The 8 best individual performances from Week 2 in college football

Week 2 of college football provided an offensive explosion across several matchups. SMU and Baylor locked horns for fireworks, Kansas and Missouri got their rivalry renewed with a ton of points, and several quarterbacks shined out with some absurd stat lines.

So, let's discuss the eight best individual performances of the weekend, starting with those fireworks in the Dallas area...

Sawyer Robertson

Baylor's 48-45 win at SMU was so wild that ESPN's play-by-play recap doesn't even make any linear sense. But hey, that's what can happen when a pair of college football programs combine for more than 1,000 yards of offense and 93 total points in a double-overtime thriller. Let's spotlight Bears' QB Sawyer Robertson, one of many returning stars under center in the Big 12 this fall, who eclipsed the 400-yard mark with 440 passing yards and four touchdowns on FIFTY passing attempts. That's a Josh Allen stat line.

Josh Cameron (WR) & Ashtyn Hawkins (WR) | Baylor

Three Baylor Bears on a Players of the Week list might take you aback, but the offensive output we mentioned in the Robertson section definitely ought to cause a spit-take. Baylor racked up 601 yards of offense and 440 through the air for Sawyer Robertson, who split much of that yardage between two wideouts. Josh Cameron nabbed two touchdowns and led the squad with 151 receiving yards, while Ashtyn Hawkins missed out on the end zone but led in receptions with 10 going for 145 total yards. That's a hair under 300 yards between just two pass catchers on the same day. Baylor officially put together the Passing Game of the Year, we'll say.

Blake Shapen (QB) | Mississippi State

Forget the stat sheet, which was impressive for Shapen, but instead let's consider the fact that he resurrected Mississippi State football from the grave back into the limelight. One year after Arizona State made the College Football Playoff despite coming into the 2024 season as last place in the Big 12 preseason pill, the 2025 Big 12-favored and No. 12 ranked Arizona State Sun Devils were upset by a Mississppi State team picked to finish last in the SEC. Chaos, madness, and redemption for cowbell faithful.

Shapen himself threw for 279 yards but hit on some absolute bombs to pull the Bulldogs across the finish line. Particularly, he executed a play for the ages in Starkville, a 58-yard fling to Brennan Thompson with just 30 seconds left in the fourth quarter to seal the ballgame. Not since the death of legendary cach Mike Leach has MSU football felt so alive.

Beau Pribula (QB) | Missouri

Pribula may have lost some respect when he bailed on Penn State's College Football Playoff run to secure his spot with these Missouri Tigers during the winter transfer portal window, but he certainly won over support in the Show Me State by putting together a quarterbacking clinic in an offensively-dominant win over Kansas in the revival of the Border War.

Beau Pribula threw for 334 yards and logged just nine incompletions and zero interceptions in the win, which should have been by far more than 11 points, considering Mizzu out-gained Kansas by 344 yards, 595 to 251, out-rushing them 261 to 28 on the day. That's abuse.

John Mateer (QB) | Oklahoma

As of Monday morning, John Mateer is tied as the second favorite to win the Heisman Trophy at +1000, according to FanDuel, after his winning performance against Michigan in the biggest game of Week 2. Drawing comparisons t Baker Mayfield in the process, Mateer shined as the slinger he was at Washington State a year ago, single-handedly generating 344 of the team's 408 total yards of offense in the 24-13 victory. In a sport dominated by rock stars, the Sooners have a shredder under center, plus, a resume win outside the conference to use as a hat rack.

Byrum Brown (QB) | South Florida

Of course we'll single out the man, myth and legend wh slayed the Gators in the Swamp. Byrum Brown did his own John Mateer impersonation, running wild for 329 total yards — 263 through the air, 66 on the ground, BOTH figures leading the team — as the Bulls amassed just 62 other yards. No matter, the 18 points for USF were plenty enough to beat down a Florida team that only found the end zone once all night. If Brown can pull off a third straight top-25 upset at Miami next week? Watch out for some Heisman talk as USF enters the top five of the AP Poll.

Collin Matteson (CB) | Army

Kansas State returned from the loss to Iowa State i Dublin with... not the luck of the Irish, but Murphy's Law. The Wildcats nearly harpooned their season with a loss to North Dakota and then fully sold out 2025 by falling against Army, who lost at home to Tarleton State in their season-opener. Yikes for KSU, but for the Black Knights, a huge thank you goes out to Collin Matteson, who wrecked the 'Cats in pass defense. PFF called him their Defensive Player of the Week.

"He sealed the game with an interception off Avery Johnson, added three more pass breakups and held Johnson to a 5.2 passer rating when targeted," wrote PFF. Those are some crazy (!) good numbers for the future member of the United States military.

Julian Sayin (QB) | Ohio State

You don't hear college football talking haven't hurled Sayin's name into the Heisman Trophy discussion quite yet, but could Weeks 1 and 2 have gone much better for the new Buckeye QB1? He toppled No. 1 Texas in his debut for goodness' sakes! Then, this weekend, Sayin completed 18 of 19 passes for 306 yards, four touchdowns and a pick as OSU tore Grambling apart limb by limb in a 70-0 washout. Those figures worked out to 16.1 yards per every Julian Sayin pass attempt, which is pretty filthy stuff.

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