The good, the bad, and the weird: College football's Week 2 roundup

College football is sport at its zaniest.

The coaches, the college towns, and the fact that the game is played by those (mostly) 18-to-21 years old contribute to Saturdays that are never dull. And with 130 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision, you never know where the most memorable moments of the weekend will occur.

Each week this season, theScore is here to break it all down - from the good to the bad to the weird. Here's what happened in Week 2 and why it matters:

The good

LSU's status as a national title contender

LSU stopped No. 9 Texas on fourth-and-goal twice in the first half Saturday. They were two huge victories for the Tigers' defense and key moments in their 45-38 win.

In another era, those goal-line stands might have been all that kept LSU in the game. For years, the Tigers have relied on defense and a run game to win. They didn't look to quarterback play - or offensive innovation.

Enter Ed Orgeron, who made the call to hire former New Orleans Saints assistant Joe Brady to run the Tigers' offense.

Enter Joe Burrow, an Ohio State transfer who, after an up-and-down first year as a starter, is now squarely part of the Heisman Trophy conversation two weeks into the 2019 campaign.

Enter an explosive, daring offense that makes the Tigers legitimate College Football Playoff contenders.

Burrow completed 31-of-39 passes for 471 yards and four touchdowns Saturday - the most completed passes and yards by an LSU quarterback in 18 years.

In two weeks in Brady's system, Burrow has now thrown for 749 yards and nine touchdowns. It took him until the fifth game of last season to accumulate that many passing yards and he didn't throw his ninth touchdown pass of 2018 until Nov. 17.

The Tigers used receivers Justin Jefferson and Ja'Marr Chase in ways they probably wish they could have utilized Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry. For the first time in program history, LSU had three receivers post 100-plus yards in the same game.

The defense allowed 38 points, but it was facing an experienced, talented quarterback on his home field.

If LSU can continue to play as it has over the first two weeks of the season, it should be Alabama's toughest regular-season test.

The Tigers don't go to Tuscaloosa for eight more weeks, and they've scored 10 total points against Nick Saban's teams over the last three meetings. But we now have confidence - and evidence - that this team is capable of scoring on the Crimson Tide.

Clemson's defense

There's still a chance Texas A&M turns out to be a very good football team in 2019, with a very good offense, too. Quarterback Kellen Mond, who took a beating in Clemson's 24-10 win over the Aggies, will almost assuredly have better outings than Saturday's 24-of-42 passing, two-turnover performance.

Sure, the Aggies made plenty of mistakes after taking a 3-0 lead in the second quarter. But this game was more about who the Tigers are than what Texas A&M might become.

Clemson reminded us why it's the defending champion. The offense hasn't hit its stride yet, but the defense continues to be stout. The revamped defensive line helped limit Texas A&M to 53 yards rushing and 4.2 yards per play, the lowest output of the 15-game Jimbo Fisher era. Safety Tanner Muse intercepted a pass for the second week in a row and safety Nolan Turner delivered a jarring hit to Mond to force a fumble.

The Tigers have held 11 of their last 12 opponents - including Notre Dame, Alabama, and now Texas A&M - to 16 points or fewer. None of the 10 teams left on their regular-season schedule have the Aggies' talent, either. (Syracuse, the team that's given Clemson the most trouble in recent seasons, looks like it could be in for a rebuilding season.)

The writing's still in pencil, but it'll take an upset of epic proportions for Clemson to lose any time soon.

Maryland's offense

It took Maryland five quarters to score 100 points this season.

The first 79 came against a completely overmatched FCS opponent in Howard. But the next 21 - and eventually, the next 63 - came against a Syracuse team that won 10 games last year and shut out Liberty in Week 1.

Following their dominant 63-20 victory, the Terrapins are the latest example of how quickly fortunes can change with the right quarterback and right head coach.

Neither Mike Locksley nor Josh Jackson was at Maryland last year. Locksley is the latest coach to go through the Alabama career development program, spending the last three seasons in Tuscaloosa. The former Maryland assistant went just 2-26 in his first head coaching job at New Mexico, but he has a good chance to start his Maryland tenure 3-0 when his team plays Temple next week.

Jackson, who threw for 296 yards Saturday, left Virginia Tech last season and eventually chose Maryland as his destination. He was good for the Hokies as a freshman, but so far even better as a junior with the Terps. He's got playmakers around him, too; six different Maryland players have scored a rushing touchdown this season.

The Terrapins face the disadvantage of playing in the Big Ten East, which means annual games against Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, and Penn State. The program hasn't finished with a winning record since 2014. Right now, Maryland appears to have the pieces in place to change that.

The bad

Michigan's offense

Michigan escaped. It was ugly, but the Wolverines edged out a 24-21, double-overtime win over an Army squad that was the better team for most of Saturday.

The Wolverines can point to last season when Oklahoma also narrowly defeated Army in overtime before winning the Big 12 and reaching the College Football Playoff. It makes sense.

But that doesn't erase the issues Michigan showed Saturday.

The new offense under Josh Gattis has yet to find its groove. Quarterback Shea Patterson (19-of-29, 207 yards) failed to throw a touchdown pass for the first time in eight games. The Wolverines averaged 2.4 yards per carry and looked hapless in most short-yardage situations.

There was also the surprising decision - in the fourth quarter of a tie game - to go for a first down on fourth-and-2 from Army's 19-yard line (running back Zach Charbonnet lost 3 yards). Later, facing a fourth-and-2 from the 43, Charbonnet was stuffed for another loss.

Michigan has problems to sort out, ones that could burn the Wolverines when they travel to Wisconsin in two weeks for a fascinating early-season Big Ten contest.

UCLA

Fans live and die by hope. When a team flubs its season opener, as UCLA did at Cincinnati, you can spend a week chalking it up as a fluke. Sometimes that might actually be the case.

But when reality hits in Week 2, hoping becomes a challenge.

Playing in front of its smallest home crowd in 25 years, UCLA lost its home opener to San Diego State, 23-14. The Bruins were outgained 373-261 and outscored 23-7 over the final 57 minutes as Chip Kelly fell to 3-11 at the UCLA helm - and 0-5 in nonconference games.

Next up: Jalen Hurts and Oklahoma come to town. The thought of watching this Bruins team face that Sooners squad is enough to induce a migraine.

South Florida

South Florida football lives in the peaks and valleys.

In 2007, less than 10 years after the Bulls made the move to FBS, Jim Leavitt had the program ranked as high as No. 2 in the country. From 2005-10, the team made six consecutive bowl games and remained competitive in the Big East.

When it dipped, it dipped hard, turning in a 3-9 season in 2012 before delivering a 2-10 campaign in 2013. Willie Taggart brought USF back to the Top 25, won 11 games in 2016 - and then left for Oregon. When South Florida replaced him with Charlie Strong, it looked like a move that would keep the Bulls among the AAC's more respectable programs.

Something strange is happening again, though. Strong started his tenure 17-2. The Bulls won 10 games in 2017 and started 7-0 last season.

Since then? Eight consecutive losses.

Two games into 2019, South Florida has scored 10 points while averaging an anemic 3.8 yards per play. Wisconsin shut the Bulls out 49-0 before a Georgia Tech team that allowed 52 points to Clemson edged them 14-10.

Only four schools - West Virginia, UCLA, Northwestern, and Florida Atlantic - are off to worse starts.

The weird

4 a.m. ET football

The day began at 11 a.m. ET with Pittsburgh and Ohio. Over 17 hours later, it mercifully ended with California's 20-19 upset over No. 14 Washington.

There was a delay. And a power outage. After waiting more than two hours, the Huskies and Golden Bears resumed play at 10:30 p.m. local time, or 1:30 a.m. ET.

The game itself was equally peculiar. Washington entered as a double-digit favorite, outgained Cal, and produced four drives of 10 or more plays.

All four of those drives, though, ended in field goals. Washington turned the ball over twice, and Cal won the game on a 17-yard field goal with eight seconds to play.

The bizarre contest hurts the Pac-12, which has now seen three of its five ranked teams entering the season (Oregon, Washington, Stanford) lose in the first two weeks of the season.

More turnover prop shenanigans

Perhaps there should be a weekly space devoted to the latest in turnover prop innovation.

Two new entries this week: Tulane's turnover Mardi Gras necklace and Akron's turnover…pencil.

The oversized necklace, a la the Miami chain, is at least a more traditional turnover prop:

Akron's giant pencil, though, is something else entirely:

How does this happen?

We'll cap off this weekend's weirdness with a play that still seems unexplainable.

Purdue quarterback Elijah Sindelar played a fantastic game Saturday, throwing for 509 yards and five touchdowns in his team's 42-24 win over Vanderbilt. But for one moment, he forgot which teammate was his center:

Mark Cooper is theScore's NCAA writer. You can find him on Twitter @mark_cooperjr.