On the Line: Setting the stakes for Week 2 of the college football schedule

One of the most anticipated games of the year is here, and all the pressure is on... the road underdog? As No. 11 Texas heads to No. 3 Alabama (7 p.m. ET, ESPN), the burden of proof sits squarely on the Longhorns to prove they belong, with the SEC move looming next season.

You remember last year's game, a 20-19 last-second Alabama win. This year's final score figures to be similar, with both teams defenses ahead of their offenses.

Jalen Milroe performed as hoped in Bama's 56-7 drubbing of Middle Tennessee last week: 13-of-18 for 194 yards with three touchdowns, plus two more scores on the ground. The question for him, and thus for Alabama, is how many balls he can complete into tighter windows than Texas will allow, how often he sticks in the pocket if his first option isn't there, and how much damage he does when he inevitably tucks and runs.

For what it's worth, now-Texas defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski faced a Jalen Hurts-led Alabama offense in a 2016 College Football Playoff semifinal as Washington's DC. Alabama won the game, but Hurts went 7-of-14 for 57 yards, and gained just 50 yards on 19 credited carries. 

Quinn Ewers' performance against Rice was... up and down. In a 19-of-30 outing, he was 0-of-6 on balls traveling 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage, and 19-of-24 for 260 yards and three touchdowns (with one drop of a sure touchdown) on everything 19 yards and shorter. Ewers was a deadly 7-of-7 for 86 yards and a touchdown on RPOs. 

If you're Steve Sarkisian, the question is, how often do you scheme up deep shots Alabama is likely to concede, despite knowing your offense is consistently inconsistent in completing them?

Neither team ran the ball great in their openers, and defensive line is a relative strength of both teams. This game will be decided by which offense can settle their quarterback into a game plan he's comfortable executing, and by which defense can prevent their counterpart from doing so.

The circus comes back home. What a difference a week makes. 

After watching both teams play in Week 1, isn't the question here: How on earth is Nebraska going to score enough to keep up with Colorado???

In its opener at Minnesota last Thursday, Jeff Sims and the Husker offense threw for 114 yards and put up all of 10 points. That's a decent quarter for mighty Shedeur Sanders and company. 

And if the game is close late, who's going to have more belief in their ability to pull out a victory: Coach Prime's We-Believe Buffaloes, or a Nebraska team that is clearly still a bigger emotional wreck than your Tinder date who's been cheated on by her last four boyfriends.

(In the final half of the fourth quarter alone last week, Nebraska coughed up two turnovers, committed a face mask on 4th-and-1, and allowed a 13-yard touchdown pass on 4th-and-10.)

Of course, the actual game is just a part of it. Colorado is a spectacle. Fox's Big Noon Kickoff crew will be at Folsom Field ahead of the 10 a.m. local time kick. More than 7 million people watched CU's upset of TCU, and I expect a similar audience for the Nebraska game.

A fun chess match in Miami. It's the most anticipated game of teams coming off 5-7 seasons, perhaps ever.

Both programs underwent makeovers after disappointing in 2022, and now we'll see who made the most of their offseason.

No. 23 Texas A&M at Miami (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC) figures to be strength-on-strength when Bobby Petrino plays chess against Lance Guidry. Guidry's mastery of coverages will bump against Petrino's efforts to hunt matchups after throwing for five touchdowns on New Mexico.

When Miami has the ball, the 'Canes will look to run (250 yards on seven per carry against Miami of Ohio) on arguably the most talented defensive line in college football. 

I'm taking Texas A&M, but consider that the Aggies bring a 6-game losing streak in true road games with them to South Beach. 

The Pac-12 looks to continue its perfect start. In case you missed, the Conference College Football Left Behind has not lost a game in 2023. That will change Saturday with No. 6 USC hosting Stanford (10:30 p.m. ET, Fox), but the conference has a number of major non-conference opportunities:

-- Nebraska at No. 22 Colorado (noon ET, Fox)
-- No. 12 Utah at Baylor (noon ET, ESPN)
-- No. 13 Oregon at Texas Tech (7 p.m. ET, Fox)
-- No. 19 Wisconsin at Washington State (7:30 p.m. ET, ABC)
-- UCLA at San Diego State (7:30 p.m. ET, CBS)
-- Arizona at Mississippi State (7:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network)
-- Auburn at Cal (10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN)
-- Oklahoma State at Arizona State (10:30 p.m. ET, Pac-12 Network)

Utah and Oregon get the blessing -- or perhaps it's a curse -- of facing Big 12 teams fresh off losing their openers to Group of 5 opponents. 

UCLA and Washington State have rare opportunities to play prime-time games on network TV, while Arizona has the opportunity to win its first game on an SEC campus.

Arizona State didn't look great in beating Southern Utah last week, but Oklahoma State took a while to put Central Arkansas away, too. 

Cal was quietly impressive in defeating North Texas, racking up 669 yards (322 through the air, 347 on the ground) in a 58-21 win last week. Perhaps the Bears are able to drag the Tigers out of their comfort zone in a game that doesn't begin until after bed time, body clock time. 

A major opportunity for Tulane. In terms of the actual games played on the field, the biggest contest ever staged at Tulane's Yulman Stadium was the American Athletic Conference championship last December, a 45-28 Green Wave victory over UCF.

But in terms of the program, its fans, the university it represents, the football culture in the South, the biggest game in the 10-year-old stadium's history is Saturday.

Ole Miss and Tulane's series dates back to 1893, and until 1950 all but one Rebels-Green Wave game was played in New Orleans. The two continued playing regularly through 2000, but Saturday marks just the fourth game since 2000, and the Rebels' first visit to Yulman Stadium.

And what a time to visit, too. The only two ranked v. ranked games of Week 2: No. 11 Texas at No. 3 Alabama, and No. 20 Ole Miss at No. 24 Tulane.

Tulane coach Willie Fritz says Green Wave QB Michael Pratt is fine, but linebacker Corey Platt (no relation to Pratt) will miss the game after collecting 15 tackles in less than three full quarters in last week's win over South Alabama. 

Pratt won AAC Offensive Player of the Week honors last week after going 14-of-15 for 294 yards with four touchdowns in the USA win. He probably won't throw up a 346 QB rating against the Rebels, but something close to that would be nice against an Ole Miss team that out-scored Mercer 73-0 after giving up a 75-yard touchdown on the first play of the game.

Additional Games: 

-- Indiana State at Indiana (7 p.m. ET Friday, BTN): It's a family reunion in the Hoosier State. Not only do you have just the seventh all-time meeting between IU and ISU (IU is 6-0), you have a homecoming for Sycamores head coach Curt Mallory. Bill Mallory, Curt's father, became the Hoosiers' all-time winningest coach from 1984-96, which means Curt spent his high school years going to IU games at Memorial Stadium before returning as a GA and later as a position coach and co-defensive coordinator. 

-- Illinois at Kansas (7:30 p.m. ET Friday, ESPN2): A hyped game between Illinois and Kansas... in football? These two programs that did not have a winning season between them from 2012 to 2021 broke through to bowl games in 2022, and that comes with expectations. Illinois was fortunate to escape Toledo last week, and now they have to go on the road in a short week to face a Kansas offense once again led by preseason Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year Jalon Daniels after he missed last week with a back injury.

-- No. 10 Notre Dame at NC State (noon ET, ABC): Through two games, Notre Dame is No. 2 in the country (and first among the few teams that have played two games) at 5.43 net yards per play. The Irish defense has yet to allow a touchdown, and Sam Hartman has thrown six touchdowns against seven incompletions. In other words, the season starts in Raleigh. 

-- No. 12 Utah at Baylor (noon ET, ESPN): It's getting late early in Waco. After getting thoroughly beaten by Texas State, the 2021 Big 12 champions now welcome the 2-time defending Pac-12 champions in a future conference game. After going 18-5 over a season-and-a-half span, Baylor has now lost five straight games. The Bears will have to play without starting quarterback Blake Shapen, who injured his knee while throwing for 303 yards on nearly 10 yards per attempt last week.

-- Troy at No. 15 Kansas State (noon ET, FS1): In the only game of the season pitting defending conference champions, Troy puts its 12-game winning streak on the line against a K-State offense that moved the ball at will against Southeast Missouri State.

-- James Madison at Virginia (noon ET, ESPNU): Virginia has dubbed this the "UVA Strong" game, its first home contest since Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis, Jr., and D'Sean Perry were slain last November. It's also the 500th game at Scott Stadium. JMU has won 17 straight games against in-state schools; Saturday's game is the Dukes' first game against the commonwealth's flagship school since 1983.

-- Iowa at Iowa State (3:30 p.m. ET, Fox): Iowa State finally broke a 6-game CyHawk losing streak with a 10-7 victory in Iowa City; the Cyclones haven't beaten Iowa at Jack Trice Stadium since 2011. The over/under is 36.5. Take the under.

-- UTEP at Northwestern (3:30 p.m. ET, BTN): At press time, UTEP is a 1.5-point favorite. Has UTEP ever been favored on the road against a Power 5 opponent? 

-- Texas State at UTSA (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN+): Texas State was one of the big winners of Week 1, while UTSA could have scored a road upset at Houston if not for a minus-3 turnover margin (the Roadrunners lost 17-14). Beyond that, this is the first of what could be many meetings between Jeff Traylor and GJ Kinne, whose relationship began when Traylor was Kinne's reluctant head coach at Gilmer High School. 

-- Appalachian State at No. 17 North Carolina (5:15 p.m. ET, ACC Network): After a dominant showing against South Carolina, here's an opportunity for Gene Chizik's defense to show some growth after surrendering 40 points to App State a year ago -- in the fourth quarter.

-- SMU at No. 18 Oklahoma (6 p.m. ET, ESPN+): After breezing their way to a 73-0 victory against Arkansas State, Brent Venables's new-and-improved Sooners. SMU heated up Louisiana Tech quarterback Hank Bachmeier for seven sacks a week ago, and the Mustangs have the firepower to test Oklahoma's defense, hitting three plays of 40-plus yards and two 67-yard gains. Oklahoma did not overwhelm A-State on the ground, so we'll see if that was a product of not really needing to run the ball -- Sooner QBs were 30-of-33 for 422 yards and 3 TDs last week -- or a red flag for the crimson attack.

-- Cincinnati at Pitt (6:30 p.m. ET, CW): It's the first meeting since 2012 when Pitt left the Big East for the ACC, and the first game on the CW Network. I wonder if Buffy the Vampire Slayer would've favored the Bearcats or the Panthers.

-- UCF at Boise State (7 p.m. ET, FS1): This would've been arguably the premier Group of 5 non-conference game, but UCF graduated up to the Power 5. A 56-19 loser at Washington last week, Boise State looks to avoid its first 0-2 start since 2005.

-- Houston at Rice (7 p.m. ET, NFL Network): In the 45th Battle for the Bayou Bucket, Houston looks to extend its series-record winning streak to eight games.

-- No. 19 Wisconsin at Washington State (7:30 p.m. ET, ABC): In perhaps the last ABC prime time game they'll ever get, here's Washington State's opportunity to take it out on one of the schools that destroyed the Pac-12. "As a Coug fan base, to show up, to be loud, to have every seat be packed, not just listed as a sellout, there's a lot of things that matter for this game perceptionally for Washington State," Wazzu head coach Jake Dickert said.

-- Charlotte at Maryland (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC): It was an encouraging start for the NBC's investment into Big Ten football; Penn State-West Virginia (3.5 million viewers) beat ABC's showing of North Carolina-South Carolina (3.4 million) head-to-head. But the Week 2 schedule is so bad that this is what they've got to show this Saturday night. No offense, Charlotte and Maryland. Okay, you can go ahead and take offense.

-- Stanford at No. 6 USC (10:30 p.m. ET, Fox): In the first of many of these this season, this is quite possibly the last game in a series that dates back to 1905 and has been played 99 times since. 

-- Auburn at Cal (10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN): What do you think is the bigger "SEC road trip culture shock" game -- the Aggies on South Beach, or Auburn in the den of iniquity that is Berkeley? Will there be a bigger cultural mismatch all season?