In college football's younger days—before South Florida, founded in 1956, was even a school—Hall of Fame Tennessee coach Bob Neyland conceived of what he called the "seven maxims of football."
"The team that makes the fewest mistakes will win," the first rule read. The second was like it: "Play for and make the breaks and when one comes your way—SCORE."
Over six decades after Neyland's death, these aphorisms can be seen at play every Saturday. The Bulls made fewer mistakes than No. 13 Florida, so they won. South Florida seized on Gators defensive lineman Brendan Bett doing his best impression of Eagles defensive lineman Jalen Carter, so the Bulls won.
Here's hoping your team made the fewest mistakes and seized the breaks on a stormy Saturday across much of the country. Let's go to Week 2's winners and losers.
Winner: South Florida, the giant killer
Josh Dubow of the AP presented social media with this fascinating statistic Saturday: the Bulls are the third team this century to beat back-to-back ranked teams to start the season while unranked for both games. East Carolina did it in 2008, and Oregon State did it in 2012. The Pirates and Beavers, however, could breathe a bit in their third games against Tulane (unranked) and Arizona (ditto). Coach Alex Golesh—the mastermind of Tennessee's 2022 breakthrough with quarterback Hendon Hooker—will have no such luxury. Next stop: Hard Rock Stadium and the No. 5 team in the land, Miami.
Loser: Oklahoma State...
Credit is owed Mike Gundy—as both a player and a coach—for helping transform Oklahoma State, once better known for basketball and wrestling, into a football factory. WIth that being said, there comes a time when every factory outlives its utility. In a NIL-fueled era of (extremely) rough parity among power-conference teams, the Cowboys' 69–3 loss to No. 6 Oregon leaps off the page. Stillwater will be loud if Oklahoma State looks remotely like it did in Eugene on a short week against Tulsa this coming Friday.
Winners: Florida State and Minnesota—overwhelmingly so
Florida State did not enter the major college football business until the 1950s, so it was spared the bonkers talent mismatches that colored the early game (the Cumberland-Georgia Techs). Congratulations, then, are in order to the Seminoles for their program-record-tying 74-point win over East Texas A&M. Minnesota, on the other hand, has a 146–0 win over Grinnell in 1904 under its belt. The Golden Gophers topped Northwestern State 66–0 Saturday, their highest margin of victory since demolishing Butler 81–0 in 1926.
Loser: ...and another OSU
The Beavers spent time in the Top 10 as recent as 2023, but their exile from major-conference football is beginning to take its toll. Dropping its opener to an intriguing California team was one thing, but Oregon State's 36–27 loss to Fresno State Saturday raises serious alarm bells. The Beavers dropped a game in which they outgained their opponent by 200 yards, surrendered this wild touchdown, and—and this is crucial—gave a psychological edge to a team that will join their conference next year. Corvallis will neither forgive nor forget Larry Scott; is it baseball season yet?
Winner: Resurrecting realigned rivalries
Say that three times fast. Like the Gallagher brothers, Missouri and Kansas buried the hatchet and played a classic Saturday afternoon in Columbia, Mo., won 42–31 by the Tigers on running back Jamal Roberts's dagger 63-yard touchdown dash. Missouri—quarterbacked by Beau Pribula, late of Penn State—probably has one more win coming before an early measuring-stick game against South Carolina. This is a dangerous team, but the real miracle is that the Border War was played to underline that fact.
Loser: Clemson's slow-starting offense
Troy's 16–3 halftime lead over Clemson drew legions of fans to ACC Network to rubberneck—was it just a week ago that coach Dabo Swinney's squad was going toe-to-toe with LSU? The defending ACC champions got their ducks in a row in the second half, shutting out the Trojans—defense is never in short supply at Memorial Stadium—and claiming a 27–16 victory. Quarterback Cade Klubnik won't win any September Heismans with an 18-for-24, 196-yard, two-touchdown, one-interception line against a Sun Belt team coming off its worst record in nine years. With 120 yards, the running game wasn't much better.
Winners: Ohio and the spirit of the MAC
After years of cheating irrelevance through nationally-envied coaching and stellar quarterback play, the MAC's karmic (and literal) creditors have come to collect in recent years. While death-of-the-MAC stories have practically become a genre unto themselves since 2020, the conference's teams remain good for the occasional upset. See: Ohio, which downed West Virginia 17–10 Saturday after nearly knocking off Rutgers in the Bobcats' opener. No. 1 Ohio State poses a bit of a challenge next week as check-collecting season draws to a close, but watch out for Ohio in conference play.
Loser: Hopes of a Syracuse redux
In a defining image of Week 2, Orange coach Fran Brown sent his team back onto the JMA Wireless Dome field to do extra work after UConn pushed Syracuse to overtime Saturday (the Orange won 27–20). Brown was the recipient of a spate of positive press after Syracuse won 10 games in his first year—only the third time the once-proud program has done that this century. However, a 45–26 season-opening loss to Tennessee and Saturday's debacle have brought the Orange back to Earth. Colgate Friday presents a get-right opportunity before quarterback Steve Angeli and friends visit Clemson.
Winner: The CW
Roundly ridiculed when it entered the college football business before the 2023 season, The CW has established itself as a destination for highly entertaining, middle-class FBS football. Case in point: Baylor's riveting 48–45 win over No. 17 SMU Saturday. The Mustangs opened up leads of 10–0, 17–7 and 38–24, only for the Bears to sneak back into the contest and win it on kicker Connor Hawkins's 27-yard boot in the second overtime. You can't get that kind of fare on TV Land.
Loser: Mark Stoops
Kentucky coach Stoops, the longest-tenured coach in the SEC (as the game's Aflac Trivia question helpfully reminded fans), chose the wrong commentary crew in front of which to have an awful clock-management game. ABC/ESPN veteran Sean McDonough—a Bostonian legendarily allergic to pulling punches on-air—peppered Stoops with criticism for running out of timeouts midway through the second quarter. The Wildcats had Ole Miss on the ropes all game, only to shoot themselves in the foot with penalties and missed opportunities. An injury to quarterback Zach Calzada didn't help matters; Kentucky visits South Carolina in three weeks.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as College Football Week 2 Winners and Losers: South Florida A Cinderella Story to Salivate Over.