Georgia Southern at USC
After shooting themselves in the foot via a Waymond Jordan fumble on their third play from scrimmage to start the game and falling behind 6-0 on a 32 yard TD pass, the Trojans put their foot on the gas and never looked back scoring back-to-back-to-back TD’s to lead it 21-6 at the end of the 1st Qtr. The first, a spectacular one handed catch in the end zone by Junior WR Ja’Kobi Lane while being interfered with. They had a chance to extend the lead after intercepting the Eagles on their next possession but ended up having to punt the ball back after just four plays. Georgia Southern would cut into the lead with a 24 yard TD pass from Junior QB JC French to Senior WR Camden Brown to make it 21-13 early in the 2nd Qtr but the Trojans would add another 10 points to the scoreboard before the break on a field goal and a TD while holding the Eagles at bay, 31-13 at the half.
After holding Georgia Southern to a three-and-out to start the 3rd Qtr, Waymond Jordan would make up for that fumble to start the game with a 36 yard TD run on their sixth play from scrimmage to make it 38-13. After that the Trojans would rinse-and-repeat. Another three-and-out and another TD, this one in under two minutes—a 4 play, 72 yard drive and 1 yard TD run by Eli Sanders to go up 45-13 with eight minutes left in the 3rd Qtr. The Eagles would come back and tighten up that score at the end of a 15 play, 6+ minute, 81 yard drive and 13 yard TD pass to Senior WR Dalen Cobb from French to make is 45-20 where it would stay through the end of the third. But USC wasn’t done and started off the 4th Qtr with back-to-back TD’s once again with a defensive three-and-out in the middle—the first on a five yard run by Senior RB Eli Sanders and the second on a 41 yard TD run by Freshman King Miller–making it 59-20. Although early in the 4th Qtr neither team would score the rest of the way with the final not exactly what former USC head coach Clay Helton had in mind when he brought his Georgia Southern Eagles to the Coliseum.
Really notable in this game for the Trojans were the numerous really big plays. Junior QB Jayden Maiava completed just 16 passes, but for 412 yards—with four of those over 50 yards for 4 TD’s without an interception. USC was equally lethal on the ground rushing 33 times for over 300 yards, a 9.4 yard average, and another 4 TD’s. Along the way, the Trojan RB’s—2 Freshman, one Junior, and one Senior RB—each had individual runs from 19 yards to 41 with Waymond Jordan rushing 16 times for 167 yards—the most of any RB in the Lincoln Riley era as head coach of USC. D’Anton Lynn’s defense held up their end of the game as well with four sacks and eight tackles for loss although there is definitely plenty of improvement that’s needed as they’ll start Big Ten Conference play on the road against Purdue this coming Saturday before they host Michigan State at home on the 20th. In spite of having 8 penalties for 93 yards USC out-paced the Eagles in first downs, 28-26; had twice as many total yards of offense, 755-to-377; and converted third downs at better than twice the pace, 55% to 25%.
Oklahoma State at Oregon
Do you get the impression that Dan Lanning is on some kind of marathon mission that begins with a sprint without any plan of slowing down the entire season. They started this game just like Week-1 with back-to-back TD’s. The first on a 59 yard run to the house by Senior RB Noah Whittington on their second play from scrimmage. Apparently that one took too long because the second was on the first play from scrimmage on their very next possession after holding Oklahoma State to a three-and-out, this time a 65 yard TD pass by Sophomore QB Dante Moore to Freshman WR Dakorien Moore to go up 13-0 after a missed two point conversion with less than two minutes gone in the game. With five minutes left in the quarter, after holding the Cowboys to a four play punt, the Ducks would score their third on a 19 yard run by Freshman RB Dierre Hill Jr. to go up 20-0 after one.
After a field goal by the Cowboys to start the 2nd Qtr, the Ducks would hold them to two three-and-outs while they went on another scoring spree. This time on back-to-back-to-back TD’s—the first two in five plays and just over two minutes each—with the third at the end of a 12 play 76 yard drive to go up 41-3 at the break.
The second half was more of the same, especially defensively regarding Oregon who held the Cowboys to three-and-outs their first three possessions of the 3rd Qtr. On their fourth and fifth possessions, Oklahoma State threw up back-to-back pick sixes and Oregon, having already scored two TD’s earlier in the quarter was now leading 69-to-3. Neither team scored another point the rest of the way with both trading two punts each in the 4th before a final 8 play 50 yard drive by the Cowboys that ended on the Oregon 22 with time expiring. But regardless of the lack of scoring in the 4th Qtr, according to the AP in their recap of the game for ESPN; “The loss was the biggest loss for the Cowboys in Mike Gundy’s 20-year tenure as coach, and the biggest losing margin for Oklahoma State in more than a century.” Wow! Through two games the Ducks are putting up an average of 64 points on the board while giving up just 14.5.
I can’t imagine what Oklahoma State QB Zane Flores, a Freshman making his first career start, was going through mentally, physically, and emotionally during this beat down. I mean he only connected on 37% of his passes for just 67 yards and those two pick-six interceptions. It will be interesting to see how he rebounds next week. The Cowboys gained more yards on the ground, 144 on 42 rushes, but never found the end zone. For Oregon, Sophomore QB Dante Moore connected multiple times with seven different receivers on 76% of his passes for over 300 yards and 3 TD’s—1 each to Freshman Dakorien Moore and Senior WR’s Malik Benson and Gary Bryant Jr. The Oregon ground game was crushing, 312 yards on just 37 attempts for an 8.4 yard per carry average and five TD’s by five different players who also accounted for 75% of the yards. The team stats looked like the score as Oregon led in first downs, 24-9; total yards of offense, 631-211; completed 3rd downs 58% of the time compared to 25%; had fewer penalties and no turnovers. The Ducks scored so many points so quickly that the one category they trailed the Cowboys in was time-of-possession. The warm-up’s over as Oregon moves on into Big Ten conference play this next Saturday on the road at Northwestern who had a 42-7 blowout of their own against Western Illinois this past weekend.
UC Davis at Washington
Speaking of blowouts, Washington had one of their own with a 70-10 victory at Husky Stadium over UC Davis, an FCS school that plays in the Big Sky Conference. With over 300 yards passing and 300 yards rushing and scoring 14 points every quarter except the second, where they scored twice as many, the Huskies were dialed in from start to finish. You certainly can say that Head Coach Jedd Fisch had a big hand in this victory with the two guys responsible for seven of the nine TD’s in the game—Sophomore QB Demond Williams Jr. and Senior Running Back Jonah Coleman—having followed him from Arizona. Coleman who rushed 15 times for 111 yards in this one and an incredible five TD’s leads the nation with seven. Williams connected on 16-of-25 for 254 yards, 1 TD, and no interceptions while also rushing eight times for a trip into the end zone on his own.
After holding UC Davis to a three-and-out to start the game, Washington scored rushing TD’s on their next five possessions—one from Williams and four from Coleman—leading to a 14-3 lead at the end of the 1st Qtr and a 42-10 lead at the half. The second half was more of the same with the Huskies scoring TD’s on all four of their possessions while also holding the Aggies scoreless. The first, on Coleman’s fifth rushing TD of the game; the second, on a 47 yard TD pass from Williams to Freshman WR Dezmen Roebuck; the third, a 10 yard TD run by backup QB Kai Horton and; the fourth, another run into the end zone—this time by Sophomore RB Adam Mohammed. All toll Washington rushed 46 times for 384 yards and 8 TD’s! When Coleman was asked about the performance of the Huskies on the ground in this game he had this to say; “We’re supposed to do that. We’re a Big Ten team, we run the ball and [the] goal all off-season was to get bigger, stronger and be tougher.”
With that kind of score you can imagine by how much Washington dominated in the stats, leading in first downs 34-12; total yards of offense, 628-218; converted on third down 85% of the time compared to 33% and were perfect on the two 4th down conversions they tried. They had fewer penalties and ten more minutes time-of-possession. The Huskies have this coming weekend off and then head to Spokane where they will take on the Washington State Cougars in this year’s Apple Cup.
UCLA at UNLV
On Monday, September 8th, Ben Bolch—a reporter for the Los Angeles Times for over 25 years with the last 10 covering UCLA football and basketball—penned a piece for their weekly newsletter, “UCLA Unlocked,” which covers Bruin athletics across the board. The title, “UCLA Unlocked: Someone must take accountability for this dreadful football product.” Of course the article was inspired by the Bruins 30-23 loss on the road to UNLV this past weekend—a game in which they were held scoreless in the first quarter and trailed 23-3 at the half. In spite of a much stronger second half, in which they outscored the Rebels 20-7, it was too little too late to prevent an 0-2 start to a 2025 season. Bolch wrote; “In December, DeShaun Foster touted mass turnover as a reason to think he could win big in Year 2, citing the quick turnaround at Colorado under Deion Sanders. On Saturday, UCLA’s football coach used mass turnover as an explanation for this team’s 0-2 start . . . ‘I’m not somebody who’s going to come up here and give you guys excuses and everything but I have a lot of new people.’ Foster said after [the] loss . . . which left [UCLA] the only winless team in the Big Ten. In other words, said a coach making $3.1 million this season, don’t blame me.”
If not for an interception of UCLA’s QB Nico Iamaleava on the UNLV 24 with just a tick less than a minute left in the game, maybe the outcome is different. But the game was lost way before that; in the 1st Qtr when the only UCLA possession consisted of just 4 plays that led to a punt while the defense did little to keep UNLV from having the ball for over 11 minutes while putting up 10 points on the board; in the 2nd Qtr where UCLA’s first two possessions consisted of a punt and a fumble while the Rebels scored back-to-back TD’s. UCLA went into the halftime on a positive note having at least gotten onto the board with a Mateen Bhaghani 35 yard field goal.
The Bruins had the ball to start the 3rd Qtr and it sure seemed as though they had flipped the script, scoring twice while possessing the ball 14 of the 15 minutes and holding the Rebels to a three-and-out to trail by ten going into the 4th. They would make up that ten but only after UNLV score a TD on their first possession of the period to make it 30-13. Seven points down with a chance to tie and get into overtime, Iamaleava’s pass would get tipped and intercepted—game over—UCLA 0-2 and the only team in the Big Ten without a win. With No. 2 Penn State, No. 22 Indiana, No. 1 Ohio State as well as familiar foes USC, Washington as well as others yet to play, any wins this year are going to be very hard to come by.