Week 2 College Football Picks: Ohio St-Texas, Oklahoma-Michigan & more!

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we went two and three and we were sitting there with a great chance uh last year tough beats to end the week old miss we had old miss and then they didn't cover they didn't punch it in smu is right on the doorsteps they don't punch it in so we get beat by the hook uh in that smu game so two and three is what we went uh last week and we'll try to do a little bit better this week we've got two monster games to to preview and in one of those i'll be making a pick and a selection um obviously these big 10 sec matchups are where all of us are going to focus and that's what's going to dominate the narrative of week two as it should and we've all been waiting for this week for a long time let me preview my game first gus jenny and i will have the call as michigan welcomes in oklahoma of course michigan um fresh off of that strange win even though the mac is protesting and wanting that result to be changed the mac conference michigan is sitting here and now they've got to regroup and welcome in an oklahoma team that is a formidable team michigan dropped out of the ap top 25 what i thought was so shocking watching the film and i know that i discussed this on monday's show and i discussed it with urban meyer on yesterday's show if you haven't seen those go back and check those out over on the youtube page subscribe when you're there that would be awesome and invite a friend that would be even even better what i was surprised about was the fact that this is an experienced offense that struggled i understand that they're trying to win the game but they're not going to win the game they're going to win the game they're going to win the game they're going to win the game they're going to win the game they learn a new system under their new coordinator jason beck but the o-line didn't play well obviously the quarterback didn't play well um i thought that the backs were antsy and and didn't run with patience at times there wasn't a lot of clean pictures by the skill position players and then you you look at the chart i always have my charts here in front of me on on these picks and previews and i'm like man all these guys played a ton of football all of them up front they've got guys that have played a ton of football evan link jake guanera um andrew sprague on the outside buchanan transfers in he was probably the lone bright spot of the offense including that catch uh to end the game he transferred in from utah but they've got um andrew marsh who i think very highly of like there there are guys out here they've got good tight ends they got a great backfield including a freshman that we've been hearing a lot about uh maybe the number what one two back in the country coming out of high school savion hyder i thought that they would play better it wasn't just about bryce underwood they were not targeted right in the offensive line the backs didn't run well it was a struggle on the offensive side that has to get better and it has to get better in a hurry in a hurry now what would i anticipate i anticipate that it's not going to be let's go out there and try to do the same thing and read everything i don't think that they're going to ask bryce underwood to sit there and and be a a great pocket passer in this one i expect them to run the quarterback on designed runs and they're going to be a great pocket passer in this one i expect them to run the quarterback on designed runs early i expect them to change the launch point get him outside of the pocket and every time that they're on those little half rolls or even rolling outside the pocket either direction what that does is that it cleans up the picture so what that means for a quarterback is that rather than reading a structure and having to locate his own movement key and then play off of that and bracket that defender and make him go opposite you typically on the run just read progressions now maybe you just read progressions in some offenses either way i've always been taught most good offensive players are going to are taught that versus zone you have a zone movement key and versus man you read the progression one two three four five right you could have five guys out on the route i expect them to get out on the outside why that cleans it up why because you just progression read one to the drop out two to the over it's very simple and it's just one two three four and if he can do that maybe you can get him into a rhythm where then you can drop back later in the game so that's what i was that's what i would expect from michigan on offense but i think that's a lot easier said than done if you incorporate the quarterback into the run game maybe that helps the other runners develop some lanes and it helps the offensive line why because it equates the numbers now the defense has to account for the quarterback in the run game they're facing a defense for oklahoma that's one of the best defenses in all of college football they certainly were a year ago and i think it'll be the same this year in fact all 11 starters now they list 12 starters but that's only because you've got base defense and you've got nickel defense and nickel defense you start with five defensive backs and base defense you start with four defensive backs and three linebackers so in base defense cole sullivan the michigan transfer actually starts so this equation doesn't pan out but if they start in nickel defense so 11 of the 12 air quotes starters that they list for oklahoma started their career at oklahoma continuity it's something that we talk about in the coaching staff ranks and we certainly talked about it with indiana and kurt signetti as he retained his coordinators this offseason brian haynes and mike shanahan right how important continuity is well how about continuity in your lineup and guys that have been in the system now two three and four years that is a huge advantage going against an offense that might be experienced but is learning a system for the first time so you're talking about guys that have you know 10 15 20 games a year of reps in the venable system running this defense adjusting to formations playing situations they know what to expect against the michigan team that went out there and flopped offensively in week one with a brand new coordinator trying to learn an entirely new system advantage oklahoma they're very good up front david stone's one of the best defenders in the entire country i wouldn't i wouldn't put it past him to be a top 10 nfl draft pick i talked about that with urban meyer that was on wednesday's show if you didn't catch that interview go back there and get it i think the strength of this team is their linebacker core owen heineke kip lewis kip lewis is a really good player he's the leader in that second level and then cole sullivan like i said michigan transfer this is going to be an emotional emotional game for him obviously their best player defensively is stone i think right behind that is peyton bowen their safety he's terrific he's a leader he's very athletic and made some incredible plays last year as i'm watching film this offseason you know prepping for week two it's like so many game-saving pbus pass breakups for peyton bowen he was outstanding so that's a very good defense for them on the flip side of this oklahoma on offense they really only have one question in my estimation which is can you develop your offensive line to run the football with a running back now lloyd avant transfers in from colorado state i liked what i saw from him last week again do we really know what that means after facing utep probably not this is going to be a much stiffer test this michigan defense is a real defense and they played well against western michigan last week remember nine of the 12 points for western michigan were basically handed to western michigan by the offense it will or special teams it was a muffed punt the pick right before half uh and the fumble from underwood so those are the night like the defense for michigan is real and now oklahoma will be able to have a bit of a measuring stick game in particular for their offensive line in that run game now they're banged up a little bit at offensive line they had to start a true freshman last week against utep didn't hurt them obviously because it's utep so noah best started at center they're trying to get jake michaela uh back in there who's their starting center but we'll see if he's able to go in this ball game um the run game is a question for me matier picked up that slack in this match up a year ago i cautioned you all after that victory for oklahoma and i said that was great he's my heisman front runner but he can't do that every week or else he's going to get hurt what happened he ended up getting hurt so it can't be about him running the football although it could be in this one long term no got to get the run game going and this one maybe it's a mature type of day on the outside they've got parker livingston came in from texas but isaiah satania is the real star for them on the outside took a punt back last year he was all sec a year ago last week he took a punt back and he was all sec a year ago he looks explosive out there so this is to uh to be there and call it from ann arbor gus genie and i will have the call that's um let's hope we get a better game then let's hope michigan plays better on the offensive side than what they showed uh on week one all right let's go down to the monster in austin texas as texas welcomes in the ohio state buckeyes now texas is favored by a point and a half um i could go either way here i really could i i really really like both of these teams Let me tell you what I like about both of these teams. teams. Namely, this is going to be a very different team for each of these head coaches than they brought into this matchup a year ago. And for the specific reason that Coach Meyer brought up with us yesterday on Wednesday's program, which is the fact that you've got experienced quarterback play now. This is no longer an unknown. Last year, all of us were wondering, what in the world are we going to get from Julian Sane? We really hadn't seen him. And what is Arch going to look like? And what would be considered like his first real starts? I know he started in that previous season against a kind of a bad opponent, but this was going to be a real start for him. And he struggled. And Ohio State didn't ask Julian Sane to do much. And now it's going to be different. I don't expect this to be a low scoring game. We had that low scoring defensive oriented game a year ago. I think it's going to be different this year. I could see them both scoring in the twenties. I don't anticipate one of these teams. Running away from the other. They're both too talented. What I also love about it is that we rarely get to see true matchup games, true matchup games, eye to eye games. And this is as heavyweight as heavyweights get. I mentioned this to Coach Meyer yesterday, but I don't know. I think, you know, Georgia fans would be so pissed. Obviously, Michigan fans would be pissed. Bama fans would be pissed. Do we have bigger brands in college football than Ohio State and Texas? I don't know, man. Do we have teams that are better equipped from a resource perspective than Ohio State and Texas? Do we have two, do we have definitely better fan bases, bigger fan bases, more passionate fan bases than Ohio State and Texas? Do we have more talented rosters than Ohio State and Texas? Every time these two teams and programs go anywhere, they're the big dog. And once a year, maybe twice a year, depending on how other teams on their schedule are playing and what they're equipped with that season, they finally play eye to eye and they get to walk into this one. And it's like, that looks like us. That's why I love this game. It's a true matchup game. And I think this is going to be one at the line of scrimmage. I know that is not, sexy analysis. Everyone wants to hear about Jeremiah Smith and the fact that Texas has done a nice job in their last two meetings, taking away Jeremiah Smith for the most part, obviously in the playoff a couple of years ago, didn't really do anything. They bracket covered him. And then last year he was open a couple of times down the field, but saying didn't pull the trigger. And because of that, his numbers were just kind of average, but it's really the offensive lines. It's not about cam Coleman and Jeremiah Smith, although they might have their, their, their moment, but that moment is going to be a by-product of what is going on at the line of scrimmage. Both of these teams lost their games last year, respectively because of poor offensive line play Texas lost all of their games. Those three games, Ohio state, Florida, and Georgia, because the offensive line was overwhelmed in every one of those games and arch didn't have any time. Thus the skill position players couldn't impact the game to the level that they wanted to. That's what they wanted to impact the game. Same could be said about Ohio state. They lost to Indiana because they couldn't control the line of scrimmage. They got dominated at the line of scrimmage by Miami. Those were those two losses. You can go back further for Ohio state. Why did Michigan beat them for a couple of years in a row? Well, because they dominated the line of scrimmage. It's always comes down to that. And so the difference in this game is going to be about the five guys up front, the offensive line that protects their passer better is going to be going to be the offensive line that protects their passer better is going to be the offensive line that is going to be the offensive line that protects their passer better is going to win the football is going to win the football game. Because once you do that, now, Cam Coleman and Ryan Wingo can help out Arch Manning. Now, all those skill position players, including Jeremiah Smith, best player in college football, can help out Julian San and go and score points. You see, this is a dependent game. You are not going to go out there and independently win this game. I don't believe that that's possible because it's a matchup game and talent is equated. So the offensive lines have to play well. The defenses will have to adjust. I can't wait to see these defenses, but that's where it's ultimately going to be won and lost. I can't wait for that game. It's a one and a half point spread. Texas is given the one and a half. I've got to take the one and a half. I think Ohio State wins it. They beat Texas each of the previous two times. I think they win it in exactly like coach said, in a walk-off fashion. I think they kick a field goal in a tie ball game late and walk this one off. 27-24. I've got the Buckeyes winning an absolute thriller and I can't wait to see these teams the rest of the season. This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Good times mean competitions between you and your friends, like seeing who can throw some pigskin the farthest or rush the field the fastest. Winner gets an ultra because it's not just a superior light beer. It's also giving fans superior access to their favorite sporting events. Superior is worth playing for. Visit MichelobUltra.com slash superior access to enter. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2026 Anheuser-Busch InBev Michelob Ultra Beer, St. Louis, Missouri. All right, now we move through a few other games. BYU is hosting Arizona. BYU is favored by seven and a half. These two teams played an absolute thriller last year. That game was in Tucson. BYU came back from 10 down with about five minutes to go. They forced overtime, then won it in double overtime. That was a great game. This year, the game is in Provo, which is very, I think, a very formidable place to play. That is a tough place to play. It's a great fan base and a very intimidating place to play. But Fafita, Noah Fafita, he's going to be a great player. He's going to feed a is experienced enough not to be intimidated. So from an Arizona's perspective, that's that's great. The question is, is that can Arizona hold up against what I think is going to be a very physical run oriented offense for BYU led by Bear Bachmeier and L.J. Martin. L.J. Martin was the Big 12's offensive player of the year a year ago. And obviously, Bear is is kind of a bear. He's a bear to deal with. There's no doubt. Arizona is trying to replace a lot of guys, in particular on the secondary from last year's defense, which was very, very difficult for them. So they're going to which was very effective. I just think seven and a half is a little too much. From my estimation, can Arizona move the ball? Probably. Are they going to score some points? Yeah. At the end of the day, is BYU better than they are? Probably. And they're at home. To me, it's close. To me, it's close. So I think seven and a half is too much. I think Fafita is too experienced. I think that they've got enough on the outside. You know, BYU, yeah, they've got this kid, a true freshman, Legend Glasker. I mean, all-name team, for sure. And he did a nice job last week. He had three touchdowns. But I still don't know who's really going to be their go-to guy. So can they run and hide from Arizona? No. Which means seven and a half is too much. It's not a two-score margin, at least in my estimation. Not with what Arizona has on the offensive side. So I like BYU to win the game. I think that they win this one 24-20. But Arizona, I'm going to take the seven and a half there. And I think they cover that seven and a half. Let's move to Kentucky. Bama at Kentucky. This one should be, I think, more interesting than a lot of us realize. Keelan Russell played pretty well in his debut for Alabama. I talked about that yesterday. I'm a little concerned that he had to scramble so much. That offensive line struggled a year ago for Alabama. They need to run the ball better. They need to protect the passer better. We all know that. 95% of those rush yards that Russell had came on the scramble. That's a bit worrisome for me, although he looked dynamic doing it. So, yeah, he's a threat on the outside. And now you know why he won that job for Keelan DeBoer. It's great for him that he got his feet wet and got a start against East Carolina before having to just go out onto the road against Kentucky. Now, Kentucky, they've got a brand new kind of everything. Will Stein comes in as the head coach. Excuse me. He was the former offensive coordinator. He was the former offensive coordinator at Oregon. What I think that Will did a nice job of is he brought in some really experienced guys as coordinators, including Jay Bateman, the defensive coordinator for Texas A&M a year ago. Now, what Bateman did best was put pressure on the quarterback and rush the passer. They were not great against the run. A&M wasn't. They were terrific on third down, and they did a great job putting pressure on the quarterback. Now, granted, you could say, well, they had Cassius. How, Joel? Fair enough. Fair enough. But there is some part of that scheme that is built to put pressure on the quarterback, and that's exactly where we all have maybe a question or two about this Alabama team. Now, the line is 10 and a half, and I'm looking up and down, and I'm like, okay, Kenny Minchie transfers in from Notre Dame. He had a good start last week. Youngstown State came to town for Kentucky. Kentucky handled them. Minchie had 300 yards and four touchdowns for Will Stein. Kentucky's got. The former Texas running back, C.J. Baxter, who I thought a lot of before he got injured in his Texas career. They brought in Jay Bateman from A&M. Can he pressure Russell, the Alabama quarterback? I just come down to this. The Bama defense was great. I know we're all going to be talking about what we expect from their offensive line and what Keelan Russell can do at quarterback, but the real strength of this team, and I think the identity of this team is their defense. I just don't know if Kentucky is going to be able to move the ball and sustain. Enough drives to sit there and cover that 10 and a half. So I'm going to go with Bama here. I got Bama on the road. 28-17. Russell gets his first road win in the SEC and I'll give the 10 and a half there and I've got Bama. Arizona State at Texas A&M. This one could be an interesting one and A&M is actually favored by 14 and a half. I think this has a lot to do with the fact that there were so many transfers and an influx of transfers into Arizona State. They're having to replace 18 starters, 18 from last year's team, including Sam Levitt, who just set the world on fire on Saturday night for LSU, including Relique Brown, who transferred to Texas. We'll see him next Saturday night as he tries to fix the Texas run game and Jordan Tyson went to the draft. So you're replacing some very good football players, very good football players. They did get a really nice start from their new quarterback, Cutter Boley. He was a Kentucky transfer. He comes into play and Kenny Dillingham, I thought, did a really nice job with their schematics. He had 387 yards, six touchdowns against Morgan State. Do we know anything about Morgan State? No, obviously, you know, but is that a good start? Yeah, that's a good start. Would you rather get that start or start at Texas A&M right away? Well, obviously you'd rather get your feet wet and that's what he was able to do. On the A&M side, oh, by the way, ASU, they've got a couple of good transfers out of the portal. Colorado transfer, who I thought a lot of in his time at Colorado, Omorion Miller. He's out on the outside. Wisconsin college transfer, Reed Harris. So watch out for those guys. A&M, they were a bit slow in the first half against Missouri State, but they ended up winning it 50 to nothing. They just have a third year starting quarterback, which I really like. So Marcel Reed is in his third year as a starting quarterback. They're in college station. Mike Elko has got to replace coordinators, but again, like they're in college station. This comes down to me, to Kenny Dillingham. I think he's going to put pressure on the new coordinators for Texas A&M. He's going to make them defend the entire field. I like what ASU has on the outside. I'm not going to pick them, but 14 and a half seems like too much. I see A&M winning this ball game 30 to 17. So I'm going to say ASU covers that 14 and a half right there and they don't get to win. A&M goes two and oh, but I'll take the 14 and a half for Arizona State. All right, Memphis, Boise. Boise State is favored by seven and a half. And the reason I wanted to talk about this game is because I think at least at this juncture, the year now, maybe Western Michigan would be in this as well. I don't know, but at this juncture in the year, these are two of a very few handful of teams that I think could actually be the group of six representative in the college football playoff. We saw Memphis beat UNLV. I would put UNLV in there. So that's a head to head matchup that goes Memphis's way. I really like Charles Huff, their head coach at Memphis. I really do. They've put a ton of money into their stadium. Like there's some, some buzz around Memphis right now and they played like it. Meanwhile, Boise goes up there and just goes toe to toe and throws haymakers with Oregon. And listen, say what you will about Oregon struggles in the first couple of weeks, the last few years, that's a real roster, a real roster and Boise hung in there. Now, is it easier for a group of six team to hang in there early in the season? Yes. Cause they don't have the, the attrition. They don't have the injuries that they're going to have later in the year. That's, that's all well and good. You're going to get their best effort, but still that best effort was a very good effort. I love what Spencer Danielson has, has built up there. And it's not even that he's built it continued. It's a continuation of everything that has been built in Boise. They show that they can play at the top power, a power four level. I think that's something that could play into the committee's mind later in the year. They've got an experienced quarterback in Maddox Madsen. He played well against Oregon. He had three touchdowns in that game. Meanwhile, quarterback for Memphis is Marcus Stokes. He had division two school, uh, West Florida. He played really well. They've got a running back Jalen Carter coming off a huge game last week. He had over two, uh, 200 total yards and four touchdowns. Uh, he's averaging over eight yards per carry. So like this guy can get it done. He's a transfer from Southern miss. And then you've got Charles Huff. The problem for Memphis is, is that I think what I saw from Boise against Oregon was just too impressive and the experience of their quarterback. I'm going to lean on in this game. They're at home. They get to come back home. They get the energy of that crowd. That's, that's, that's not nothing in college football. So I've got Boise state winning this ball game at home over Memphis 3521, which means I'm going to give and lay those seven and a half and Boise state wins it 3521. Let's recap those picks before we get you out of here and you start enjoying the slate of college football this weekend. All right. The big one in Austin. Um, listen, I've got to take the point and a half there for Ohio state and I've got Ohio state and that one to win outright Arizona, I think covers that seven and a half. Um, I think BYU wins that game, but, but Zona covers a seven and a half. I like Alabama bigger in that one. I think that they cover the 10 and a half they're favored by 10 and a half. So I'm going to give them and go with Bama ASU. I'll take the 14 and a half there on the road. Again, they've got enough on the perimeter and on the outside and Dillingham is so good schematically that I'm going to take those 14 and a half in particular, after that slow start that we saw in the first half, we saw A&M have, although Marcel Reed might come out and just light it up and then I'll give the seven and a half in Boise. I think Memphis coming up there is too much in Boise's home opener. And I think Boise wins that football game coming up later tonight. If you're listening to this, watching on YouTube, first of all, thank you. Subscribe to the show. Um, follow us on social media, wherever you like to social media, agile class show, but live tonight on Thursday night, 7 PM, we're going to be live Eastern time from Ann Arbor as we're going to have myself, Dave Taft. Our live show from Ann Arbor is going to be live on Thursday night, 7 PM. Can't wait for you to join us there. I can't wait for you to enjoy this week at a college football. We've been waiting for this week, the entire off season. I can't wait. It is finally here. Can't wait to get to Ann Arbor and remember as always, please tweet every game day. You show up for your team. Now it's your time. We go V some maglutide injection, 2.4 milligrams, a GLP one call 1 8 3 3 4. 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