College football heroes, zeroes entering Week 2: Arch flops, Bama bombs

College football kicked off the 2025 season in dramatic fashion over the long weekend, including with three signature games that pitted top 10 ranked teams against each other, giving pollsters and fans plenty of material to overreact to entering the Week 2 action.

Right away, five AP top 25 ranked teams took their first loss before the start of the second week of the season, including three of those top 10.

Texas, remarkably the No. 1 team for the first time coming out of any preseason, didn’t stay there long after becoming the first top-ranked team to lose its opener since 1990.

Let’s take a turn around college football to see what teams and players made the most, and the least, of their first impression coming out of their 2025 debut.

College football heroes, zeroes entering Week 2

Hero: LSU

College football heroes, zeroes in Week 2 — Alex Martin/Greenville News / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Coming into this season, the big question around Brian Kelly’s team was the condition of a defensive rotation that had played moderately well enough, but was still considered the primary weakness that could potentially keep it out of the College Football Playoff.

After one week, those fears appear to have been allayed after LSU’s defense mangled Clemson’s superb offense and its gifted young quarterback in a 17-10 win on the road.

LSU put serious money into its defense this offseason and the unit paid off early, holding Clemson’s attack to just 50 percent completion and its ground game to a paltry 1.6 yards per carry.

With that statement win, LSU should propel itself into the conversation as a top-five team going forward and join the list of credible national champion contenders.

And some congratulations are in order for Kelly, who won first-ever Week 1 season opener as LSU head coach. A good first start for a team that Lee Corso picked to win the national title. And he did go a perfect 6 for 6 in his final GameDay picks...

Zero: Arch Manning

At some point, you have to feel sorry for the Texas quarterback.

Riding a wave of smothering hype you didn’t ask for, and starting on the road against the reigning national champion with millions of very critical eyes watching your every move and waiting to pounce on every little mistake you make.

Maybe that pressure got to Manning, who was responsible for a meager 38 passing yards and an interception through his first three quarters against the Buckeyes, whose defense only compounded that pressure themselves all during the game.

He gained some confidence after that, hitting Parker Livingstone for a 32-yard touchdown and dropping in a gorgeous 30-yard pass for tight end Jack Endries that reminded you in part why he had all that publicity as a recruit, and not just for his name.

But overall, Manning’s performance was plagued by some questionable decision making, one-hoppers, missed reads, bad accuracy, and general uninspiring play.

Overreactions aside, it was genuinely concerning to see what Manning put on the field, but it was just one game, and Texas was going to be led by its defense early on anyway.

Hero: Tommy Castellanos

You could be forgiven for rolling your eyes at the Florida State quarterback earlier this offseason when he started talking smack about Alabama.

Nick Saban won’t be there to save them, the Seminoles’ transfer said in effect, doubling and tripling down on those remarks later on.

The reaction was predictable, given the picture of uniform dominance Alabama has had on college football and its thinking over the last 17 years, but on Saturday, the quarterback was right: Nick Saban wasn’t there to save them.

Castellanos backed up his words by leading Florida State to a two-touchdown upset over the No. 8 ranked Crimson Tide, passing for 152 yards and rushing for 78 more, living up to his billing as a legitimate dual-threat player.

No more 2-10 for Florida State this time. It’s back in the national conversation, and should be back in the AP top 25 rankings, too.

Zero: Kalen DeBoer

For every winner, there’s a loser, and suddenly Kalen DeBoer finds himself in the cross hairs of a very impatient Alabama fan base.

They gave him some breathing room after a 9-4 debut last season that included losses to unranked Vanderbilt and Oklahoma, and a bowl loss to Michigan, but everyone knew he had to put a far more dominant team on the field against the Seminoles.

That he didn’t. For the first time in a long time, Alabama looked positively outmatched, and was manhandled on both lines of scrimmage, a shocking sight for those who watched Saban’s teams push people around all those years.

DeBoer has now lost four straight games where Alabama was favored by double digits, and his team was clearly not mentally or physically prepared going into this game.

Hero: Carson Beck

Doubters seemed to follow the quarterback wherever he went since transferring from Georgia to Miami this offseason after his production slipped the year before.

But he looked in top form in his debut for the Hurricanes, hitting 20 of 30 passes for 205 yards and two touchdowns in a signature upset over No. 6 Notre Dame.

Beck had tears in his eyes speaking after the game, displaying the well of emotions he’s had over the last several months, and it must have been a cathartic moment to see his decision pay off in his first game out.

Miami can go as far as Beck can take it, and that includes contention for the ACC Championship, a path that grew marginally easier after Clemson’s loss.

But he won’t be alone on that path, as the Hurricanes’ defense looked ready for primetime against the Irish, and this crop of new wide receivers, a big question heading into this season, passed a critical early test.