Week 2 Recap

Good morning and welcome to 4th & Forever, Rand & Tate’s College Football Newsletter. You know as well as anyone, there’s nothing we enjoy talking about more than college football, which is why we started this newsletter and want to share our thoughts and opinions with you. You can expect game previews & recaps, betting picks, updates on CFB current events, and other random stuff we find enjoyable.

Week 2 was filled with close games, upsets, and top 25 teams looking shaky. It also looks like we’ll have some new blood fighting for College Football Playoff spots. We could start with a dozen different things here in the intro because Week 2 definitely delivered, but we wanted to start off by specifically congratulating Washington State, who beat #19 Wisconsin on Saturday pretty-handedly. Wazzu, along with Oregon State, has been hit harder by all of the conference realignment craziness of the past couple of years than any other program, being left essentially homeless once 10 of the PAC-12’s programs bolt for other conferences in 2024. The Big Ten in particular can be blamed for Washington State being left out of the next version of “major” college football, so it was really awesome to see Wazzu smoke one of the Big Ten’s top programs. We have plenty of other items to cover, so without further ado, let’s get to it!

Texas 34 Alabama 24

Texas is back! No, seriously, we think Texas is legitimately back. The Longhorns looked really impressive on Saturday. QB Quinn Ewers was absolutely phenomenal (24-38 for 349 yards and 3 touchdowns), this Texas wide receiver group is the best in the country, and the offensive line did a great job against an Alabama defensive line that many touted as the best in the country this year (something Tate really did not buy into, but we digress). The offense also showed a lot of moxie after Alabama took their first lead of the night late in the 3rd quarter, responding with a quick 3-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to immediately take the lead back. Sark had Alabama’s defense in a blender all night, scheming guys open and confusing the second level of Alabama’s defense consistently. Sark can really call a game, man. Defensively, the Horns gave up some big plays but overall had a great performance, holding Alabama to only 6 first-half points and more or less holding the Tide down for most of the game. Texas utilized 5-star freshman linebacker Anthony Hill similar to how LSU utilized Harold Perkins for most of last season, in a sort of “see ball, get ball” instinctual role, where he had fewer true assignments and could just go make plays. He’ll be a fun player to watch moving forward. This Texas team is legit, and absolutely one of the five best teams in college football right now.

On the Alabama end, oof… things are not looking great. We mentioned in our Thursday newsletter that a big key for Texas would be to force 3rd and longs and put QB Jalen Milroe in obvious passing situations because that’s where Milroe struggles. And boy oh boy did Milroe struggle in those situations, throwing two absolutely brutal picks that were huge turning points in the game. This loss snapped a 22-game home winning streak for Alabama and was the first out-of-conference regular season loss Alabama has had in fifteen years. The Tide are very limited offensively because their current quarterback can’t throw the ball effectively, no receiver has stepped up as a true #1 option to help Milroe out, and the offensive line has struggled for the past two seasons but was thought to be vastly improved this year, did not look vastly improved at all. Defensively, Alabama’s secondary, which was also thought to be their strength, got abused by Texas’ receivers all night long. UGA transfer (and legend) AD Mitchell was getting open left and right, including on Alabama DB Kool-Aid McKinstry, who is (was?) projected to be a first-round pick in next year’s NFL draft. The defensive line didn’t have much success, either. This is still a good unit, but it may not be good enough to overcome the offense’s limitations, which we don’t see getting much better any time soon.

Alabama has games against #17 Ole Miss, #11 Tennessee, and #14 LSU still to come (not to mention a Texas A&M team that always gives them trouble, and a game against a solid Arkansas team right in the middle of all of this.) Saban’s run really may be coming to an end. Alabama will always be one of the best teams in the country as long as he is there, but this game feels like a bit of a turning point for a program that looks like it will not win a national title in 3 consecutive seasons, the first time that has happened under Nick Saban. Crazy times.

Here are some game highlights to relive Saturday’s terrific matchup. Side note: isn’t Chris Fowler just so damn good at his job? Best in the business.

The PAC-12 is still really good!

We’ve mentioned it before, but this final season of PAC-12 football is a great one. #6 USC and #8 Washington continued to smoke their opponents this weekend, while #12 Utah and #13 Oregon traveled down to the state of Texas to take care of two formidable Big 12 opponents. #16 Oregon State had another blowout win, #24 UCLA beat San Diego State by 25, we mentioned now-#23 Washington State’s victory over #19 Wisconsin above, and of course, we are obligated to talk about #18 Colorado. QB Sheduer Sanders had another 400 yards and 3 touchdowns, WR/DB Travis Hunter made a few more big plays, and Coach Prime looks to have himself an elite core of receivers. We are still skeptical of the Buffs on the line of scrimmage because they can’t seem to run the ball offensively or stop the run defensively. That isn’t stopping College Gameday & Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff shows from going to Boulder next week for Colorado-Colorado State which gets the 7pm ET ESPN slot. Nevertheless, Colorado’s early season success has made an awesome year of PAC-12 football even more awesome. They all start playing each other in a couple of weeks for the very last time, so enjoy it while you can folks.

Notre Dame might be the real deal?

#9 Notre Dame looked great through their first couple of games in Weeks 0 and 1, but it was a bit hard to judge them considering the opponents were a very bad Navy team and Tennessee State, an FCS program. But the Irish passed their first real test with flying colors this weekend, beating a solid NC State team 45-24 on the road. Wake Forest transfer and 41-year-old QB Sam Hartman impressed yet again and looks like he might be the missing piece that has kept Notre Dame from being truly elite for years. The OL looks good, the running backs are better, and the defense might be very good. Notre Dame plays both Clemson and USC later in the season but hosts #6 Ohio State in two weeks. We’ll get to find out pretty soon if this is going to be a year of the Irish.

The SEC might be… kinda mid?

Through two weeks, SEC West favorites LSU and Alabama have both taken losses in convincing form and the dark horse candidate in the division, Texas A&M, got absolutely smoked by an unranked Miami team this weekend, 48-33. Arkansas struggled with Kent State for a while, Auburn’s offense looked horrible as they tried their hardest to lose to Cal, and Mississippi State went to overtime with Arizona, one of the PAC-12’s worst teams. Ole Miss had an impressive win over Tulane this weekend, so Tate asked his good friend and resident Ole Miss expert Waide Swain if the Rebels might be able to pull off an SEC West title this season. His response? “Good lord no.” Alrighty then.

Things didn’t look a whole lot better in the East, either. In Week 1 we saw Florida look like a big stinky pile of doo-doo in their loss to Utah and saw South Carolina’s offensive line look like the college football version of the black plague in their loss to North Carolina. It didn’t get much better this weekend as Missouri almost lost to a bad Middle Tennessee State team, and Kentucky looked like hot garbage as they only beat FCS opponent Eastern Kentucky by 11 points. Vanderbilt got cooked up by Wake Forest, while Tennessee scored the least amount of points in a home game in head coach Josh Heupel’s tenure thus far. Georgia might be doing a lot of heavy lifting for the SEC’s reputation this year, because we might have more average-to-bad teams than usual in the conference this season.

Off the Field

Crisis management & investigations are ongoing at Michigan State and Oklahoma. Late Saturday night, reports surfaced that head coach Mel Tucker was under investigation for Title IX violations which turned out to be some incredibly heinous behavior. He’s since been suspended without pay and will likely not coach at Michigan State again. He will probably get fired for cause meaning he won’t get the remaining $77 million left on his deal. I’ll let you read the details yourself but the allegations involve Tucker sexually harassing Brenda Tracy who operates a sexual misconduct awareness non-profit.

Over in Norman, photos surfaced of coaching outcast and former Baylor head coach Art Briles on the field following Oklahoma's win over SMU. Briles is the father-in-law of OC Jeff Lebby and was the head coach at Baylor during their sexual assault scandal. Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables & athletic director Joe Castiglione were both unaware Briles would be around after the game and chastised Lebby & incident. Lebby, who needs to go to media training or perhaps fired for sucking & being an idiot, said “That’s my father-in-law…He’s my father-in-law. That’s the grandfather to my two kids.”

Quick Hitters

It’s good to see lightning rod QB Jalon Daniels back for Kansas as he led the Jayhawks to a 33-24 victory over Illinois. He’s one of the most exciting players in CFB and certainly the best thing that’s happened to Kansas since their 2022 NCAA Championship in basketball over UNC. Speaking of UNC, that was a solid OT win over an incredibly pesky App State team. Turns out South Carolina’s offensive line might just be trash as UNC’s defense regressed back to the Carolina D of old with 0 sacks and allowed almost 500 total yards. After the game, head coach Mack Brown said UNC is done scheduling App State and encouraged N.C. State and ECU to do so. Choice words coming from someone who was literally the head coach at App back in the 80s and from a school that prides itself in being the best in NC. Hard to say that when you are now refusing to schedule one of those teams because they might beat you.

Looks like Ohio State QB Kyle McCord figured out it is a good idea to throw the ball to the best WR in the land as Marvin Harrison Jr. went for 160 yards and 2 TDs. Purdue had a nice 24-17 win over Virginia Tech in Blacksburg after a mere 6-hour rain delay. James Madison stole one from UVA in Charlottesville winning 36-35 on the day when the ‘Hoos honored the three players who were shot and killed last year. RB Mike Hollins, who survived the shooting, scored two TDs which was fantastic to see.

Iowa beat Iowa State 20-13 in Ames where half of the Republican presidential candidates were in attendance including Trump who ended up at a frat house? Back to football, Iowa didn’t surpass 25 points yet again which means they’ll need to average 25.5 points the rest of the season, or else coach’s son and OC Brian Ferentz will get fired. We will believe the firing when we see it but lucky for Ferentz, defensive scores also count which is good since they had a pick-six in the game. Lastly, the hot seat alert is officially on in Houston as they lost to in-state wannabe rival Rice 43-41. Not looking good for Dana Holgorsen and the cougs.

Holding Ourselves Accountable

OnlyRans: Last week: 3-3 - Season Record: 9-7

Utah -7.5 & U 47: L/W - beat Baylor 20-13

Oregon -6.5: W - beat Texas Tech 38-30

UConn +6: L - got smoked by Georgia State 35-14

Cal +6: W - lost 14-10 to Auburn

Stanford @ USC O 69.5: L - Stanford lost 56-10

Batting .500 won’t make you money but it will win me the MLB batting title so I’ll take it. Still positive for the year which is definitely going to last. I said I was surprised by the Utah spread and Vegas might know something I don’t, Given that I am currently writing this from a hotel room in Vegas and recently walked down the Strip…I think they know what they’re doing out here. Oregon with the backdoor cover of the year with a pick-six in the final minute, Cal should’ve won after having 8 possessions in Auburn territory and walking away with a whole 10 points, and the Utah under was an easy call. If I ever tell you to put money on UConn again please call the authorities.

Tate’s Great Picks: Last Week: 1-4 - Season Record: 5-10

UConn ML: L - lost to Georgia State 35-14

Texas A&M -4.5: L - Lost to Miami (FL) 48-33

Stanford @ USC O 69.5: L - Stanford lost 56-10

Ole Miss -7.5 & O 67: W/L - Beat Tulane 37-20

I’m sorry. I don’t know what else to say but I’m sorry. Just a real bad look here for a guy who watches a comical amount of college football. With Texas A&M’s blowout loss to Miami, I’m now 0-2 this season when I tell our readers to “hammer” something. I should probably stop doing that. I just got this one totally wrong and I have no idea why I expected a Jimbo Fisher Texas A&M team to do something impressive. I’m sorry.

I will say that I got a little screwed with the Tulane/Ole Miss Over. We sent our picks out on Thursday, and on Saturday morning Tulane announced that its star quarterback Michael Pratt would be out due to injury. That hurt Tulane’s offense pretty badly and kept us well under the total of 67. Stanford literally couldn’t score against USC’s defense which is a crime that should be punishable by significant jail time, losing 56-10 which kept us 3 points under the total of 69.5. Ugh. I was just dead wrong on the UConn/Georgia State game, which is why normal and sane people probably shouldn’t bet on games like UConn/Georgia State. I’m sorry everyone.

Wake Forest & Georgia

Georgia (2-0) - UGA 45 - Ball State 3: I mentioned in last Thursday’s newsletter that I was looking for the Dawgs’ offense to get off to a hot start. That didn’t exactly happen as the first quarter ended 0-0, the first time in Georgia’s last 10 games that they did not score a point in the first quarter. I wouldn’t say it was terribly concerning because after a great opening kickoff return by Mekhi Mews, the Dawgs did drive all the way down the field on their first drive but sputtered a bit in the redzone and then missed a field goal. But this is still a space I’d like to see the Dawgs get better at, we won’t be playing teams like Ball State forever.

Speaking of Mews, he got the Dawgs on the board to start the 2nd quarter with a 69 yard punt return (nice). I told you guys to watch out for him before the season started, and man is he making me look good on that one. This guy is just so fun to watch and we now have a good nickname for him - “Waffle House” - which is what offensive coordinator Mike Bobo has been calling him because he is reliable and always open.

Overall, I thought it was a pretty good showing by the Dawgs. I thought Carson Beck looked great, and while he wasn’t asked to do a ton downfield, he made a few really nice throws. Freshman RB Rod Robinson looked good again, but the lack of depth due to injury at the position is still a bit of a concern. WR Dillon Bell has been taking snaps at RB in recent weeks because of all of the injuries and got a chance to play some RB on Saturday, scoring a touchdown on his first carry. I’m not sure I’ve seen a more impressive touchdown run from a UGA RB in a few seasons - let’s get him some more carries. One final note on the RBs, the other walk-on I told you guys to watch out for in addition to Mews was Cash Jones. Jones had a really nice touchdown catch on a wheel route as well.

Thought the receivers played really well, but the OL needs to start getting more of a push in the run game. It wasn’t the best game for the OL once again, and we really need them to get it together to help out with the injury issues at RB.

Defensively, the Dawgs looked pretty good. We had 3 interceptions and 6 TFLs, but no sacks. I mentioned on Thursday that I was looking for one of the young pass rushers to start breaking out, but that didn’t really happen. Thankfully, we still have some runway for them to get going with this schedule. Hated that we gave up a field goal at the end, really wanted a shutout. But the Dawgs have not yet given up a point before the 4th quarter this season, so I’d say they’re doing alright. All in all, a pretty good showing by the Dawgs on Saturday.

Wake Forest (2-0): Guess who has more wins over SEC teams than the entire SEC combined. That’s right, the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, rulers of the world. This is an accurate fact but please do not google why there should be a massive asterisk on said statement. Anyways, Wake beat Vanderbilt 36-20 in a game that took 5 hours because of a 2-hour rain delay that started 5 minutes into the game. I may or may not have told people the radar looked fine and there was nothing to worry about only for the skies to open up and it literally rained sideways. Pro tip: never leave the stadium during a lighting delay if you intend on coming back in because they won’t let you until players are on the field, but if you don’t have a ticket to the game it won’t matter because they won’t ask for it again.

Good teams win, great teams cover. Wake did both which cannot be said for a lot of other teams such as ohhhhhh let me randomly think ah right UNC & UGA. In Thursday’s newsletter, I wanted Wake to establish a running game that was sub-par against Elon, and even without starting RB Justice Ellison who was out Saturday with a concussion, they went for 288 yards behind Demond Claiborne (told you to buy stock) and Tate (not Cade) Carney. I also liked that we dominated time of possession which legitimately never happens with how fast we play, only had 3 penalties, 2 interceptions, and 1 fumble returned for a TD off a punt. I did not like the missed field goal before half, the field goal in the redzone after returning an interception inside the 10, the fumble at the goal line, and the relative lack of pass rush. These things are fixable and QB Mitch Griffis played well and protected the ball. Hard to nitpick such a weird game but this game could have been a lot more lopsided in favor of the Deacs. A win is a win is a win, especially against a Power 5 opponent. On to the next.

Texts of the Week

“I’m sick and tired of you telling me to SLAM bets. A&M is getting f***ing tossed.” - Cole Schweers (I’m sorry)

“We need to get a quality loss on our schedule to match Bama or we might get snubbed tbh” - Alex Sztejenberg

“Remember when Stetson Bennett threw an incomplete forward pass and they gave the ball to Alabama” - Sam Weinbach, referencing this play

“We get 13 full slates of college football and y’all are wasting one on tennis? Embarrassing” - Eli Shankman

“From rand: ‘rain is going to blow over.’ Me five min later relying on that analysis: in my underwear cause I am so wet.” - Sam Biermann

“I took A&M because rands friend told me to via email.” - Jack Richter

“Pat Miami is so bad. I’m telling you. Save your money.” - James Meany

“Very convenient lightning delay after Wake almost throws a pick in the endzone!” - Kenan Reed

“Only a thousand year flood could wash away the sins of Friday night at Last Resort.” - Kenan Reed

Hope you have a great Monday and we will talk to you again on Thursday.

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Rand Fisher & Tate Smillie met a few years ago through our good buddy Dave Peljovich who went to college with Rand and high school with Tate. Tate went to Georgia and has spent the last two years collecting championship rings while traveling to watch the Dawgs. Rand went to known CFB powerhouse Wake Forest and currently pays rent in Atlanta but is rarely found there with all the work & CFB travel he does.