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.

The two top-10 teams will tumble down the AP Top 25 on Sunday after embarrassing losses. The No. 10 Wolverines were manhandled 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 sit 1-1 largely because of their inability to pass the football effectively. Michigan didn’t add a transfer after J.J. 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 and signed 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 or Leonard has been an effective passer 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 was 22-of-33 passing for 204 yards but many of those yards came after Texas went up 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 he was in high school. He spent over four months in the hospital getting treatments and is now starting games for the defending national champions. You cannot question his desire or perseverance.

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

It’s hard to find offensive bright spots, however. Jim Harbaugh’s offense was predicated on play-action pass plays off a dogged run game. So far, Michigan has recorded 57 carries for 228 yards. Are teams loading up even more to stop the run knowing that McCarthy is now in the NFL? Warren averaged 4.7 yards a pass against Fresno State and only surpassed that mark against Texas after the Longhorns knew the game was out of reach.

Leonard, meanwhile, has not displayed the traits that make some draft analysts believe he’s a possible first-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. He’s averaging just over five yards per pass attempt over the first two games of the season and his second interception of the game on Saturday ended up being the pivotal moment.

With Notre Dame facing a second and short up by one with less than six minutes to go, Leonard fired this pass across the middle into a two-high safety look.

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

The expanded playoff isn’t out of reach for either team. Alabama made the playoff a season ago after losing in Week 2. Notre Dame has a schedule that includes just two top-25 teams the rest of the season as of Sunday and Michigan will have opportunities for big wins against USC, Oregon, and Ohio State.

But the margin for error for either team is pretty much zero. We’re not counting out Notre Dame and Michigan from the postseason, but we’re a lot more pessimistic than we were at the start of the season unless the passing offenses don’t take a huge step forward.

Here are this week’s winners and losers.

Winners

Syracuse QB Kyle McCord: The Orange took down No. 23 Georgia Tech 31-28 on Saturday thanks to a strong performance by 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 to go turned out to be the winning score as Syracuse ran out the clock after Tech cut the lead to three with 2:31 to go.

Army: The Black Knights had no issue with Florida Atlantic. Army won 24-7 as it ran 58 times for 405 yards. FAU was helpless to stop Army’s rushing attack and also allowed a 44-yard TD pass on Bryson Daly’s only completion of the day.

The real highlight came from backup punter Matthew Rhodes, however. Look at 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 as South Carolina recorded five sacks and forced two turnovers. It was a huge 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 had a 27-6 lead and looked to be on the way to an easy win. Instead, Pitt scored 22 unanswered points including 15 in the fourth quarter to steal a 28-27 win. Pitt’s game-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 punts and last-ditch fumble as time expired.

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

Arkansas: You were so, so close, Razorbacks. Arkansas was up 21-7 on 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 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 some reason for optimism. Oklahoma State is a Big 12 title contender and Bobby Petrino’s offense is working. Arkansas racked up 648 yards of total offense after scoring 10 TDs in 10 possessions in Week 1.