National “Three To See,” Game Two

Baylor (0-1) at #17 SMU (1-0), Sat., noon (The CW)

We’re including this game in part because there aren’t many compelling Power Four vs. Power Four contests on the entire Week Two schedule, and in part because among all the ACC contenders this year — Clemson, Miami, Florida State, Louisville, Georgia Tech, Pitt and whoever else you want to throw in there — we may have talked and written the least about SMU.

Remember, the Mustangs finished 11-3, made the ACC championship game and competed in the College Football Playoff last year, their first as a member of the ACC. North Carolina-based fans may have seen coach Rhett Lashlee and his program up close in 2023, when SMU beat East Carolina convincingly in Greenville on its way to another 11-3 season and, in that case, the American Conference championship in the school’s final year in that league.

Now, after those back-to-back 11-win campaigns, each of which ended with a top-25 national ranking, SMU has a shot at a third straight special season.

How has SMU done it? With a combination of home-grown talent from the legendary Lone Star State and a whole bunch of money from wealthy alumni and supporters, which both enabled the Mustangs to join the ACC and — in the transfer portal era — helped them supplement their depth chart with big-time talent from other major programs.

Remember that SMU’s invitation from the ACC came with the requirement that the school forgo $270 million in media-rights revenue; the Mustangs won’t get a regular, full-sized check from the league until 2033!

How can anyone possibly afford that? Well, in the summer of 2023, within five days of SMU officially accepting the ACC’s offer, 31 of the university’s supporters stepped forward and donated a collective $100 million to the cause. Some of those same donors own or run companies that have been able to help with external Name-Image-Likeness money in the transfer portal, too.

Three of SMU’s most accomplished players this year — redshirt junior quarterback Kevin Jennings, senior tight end RJ Maryland and senior safety Isaiah Nwokobia — grew up in the Dallas area and signed with the Mustangs directly out of high school.

The portal impact has shown up all over the depth chart, too, including on the offensive line, where this year’s first-stringers and key reserves previously started at places such as Arkansas, Miami and Oklahoma. Others were backups at Texas or Texas A&M who wanted more playing time at another in-state school after being high school stars in that enormous state, which has 13 FBS-level programs.

Bottom line: The magical combination of Lashlee, that huge SMU money and those well-paired, productive talent pipelines has enabled a program that infamously received the Death Penalty for NCAA rules violations in the 1980s to be nationally prominent over these last three years, after a 30-year-plus period without a single top-25 finish in the national polls.

National “Three To See,” Game Three

#15 Michigan (1-0) at #18 Oklahoma (1-0), Sat., 7:30 p.m. (ABC)

This is probably the biggest TV game of the college football weekend, when a lot of gridiron fans will be entranced with the opening week of NFL action.

The Wolverines and the Sooners are both big football brand names, of course, and they’re both ranked in the national Top 25 entering this matchup.

It was just two years ago when coach Jim Harbaugh (now back in the NFL, with the Los Angeles Chargers) led his alma mater Michigan — in controversial fashion, complete with a spying controversy and various NCAA violations — to its first national championship since 1997 and just its second since 1948. Harbaugh headed to the NFL, remember, in large part because he was suspended by the NCAA for a full year and given a show-cause order for four years, all the way into 2028.

Anyway, Harbaugh’s successor, Sherrone Moore, has the inevitable pressure that goes with finishing “only” 8-5 last year, in his first full season as head coach, in the same year that archival Ohio State — despite losing to the Wolverines in Columbus — went on to win the national championship.

On the other sideline, Oklahoma coach Brent Venables, the long-time and legendary Clemson defensive coordinator, is now in his fourth year as the head coach of the Sooners. He’s under a lot of pressure because two of his first three years ended with losing records, and that’s obviously not gonna cut it at OU.

Personnel-wise, it could be a fun matchup between talented quarterbacks.

Oklahoma’s starter is John Mateer, the Washington State transfer and NFL prospect who many Wake Forest fans wished new coach Jake Dickert had brought with him to Winston-Salem with so many of his other WSU players.

Michigan’s starter is a true freshman named Bryce Underwood, who didn’t turn 18 years old until last month. He was rated by some the #1 high school senior in America last year, at any position. A prep star from Michigan, Underwood switched his commitment from LSU to the Wolverines very late in the recruiting process, then enrolled at Ann Arbor early so he could go through spring practice and get ready for a major, immediate impact.

Underwood is only the fourth freshman ever to start at QB for the Wolverines. This trip to Norman (capacity = 80,000-plus) will be his first college road game, so that’s one more intriguing angle in this high-profile matchup.

NOTE: For the in-state edition of our Week Two college football preview, including analysis on the highest-profile games, plus schedules and TV/streaming options for all 32 teams (FBS, FCS, Division Two, Division Three) in the Bold North State, please click HERE.