College Football Week 2 Superlatives: Arch Manning’s Moment, Oklahoma State Goal Post Takes a Dip

Everyone loves the superlatives section in a yearbook. It can be fun, it can be quirky but best of all, it can be a great way to forever commemorate individuals for a given period of time (in most cases a year). Few sports lend themselves better to superlatives than college football.

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So after a wild, upset-filled, thrilling Week 2 of college football, we thought it made sense to hand out some superlatives to help make sense of what we just saw.

Here goes.

Most Improved – Oklahoma State and Michigan

What a difference a week made for these two programs. The angst in Ann Arbor was palpable after Michigan narrowly escaped the Big House in a win over Western Michigan that sent many fans’ BS detectors blaring. Coach Kyle Whittingham left the door open for a change at quarterback with the high-profile-and highly paid-Bryce Underwood struggling. And No. 11 Oklahoma was coming to town? Cover your eyes, Wolverines fans.

Except that’s not what happened. Underwood, for the most part, took care of the football. The Wolverines coaching staff used his legs more, to great effect. The Michigan defense, led by gamewrecker John Henry Daley, took care of the rest, flummoxing John Mateer and the Sooners offense en route to the stunning upset.

In this week’s yearbook, the Wolverines are sharing the honor with one Oklahoma State. Rewind the tape to a year ago and the Cowboys were getting rampaged by Oregon 69-3, one of the final straws that broke the camel’s back and ended longtime coach Mike Gundy’s tenure. Heck, first-year coach Eric Morris, he of the remarkable turnarounds, was already feeling the heat after struggling to beat Tulsa in a turnover-filled Week 1.

Week 2 was much different. Quarterback Drew Mestemaker made mistakes, but he was teflon-strong in the biggest moments and made play-after-play when the Cowboys needed them most against No. 6 Oregon. And Morris was in his bag as a play-caller, perfectly marrying deception with efficiency to dupe a Ducks defense loaded with NFL talent to the tune of 554 yards, 237 of which came on the ground.

Oklahoma State and Michigan’s improvements were not so much statistical as they were tangible. It feels like both teams discovered identities on Saturday, and have the top-25 wins to validate their findings.

Most Changed – Arch Manning

Remember the shy, nerdy-looking kid who couldn’t muster up the courage to go talk to the pretty girl, but then years later, he’s an investment banker and married to the woman who in high school he once couldn’t talk to? That’s Arch Manning. A year ago, Manning was enveloped by immense hype in his first year as a starter, and he seemed to crumble under the weight of expectations, as well as the burden of playing behind a shaky offensive line. He never looked comfortable in the pocket, especially in the Longhorns’ 2025 season-opener against Ohio State, in which the Buckeyes defense held Texas to just seven points.

For three quarters in Austin, Saturday’s game resembled a poor sequel. Manning and the Longhorns mustered just three points, turned the ball over twice and were plagued by drops.

Then, when the pressure was at its peak, Manning leveled up his game. The Ohio State defense took away the deep ball? No matter. Manning looked to the short and intermediate areas. The Ohio State defense pressured him? Manning used the escape latch (his legs) to maneuver his way for gains on the run. He looked like a player who had the answers, as opposed to the player who was searching for them against the Buckeyes last year.

“It wasn’t very pretty, but we found a way to win.”

Arch Manning after completing the largest Texas comeback since 2007 pic.twitter.com/znEMPQrhhF

– ESPN (@espn) September 13, 2026

You learn a lot about someone when they face adversity. The world learned a lot about the kind of QB Manning is on Saturday night.

Best Dressed – Boston College

Sports can be a great unifier. Just as they were in the aftermath of the horrific September 11th terrorist attacks 25 years ago, so they were on the 25th anniversary of that dark day. One of the many heroes who shone brightly through the darkness on 9/11 was former Boston College lacrosse player Welles Crowther, who had the courage and compassion to repeatedly traverse back up the smoke-and-wreckage filled World Trade Center, leading as many as 18 lives to safety in the face of the unimaginable before the building collapsed. Crowther wore a red bandanna, which he had carried with him since childhood after being given one from his father, covering his mouth and nose.

So, when Boston College took the field for the annual Red Bandanna Game donning uniforms honoring Crowther on Friday night, they became the only possible choice for best dressed team of the week.

The uniforms, which featured red bandanna patterns on the sleeves and in the center and displayed “FOR WELLES” instead of player names on the back, were the perfect tribute.

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A tradition unlike any other pic.twitter.com/kDBHdz7Nth

– Boston College Football (@BCFootball) September 9, 2026

Most Unique – Jordyn Adams

How about a college-football-player-turned-baseball-player-turned-college-football-player again catching the first pass of his collegiate football career in SMU’s 56-10 win over UC Davis on Saturday? That’s right, Adams, a former five-star recruit of North Carolina back in 2018, committed to the Tar Heels for football and baseball but changed course when the Angels selected him with the 17th overall pick in the 2018 MLB draft.

After toiling for eight seasons in the minors and three uninspiring seasons in the majors, Adams returned to college football and was grandfathered into the old system before the age-based eligibility rule was enacted after enrolling this fall. Because Adams never enrolled at North Carolina, his eligibility clock never started.

So there was Adams, a 26-year-old freshman receiver, catching the first pass of his career in the third quarter of the blowout win over the Aggies. He finished the day with two receptions and one very cool story to tell.

Most Likely to Make a Rash Decision on Fourth Down – Dan Lanning

If you hear the sound of footsteps, don’t be alarmed. It’s just Texas coach Steve Sarkisian running away from this section of the column (or maybe from his halftime interview in last night’s game). Sarkisian, after a very questionable play-call on a fourth-and-1 late in the first half gifted Ohio State seven points, was vindicated for his Riverboat Ron tendencies when QB Arch Manning led a thrilling Texas comeback in the fourth quarter, aided by multiple fourth down conversions.

Oregon’s Dan Lanning was not so fortunate. We’ve seen Lanning pull the trigger on fourth downs in the past to great success. On Saturday, in the fourth quarter down by five points with 6:48 to go, it was his doom. Lanning went for it on a fourth-and-8 from his own 33–yard line in a highly aggressive, balls-to-the-wall decision bordering on recklessness.

But it wasn’t just the decision, which was head-scratching at best. It was the questionable Dante Moore roll-out and crosser routes that Oklahoma State was all too ready for. To add insult to injury, Lanning’s defense somewhat bailed him out when it allowed the Cowboys to traverse just 20 yards and kick a field goal. Could the game have ended differently had Lanning not gone for it there? We’ll never know.

Most Likely to Need Swimming Lessons – Oklahoma State Goal Post

If you missed the Oklahoma State goal post’s incredible journey, you can relive it in this glorious video courtesy of the program’s athletic department. Potential $50,000 fine from the Big 12 for field storming be damned!

We do not condone taking down the goalposts but here is the full journey from BPS to Theta Pond for your enjoyment pic.twitter.com/TXtMBgZS9t

– Oklahoma State Athletics (@OSUAthletics) September 13, 2026

Cowboys fans, in a state of delirium after the stunning upset of Oregon, stormed Boone Pickens Stadium, then uprooted the goal post and paraded it around campus. The unwilling aluminum was then taken to Theta Pond, where multiple students tossed it into the drink.

Tired: The poor goal post just needed swimming lessons and maybe it could have been something in the water.

Wired: Legend has it that the embattled goal post, now a hardened and ravenous sea monster, resides deep in the depths of Theta Pond, biding its time and waiting for its chance for revenge.

This article was originally published on www.si.com as College Football Week 2 Superlatives: Arch Manning’s Moment, Oklahoma State Goal Post Takes a Dip.

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This story was originally published September 13, 2026 at 9:24 AM.