Oregonovercame a 27-18 deficit and picked off its former QB Tyler Shoughthree times, including a 45-yard pick six with 45 seconds left to seal a 38-30 win over Texas Tech. So it was that the Pac-12's undefeated start to the season came to a halt in Week 2, when Arizonafell to Mississippi State31-24 in overtime.Īnd yet, Week 2 was another reminder that, in what sure seems like its last season of existence, the Pac-12 isn't going out without some fireworks. No league stays perfect forever, even if 'forever' for that league is about eight more months. Those Blackshirts on defense, once the soul of one of the great programs in the country, have been beaten down by one showing of offensive ineptitude after another.Īnd while the party in Boulder is just getting started, hope for Nebraska still feels like it's a long way off. Is there a reason to think that résumé changes in the months to come? Rhule has a long history of winning college football games, and life gets at least marginally easier in the next couple of weeks.īut Sims is now 7-18 as a starting QB with 39 touchdowns and 37 turnovers. Two games isn't enough to judge a rebuild, of course. The problems at Nebraska are so much bigger - bigger, perhaps, than they were even a year ago, amid embarrassing losses to Northwestern and Georgia Southern and, well, Huskers fans don't need reminders. Now, you have to squint to find any flaws in their game. And it's certainly possible Colorado has yet to see a truly challenging opponent.Ī year ago, however, the Buffs were an embarrassment, hardly capable of taking the field without tripping over their own shoelaces. In their two otherwise impressive wins, they've allowed 12 sacks and rushed for just 1.7 yards per carry. There are still nits to pick with the Buffaloes. The only thing that looked much different from past Nebraska misery on Saturday is that the game was never actually all that close.

The defense, which held up well early, fell apart down the stretch. Jeff Sims, the quarterback coach Matt Rhule handpicked to lead the Huskers' resurgence, was dreadful for the second straight week, turning the ball over three times. Saturday's loss was the 18th in Nebraska's past 23 games. The Cornhuskers' story is simple: They're bad. And while Week 1's win over the Horned Frogs hardly showcased an elite defense, the Buffaloes held Nebraska to just 11 completions and had four takeaways.īut as with most genuinely good sequels, the real entertainment is less in what we learned of an already established hero but more in the complexity of the antagonist.Īnd in this case, Nebraska offered no complexity. That the teams on the wrong end of these momentous wins both belonged to the mighty SEC was its own unlikely statement.Ĭolorado demolished Nebraska 36-14on Saturday,as Travis Hunter again made an impact on both sides of the ball with three catches for 73 yards and four tackles, Xavier Weaver looked like an emerging superstar with 10 catches for 170 yards, and Shedeur Sanders followed up his 500-yard passing performance against TCU with another 393 yards and three touchdowns. It was, at long last, proof of concept for coach Mario Cristobal's promised revival of the Canes, a defining win against a team that, just a year ago, had utterly stifled Miami's offense. The Hurricanes spotted Texas A&M10 points to start the game, but then they turned the screws on Jimbo Fisher, with QB Tyler Van Dyke tossing five touchdown passes in a 48-33 win. Just as Texas and Alabama kicked off, Miami was putting the finishing touches on its own impressive win over an SEC power. Not since Hi-C released Ecto Cooler in 1989 has anyone delivered such a blow to Kool-Aid. Ewers threw for 349 yards and three touchdowns, torching the Alabama secondary - including routinely attacking All-American Kool-Aid McKinstry.

Then he got a haircut and returned to the Horns for 2023 as a genuine star. Texas was the more talented team with the far better quarterback.Ī year ago, Quinn Ewers starred as the frontman for Austin's top Molly Hatchet cover band (Prolly Hatchet) but was, at best, a case in mediocrity at QB.

The Longhorns threw haymakers, following each Tide touchdown with their own, getting up off the mat to stare down Nick Saban like Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania.

Texas didn't simply beat Alabama 34-24 in Tuscaloosa.

Cristobal turnover chain