Week 2 college football winners and losers: Michigan and Notre Dame have real work to do to make the playoff

Michigan and Notre Dame are far from playoff ready, especially on offense.

Both top-10 teams will fall into the AP Top 25 on Sunday after embarrassing losses. The No. 10 Wolverines were hammered 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 did not add a transfer player after JJ McCarthy’s departure for the NFL and held a quarterback competition between Davis Warren and Alex Orji. After adding a transfer quarterback in Sam Hartman a season ago, Notre Dame again went the transfer route, 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 included Heisman winner Jayden Daniels and first-round picks Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas in 2023.

Neither Warren, Orji nor Leonard have been effective passers so far this season. Warren was named Michigan’s starter as 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 completed 22 of 33 passes for 204 yards, but many of those yards came after Texas had taken a 31-6 lead. 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 over four months in the hospital receiving treatments and is now a starter in games for the reigning national champions. There’s no questioning his desire or perseverance.

But the performance of Michigan’s offense over the past two weeks can be questioned. 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 offseason turnaround in Ann Arbor, it was realistic to expect some early headaches when offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore took over as the team’s head coach.

It’s hard to find bright spots on offense, though. Jim Harbaugh’s offense relied on play-action passing plays after a tenacious running game. So far, Michigan has recorded 57 carries for 228 yards. Are teams loading 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 only surpassed that mark against Texas after the Longhorns knew the game was out of reach.

Meanwhile, Leonard hasn’t displayed the traits that make some draft analysts believe he’s a potential 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 Saturday’s game ended up being the pivotal moment.

With Notre Dame facing one second and leading by one with less than six minutes remaining, Leonard threw this pass over the middle to a two-point safety position.

Northern Illinois then drove down the field and kicked the go-ahead field goal with 31 seconds left.

Expanded playoffs aren’t out of reach for either team. Alabama made the playoffs a season ago after losing in Week 2. Notre Dame has a schedule that includes just two top-25 teams for the remainder of the season starting Sunday and Michigan will have opportunities to score 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 much more pessimistic than we were at the start of the season unless the passing offenses take a big step forward.

Here are this week’s winners and losers.

Winners

Syracuse quarterback Kyle McCord: On Saturday, the Orange defeated No. 23 Georgia Tech 31-28 behind a strong performance from the former Ohio State QB. McCord completed 32 of 46 passes for 381 yards and four touchdowns. McCord threw his first two touchdowns to Trebor Peña before connecting with Oronde Gadsden II for two more scores. His touchdown pass to Gadsden with 8:39 left proved to be the winning touchdown as Syracuse ran out the clock after Tech cut the lead to three with 2:31 left.

Army: The Black Knights had no trouble with Florida Atlantic. Army won 24-7, as it ran 58 times for 405 yards. FAU couldn’t stop Army’s ground attack and also allowed a 44-yard touchdown pass on Bryson Daly’s only completion of the day.

The real highlight, though, was the work of backup kicker Matthew Rhodes. Check out how he went through on this 23-yard fake punt touchdown attempt.

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

Losers

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

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

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