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The biggest game of the week (Texas-Michigan) was a 19-point Longhorns win that didn't even feel that close. That ranked-versus-ranked matchup in Charlotte (Tennessee-NC State)? Vols won by 41. The big-name Nebraska-Colorado reunion in Lincoln? Nebraska led by 14 points 10 minutes in, and it was never closer. Most of the big games of Week 2 were done well before the fourth quarter, the top four teams won by an average of 37 points, and only one top-15 team was upset. So it was a big dud of a Saturday, then? Good lord, no! It was a wonderful mess from start to finish. We may have thought we'd spend most of our attention on the games in Ann Arbor, Charlotte and Lincoln, but instead the remote pulled us to Eugene, Stillwater, South Bend, Cincinnati, New Orleans, Syracuse, Tempe and State College. We had two late-night classics. We had stunning last-minute plot twists at the FCS level. We had glorious field goals and gut-wrenching missed field goals at the buzzer. College football's superpower is its long tail, its epic depth. The College Football Playoff race is fun to follow and should be even more fun in the new, expanded CFP era, but it's just one part of the story. Crowds of 20,000, and 40,000, and 60,000 and 80,000 come together throughout the country every Saturday, and many of them see absolutely ridiculous and delightful things whether they're playoff-related or not. Week 2 was proof that the weekly 14-hour or so show known as College Football is impossibly entertaining whether we see a run of huge upsets or classic top-10 matchups or not. As proof, let's walk through the 20 best games of the weekend and what they meant. This list doesn't even include Ball State's comeback win over Missouri State (which featured a 48-point fourth quarter), Cal's cross-country upset of Auburn, Virginia's 31-30 comeback win over Wake Forest, Idaho's 17-13 non-upset upset of Wyoming or BYU's funky Friday night win over SMU. To reach this top 20, games had to be either very special or very silly (or both). Jump to a section:
Week 2's best games
Biggest surprises
Heisman of the week  The 20 best games of Week 2  1. No. 7 Oregon 37, Boise State 34
If you told me before the season that Oregon would be in the company of teams like UTSA, Florida State, NC State and Appalachian State early in the year, I'd have thought that was a very good thing. That's a list of teams that thought they were ready to hit on high ambitions in 2024. Instead, these teams have been just about the most disappointing in the country through two weeks. In the Ducks' first two games, they've underachieved against SP+ projections by more than 50 points. Biggest underachievers vs. SP+ projections through two weeks:
134. UTSA (-28.5 PPG)
133. Oregon (-25.2)
132. Florida State (-24.8)
131. NC State (-23.2)
130. Texas Tech (-23.1)
129. Appalachian State (-20.6)
128. Wyoming (-18.8)
127. Kentucky (-18.8)
126. Utah State (-17.4)
125. South Alabama (-15.1) If you were a neutral observer, Oregon's 37-34 win over Boise State late Saturday night was an absolute blast. BSU's Ashton Jeanty, the best player in the country through two weeks, had 200 yards from scrimmage and three more touchdowns (to add to the six he scored last week), and the Broncos kept pulling their nose in front, leading 20-14 at halftime and 34-27 with 10 minutes remaining. But Oregon got an 85-yard punt return touchdown from Tez Johnson in the third quarter and a 100-yard kick return from Noah Whittington in the fourth. It was an absolute fireworks show, but Boise had to punt on each of its last two possessions, and Oregon converted a pair of third downs to set up Atticus Sappington's winning 25-yard field goal at the buzzer. Oregon is 2-0, having beaten both one of the best teams from the Group of 5 -- Boise State has to be considered one of the favorites from the G5's CFP spot -- and one of the best teams in FCS in Idaho by a total of 13 points. There are worse things in the world than that. But the Ducks came into the season with national title aspirations, and a No. 3 AP poll ranking, so they were supposed to win these games far more comfortably. A team like that shouldn't need to be saved by special teams explosions. Two games in, Oregon ranks 99th in points per drive and 79th in points allowed per drive. The Ducks are winning the efficiency battle but giving up loads of big plays. They do not in any way look like a playoff team. If they start looking like it tomorrow, then no harm has been done. But with plenty of future opponents ranking higher than either Idaho or Boise State -- and a trip to scorned rival Oregon State looming this coming Saturday -- they better start looking like it tomorrow.   2. No. 16 Oklahoma State 39, Arkansas 31 (2OT)
Midway through the fourth quarter of this absolutely madcap affair, I texted a friend and said, "This feels like a game Oklahoma State has won 37 times over the last few years, and this feels like a game Arkansas has lost 37 times over the last few years." Scientific? No, but Mike Gundy's Cowboys are now 18-8 in one-score finishes since 2020 and have won six of their past seven, while Sam Pittman's Razorbacks have lost 10 of their past 12. The sillier things get, the more comfortable OSU seems to get, and now the Cowboys can check "spot your opponent a 14-point lead, get outgained by 263 yards, have your All-American running back average 2.9 yards per carry, don't score your first offensive touchdown until the fourth quarter, have your veteran quarterback get called for a costly taunting penalty in the final minutes of regulation, allow a last-second field goal, miss a field goal in overtime and still win" off their close game bingo card. Arkansas quarterback Taylen Green was just about the best (416 passing yards, 89 non-sack rushing yards) and worst player on the field (three sacks, a bad pick, other near-picks and a fumble). Arkansas linebacker Xavian Sorey Jr. played the game of his life (13 tackles, two missile-like tackles for loss) and committed one of the silliest and costliest personal fouls you'll ever see, turning a third-and-9 into a first down in the second overtime. (Ollie Gordon II scored on the next play.) The Razorbacks made most of the game's best and worst plays, and in the end, Gundy's team won a weird one. As (almost) always.   3. Northern Illinois 16, No. 5 Notre Dame 14
You can see plenty of growth in the program that Marcus Freeman wants to build in South Bend. After a 3-4 start to his head-coaching career at Notre Dame, he's since gone 17-5. Recruiting is good, and after last Saturday's win at Texas A&M, the Fighting Irish were up to fifth in the AP poll, their highest mark since the 2022 preseason. They were 28.5-point favorites against Northern Illinois and began the game by carving straight down the field. Quarterback Riley Leonard completed four of five passes for 40 yards and rushed five times for 33 yards, and the Irish took an easy 7-0 lead. Cakewalk coming, right? Not so much. Over the Irish's final 10 drives, Leonard would throw for 123 yards with two sacks and two interceptions, both of which set up NIU field goal drives. Thanks to an 83-yard Antario Brown catch and run, NIU took a 13-7 lead into halftime. Jeremiyah Love's hurdle-and-go 34-yard touchdown run seemed like it would be enough for the Irish to survive an upset, but after Leonard's second interception, NIU got the ball back with 5:55 left and milked all but 31 seconds off the clock. Ethan Hampton converted a fourth-and-2 after the two-minute timeout, Kanon Woodill drilled a 35-yard field goal and Cade Haberman's second blocked field goal of the afternoon, on a last-gasp Irish 62-yarder, sealed the deal. For the first time since Texas' overtime loss to Kansas in 2021, a favorite of 28 or more points lost.  Losses happen, right? SP+ gave Notre Dame a 97% chance of winning this game, but hey, that meant it would still lose 3% of the time. Multiple blocked kicks and a minus-2 turnover margin? Sounds like a prototypical "stuff happens" game. But man oh man, it's hard to just leave it at that. After all, stuff has happened multiple times at Notre Dame Stadium since Freeman took over. Since the start of the 2022 season, FBS home teams are 618-38 as favorites of 14 points or more, a win percentage of 0.942. Notre Dame has suffered three of those 38 losses. Home favorites of 20 or more are 446-16 (0.965). The Fighting Irish have suffered two of those 16 losses. If there's anything we've learned from this season's early going, it's that teams can look completely different from one week to the next. Maybe the Irish will go right back to looking like the top-five team it sure seemed they might be. But with a pretty weak schedule -- there are only two more SP+ top-30 opponents on the Irish's schedule thanks to Florida State's early season faceplant -- they won't have many more opportunities to score marquee wins. If they finish 10-2, they'll be at the back of a line of two-loss teams, most of which will feature harder schedules and no loss as bad as this one. This was as devastating as a loss can be in Week 2 of a season with a 12-team playoff.   4. Iowa State 20, No. 21 Iowa 19
This was shaping up to be about the most Iowa win imaginable. The Hawkeyes got a lovely early touchdown run from Kaleb Johnson, picked off a pass to set up a field goal and allowed only 101 total yards in the first half. The Hawkeyes led 13-0 at halftime, and that can feel all but insurmountable at Kinnick Stadium. Second-half yardage: ISU 258, Iowa 107. The Cyclones scored twice in the third quarter, Iowa punted on five straight possessions, and Kyle Konrady nailed fourth-quarter field goals of 46 and 54 yards to finish a 13-point comeback that felt more like a 31-pointer. I'm not sure what this means for either team -- ISU's path to the CFP was going to primarily come from contending in the Big 12, and Iowa was only going to be a contender if the offense really was improved over last year's. But the Hawkeye attack vanished when it mattered, and they've now lost two of three to their in-state rivals. More importantly ... the Cyclones won a close game! They've now won two of those in a row after a run of losing nine of 10 before that. Maybe they really are ready to make a Big 12 title push?   5. Pittsburgh 28, Cincinnati 27
Oh, how narratives can change over the course of three and a half hours. Late in the third quarter at Nippert Stadium, it looked like Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi was about to skyrocket up the hot-seat lists and Cincinnati's Scott Satterfield was going to score a satisfying and perhaps tone-setting win and 2-0 start. The Bearcats led 27-6, having scored on five of six drives. But from that point forward, roles completely reversed. Pitt gained 278 yards and allowed just 37, and Eli Holstein led touchdown drives of 75, 82 and 94 yards to bring the Panthers within 27-25. After a late Cincinnati punt, Holstein hit Konata Mumpfield for a 34-yard gain to set up Ben Sauls' winning 35-yard field goal. Just about the easiest late 21-point comeback you'll ever see.   6. No. 17 Kansas State 34, Tulane 27
Boise State came achingly close to a huge, résumé-boosting win in Eugene; earlier Saturday, Tulane, another G5 contender, let one slip away as well. The Green Wave's redshirt freshman quarterback, Darian Mensah, was brilliant for large portions of his second career start, throwing for 342 yards and two touchdowns, but he redshirt freshman'd all over the field at the worst possible time. Having overcome a 20-10 halftime deficit, Kansas State took its first lead of the day in the fourth quarter when Mensah scrambled backward for 15 yards, then was stripped by Austin Romaine. Jack Fabris recovered the fumble and took it 60 yards for a touchdown. Mensah rallied, driving Tulane to the KSU 1 until an offensive pass interference penalty pushed the Green Wave back to the 16 and, with seconds remaining, VJ Payne picked Mensah off to seal the win.   7. FCS: Lafayette 40, Monmouth 35
What a fourth quarter. Monmouth scored three times in the final 15 minutes, including on an 89-yard pass and a 17-yard Sone Ntoh run with 1:54 left to take a 35-28 lead. Lafayette, the defending Patriot League champ, scored with 53 seconds remaining but failed on a go-ahead 2-point attempt. No worries; they just recovered an onside kick and scored again. Dean DeNobile's 42-yard strike to Elijah Steward won the game.   8. Duke 26, Northwestern 20 (2OT) (Friday)
Honestly, it feels like college kickers are becoming too good. After making just 42% of field goals 50 yards or more in 2021, FBS kickers rose to 46% in 2022, 47% in 2023 and 53% so far in 2024. It was a teensy bit satisfying, then, to watch poor Jack Olsen and Todd Pelino attempting to kick field goals into the swirling vortex that was Northwestern's north end zone Friday night. With the wind whipping wickedly off Lake Michigan, the most scenic (and temporary) stadium in FBS made itself part of the story. Northwestern's Olsen missed a 29-yarder early in the second half, then Duke's Pelino missed a 33-yarder that would have tied it with 2:00 left in regulation. But given a second chance, Pelino hammered home a 22-yarder at the buzzer to force overtime, and Maalik Murphy completed touchdown passes of 25 yards to Jordan Moore and 3 yards to Eli Pancol to move Manny Diaz's Blue Devils to 2-0.   9. Arizona State 30, Mississippi State 23
Through two games, few teams have left a more surprisingly positive impression than Kenny Dillingham's Sun Devils. Forty teams have overachieved against SP+ projections in both games thus far, and only five have done so by a larger margin than Arizona State. Biggest overachievers vs. SP+ projections through two weeks:
1. Tennessee (+27.9 PPG)
2. Louisiana-Monroe (+24.6)
3. Boston College (+23.7)
4. UNLV (+23.2)
5. Vanderbilt (+22.8)
6. Arizona State (+22.0)
7. Northern Illinois (+19.7)
8. Indiana (+19.7)
9. Ole Miss (+19.3)
10. Bowling Green (+19.1) It's been a bright start for the Sun Devils, but that average was close to being much higher. Thanks to a couple of Sam Leavitt rushing touchdowns and the most delightfully acrobatic big-man score of Week 2, ASU rolled to a 30-3 lead late in the third quarter. But this game makes the top 10 for what happened late. Mississippi State scored three touchdowns in 12 minutes, including an 80-yard pass from Blake Shapen to Kevin Coleman Jr., and ASU got the ball back with 5:27 left nursing a one-score lead. But Cam Skattebo took it from there. He rushed for 5 yards on fourth-and-1, then ripped off a 39-yard gain to move the chains, force MSU to burn its last timeout and kill the clock. I'm not going to lie: I was already super excited about the Big 12 race when the season began, but I'm positively giddy now. I'm not going to declare ASU a title contender or anything, but ... look at this list. Five of the top eight FBS games from a wild week involved Big 12 teams, as did another game below. Aside from maybe Utah or UCF, almost no one in the conference has really looked better than anyone else, and the "every Big 12 game is decided by 3 points" joke I've made countless times over the past couple of years has never felt more true. This race is going to be absolute nonsense, and I cannot wait.   10. Syracuse 31, No. 23 Georgia Tech 28
First it was about making a statement, then it was about simply surviving. Thanks to a brilliant performance from Kyle McCord -- 32-of-46 for 381 yards, four touchdowns (two to Oronde Gadsden II, two to Trebor Pena), no interceptions and only one sack -- Syracuse led 21-7 in the second quarter and 31-14 midway through the fourth. But Georgia Tech, the early-season darling, drove 75 yards for a TD, recovered an onside kick and drove 56 yards for a second score to make it 31-28. The Orange recovered the second onsider, though, and moved the chains twice to kill the final 2:31 and preserve the upset.   11. FCS: Howard 32, Mercyhurst 31
Thanks to three Jarett Hunter touchdowns, Howard led 27-18 with less than six minutes remaining, but then things got awfully strange. Two Adam Urena-to-Cameron Barmore touchdown passes gave Mercyhurst, a projected 25-point underdog, a shocking 31-27 lead ... but Howard blocked the PAT on the second score and returned it for 2 points, making it 31-29 with 41 seconds left. That meant the Bison needed only a field goal to win, and Dylan West nailed a 37-yarder at the buzzer.   12. Illinois 23, No. 19 Kansas 17
A delightful game in front of a delightful, orange-tinted crowd of 60,000. Kansas outgained the host Illini, and the Jayhawks' run game was outstanding, getting 140 yards on 21 carries from Devin Neal and Daniel Hishaw. But Illinois forced mistakes from KU's Jalon Daniels, picking him off three times and taking a halftime lead thanks to Xavier Scott's 30-yard pick-six. Daniels' touchdown pass to Lawrence Arnold gave KU the lead again, but the Illini drove 80 yards for a go-ahead touchdown, forced a three-and-out, then milked nearly seven minutes off the clock on a late field goal drive. Scott sacked Daniels on the final play to seal the win.   13. Georgia Southern 20, Nevada 17
Nevada games have been worth the price of admission thus far. After a narrow loss to SMU in Week 0 and a 28-26 road upset of Troy in Week 1, the Wolf Pack returned home to play in another thriller. Down 20-17 heading into the fourth quarter in this 1990 Division 1-AA national title game rematch, Nevada's Savion Red fumbled into the end zone as he was about to score the go-ahead touchdown. Then the Pack failed on a fourth-and-1 with 2:35 left. Then, in a last-ditch rally attempt, Brendon Lewis completed a 62-yard Hail Mary to Jaden Smith at the buzzer. Unfortunately, the Pack needed 67 yards. Somehow the rally fell short. 14. Div. III: No. 8 Johns Hopkins 27, No. 20 Ithaca 23 Dan Wodicka's first game as Johns Hopkins head coach was perhaps more memorable than intended. The Blue Jays spotted Ithaca a 17-0 lead midway through the second quarter, but responded with a 20-0 run to take the lead heading into the fourth quarter. Ithaca scored early in the fourth, but Hopkins responded with a 15-yard score from Bay Harvey to EJ Talarico. Then it was time to hold on for dear life. The Jays forced a turnover on downs at their 35 with 2:48 left, went three-and-out, stopped another fourth-down conversion attempt with 1:43 left, lost a fumble two plays later, then made another stop, thanks to a Carson Bourdo interception, and finally kneeled out a win. Whew.   15. Michigan State 27, Maryland 24
After Michigan State came away with a narrow win over Florida Atlantic in Week 1, it was easy to expect little from the team in College Park. But while Spartans quarterback Aidan Chiles continued to make mistakes (he threw three picks, bringing his season total to five), he also completed 24 passes to his own team for 363 yards and three touchdowns. After an ill-advised fourth-down decision by Maryland coach Mike Locksley -- he elected to attempt a 41-yard Jack Howes field goal on fourth-and-1 with 4:22 left instead of going for it, and Howes missed -- the Spartans got the ball back trailing just 24-17. Chiles found receiver Nick Marsh for a game-tying 77-yard catch-and-run, and after a quick Maryland three-and-out, Chiles completed four passes to set up Jonathan Kim's game-winning 37-yard field goal with one second left. Jonathan Smith's Spartans: resilient.   16. FCS: No. 20 North Dakota 27, No. 4 Montana 24
One of the biggest FCS games of the week lived up to its billing. Montana surged to a 24-7 halftime lead, but North Dakota forced three straight three-and-outs to start the second half and scored on all four of its second-half possessions. The Fighting Hawks took a 27-24 lead on a 40-yard CJ Elrichs field goal with 2:16 to go, and Montana's Ty Morrison missed a 54-yarder with 39 seconds left. Big résumé win for UND. 17. NAIA: No. 3 Georgetown (Kentucky) 23, Pikeville 20 Georgetown is taking on one of the funkiest schedules you'll ever see at the NAIA level. Last week the Tigers played at ranked Montana Tech -- quite the road trip -- and fell, 29-22. Next week, they'll play at Alabama A&M of the FCS. In between, they made a 150-mile jaunt to Pikeville and won a thriller. UPike scored the game's first 13 points, but Georgetown tied it on a 30-yard Gehrig Slunaker-to-Jamarcus Robinson touchdown pass. It was 20-16 Pikeville with three minutes remaining when Robinson struck again, reeling in a 42-yard touchdown to cap a 99-yard, five-minute drive. Pikeville drove to the Georgetown 19 in the closing seconds, but once again a kick made the difference: Austan Shuffler couldn't hit a 36-yarder at the buzzer.   18. Southern Utah 27, UTEP 24 (OT)
For the first time since 2013, Southern Utah took down an FBS opponent late Saturday night, but it took more than 60 minutes. Down 17-6 at halftime, the Thunderbirds took the lead on two Targhee Lambson touchdown runs, but UTEP's Jaden Smith hit Skyler Locklear for a 4-yard touchdown as time expired. UTEP elected to send the game to OT instead of going for 2 points and the win, and that backfired when Southern Utah's Danny King hit a 33-yard field goal, and the Miners' Buzz Flabiano missed a 32-yarder on UTEP's OT possession.   19. Liberty 30, New Mexico State 24
The eighth meeting between these schools in just seven years was maybe the best one so far. The rebuilding Aggies had Liberty, the defending Conference USA champ, on the ropes, up 17-3 in the second quarter and 24-15 midway through the fourth. But after gaining 155 yards in the first quarter, NMSU gained only 120 in the final three, and eventually Liberty charged back. The Flames drove the length of the field twice and got touchdown runs of 27 and 44 yards from Quinton Cooley to take the lead, for good, with 1:05 left.   20. No. 8 Penn State 34, Bowling Green 27
After physically dominating West Virginia in a huge road win last week, Penn State returned home ... and did anything but that against Bowling Green. The Falcons had one hell of an offensive game plan and scored on four of their first five drives to take a 24-20 halftime lead. The well dried up from there, and two Nicholas Singleton touchdown runs gave PSU a 34-24 lead, but BGSU kept fighting. A late field goal with 47 seconds left cut the lead to 1, but the Falcons couldn't recover the onside kick, and that was that. The theme of Week 2 seemed to be that the better you looked in Week 1, the more shaky you looked the second time around (and vice versa). Penn State looked like the best team in the Big Ten a week ago but left quite a bit of room for doubt, even while gaining 438 yards at 7.7 yards per play. Bowling Green, meanwhile, looked like a MAC contender.
The five most surprising resultsHere are the five results that were furthest away from their respective SP+ projections. Call them either surprises or bad projections, I guess. SP+ did a good job of projecting games on average - it was within a touchdown on 47% of FBS-versus-FBS games, plus nearly half of the FBS-versus-FCS games as well. But whether you follow SP+ or the spread, the big misses were enormous, big enough that Northern Illinois-Notre Dame didn't even make the top five. Florida International 52, Central Michigan 16 (projection: CMU by 5.5). A week after a 31-7 loss to Indiana -- which might not look too bad if the Hoosiers continue playing well -- Mike MacIntyre's FIU debuted its newly renamed Pitbull Stadium in glorious fashion. First, they put out this fantastic video. Then they took the field as a field goal underdog and won by five touchdowns. Texas State 49, UTSA 10 (projection: UTSA by 5.4). UTSA had injury issues SP+ wasn't accounting for when projecting the Roadrunners as 5-point favorites, but they could have brought back Frank Harris and Marcus Davenport, and they would still have gotten smoked by this TXST team. Louisiana-Monroe 32, UAB 6 (projection: UAB by 11.3). When UAB's Bill Clark retired for health reasons in 2022, it was easy to assume the school would replace him with Bryant Vincent, who went 7-6 as interim coach that season. Instead, it went with Trent Dilfer. Vincent landed at ULM this season ... and sent a bit of a message Saturday. With one of the least proven rosters in FBS, Vincent's Warhawks are now 2-0. Clemson 66, Appalachian State 20 (projection: Clemson by 9.7). What's the best way to respond to a dreadful loss to Georgia in your first game? By going touchdown-touchdown-touchdown-touchdown-touchdown-touchdown-touchdown-touchdown on your first eight drives. South Carolina 31, Kentucky 6 (projection: Kentucky by 11.1). Like their in-state rival Clemson, Shane Beamer's Gamecocks had to bounce back from an awful Week 1 performance (a narrow 23-19 win over Old Dominion). Like Clemson, they did so, turning a 10-6 halftime lead into a second-half romp.
Who won the Heisman this week?I am once again awarding the Heisman every single week of the season and doling out weekly points, F1-style (in this case, 10 points for first place, 9 for second, and so on). How will this Heisman race play out, and how different will the result be from the actual Heisman voting? This week's Heisman top 10 is ... maybe the strangest I've created in the three seasons I've done this exercise. 1. Cade Klubnik, Clemson (24-of-26 passing for 378 yards and 5 touchdowns, plus 2 rushing touchdowns against Appalachian State). After an utterly atrocious performance against Georgia in Week 1, Klubnik and the Tigers were almost perfect in Week 2. In two games, they have underachieved against their projection by 15.6 points and overachieved by 30.3. 2. Antario Brown, Northern Illinois (20 carries for 99 yards, plus 126 receiving yards and a touchdown against Notre Dame). If NIU's offense did something great against Notre Dame, it was probably Brown's doing. That includes being on the receiving end of the most precise pass of Ethan Hampton's life. 3. Kyle McCord, Syracuse (32-of-46 passing for 381 yards and 4 touchdowns against Georgia Tech). Banished from Ohio State after throwing a couple of poor passes against Michigan, McCord has made the absolute most of his second college life. He was brilliant in Syracuse's upset win, and he's on pace for a 4,000-yard, 40-touchdown campaign. 4. Ashton Jeanty, Boise State (25 carries for 192 yards and 3 touchdowns against Oregon). He has truly been the best player in the country over the first two weeks of the season. 5. Cameron Skattebo, Arizona State (33 carries for 262 yards, plus 35 receiving yards against Mississippi State). The transfer portal can create such cool stories. Skattebo led Sacramento State to one of its best-ever seasons in 2022, then jumped to ASU, where he's the main reason the Sun Devils are 2-0. 6. Quinn Ewers, Texas (24-of-36 passing for 246 yards and 3 touchdowns against Michigan). He's the Heisman betting favorite, per ESPN BET, and it's not hard to see why. His controlled brilliance took any hope of a Michigan upset off the table almost immediately. 7. Jaxson Dart, Ole Miss (25-of-27 passing for 377 yards and a touchdown, plus a rushing touchdown against Middle Tennessee). Dart and Jeanty are the only two players to make this list both weeks. That might say something. 8. Desmond Reid, Pitt (19 carries for 148 yards, plus 106 receiving yards and a touchdown against Cincinnati). Another portal success story. Reid averaged 1,100 yards from scrimmage in two seasons at Western Carolina, and on Saturday he was one of the primary reasons for the Panthers' unreal comeback at Nippert Stadium. 9. Xavier Scott, Illinois (8 tackles, 2 interceptions, 1 pick-six, 1 forced fumble and 1 TFL against Kansas). Illinois upset Kansas in the most Illinois way possible Saturday: with long field goals and a defensive score. Scott's pick-six late in the first half gave the Illini the lead, and he had his hands in everything all game. 10. DJ Lagway, Florida (18-of-25 passing for 456 yards and three touchdowns against Samford). Only Samford? Yes. But Lagway is also a true freshman, and ... 456 yards!! The Gators rained big plays on the poor Bulldogs, and nine of Lagway's 18 completions gained at least 22 yards. Honorable mention: Mac Dalena, Fresno State (seven catches for 235 yards and a touchdown, plus an 18-yard carry against Sacramento State) Kaleb Johnson, Iowa (25 carries for 187 yards and two touchdowns against Iowa State) Nick Marsh, Michigan State (eight catches for 194 yards and a touchdown against Maryland) John Mateer, Washington State (212 rushing yards and a touchdown, plus 115 passing yards, one TD and one INT against Texas Tech) Kyle Monangai, Rutgers (27 carries for 208 yards and three touchdowns against Akron) Devonte O'Malley, Northern Illinois (4 tackles, 3 TFLs, 2 sacks and 1 forced fumble against Notre Dame) Kurtis Rourke, Indiana (15-of-17 passing for 268 yards and two touchdowns, plus a rushing touchdown against Western Illinois) Cam Ward, Miami (20-of-26 passing for 304 yards and three touchdowns, plus a rushing touchdown against Florida A&M) Through two weeks, here are your points leaders: 1. Ashton Jeanty, Boise State (15 points)
2T. Cam Ward, Miami (10)
2T. Cade Klubnik, Clemson (10)
4T. Miller Moss, USC (9)
4T. Antario Brown, NIU (9)
6. Kyle McCord, Syracuse (8)
7. Tetairoa McMillan, Arizona (7)
8T. Drew Allar, Penn State (6)
8T. Cameron Skattebo, Arizona State (6)
10T. Jaxson Dart, Ole Miss (5)
10T. Quinn Ewers, Texas (5)
10T. Travis Hunter, Colorado (5) If this list doesn't scream "Yeah, the Heisman race is wide open," I don't know what does. Jeanty deserves to lead the way, though.
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