Week 2 of the 2022 college football season: Here are the games, players and matchups to watch
Posted September 8, 2022 5:00 a.m. EDT
Week 2 of the 2022 college football season has many questions.
WRAL senior multiplatform producer Mark Bergin tries to answer some of them.
What’s your tweet-length take ahead of Week 2 of the college football season?
The College Football Playoff’s expansion to 12 teams by 2026 waters down the importance of the regular season. For this reason, I’m not a fan of the change. Perhaps I’m already prepping for the inevitable heartbreak the nation’s 13th ranked team will endure.
What’s the best college football game of the weekend?
No. 20 Kentucky at No. 12 Florida is my pick (7 p.m. Saturday, ESPN).
Florida kicked off the Billy Napier era with a big win as a home underdog against Utah.
For back-to-back weeks, ranked opponents will test the legitimacy of the Gators and sophomore quarterback Anthony Richardson.
Richardson channeled his inner Vince Young in the win over Utah. He completed 17 of 24 passes for 168 yards and ran for 106 yards on 11 carries and three touchdowns.
Meanwhile, Kentucky is coming off a 37-13 victory over Miami (Ohio).
Last season, Florida lost to Kentucky for the second time in four years. To put this in perspective, Florida beat Kentucky 31 times in a row from 1987-2017. It’s at least part of the reason Napier is the Gators’ head coach instead of Dan Mullen.
Saturday’s game marks the first time both the Gators and Wildcats will be ranked when they play since 2007.
Another matchup to watch is the CyHawk Game showdown between rivals Iowa and Iowa State.
The Hawkeyes are coming off a 7-3 win season-opening win against South Dakota State. In the game, the Hawkeyes’ only scores were a field goal and two safeties.
The Cyclones blew out their FCS opponent Southeast Missouri State by a 42-10 margin.
What’s the best ACC game of the weekend?
If No. 24 Tennessee at No. 17 Pittsburgh (3:30 p.m. Saturday, ABC) is anything like the “Backyard Brawl” between Pitt and West Virginia, we’re in for a treat.
Against West Virginia, the crowd at H̶e̶i̶n̶z̶ ̶F̶i̶e̶l̶d̶ the newly-named Acrisure Stadium was rockin’ during M.J. Devonshire’s pick six to seal the game late in the fourth quarter for the Panthers.
The only thing better was the radio call by legendary Pitt play-by-play announcer Bill Hillgrove.
The Vols are listed as a 6.5-point favorite over the Panthers entering Saturday’s game. As of Tuesday, Tennessee is ranked for the first time under second-year coach Josh Heupel.
Tennessee enters Week 2 coming off a blowout win over Ball State led by senior quarterback Hendon Hooker, who threw for two touchdowns and ran for two more.
Pitt has a 3-0 all-time record against Tennessee. Last season, Kenny Pickett threw for 285 yards and scored a total of three touchdowns in a 41-34 win at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee. The two teams also played in 1980 and 1983.
What’s the best ACC game involving a team from North Carolina?
As much as I want to pick “the battle of the books” matchup between Duke and Northwestern (noon ET Saturday, FS1), I am intrigued by the return of Wake Forest quarterback Sam Hartman after blood clot surgery when the Demon Deacons take on Vanderbilt (noon ET Saturday, SEC Network).
Wake Forest said Tuesday that the fifth-year quarterback has been medically cleared to play in the 23rd-ranked Demon Deacons' trip this weekend to Vanderbilt after receiving treatment for a blood clot. The news came about a month since Wake Forest said Hartman would be out indefinitely due to what it described at the time only as a non-football medical issue.
Hartman was ranked as one of the nation's top quarterbacks last season for a team that reached the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game.
Predict the biggest upset this weekend in college football
Stanford is a 9-point home underdog to USC (7:30 p.m. Saturday, ABC). However, Stanford’s David Shaw has a 7-5 record in the series since becoming the head coach in 2011.
Look for Stanford to establish junior running back E.J. Smith, son of Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith, early in Saturday’s game to control time of possession and keep the Cardinal defense off the field.
Which team will Lee Corso pick during ESPN’s “College GameDay” broadcast? Alabama or Texas?
Corso will go with the 21-point favorite Crimson Tide. However, if Texas somehow upsets Alabama, Longhorn fans can legitimately proclaim that “Texas is back!”
What will Sunday’s headline be?
T̶e̶x̶a̶s̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶b̶a̶c̶k̶!̶ Texas is not back, Northwestern wins the "battle of the books" and the Heisman chatter heats up for Anthony Richardson.
