What we learned from CFB’s Week 2: Is Notre Dame’s season sunk? Is South Carolina rising?

Welcome to college football, where the entire conversation about a program can shift in a week. There are no greater examples than the scenes in Lexington, Ky., and South Bend, Ind., last Saturday, which lays the foundation for this week’s edition of overreaction or underreaction.

“There was a perception about our team this week, but it wasn’t reality.” — South Carolina coach Shane Beamer

One week ago, Beamer’s seat seemed to be heating up after a lackluster 23-19 win over Old Dominion. Then, as 10-point road underdogs, the Gamecocks thumped Kentucky 31-6. Now, ESPN’s “College GameDay” will be in Columbia this week for the Gamecocks’ matchup with LSU, which after two rough weeks isn’t what many perceived it to be at the start of the season. South Carolina will be the underdog once again, but with a rejuvenated fan base, a confident team and a national spotlight, anything can happen. And the perception around South Carolina’s season drastically can change with another win. If that happens, the Week 1 outrage will feel like a distant memory.

“We’ve been here before. Now it’s time to get it fixed.” — Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman

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Notre Dame has a lot to fix after its 16-14 loss to Northern Illinois as a near 30-point favorite. As Freeman pointed out, Notre Dame being in these situations has become the norm: a close call against Toledo in 2021, losses to Marshall and a 3-9 Stanford in 2022 and this past Saturday, of course.

The conversation about Freeman’s tenure at Notre Dame is for another day. Right now, the question of overreaction or underreaction centers around the rest of the Irish’s season: Did the NIU loss sink Notre Dame’s season, or is there still hope?

Shane Beamer’s South Carolina Gamecocks are 2-0 after their win on Saturday at Kentucky. (Jordan Prather / Imagn Images)

On the overreaction side, it could be said that losing at home as a 30-point favorite to a MAC team is proof enough that Notre Dame isn’t a legitimate College Football Playoff contender. The underreaction side would argue that an 11-1 record, which many saw for Notre Dame anyway, is still in play, and that should be enough to get the Irish in. While that’s true, there’s a lot less faith out there that this team can reel off 10 straight wins, and some games on the schedule like Florida State look a lot less resume-defining than they did a few weeks ago.

Whatever side you’re on, you’re justified. And that’s the beauty of it all. Here are five more things we are overreacting about, not reacting enough about and perfectly reacting to — all sides equally needed in the discourse of this great sport.

We’re overreacting to … the number of top teams that struggled on Saturday.

Notre Dame was the only highly-ranked team to lose as a big favorite, but there were several close calls, including Penn State, Oklahoma, Oregon, Alabama, LSU, Kansas State and Arizona. But let’s not go into panic mode … at least not yet. Alabama knows this situation firsthand. This time last year, South Florida pushed the Tide to the brink in a 17-3 Alabama win, only for the Tide to run off 12 straight wins en route to the Playoff. Sometimes, early season adversity isn’t the worst thing.

Penn State, off a big win over rival West Virginia, met Bowling Green with a bye week on the other side, Arizona’s game against Northern Arizona is the precursor to a big game against Kansas State on Friday. Similarly, Alabama has a big game this week at Wisconsin. These teams may be who we thought they were but fell victim to the treacherous trap game.

LSU and Oregon are deservedly getting more criticism after two sub-par performances in a row, but it’s an equally fair question of why Boise State was a near 20-point underdog to begin with. It’s a team that received a ton of Playoff buzz in the preseason and played up to that standard. LSU still feels like it’s reeling from the USC game in Week 1, but a win on Saturday in Columbia to start the SEC slate 1-0 can remedy some things.

We can give mulligans to the other teams mentioned as an early-season blip, for now. We’ll check back in a few weeks.

We’re underreacting to … the fact that the best freshman in America is probably in Columbia, S.C.

Nebraska’s Dylan Raiola, Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith, Georgia’s KJ Bolden, Alabama’s Ryan Williams and more have captured the national spotlight as freshman contributors early. But it’s time to start keying in on South Carolina edge Dylan Stewart. The former five-star prospect was all over the field against Kentucky, much like he was against Old Dominion. If there’s any one play that stakes his claim as the nation’s best freshman it’s this: How many freshmen are getting triple-teamed by SEC players and still making the play?

Dylan Stewart is a TRUE FRESHMAN pic.twitter.com/ux8OcLmyDG

— Unnecessary Roughness (@UnnecRoughness) September 7, 2024

It has been only two weeks, but Stewart’s 2.5 sacks, two forced fumbles and a flurry of quarterback pressures have put him among the best edge defenders in the country metrics-wise. Next up: a matchup with LSU tackles Will Campbell and Emery Jones Jr., two presumed first-round NFL draft picks. Saturday could be a launching pad.

We’re overreacting to … any debate about conference supremacy.

In the biggest nonconference games of Week 2, Texas and Tennessee traveled: Texas to Michigan and Tennessee to a neutral site in Charlotte (against NC State), and they thumped their respective opponents from the Big Ten and ACC by a combined 82-22 margin. Those resounding wins brought the SEC’s record against Power 4 nonconference opponents this season to … 5-6.

Let’s see how the other conferences are doing through two weeks: ACC (5-5), Big Ten (4-4), Big 12 (5-5). Insert the Spiderman pointing meme.

There are still matchups to be played, and records will change, but any fans claiming their conference is mightily superior to the others or that another one is overrated are just talking at this point. The reality is that this early-season stretch has produced true parity and competitiveness among the conferences. It’s not as fun as trolling, but that’s the case. But that can change.

What is the best way to determine the best conference? Conference record against each other? Playoff bids? Bowl record? Number of draft picks? Whatever it is, it won’t be settled in Week 2.

We’re underreacting to … Kyle McCord and Syracuse.

Around the country, transfers are making impacts on their new teams, but perhaps none more than what McCord has done for Syracuse in the early season. Cast aside by Ohio State, McCord has been lights out for the Orange through two weeks: 69.4 completion percentage, eight touchdown passes to just one interception and a win over ranked Georgia Tech last weekend. There have been strong defensive portal performers for Syracuse too, Fadil Diggs among them, but McCord’s impact has been tremendous.

Syracuse head coach Fran Brown on Kyle McCord:

“I should send Ryan Day a bottle of champagne for allowing us to get Kyle McCord.”

(h/t @BarstoolTate) https://t.co/70l717h5ll pic.twitter.com/gEGmHGLlD3

— On3 (@On3sports) September 1, 2024

Combined with lackluster starts by Florida State and Clemson, there’s real optimism about Syracuse’s potential as a top-half ACC team this season: reaching 5-0 before a road game against NC State on Oct. 12 is a real possibility. The first year of the Fran Brown era has generated good vibes in the first few weeks, largely thanks to McCord’s arrival.

We’re reacting perfectly to … the level of disdain there is for the targeting rule.

Finally, something we can agree on. We hate how the targeting rule is called and enforced. Alabama linebacker Justin Jefferson was the latest case study from this past weekend: A classic “looked worse than it was” tackle resulted in a penalty and his suspension for the first half against Wisconsin next week. You be the judge.

Shame on the @SEC officiating crew for calling this textbook tackle targeting and the @NCAA for allowing a perfect tackle like this to be taken away due to a very wrong call and rule. While also taking 3 quarters away from a player that did absolutely nothing wrong.

THIS IS A… pic.twitter.com/m23Fiir46U

— First Class Prospects (@FCProspects_) September 8, 2024

The spirit of the rule is fair and logical, but simplifying it to “crown of the helmet” is way too broad. There has to be malicious intent, and where was that intent in Jefferson’s tackle? There are countless other examples of a defender making a bang-bang play and ending up with a penalty for making a play. At a certain point, players will be forced to go low to avoid a penalty, which could lead to dangerous consequences.

This rule doesn’t need any more regulation to complicate it, but the targeting rule is broken and needs fixing. Unfortunately, it won’t be until next season.

(Top photo: Michael Clubb / USA Today)