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5 Most Underrated College Football Things From Week 2: Clemson, Cal, DJ Lagway
By Pete Fiutak,
12 hours ago
There wasn't a ton of college football discussion last Saturday after Notre Dame lost to Northern Illinois, but there were other big things that happened, but got lost in the shuffle.
From Clemson's monster offensive performance, to Cal, to Florida's new quarterback - for now - here are five college football underrated things from Week 2.
Florida Gators quarterback DJ Lagway (2) sings with teammates after defeating Samford at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, FL on Saturday, September 7, 2024 against the Samford Bulldogs. The Florida Gators won 45-7 over the Bulldogs.
Oregon State and Washington State, it’s time to have some real fun.
Stranded on the island of misfit college football programs, they aren’t - for now - planning on solidifying their media future with the Mountain West, they’re still sort of in this Pac-2 thing, and …
They’re winning.
Oregon State beat Idaho State to start the season, and then on Saturday night the shut down and shutout the new San Diego State “AzFast” attack in a 21-0 victory. Next up … Oregon.
Washington State is playing even better. It hung 70 on Texas Tech to kick things off, and then it ripped up Texas Tech - a Big 12 program with all the perks and fun that come with that - 37-16. Next up … Washington.
4. Army and Navy are okay
It hasn’t all been easy, but all of a sudden after Air Force couldn’t do anything in a 17-7 loss at home to San Jose State, Army and Navy are the stars among the military academy programs?
That remains to be seen, but for now, Army is a slightly-stunning 2-0 beating Lehigh and winning at Florida Atlantic by a combined score of 66-14. Rice, at Temple, at Tulsa, UAB, East Carolina are next before Air Force.
Navy beat Bucknell and Temple. Big deal, you could do that, but they were two dominant performances, he team is 2-0 for the first time since 2019, and now it gets a week off to rest up for Memphis.
3. Florida QB DJ Lagway
It’s a start.
It wasn’t Graham Mertz’s fault that Florida got destroyed by Miami 41-17. He got hurt in that, star freshman quarterback DJ Lagway stepped in, and he completed 3-of-6 passes for 31 yards and an interception.
It was Samford. Florida was supposed to beat the Bulldogs by a gajillion - actually, by 36.5, and it did that in a 45-7 win - but Lagway showed off a possible ray of light for a program that’s been so hammered since that date with the Hurricanes.
He completed 72% of his throws for 456 yards and three scores, ran a little, and before the showdown with Texas A&M up next, he got the O going. He’s expected to split time with Mertz going forward.
2. Cal 21, Auburn 14
It’s impossible to overstate how weird this is.
Auburn deeply cares about college football. Cal deeply cares about being Cal, but give the Bear program and head coach Justin Wilcox credit for coming through with a huge performance in the fish-out-of-water environment.
Star RB Jaydn Ott was in, but he played banged up running just ten times for 11 yards.
The D forced five takeaways, the O held on to the ball for over 35 minutes, and now the new ACC power-program is 2-0 with San Diego State up next before getting back on a plane and going to Florida State.
Speaking of the ACC ...
1. Well hello, Clemson
Georgia is awesome. Everything against that team this year has to be cheerfully blown off.
All the worries about the Clemson program, and Dabo Swinney, and the season were in hyperdrive after a painful 34-3 loss to No. 1 Dawgs - and wow did things change up fast.
Appalachian State is supposed to be good enough to win the Sun Belt title, and it might be, but it just caught a two-piece with no fries from the Tigers.
You all worried about the Clemson offense? Try 712 yards and five touchdown passes on a 24-of-26 day from Cade Klubnik, and a renewed attitude for the entire team at just the right time.
Beat NC State, then Stanford, and then take out Florida State on the road, and that Georgia thing might just be a forgotten blip.
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