CFB Review: Teams solidify identity

College football review talks about the week that was in college football, about the good teams that won, and the good teams that lost. Look for it to wrap up the college football preview, and to gloat upon picking correct outcomes.

The second week of the season is so much more telling than the first, because it somewhat solidifies a team's identity for the upcoming season. And, for many teams, this is one of the last non-conference games, so they really make the most of it. This weekend, teams did solidify their identities, and we know some things that we didn't know lat weekend.

The premier game of the week (VT at LSU) was nothing more than a show of the talent LSU has secured over the years. To say that this was not even a game, would be to give too little credit to how dominating LSU was. This is the same defense that didn't allow a point to Mississippi State, and while none of us were surprised, we all chucked this to how bad MSU was. Well, highly overrated VT rolled to town and got almost the same treatment. That LSU defense is scary good and the offense really has an easy time scoring points when they start on the opposite side of the 50. Speaking of the offense, they looked to be in rhythm all night long, almost effortlessly gliding into the endzone to the tune of 48 points. There's no reason this team shouldn't be ranked #1 for this coming week, even though I'm not in huge favor of dropping idle teams - LSU just looked too good to not be the best team in the country. On the other side, VT really has some work to do, their vaunted defense was shredded, and their looked atrocious - like Michigan from week 1, the opening games proved to be the rule and not the exception.

The other team that opened everyone's eyes except my own was Oklahoma, well admittedly maybe a little. I picked them to win a low scoring affair in Norman, and I was halfway right - they won, and the low scoring part was on Miami's sidelines. I was not a believer in Miami's suffocating defense because they never played anyone of worth to be able to flex it against, and Oklahoma pounded them into the ground; after hanging 79 on their first opponent they put up 51 on Miami and ran them out of the building. This team proved they're ready to win, and ready to win now, who else wants to see a three-way tie for the BCS championship. Someone is going to be really pissed off.

Best of the Rest.

Is the SEC overrated? Auburn loses at home to unranked USF in overtime, all while on upset alert. It's not even that, Auburn was outplayed for the second time in as many games, and are lucky that their defense kept them in from being a blowout. USF had 5 turnovers converted into exactly 0 points, almost all in Auburn territory. I guess a seasoned QB (Cox) isn't the difference on offense. Highly ranked Georgia gets knocked off at home by USC, and not the good USC. I, for one, was never impressed with their opening win and couldn't understand why that bumped them up a couple spots - time to come back to reality folks, this team is just not all that good. Auburn and Georgia are average, not elite. Florida gave up 31 to not-awesome Troy, but thankfully their offense put up 59. That defense may have looked good in the opening game, but the holes left by graduation and early entry are going to be revealed shortly.

Penn State embarrassed ND again, and that should become a recurring theme. Offensive genius Charlie Weis is still searching for his first offensive touchdown of the season, good thing the defense-free Wolverines are up next. Penn State defense looks reloaded, watch out Big 10.

Nebraska got away with a pass interference call at Wake Forest. They should really count themselves lucky, because save for a few plays, this should have been a Demon Decons win. Fear not WF fans, the ACC is really bad, and even at 0-2 you should have a chance to make it to the championship game.

Texas is still the beat team in Texas, they win going away against TCU. I didn't watch the game, because it was nowhere to be found on TV, but if the final score is indicative, the athletes just took over. Much maligned in the first game McCoy threw his arm off to the tune of 38 attempts, but no interceptions. Well done, favorite son of Texas.

Louisville won a scary one over Middle Tennessee. Maybe I missed the memo where Middle Tennessee had an offense worthy of the hall of fame, because they were right there for 3/4 of the game. Their running back, 9 carries, 140-ish yards. This is not a team that's going far, just look at what Michigan is doing with similar defensive performances.

If you're looking for a Michigan score, I already wrote about that embarrassment. Michigan is done, and someone should be fired about what's going on there. They once again came ill-prepared for a team (at home no less) and got their doors blown off early and often. Kudos to Dixon though, his long passes were perfect, and he looks like a true playmaker.

Hey, how about the Pac-10 coming up big and showing they might be the best conference in the land. We already knew that USC was going to be awesome, but other teams are stepping up. Washington ended Boise State's nation-long winning streak, Oregon looked scary good (take that with a grain of salt) up at Michigan, Washington State run away and hid from SDSU. Arizona finally scored some points on N. Arizona, ASU took out Colorado in a big way, and Cal won a close one against Colorado St,. and it looks like UCLA beat BYU, looking like they might finally live up to lofty pre-season expectations. The only spot on their record was Oregon State being thumped at Cincinnati (they're starting to get some players), but other than that, talk about taking care of business. No East Coast bias here.


Week 2 CFB Scores [SI.com]
Pac-10 Week 2 scores [SI.com]
Photo Courtesy: Alex Brandon AP [USA Today]