The second full week of the college football season does not offer the quantity of games among ranked teams that fans enjoyed over the extended Labor Day weekend. It does, however, feature a top 10 matchup, opportunities for the Group of Five, and a team playing its first conference game in two decades.
The Wolverines' 23-game win streak in the Big House will be put to the test big time in this week's lone top 10 matchup. It will be the second meeting between the schools with the first coming in the 2005 Rose Bowl when No. 6 Texas topped No. 13 Michigan on Dusty Mangum's 37-yard field goal as time expired in the Longhorns' 38-37 win.
This time around, UT is among the favorites to win the national title and defeating the defending national champs on the road would be a nice hurdle to scale. Who knows? Maybe the teams meet again in the expanded playoff.
A matchup to watch is Longhorns' quarterback Quinn Ewers, who is among the Heisman favorites and did nothing diminish that projection (20-27, 260 yards, 3/1) in a rout of Colorado State last week, going up against a Michigan secondary anchored by preseason All-American corner Will Johnson.
The faithful in Raleigh might be more nervous than excited for this game considering the Wolfpack trailed FCS member Western Carolina after three quarters last week before prevailing, 38-21, in quarterback Grayson McCall's NCSU debut. The Vols had no such issues as they piled up 718 yards in a 69-3 rout of Chattanooga, also of the FCS.
The story for Josh Heupel's Vols is at quarterback, where 6-foot-6 Nico Iamaleava made his first regular season start and threw for 341 yards and three scores. A matchup of this magnitude is a good measuring stick for Dave Doeren's Wolfpack, who went 9-4 last season and have designs on battling for a playoff spot.
Tennessee leads the all-time series 2-1 with the most recent meeting in 2012 when the Vols won a season opener in Atlanta. That was the first meeting since the 1930s.
After struggling to get past Idaho last week, the Ducks have a nice test in Boise State, the reigning Mountain West champs. Running back Ashton Jeanty put on a show in setting school records with 267 yards rushing and six touchdowns in outslugging (56-45) Georgia Southern.
Dillon Gabriel had a strong Oregon debut in completing 41 of 48 passes for 380 yards and two touchdowns. With an average of 9.3 yards per completion, the desire would be to get the ball down field more effectively against a Boise State defense that yielded 461 yards to Georgia Southern, including 322 yards on 28 completions through the air.
The Broncos have won all three matchups, including the 2017 Las Vegas Bowl, which is the most recent meeting.
Last year's tight game in Tampa had Tyler Buchner starting at quarterback for Alabama, Jalen Milroe glued to the sideline and a weather delay of about an hour. A 17-3 Alabama win, which was 3-3 at the half and 10-3 heading into the final minute to play, may also have been the most important game of Nick Saban's final season. After all, beginning with the following week's visit from Ole Miss, 'Bama was an entirely different team and ultimately rolled into the playoff.
Speaking of Saban, the great coach will be honored Saturday as the field at Bryant-Denny will be named after him before Kalen DeBoer's team looks to go 2-0. Meanwhile, the nation will get a look at USF quarterback Byrum Brown, and in a primetime slot. Still all of 19, the redshirt sophomore was eighth nationally in total offense (316 yards) last season.
In addition to last season, Alabama won (40-17) the only other meeting in 2003. That was Mike Shula's debut on the Tide sideline and the game was also the last one Alabama played at Legion Field.
Many teams have appeared inept when playing Georgia in recent years. Clemson certainly did last week in Atlanta during a 34-3 loss. Appalachian State, which has given fits to many power conference opponents since elevating to the FBS in 2014 - and even before then as Michigan fans will recall - is not some patsy that will take its $1.25 million and quietly go home to Boone, N.C. That is why Dabo Swinney's Tigers must play a clean game in all three phases, which is all the more critical following last week's debacle.
Clemson has won all five matchups, including the most recent (41-10) in 2015. The previous four, played 1984 to 1997, were with App State as a member of I-AA/FCS.
A series that dates to 1898 with the Cornhuskers leading 49-21-2, brings to mind many great Big 8/Big 7 battles of yesteryear. This season's encounter features an intriguing quarterback matchup between Shedeur Sanders and freshman Dylan Raiola, who performed admirably (238 yards, 2 TDs) in his collegiate debut against UTEP last week. Last year, the second game for Deion Sanders and Matt Rhule leading their respective programs, Shedeur torched the Nebraska defense to the tune of 393 yards and three total touchdowns in CU's 36-14 win in Boulder.
The Cornhuskers, who have lost three straight in the series for only the second time and first since the 1950s, are seeking to go 2-0 for the time since 2016 when they opened 7-0 under Mike Reilly.
It is not a top matchup, per se, but notable for what it represents to one of the major military academies. As a new member of the American Conference this season, the matchup in Boca Raton marks the Black Knights' first conference tilt since 2004. That was their final season of a dreadful seven years as a member of Conference USA. That stretch yielded a 13-67 mark, including 9-41 in conference play.