@offsznsports_podcast Episode 1 Recap of Week 1 & 2

In this episode of the Offseason Sports Podcast, Manny Fresh recaps Week 1 and Week 2 of college football. He discusses the rankings and performances of teams like Georgia, Michigan, Ohio State, Alabama, USC, Penn State, Florida State, Clemson, Washington, Texas, Tennessee, Notre Dame, Utah, Oregon, Kansas State, TCU, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Tulane, Iowa, and Oregon State. Manny gives his opinions on the rankings and highlights standout performances from certain teams and players. Hello, and welcome to the Offseason Sports Podcast, Episode 1, with your host, Manny Fresh, a.k.a. Manny. In this week's episode, we're going to recap Week 1, do another recap of Week 2, and some fun facts and thoughts on the games that were, and look up ahead to Week 3. It should be an interesting week coming up. A lot of people are saying Week 3 is a dud week, not a lot of good match-ups, we'll see what happens. Let's get into the show. So in Week 1, ranked number 1 was Georgia. I totally agree with where they were ranked, they beat UT Martin 48-7. Next up is Michigan at number 2. I can't really say much about the body of work that I saw, they didn't look like the number 2 team in the land. They beat East Carolina 30-3. Coming in at number 3 is Ohio State, again, they beat Indiana 23-3. I think there's other teams in the nation that could probably compete for that number 3 spot. So let's move on to number 4, which is Alabama. They looked like they could have flip-flopped with Ohio State, but they beat Middle Tennessee 56-7. Jalen Milrow had a great game. And then they go on to play Texas the following week, and we'll get into that in Week 2. Let's move on to USC. USC beat Nevada 66-14. Again, they looked pretty dominant. I agree with where they were ranked. Moving on to number 7, which is Penn State. 38-15, they beat West Virginia. Again, you probably could have put them in the top 4, top 5 maybe, knowing that LSU lost to FSU in Week 1. Which brings me to our next matchup, which is Florida State beating LSU, which LSU came in at 5. So we know how that ended. I don't agree with where LSU was ranked. In fact, FSU probably could have been swapped with LSU at that time, knowing what we saw. Moving on to, let's move forward now to number 9, Clemson. They played like dog water. Only scoring 7 points. Totally disagree with where they were ranked at number 9. We know what they did in Week 2. We'll get more into that. But moving on to number 10 is Washington. They beat Boise State. Michael Pennix Jr. had a heck of a game. The Pac-12, unfortunately, is dissolving this season, and they look like they have the most teams that are ready to compete this year. Again, another unfortunate event that is happening in college football. We don't know where the rest of the Pac-12 is going. They may still be around. I don't know. Not too sure. I'm kind of hoping the Mountain West either does a reverse absorption of the teams that are left, so Washington State, Oregon State. I think it would be exciting to see some of those teams go into Boise every year. I am a Boise homer, so it wasn't a good game for my guys, the Broncos. Moving on to Texas, we now know that Texas is pretty legit. We know what they did in Week 2, but in Week 1, they took on Rice and defeated them 37-10. They didn't get stuck in the trap game of looking ahead to Bama, but they looked pretty sharp. Moving on to number 12 is the Tennessee Vols and Josh Heupel Volunteers. They beat Virginia 49-13. They looked great in this game. The next week's game against Austin Peay might tell a different tale. Moving on to 13, Notre Dame. I am not a big Notre Dame guy, however, the Golden Domes look really legit this year and Sam Hartman has it rolling. They played Tennessee State. They beat them to the ground 56-3. We know what happens in Week 2. Moving on to the number 14 team in the land, which is Utah. We know what happened there. Utah played Florida and they handled Florida 24-11 with a backup quarterback, Cam Risen, still recovering from ACL surgery. We know if you didn't get a chance to watch Week 2's game, it kind of ended in a controversial call. We'll dig into that going into Week 2. Moving on to 15, which is Oregon. Oregon went on to host Portland State and, man, that duck must have been tired, 81-7 beating Portland State. Poor mascot had to do 81 push-ups. Thank God he's a student, right? I think it's the student-run organization that runs the mascot show, at least at UCF that's how it was. Number 16 is Kansas State beating Southeast Missouri State 45-0. Not much I can say about Kansas State there. They handled business. They probably could put their bet in to be a higher-ranked team. Knowing what you know now with Week 1, they're probably going to be ranked ahead with a few upset that we had. Moving on to the number 17 team in the land, the only upset I think, I believe, other than the LSU game and FSU game, was TCU following the Colorado and Deion Sanders and company. Prime time. Prime time, baby. Let me tell you about some prime time. He's got it rolling. I may not agree with how Colorado's being treated in the media. I'll explain more as we deep-dive ahead into Week 3, but Prime's got a new program rolling in Colorado. Again, another team that is leaving the Pac-12, going on to the Big 12, but they beat TCU. Good for them. A lot of new players on both sides, on both of those programs, and we'll see what happens with Prime this season. Wisconsin, coming in at 19, handles Buffalo 38-17. Luke Fickle and company looks to keep it going, although if you didn't get a chance to check the score for Week 2, there'll be more about that. They fell to Washington State. Luke Fickle showing that, yes, they have the tools to win. It just may not be a Top 25 program yet, like we're used to seeing. Moving on to 20 is Oklahoma. Sheesh, 73-0 made Butch Davis, I believe, cry on the sidelines. 73-0, they looked amazing. Brett Venables over there now as the head coach. I believe it's the second season for him. They probably make an argument that they deserve better in the polls. I would probably agree with that. Moving on to North Carolina. They ended up playing in the Duke's Mayo, I believe, season opener. I don't want to call it a bowl game, but it's a season opener game for them. They hosted, or they played in South, not played in, they played, oh here it is, Duke Mayo Classic. It's not a bowl game, it's a classic. Again, North Carolina playing South Carolina, North Carolina ending up on top, 31-17. I agree with where they're rated for Week 1, no issues there. Ole Miss playing Mercer, 73-7, Ole Miss coming in at 22. I would agree with that, they're 22, middle of the pack. Next up is Texas A&M. If you don't know, now you know. They get upset by Miami. Do I agree with where they're ranked at 23? Nah. It's Jimbo Fisher and Company. I'd say okay. I think it's more of a brand at this point, and this is the game I hate playing because big brands get some recognition, but they ended up beating New Mexico 52-10. Again, I'd probably drop them out of the polls. I don't think they deserve to be ranked going into Week 1. Moving on to 24, that is Tulane playing South Alabama. Tulane, again, got the recognition because they beat USC last year in the Cotton Bowl. Coming in at 24, 37-17, the green wave rolls on, and I do agree with where they're ranked. I'd probably say they deserve a little bit higher considering the fact that they had their quarterback come back this year. Last but not least is Iowa 25. I don't believe they deserve that 25 spot, 25 in the land, but hey, I think it was more of a, I believe it was more of a, hey, who in the Big Ten looks good this year? They just said, oh, Iowa. I don't know too much about the program. I don't know how many kids are coming back, but they got the 25 spot and they hosted Utah State, beating them 24-14. Again, I don't necessarily agree with that ranking. And then my final one I missed, which is at 18, Oregon State and San Jose State. I'm totally going to butcher DJ Yungleway. I'm pretty sure I butchered that, I'm sorry. I'll reference him as DJ going forward. DJ had a hell of a game. They went on to win 42-17, and they made, again, another team from the Pac-12. They may be one of those teams that is knocking on the AP media's door saying, hey, 18, that's all you're giving me? So I agree with where they're ranked. I do believe they deserve to be ranked higher. That's my quick recap for week number one. Let's move on to week number two. And week number two, again, Georgia coming in at one, totally agree. Handled Ball State 45-3. Coming in at number two is Michigan. They blew the doors off the UNLV 35-7. That looks more like a team that deserves a number two spot next to their name. And if we don't know, now you know. Number 11, Texas meets number three, Alabama. Texas goes on and upsets the Tide. Quinn Ewers, Steve Sarkisian, I believe is the head coach's name. They look like they're going to be a force to reckon with. Although I do have my questions, playing in the Big 12, they're going to have to play Oklahoma. The Big 12 is just bonkers when it gets into the middle end of the season. Injuries are still going to play a part. In this young season, Texas, I'd like them to crack at least the top ten, if not the top five, pending any more upsets this upcoming week. And moving on to number four is Florida State and Southern Miss. Florida State, again, looks to play its part as a top five, or top four, excuse me, ranked team in the nation. 66-13. Not much to say there. Number five, Ohio State, again, they got dropped, rightfully so. They hosted, just double checking myself here, yeah, they got dropped. They hosted Youngstown State, beating them 35-7. Again, there's probably 20 other teams that say that they deserve that number five next to their name, and I agree with them. Moving on to USC, Caleb Williams, another monster game here, hosting Stanford, beating them 56-10. Not much to say other than they look like another top five, top four program. Moving on to number seven is Penn State, beating Delaware. I hate using this term, cupcake, but it's an FCS team, they beat them 63-7. Not saying Delaware's not good, I don't want to insult any Delaware fan base, however, it's 63-7. I don't really see much other than what I've seen on the field. Do I agree with their seven spot? Probably not, probably not, but we'll see what happens, still in early season. Moving on to number eight is Washington, playing Tulsa. They beat them 43-10, again, they look to play the part. Moving on to Tennessee, this game was something else. A lot of drop passes, defense, just errors all the way around the field. It was a 6-10 game at halftime, excuse me, it was a 6-13 game at halftime. Tennessee went on to win the game, 30-13. Do they look like a top ten program? No, no, not at all. There's other teams that are in the rankings that deserve that nine spot, but this is the media poll. I'm not too sure if they'll move up or move down, depending on how the media poll ranks them going into week three, but we'll see, we'll see what happens. Moving on, we already know the story of Texas coming in and beating Bama, they were ranked 11. But yeah, on to the 12th ranked team, which is Utah. They squeezed one out against Baylor, a lot of controversy at the end of that game. If you haven't seen it, I highly suggest you going to Google it or YouTube, however you get your media, Twitter, X, Instagram may have it as well. Do they look like the number 12 team? No. Can they have the potential to be a 12 ranked and higher team? Yes. Tyson did not play in this game, starting quarterback from last year. He's still out with his ACL rehab, if you want to call it a rehab, or not cleared, we'll go with not cleared to play yet. Moving on to 13, which is Oregon. They are squeezing one out against Texas Tech. I didn't get a chance to watch the game, but from what I read online, Bo Nix had a heck of a game. He threw for 359 yards and three touchdowns. He did have one turnover, however his defense stepped up and secured, let me see here, four turnovers in that game. Defense really stepped up their game, forcing four turnovers. Do they deserve 13? Yes, I'd keep them at 13 and that's probably about it for week two. Moving on to LSU at 14. They went on and took out their frustrations on Grambling, winning 72-10, again probably not, I wouldn't rank them in the top 25, they still have a lot to prove. So let's move on to 15, which is Kansas State, hosting Troy, beating Troy 42-13, I'd keep them at 15. They have a, I don't want to say trap, actually I will say trap, trap game in week three, it's a trap game. They have UCF coming to town the next week, but they are playing at Missouri for week three, I'll deep dive into that as we move ahead here in this episode. Moving on to 16, Oregon State, again they're blowing the doors off of an STS team of UC Davis and I hope UC Davis got a good paycheck. 55-7, I know their running back Damian Martinez had a hell of a game, 104 yards and one touchdown. They open up Pac-12 play in week three against San Diego State, another great Pac-12 team back in the day. Let's move on to North Carolina at 17, North Carolina did play Appalachian State, and let me tell you, Appalachian State must love playing North Carolina. They went to overtime, North Carolina squeezing one out, 40-34, I'd probably drop North Carolina in the polls just because of their performance against a group of five team, and in fact I'd probably give some votes to Appalachian State for hanging in and almost upsetting North Carolina again. Let's move on to 18, which is Oklahoma beating SMU 28-11, not much to say there, although SMU hung in with total yardage beating Oklahoma in total yards 367-365, however Oklahoma won the turnover game, and if you know sports, if you make any of those miscues as far as turnovers or penalties is another big one in sports, it usually affects the outcome of the game, so ultimately they won 28-11. The upset, if you want to call it an upset, it was number 19 Wisconsin playing Washington State, Washington State came out with a victory 31-22, it's Luke Fickle's first year, a lot of credit to Wisconsin even being ranked with a new head coach, recruiting class, all that good stuff that comes along with head coaching, the NIL, and Portal has certainly helped that, I'm sure he took a lot of his staff and his former players from Cincinnati, but they go on to fall. I wouldn't have ranked them at 19, but that's just me. Moving on to another upset, I wouldn't say it's an upset, but a top 25 ranked game of Ole Miss traveling to lane, number 20 against number 24, Ole Miss came out on top 37-20, obviously Tulane is going to drop in the polls, however they played without their quarterback, so take that with a grain of salt if you will, I still see Tulane being ranked at the end of the season if not running the table for the American, I know it's week 2, these are week 2 results, we're heading into week 3, but I fully expect Tulane to run the American this year, they have a great team, Ole Miss, I think they're going to finish probably in the top of the SEC if not, then they have a lot of work to do, but they went on to win 30-20. Let's move on to 21, Duke coming off their upset victory over Clemson, they played Lafayette and again blew the doors off of them 42-7, I hope Lafayette got some money out of that deal, not much to say there, but I'd keep them at 21. We move on to primetime Sanders, primetime playing Nebraska winning 36-14, they're ranked 22, again I have my thoughts and opinions on Colorado being ranked, and I'll give you that here in the next portion of the episode, the upset of the weekend, another upset of the weekend if you want to call it that, I won't call it that, we'll call it for what it is, it's Miami playing 23 Texas A&M, 48-33 Miami upsets A&M, A&M over and over again is ranked, and again I believe it's because of the brand that they hold, and Jimbo Fisher. They didn't play like a ranked team in the beginning of the season, week 1, and week 2 proved it, they played Miami, again falling to Miami 48-33. And last but not least, because Clemson did lose to Duke, they are still ranked, again I wouldn't have ranked them, they beat Charleston Southern 66-17, played a heck of a game against them, again another frustration game, but yeah, I wouldn't have ranked them, that's just me, and we'll look ahead to week 3, shall we? But I want to address the Coach Prime situation, because in week 1 they beat a TCU team in which they are not returning as many players that have moved on to the NFL, if you remember correctly they were playing in the National Championship game against Georgia, and they lost a lot of their players, do I agree with where they were ranked, no, because they lost a lot of their players, so, then you look at the other side of the ball in Colorado, pretty much buying a whole new roster, they won one game last year, they upset one team and now they're ranked, I don't understand the logic in that, I think again it's carrying brand over the product on the field, that's my thoughts, I do love what Prime is doing up in Colorado and especially going into week 3 with the drama of hat and glasses, Colorado State poking the bear, I do expect Prime to pour it on this week and keep that level of intensity going for this program, they will face, I believe it's Oregon next week and then the week after they have to play USC, but I fully expect the intensity to be there for this whole drama filled weekend, they play Colorado State at 10pm on ESPN, I will be trying to tune into that game, but those are my thoughts, if Prime time went to a group of 5 school like South Florida in which they're reporting in the off season that he was thinking about South Florida, would we get the same coverage, would we get the same, I guess treatment we can call it, treatment that he's getting up in Colorado, but I do love what Prime is doing, I just don't like the way the media is taking it and ranking them, again there's other teams that could tell, that put on a better body of work on the field if we're going to rank these teams by their body of work than what Prime is doing, right now he played Nebraska and he upset TCU, so my opinion, that's my thoughts, looking ahead to week 3, I know we said it was a dull week for matchups, but I have 3 matchups on my radar that I am looking to see if there's going to be any upsets and that's going to be Tennessee playing Florida, right now the line sits at 3.5, Tennessee is favored, Tennessee and Florida, that game could go either way, I don't know what Florida's intensity is going to be like, other than that they're playing the game in the swamp, we'll see what happens, I mean I'm all for upsets and underdogs and all that, but if Tennessee comes out looking like a bat out of hell, scoring defensive stops, scoring again defensive stops with Josh Heupel's pedal to metal tempo, that game could get out of hand, the other two games I'm looking at are Minnesota and North Carolina, North Carolina is favored by 7 points as of right now and that's Friday night, so we'll see what happens there, North Carolina having to go the distance with Appalachian State, I want to see where North Carolina is going to improve this week off of that performance, just because over time you've got these athletes, stamina, school work, if they even have school work now that they're in season, I don't know, I wasn't a student athlete, but I do want to see where they face off in this duel against Minnesota, again that line is at 7 for North Carolina, they're favored by 7. The next one, really interesting here, we're going back to the old hateful 8, Kansas State at Missouri, that line is at Kansas State favored by 3.5, that is my, I'm going with Missouri, I think that's going to be my upset pick of the week, if there is going to be an upset it's going to be that game and that game only, but those are where the lines are at, that's my week ahead look at week 3, in the college football that was, and this is Offseason Sports Podcast, be sure to follow along on Instagram, and thank you and have a good night.