Week 2 is in the books and not much has changed in the Southern Football Report Top 4 but there is one team that is slowly losing it’s stranglehold on one of the spots:
- Ohio State Buckeyes – The reigning champs didn’t set the world on fire last Saturday with their 38-0 win
over Hawai’i Saturday afternoon. It was only 17-0 at the beginning of the fourth quarter and somehow the Warriors were able to keep all three Buckeye quarterbacks out of the endzone. Cardale Jones finished the game 12 of 18 with 111 yards and J.T. Barrett also was held to only 70 yards on 8-of-15 passing. Former quarterback now wide receiver Braxton Miller carried the ball 8 times and caught 2 passes for a total of 73 yards. In the grand scheme of things the Buckeyes did what they had to do and no one will notice that it was only 17-0 at the end of the 3rd quarter in their home opener but it will be another month before Ohio State will be truly tested again. Next Up – v. Northern Illinois, 2-0 - USC Trojans – It’s only week 2 and the Trojans look like a well oiled machine on offense and it’s not good
news for the rest of the Pac-12 that quarterback Cody Kessler & Juju Smith-Schuster are on the same page. The duo has connected 14 times for 281 yards and 3 touchdowns so far in 2015 and if they can each stay healthy will definitely eclipse the 743 yards & 5 touchdowns in 2014. Arkansas State & Idaho haven’t necessarily been the cream of the crop competition wise but the Trojans have taken care of business against them both with an average margin of victory so far this season of 49.5 points. We’ll definitely find out more about the Trojans in the next two weeks (Stanford, at Arizona State) than we have learned in the last two weeks. Next Up – v. Stanford, 1-1
- Georgia Bulldogs – A lot of Bulldog fans have been down on the offense this week
but the fact that the special teams & defense contributed on the scoreboard is a great thing in my opinion. Bulldog running back Nick Chubb carried the ball 19 times for 189 yards but no touchdowns which I also somewhat see as a good thing. If I were a Georgia fan I would much rather my star stud running back be healthy on the back end of the season rather than him putting up awesome numbers early in the season. Transfer quarterback Greyson Lambert left a little bit to be desired from his performance but I still feel like the Dawgs will be in the hunt for the title late in the season because the talent around Lambert is so good. Next Up – v. South Carolina, 1-1
- Baylor Bears – For the second week in a row the Baylor Bear defense left me wondering if they could stop
anyone. In Week 1 they allowed 21 points to SMU, who will most likely be much better than their 1-11 2014 record, and then let FCS Lamar score 31 points. I’m wondering what the Bears are going to do when they play a Power 5 team with an efficient offense because so far this season opposing offenses have gone through Shawn Oakman and company like a hot knife through butter. The defensive performance would be easy to overlook if the offense was clicking on all cylinders which it almost is but four turnovers including three interceptions from quarterback Seth Russell is very alarming. Next Up – Bye Week
JUST MISSED THE CUT
TCU Horned Frogs – It will take more than a 63 point drubbing of FCS Stephen F. Austin for the Southern Football Report to forget the struggle that was the win over Minnesota on the opening Thursday night of the season. The Frogs were efficient all over the field but they’ll have to beat another FBS team before they earn a spot in the Top Four.
Alabama Crimson Tide – It really is neck-in-neck between Alabama & Georgia but at this point I think the Crimson Tide are a couple notches behind the Dawgs defensively & in a league with little to no quarterbacks, I’ll take the better defense to win the league.
Michigan State Spartans – Sparty got a lot closer to joining the Top Four after last weeks 31-28 win over Oregon in East Lansing but I want to see how they handle success in the next couple weeks against lesser competition. Although, right now a collision course with late November meeting with Ohio State is fine by me.
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