So it may have been a so-so slate of games in Week 2 of the 2025 college football season, but no matter what matchups are on the schedule — and in the SEC, there was no shortage of cupcakes — there are awards to be handed out each and every Monday of the season.
Let’s dive right in!
Biggest Winner of the Weekend: The SEC as a Whole
For the first time in its 89 year history, one conference is responsible for 11 teams in a single AP Top 25 Poll, as the SEC boasts the teams ranked 3rd (LSU), 6th (Georgia), 7th (Texas), 11th (South Carolina), 13th (Oklahoma), 15th (Tennessee), 16th (Texas A&M), 17th (Ole Miss), 19th (Alabama), 24th (Auburn) and 25th (Missouri) in the September 7 edition of the Poll. On one hand, given the extent to which the SEC has expanded over the last decade and a half, this gives the conference a greater chance to field more teams in the AP Poll than ever before, so therefore it’s somewhat understandable why the SEC would populate such a large portion of that Top 25.
On the other hand, it’s not as if the Big Ten (now 18 teams), the Big 12 (now 16 teams) and the ACC (18 teams) haven’t grown in size either. Those other 3 Power 4 conferences — which have a total of 52 teams — account for 12 of the 25 spots in the AP Poll. So while the Big Ten can certainly boast to be the most top-heavy conference in the country, the SEC still reigns supreme if we’re talking about the deepest conference in college football.
There are still a few more roadblocks that the SEC will need to overcome to keep its death grip on that title — like Alabama vs. Wisconsin, Texas A&M vs. Notre Dame, Florida vs. Miami and Ole Miss vs. Tulane in the next 2 weeks alone — but for now, especially after scoring wins over the ACC (Vanderbilt over Virginia Tech), the Big 12 (Mississippi State over Arizona State) and Big Ten (Oklahoma over Michigan) in the span of 30 minutes of real time on Saturday night, that death grip remains tight.
Biggest Loser of the Weekend: The Florida Gators
I mean, it might be a little premature to say that a team really needed a Week 2 nonconference win, but man oh man, Florida really needed to beat South Florida on Saturday afternoon, didn’t it? It’s bad enough that the Gators couldn’t get the job done as a 17.5-point favorite in The Swamp against an in-state foe, but what’s worse is the slate of games that Florida has ahead of it now:
- Sept. 13 – at LSU (No. 3)
- Sept. 20 – at Miami (No. 5)
- Oct. 4 – vs. Texas (No. 7)
- Oct. 11 – at Texas A&M (No. 16)
- Oct. 18 – vs. Mississippi State
- Nov. 1 – vs. Georgia (No. 6)
- Nov. 8 – at Kentucky
- Nov. 15 – at Ole Miss (No. 17)
- Nov. 22 – vs. Tennessee (No. 15)
- Nov. 29 – vs. Florida State (No. 10)
Goodness gracious! That’s a slate on par with the first season of the Hulu series Paradise, where there are absolutely no misses on that schedule. The Gators came into the 2025 season feeling like a national title contender, and hey, from a pure talent standpoint they might not be that far off, at least in comparison to some teams that will be in the conversation by the time November rolls around. But there isn’t a team in the country that can run this gauntlet and make it out unscathed.
Overreaction of the Weekend: Arch Manning is all the way back!
Last week I cautioned not to overreact to Arch Manning’s difficult outing in front of 100,000 Buckeye fans in Columbus, and this week, I’m going to send a message to those of you who swung back too far and are now on the other side of the pendulum. Arch Manning is a very good quarterback who is likely going to have a noteworthy NFL career. There are some throws he’s capable of making — like his dime down the sideline last week late in the game against Ohio State, or his quick RPO strike on a slant to Parker Livingstone for a touchdown against San Jose State — that give me flashbacks to Uncle Eli and Uncle Peyton. There are also the plays he can make with his legs that Peyton and Eli just were never able to.
But there’s still some bad, too. He’s late on reads and can be a little reckless — or overconfident in himself if that’s how you prefer to evaluate it — trying to squeeze balls into windows that he shouldn’t, leading to turnovers. There are some accuracy issues that are somewhat puzzling, because sometimes his throws are so on the money it seems strange to see him spray some balls. It’s a little Justin Herbert-ish, but there are certainly worse guys you could be compared to than Justin Herbert.
Let’s just let Arch continue to progress at his own pace and not wish him into the NFL too quick. We long for continuity in college football, and if Arch did stick around in Austin for the 2026 season because he felt it would be best for his own personal progression, let’s celebrate that.
Play of the Weekend: Blake Shapen to Brenen Thompson 58-Yard Game-Winning Touchdown
Davis Wade Stadium was not only the site of one of Week 2’s biggest upsets, but also the revisiting of a vintage SNL skit, because when the Bulldogs needed it most, they delivered a play that enticed the 60,000-plus fans in attendance to respond with More Cowbell late on Saturday night.
Unexpected Hero of the Weekend: Blake Shapen
That’s right, we’re doubling up on Blake Shapen, a sixth-year senior quarterback who had amassed an 11-16 record as a starter before the 2025 season began. Sure, Shapen has a Big 12 Championship Game MVP to his name, but that distinction was earned 4 years ago, and it’s possible, if not likely, that the Bulldogs will end the 2025 campaign with no more than 5 wins, missing out on bowl season for the third straight season after making a bowl game each of the previous 13 years.
But if that ends up being the case, then that makes this heroic performance, dramatic finish and victory over the 12th-ranked Sun Devils all the more unexpected. Shapen out-dueled a Heisman hopeful quarterback in Arizona State’s Sam Leavitt and helped the Bulldogs earn their first win over a ranked non-conference Power 4 opponent since 1991. That’s right, I went with bold and italics there because that’s a streak that pre-dates my life on this planet.
Most Impressive Player I Saw This Weekend: John Mateer
This isn’t to say that John Mateer is the best player in the SEC, but his showing against Michigan told me a lot about both the Washington State transfer and the Oklahoma Sooners program. I’ll be candid and admit that I wasn’t high on Oklahoma heading into the year. I may have even made an ill-advised preseason prediction that this would end up being Brent Venables‘ last year in Norman. Now I’m reevaluating where things stand, even though the Sooners have a schedule that rivals Florida’s moving forward this year:
- Sept. 13 – at Temple
- Sept. 20 – vs. Auburn (No. 24)
- Oct. 4 – vs. Kent State
- Oct. 11 – vs. Texas (No. 7)
- Oct. 18 – at South Carolina (No. 11)
- Oct. 25 – vs. Ole Miss (No. 17)
- Nov. 1 – at Tennessee (No. 15)
- Nov. 15 – at Alabama (No. 19)
- Nov. 22 – vs. Mizzou (No. 25)
- Nov. 29 – vs. LSU (No. 3)
Good luck making it through all of that without 2 or 3 losses to your name. Shoot, if Oklahoma made it to December with only 2 losses, you can go ahead and give John Mateer the Heisman Trophy and Brent Venables a 10-year contract extension, because there’s no coming up for air once the Red River Rivalry is played on the second Saturday of October.
But quickly back to Mateer… it’s now been 8-straight games dating back to last season where Mateer has had at least 1 passing touchdown and 1 rushing touchdown in the same contest. Only Lamar Jackson and D’Eriq King have equalled a streak that long since 2015. That’s not nothin’.
The DJ Khaled Award for Another One: Vicari Swain (DB, South Carolina)
I suppose a more fitting title would’ve been Another Two, since Vicari Swain scored not 1 but 2 punt-return touchdowns in South Carolina’s second game of the season after housing one in the 2nd half against Virginia Tech last Sunday. But regardless of how clunky the title feels, I needed to take some time out in this column to shout out someone who is anything but clunky when he gets the ball in his hands.
After just 2 games and 5 punt returns in total, Swain is already just 1 punt return touchdown shy of tying the single-season SEC record, and 2 shy of the single-season NCAA record, currently held by North Carolina’s Ryan Switzer (2013) and Hawaii’s Chad Owens (2004). Because this is already a conversation through just 2 weeks of the season, I’m sitting here wondering what will likely end up being an incredibly prematurely asked question… at what point would Vicari Swain actually begin to receive Heisman Trophy hype? He’s been used sparingly on the Gamecocks’ defense, notching 2 tackles and having a forced fumble to his name already, but looking at Swain almost exclusively as a punt returner, what would his final stat line of the season need to look like in order to be able to make a true Heisman case?
If Swain were to break the single-season touchdown record and the single-season yardage record (771 yards by Maryland’s Steve Suter in 2002), as well as Maurice Jones-Drew’s single season yards per return record (28.5 yards per return in 2005), would that be enough? I know we don’t value return specialists as much as other positions, nor should we necessarily, but isn’t a guy who sets 3 single-season NCAA records worthy of some serious award recognition? How many wins would South Carolina need to get to? How many of these returns would be responsible for swinging the momentum of a big game with either SEC or College Football Playoff implications? These are the sorts of questions that run through my head every night when I lay my head down on my pillow to go to sleep.
This question has been on my mind too…
One Big Question Heading Into Week 3: Are we sure Georgia is still Georgia?
The game I’m most excited for in Week 3 is Georgia and Tennessee, and that’s because based on how the Volunteers have looked over the first 2 games of the season, I know I’m going to get an answer to the question that I’ve been thinking about since last January… is Georgia still Georgia? There comes a point where it becomes abundantly clear that a team’s imperial phase has ended. Alabama reached it last year against Vanderbilt. It happened to Michigan last year too, when the Wolverines dropped back-to-back conference games to Washington and Illinois. In those specific instances, maybe we should’ve just known that it was over as soon as Nick Saban and Jim Harbaugh walked away.
But Kirby Smart is still in Athens, and the Bulldogs are still ranked in the top 10 in the AP Poll for the 76th time in the last 77 weeks. By that metric alone, it would seem absurd to suggest that Georgia’s run atop the college football world is coming to an end. But in my eyes, there are some cracks in the armor that I haven’t seen the last few years, and when the Bulldogs head on over to Rocky Top this Saturday afternoon, we’re going to find out a lot about Kirby Smart’s squad.
