College Football Week 2 Winners and Losers: Michigan and Notre Dame Have a Lot of Work to Do to Make the Playoffs

Michigan and Notre Dame are far from ready for the playoffs, especially not on offense.

The two top-10 teams will collapse the AP Top 25 on Sunday after embarrassing losses. The No. 10 Wolverines were pummeled by No. 3 Texas in a 31-12 loss that wasn’t as close as the final score indicated. And No. 5 Notre Dame followed up its 10-point win at Texas A&M in Week 1 with an embarrassing 16-14 loss to Northern Illinois. The Fighting Irish entered the game as 28.5-point favorites.

Both teams are 1-1, largely due to their inability to pass the ball effectively. Michigan didn’t add a transfer following JJ McCarthy’s departure to the NFL and held a quarterback competition between Davis Warren and Alex Orji. After adding a transfer QB in Sam Hartman a season ago, Notre Dame went the transfer route again, signing Duke’s Riley Leonard for 2024. In addition to Leonard, Notre Dame re-hired former offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock from LSU, where he coordinated an offense that featured Heisman winner Jayden Daniels and 2023 first-round picks Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas.

Neither Warren, Orji nor Leonard has been an effective passer so far this season. Warren was named Michigan’s starter because Orji has seen limited playing time for the second straight season. After throwing for just 118 yards on 25 pass attempts against Fresno State, Warren wasn’t much better against the Longhorns. He was 22-of-33 passing for 204 yards, but many of those yards came after Texas led 31-6. A big reason for that deficit? Warren’s two interceptions.

Warren’s story is phenomenal. The senior was diagnosed with leukemia in 2019 while in high school. He spent more than four months in the hospital for treatments and now starts games for the reigning national champions. You can’t question his desire or determination.

But you have to wonder about the performance of Michigan’s offense over the past two weeks. The Wolverines have scored just three touchdowns and 36 offensive points in the first two games of the season. Yes, Michigan lost a lot of its offense last season. Given the midseason change in Ann Arbor, it was realistic to expect some early growing pains when offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore took over as the team’s head coach.

It’s hard to find bright spots on the offense, though. Jim Harbaugh’s offense has relied on play-action passing plays behind a dogged run game. So far, Michigan has recorded 57 carries for 228 yards. Will teams load up even more to stop the run, knowing McCarthy is now in the NFL? Warren averaged 4.7 yards per pass against Fresno State and didn’t top that mark against Texas until the Longhorns knew the game was out of reach.

Leonard, meanwhile, hasn’t shown the traits that have some draft analysts believing he’s a possible first-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. He’s averaging just over five yards per pass attempt through the first two games of the season, and his second interception of the game on Saturday proved to be the game-changing moment.

With Notre Dame down by one point with under six minutes to go, Leonard delivered this pass up the middle to a safety with two high points.

Northern Illinois then rushed the field and shot the go-ahead field goal with 31 seconds left.

The expanded playoff isn’t out of reach for either team. Alabama made the playoffs last season after a Week 2 loss. Notre Dame has a schedule that features just two top-25 teams the rest of the season (through Sunday), and Michigan will have chances for big wins against USC, Oregon and Ohio State.

But the margin for error for both teams is virtually zero. We’re not ruling Notre Dame and Michigan out of the postseason, but we’re a lot more pessimistic than we were at the start of the season unless the passing offenses take a big step forward.

These are this week’s winners and losers.

Winners

Syracuse quarterback Kyle McCord: The Orange defeated No. 23 Georgia Tech 31-28 on Saturday thanks to a strong performance from the former Ohio State QB. McCord was 32-of-46 passing for 381 yards and four touchdowns. McCord threw his first two TDs to Trebor Pena before hitting Oronde Gadsden II for two more scores. His TD throw to Gadsden with 8:39 left proved to be the winning score as Syracuse ran out the clock after Tech cut the lead to three with 2:31 left.

Army: The Black Knights had no problem with Florida Atlantic. Army won 24-7, rushing 58 times for 405 yards. FAU was powerless to stop Army’s rushing attack, also allowing a 44-yard TD pass on Bryson Daly’s only completion of the day.

The real highlight, however, came from backup punter Matthew Rhodes. Watch his wheels on this 23-yard fake punt TD.

South Carolina: The Gamecocks were dominant on defense in a 31-6 drubbing of Kentucky in the first SEC game of the season. Kentucky quarterbacks Brock Vandagriff and Gavin Wimsatt were just 6 of 17 for 44 yards while South Carolina recorded five sacks and forced two turnovers. It was a huge win for South Carolina and coach Shane Beamer as the team hopes to bounce back from a disappointing 5-7 season in 2023.

Losers

Cincinnati: Things were looking good for the Bearcats in the third quarter of their game against Pitt. Cincy held a 27-6 lead and appeared to be headed for an easy win. Instead, Pitt scored 22 unanswered points, including 15 in the fourth quarter, to steal a 28-27 victory. Pitt’s winning points came with 17 seconds left on a 35-yard field goal by Ben Sauls as Cincinnati’s final four possessions ended in three-pointers and a last-ditch fumble as time expired.

Chestnut brown: The Tigers offense is far from finished in Hugh Freeze’s second season. Cal went down to Auburn and claimed a 21-14 victory on Saturday after forcing five Auburn turnovers. The Tigers fumbled once and QB Payton Thorne threw four interceptions. His last two interceptions came on Auburn’s final two drives of the game after the Tigers cut Cal’s lead to seven with 6:06 remaining. With a schedule that includes Oklahoma, Georgia, Missouri and Alabama, a win over Cal would have been a big step toward bowl qualification. Instead, Auburn needs at least three wins in the SEC to reach the postseason.

Arkansas: You were so, so close, Razorbacks. Arkansas led Oklahoma State 21-7 in the first half before outscoring the Hogs 24-10 in the second half in a 39-31 win over OSU. OSU’s first score came on a pick-six and Arkansas fumbled twice in the second half. Those turnovers led to 10 points by the Cowboys as they slowly crept back into the game. It’s a bad loss for the Razorbacks, but there’s still reason for optimism. Oklahoma State is a Big 12 title contender and Bobby Petrino’s offense works. Arkansas racked up 648 yards of total offense after scoring 10 TDs on 10 possessions in Week 1.