Week 2 of the college football season in the state of Texas was headlined by a trio of intrastate rivalry games that reminded us of what makes the sport so special. 

The day started with a double-overtime thriller between SMU and Baylor where the Bears emerged victorious despite trailing by 14 in the fourth quarter. The day continued with a shootout between UTSA and Texas State when the Bobcats became only the third team to beat the Roadrunners in the Alamodome during the Jeff Traylor era. The day ended with Houston dominating the second half in a lopsided win over Rice. 

The 13 FBS teams in Texas combined to go 8-4 in Week 2 with TCU on an early idle week because the Horned Frogs played on Monday night of Week 1. The Lone Star State is a combined 16-10 at the FBS level so far this season with a clear split between Power Four and G5. The seven P4 teams are a combined 10-4 while the six G5 squads are a combined 6-7. 

Texas State is the new G5 King in the Lone Star State 

A torch was passed in the Alamodome on Saturday afternoon when Texas State knocked off UTSA, 43-36. Not just from Jeff Traylor to pupil and former player G.J. Kinne. But from his Roadrunners to Kinne’s Bobcats. 

UTSA was the Top Dog of the G5 ranks in the Lone Star State since Traylor arrived in 2020. After knocking off the Roadrunners twice in a row and beating North Texas in a bowl game nine months ago combined with the program’s impending move to the Pac-12 and a bigger media right deal, Texas State is the current Big Cat. 

Texas State joins Houston and Army as the only programs to beat Traylor’s UTSA in the Alamodome. The Bobcats have now won two straight against their rivals from San Antonio after losing the first five of the series. Kinne has now beaten his mentor in two of three and the program is riding high as it’ll transition from the Sun Belt to the Pac-12 after the season.

Texas State started 2-0 last year with a win over UTSA, as well, but a 5-5 finish in the regular season felt like a disappointment. This version of Texas State could win the Sun Belt. 

Baylor offense saves the day…again

Baylor head coach Dave Aranda loves movies. One I’m sure he’s seen is Adam Sandler’s “Billy Madison.” There is a scene during the trivia competition late in the movie when Steve Buscemi’s character saves the day and Madison famously says, “Man, am I glad I called that guy.” That’s Aranda watching Jake Spavital’s offense save the day over the last nine games of his tenure. 

It was the Baylor offense that spurned the run of six-straight regular season wins to close 2024, and it is Spavital’s unit once again that is the strength of the Bears. They allowed 459 yards and still won on the road. That’s because the Baylor offense gained 601 yards against the Mustangs. Quarterback Sawyer Robertson threw for 440 yards and four scores. Bryson Washington ran for 115 yards and two touchdowns on 31 carries. Both Josh Cameron and Ashtyn Hawkins topped 100 yards receiving. 

Baylor is now 7-2 over its last nine and will now carry momentum into a Big 12 schedule that is frontloaded with home games against Arizona State and Kansas State. Those high hope this program carried into 2025 felt like fool’s gold heading out of the Week 1 loss to Auburn at home. The Bears will feel better heading out of Week 2, and that’s because one side of the ball. 

A healthy Texas A&M is an SEC contender 

Marcel Reed and Trey Zuhn provided some in-game injury scares for Aggie fans but head coach Mike Elko dismissed any long-term concerns postgame. That’s good news for a Texas A&M team that looks every bit a contender heading into a Week 3 tilt on the road against Top 10 Notre Dame. The new offensive weapons, namely wide receivers KC Concepcion and Mario Craver, look like stars. Concepcion has scored multiple times and Craver has topped 100 yards in both games this year. Reed has 509 yards and seven touchdowns to zero interceptions so far. 

If we assume the run game and defense take steps forward each week, which feels like a safe bet for an Elko team that has a strong stable of running backs and talent on the defensive side of the ball, why can’t the Aggies play for an SEC championship and make it to the CFP? Some of that is about Texas A&M looking impressive, but some of it is also because the SEC looks relatively wide open. Alabama and Texas look shaky. Georgia doesn’t look like a juggernaut. Florida lost to South Florida. You get the picture. 

How good is Texas Tech? 

The scoreboard suggests that the Red Raiders are indeed legit Big 12 contenders. The Red Raiders scored over 60 points for the second time in two games in the 62-14 win over Kent State. Behren Morton played for a half and dispelled any injury concerns from Week 1. He’s been one of the most efficient quarterbacks in college football in the early season, completing 74 percent of his passes for 459 yards and seven touchdowns to zero interceptions. The rushing attack is averaging 7.4 yards per game. And the defense is making plays, illustrated by the pick-six by defensive tackle Skyler Gill-Howard. 

But it is hard to overlook the competition. Kent State is arguably the worst FBS program in college football. The Week 1 opponent was Arkansas-Pine Bluff. The Red Raiders can only play who is on the schedule, but we also can’t draw too many conclusions about this team until they’re tested. That probably won’t happen until the Sept. 20 trip to Utah.

Formula clear for Texas 

Any thoughts that Texas will be an offensive juggernaut are slowly disappearing for Horns fans. Most believed the Longhorn offense would take a step forward with Arch Manning at the helm, believing that Quinn Ewers held Steve Sarkisian’s attack back for years. But those beliefs haven’t materialized. Manning’s final stat line was impressive in the easy win over an overmatched San Jose State squad in Week 2 at home. He finished 19-of-30 for 295 yards and four touchdowns to one interception while adding 23 yards and a touchdown on the ground. 

But the ultimate driving force of this team will be the defense. Pete Kwiatkowski’s unit forced four turnovers in the win. The Horns converted those turnovers into 21 points. San Jose State managed 273 yards of offense, including a 2.9 yards per carry average. The defense held San Jose State to a combined 4-of-17 on third and fourth downs and a 3.8 yards per play average. To make noise in the SEC and return to the CFP for the third year in a row, Texas will need to rely on the defense and allow the offense to grow into a more formidable unit. 

Defensive concerns on the Hilltop

The SMU defense was decimated by graduation after the 2024 season. The Ponies lost their entire starting defensive line and both starting linebackers and a couple of key pieces in the secondary. They did a solid job replacing that talent through the transfer portal, but that is a lot of pieces to replace and the Baylor game was always going to tell us a lot about the 2025 unit. Early returns aren’t great, but to be fair, the Baylor offense might be the best they see all season. 

SMU ranked 32nd in scoring defense last season while allowing 22.1 points per game. The Mustangs only gave up more than 30 three times – TCU, Clemson, and Penn State. TCU was the only team to score over 40 and that was in a blowout win by SMU. Baylor just scored 34 in regulation and 48 points overall against the Ponies in Dallas. It is something to watch because they’ll be tested again in two weeks against a potent TCU offense in Fort Worth. 

Mean Green are evolving 

The North Texas offense sputtered and the defense provided some PTSD to the Mean Green faithful through the first half of the Western Michigan game in Week 2. The Broncos held a 17-7 lead at the break, grew that lead to 14 by midway through the third quarter, and were ahead by 10 again with 14:13 left in the game. Eric Morris’ offense scored 17 points through three quarters and it looked like the optimism in Denton was unwarranted…again. 

And then something new happened. North Texas rallied and closed with a thrilling overtime win on the road. The Mean Green offense woke up and scored 10 points in the fourth quarter. The defense, which allowed 276 yards and 24 points through three quarters, buckled in and allowed just 32 yards and three points in the fourth. Then, in overtime, the unit forced a WMU field goal on the first possession so that a touchdown won the game for the Mean Green. The offense came through. 

That’s called complimentary football. A foreign term in Denton, America through two years of the Morris era. It wasn’t pretty, but it was a win. An important win as North Texas heads into a Week 3 home game against Washington State. Start 3-0 and the AAC contender hype gets turned up to 100. 

UTSA is losing games it used to win

Traylor’s Roadrunners made a living winning games like the one in the Alamodome on Saturday against rival Texas State – tight, back-and-forth slugfests at home. He built UTSA’s football reputation on calling the right side of virtually every coin flip early in his tenure. The Roadrunners were 12-4 in one-score games from 2021-2023. They were 32-9 overall during that time with two conference championships. 

There was a time in the fourth quarter where it looked like UTSA was about to do what does in the fourth quarter as the Roadrunners marched down the field and tied the game at 36 with 10:22 left in the game. On the first play of the next drive, Texas State hit a 65-yard strike from Brad Jackson to Beau Sparks to take a 43-36 lead that it never relinquished. 

UTSA went 1-3 in one-score games last season and are now 0-1 in such contests in 2025. The Roadrunners are 7-8 overall since the start of 2024. Traylor used to joke that he was celebrated as a great coach in San Antonio because he was winning those coin flips, but that’d he be considered an average coach if those had landed the other way. They’re starting to land on the wrong side more often than not and life in the G5 is about winning in the small margins.  

UTSA was stuffed on 4th and goal from the 1-yard line in the first quarter. Drops plagued the Roadrunners down the stretch. Untimely penalties put the offense behind the chains and awarded Texas State first downs on the other side of the ball. The Bobcats won the special teams battle. And in clutch moments like third and fourth down, Traylor's offense was a combined 4-of-18.  

Houston is a problem 

The Coogs are probably still a year or two away from truly competing for a Big 12 championship as head coach Willie Fritz rachets up the talent level in Third Ward. But Houston isn’t a team I’d want to play down the stretch. That group is going to ruin a season or two for Big 12 contenders. They’ve allowed nine total points through two games and look much better physically along the offensive line. Rice transfer running back Dean Connors topped the century mark on the ground in his return to Historic Rice Stadium. Conner Weigman has been efficient in an offense that is competent, which is a step up from last year. 

Fritz’s squad knocked off TCU and Kansas State last year and the Cougars are much better in 2025. They play Texas Tech at home on Oct. 4, as well as Arizona State, TCU, and Baylor over the second half of the season. Any fan base that notched the Houston game down as a sure win has a cruel reality facing them. The Coogs should start 4-0 with games against Colorado and Oregon State ahead of that tilt with the Red Raiders. 

Rice offense a work in progress 

Much was made of the option attack brought in by new Rice head coach Scott Abell. His Davidson squads routinely led the FCS in rushing and the Owls will undoubtedly ascend into territory reserved for programs like Army and Navy in years to come. But it won’t be in 2025. They’ve struggled to get the ground game going through two games, ranking 102nd nationally in yards per attempt at 3.55. The 108 attempts are fourth in the country and only trail Army and two teams that have played three games already. The output isn’t there yet, however, and that’s understandable given Abell inherited a roster that was running more of a pro-style offense in years past. The defense has looked great, however, and we still think Rice steals a couple in conference play like it did in Week 1 vs. Louisiana.