nearly beat Wisconsin in Week 1) scheduled for this game but cancelled it to take the offer from Florida State. Savannah State was paid a total of $860,000 to participate in these two games. Much has been made about how overmatched this team was and how it’s athletic department sold the players out for money. I should remind those people that FCS school Youngstown State beat Big East member Pittsburgh in Week 1 and Sacramento State beat Pac-12 member Colorado in Week 2. Additionally, Louisiana-Monroe received $500,000 to play Arkansas this week and they won! Granted, ULM isn’t an FCS school, but they still got a pretty big paycheck to play a team against whom they were overmatched on paper. I think this issue will go away, for the most part, starting the 2014 season. That’s the first season of the playoff system and teams will want to impress the selection committee (the makeup of which we still don’t know) with strength of nonconference schedules. I don’t think there will be very many, if any at all, FCS schools that show up on the schedules of FBS schools.
4. Another Tyler making a name in the SEC? Most of the nation is familiar with a couple of quarterbacks named Tyler in the SEC. Tyler Bray of Tennessee, who I’ve said since he was a freshman that he’ll be a Heisman candidate by the time he’s a senior, is a great leader with a strong arm on a team that struggled in his absence last season. Tyler Wilson of Arkansas came on the scene as a freshman after Ryan Mallett went down against Auburn during Auburn’s championship run and threw for over 300 yards. Unfortunately, Wilson hasn’t finished a game yet this season and his Razorbacks face Alabama next. This weekend I was introduced to another Tyler that may make an impression on the SEC -- Tyler Russell of Mississippi State. The junior out of Meridian, Mississippi finally has his chance to make a name for himself now that Chris Relf is gone. He was 20 for 29 with 222 yards, 3 touchdowns and 0 interceptions this week. MSU has a pretty easy schedule for the next three weeks (Troy, South Alabama, and Kentucky), so he won’t be tested anytime soon. I’m not going to get overly excited about this kid just yet, but I’ll definitely watch the game against Tennessee in Week 6 -- a little Tyler on Tyler crime. I don’t know if there’s a third Tyler that will be a star just yet -- but I’ll be following his progress to find out.
5. Let’s not overreact on Arkansas’ loss … on the field. Yes, Arkansas lost this week to the University of Louisiana-Monroe. Yes, it’s an upset. However, let’s put it in a little bit of perspective. Tyler Wilson didn’t play the second half or overtime and it still took a great run at the end of overtime by LA-Monroe’s quarterback Kolton Browning to pull it off. Actually, it took a phenomenal overall performance by Browning. He threw for 412 yards on 67 attempts and three touchdowns while running for 69 yards and a touchdown. I love how so many are just dismissing Arkansas now as if they’re suddenly a horrible team. AP voters moved them from the eighth team in the nation to not even in the top 25. The Coaches poll moved them from eighth in the nation to 21st in the nation. No one is saying they should still be ranked eighth after the loss, but this just shows that these early rankings are foolish. Tyler Wilson has been unable to finish a game yet this season and I hope he recovers fully and in time for his Razorbacks to make a run. Their schedule is in their favor, but the timing of these injuries may hurt them because they have Alabama in Week 3. Wilson is currently listed as day-to-day and if he can’t go this kid Brandon Allen better step his game up. The freshman threw more incompletions (17) than completions (10) against ULM and that just won’t do against most teams. The loss on the scoreboard was an upset for sure, but it’s not as if a fully-staffed Arkansas lost to a team they paid half of a million dollars to play against. The loss of Tyler Wilson, if it lasts too much longer, would be an upset for a team that could have made a run for an SEC West title.
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