Early-season NHL buzz: Latest on Patrick Kane, Gabriel Landeskog and a young Bruin
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Emily Kaplan, ESPN
Two weeks into the NHL season and we’re right back in it. After covering six games in six cities, here’s the latest buzz I’ve heard from conversations around the rink.
What’s next for Kane?
The greatest American active player, just one year removed from a 92-point season, is a free agent and will be ready to play around midseason. And nobody knows where he’s going to end up.
Patrick Kane is 4½ months out from hip resurfacing surgery. He’s been rehabbing mostly in Toronto, some in Chicago, under the guidance of Dr. Ian MacIntyre. Kane recently has been cleared for contact. His agent, Pat Brisson, told me that in early November they’ll take serious calls from suitors, and Kane is looking to join a team in November or December. Kane, 32, is not in a rush; the priority is to ensure he’s 110% healthy. Hampered by the hip, Kane played last season basically on one leg. Kane also wants the right fit — entering the right environment, on a team with serious chances to win.
Brisson told me it’s way too early to speculate on teams, but here are a few intriguing things I know. Kane’s hometown Buffalo Sabres are keeping tabs. Kane has personal relationships with GM Kevyn Adams and coach Don Granato. A few years ago, Kane playing in Buffalo was completely out of the question for him, but dynamics have changed and he’s open to the idea right now.
The Detroit Red Wings have been one of the early surprises of the season. The player seeing the most success in Detroit? Alex DeBrincat, the former Blackhawks winger Kane considers one of his favorite linemates ever. I’ve heard the Florida Panthers let Kane’s camp know this summer they’re interested. The Dallas Stars looked into acquiring Kane at last year’s trade deadline, when he ultimately went to the Rangers, and likely will revisit things. The Avs have been mentioned to me as a sleeper team, though they’d need to tinker with their roster to clear room.
Bottom line: There’s a lot of interest in Kane. On a short term, low-cost deal, why not take the flier? But you can count out the team Kane played for for his first 16 years. Although Kane and the Chicago Blackhawks are on good terms after last season’s trade, the door is closed for now as Chicago is in a rebuild.
Latest on Landeskog’s possible return
The Colorado Avalanche look as legit a Stanley Cup contender as anyone, winning their first five games with a plus-12 goal differential. But looming all season will be the absence of captain Gabriel Landeskog. And while the team is “cautiously optimistic” he can return for the playoffs, there’s still so much unknown. “It’s really uncharted territory,” GM Chris MacFarland told me last week.
The 30-year-old forward hasn’t played since the day the Avs won the Cup in 2022. He missed the start of last season rehabbing a right knee injury — but couldn’t get well enough to return. So in May, Landeskog opted for a dramatic attempt to salvage his career: knee cartilage transplant.
No NHL player has ever come back from that surgery. Coincidentally, Chicago Bulls guard Lonzo Ball is trying to become the first NBA player to come back from a knee cartilage transplant. Ball is about two months ahead of Landeskog in rehab, and the athletes and their front offices have been trading notes. (Arturas Karnisovas, the Bulls’ VP of basketball ops, previously worked for the Nuggets and has a relationship with MacFarland).
Landeskog is spending most of the season in Toronto doing his rehab. He’ll come to Denver from time to time, but he doesn’t want to take away treatment time from his teammates who need to get game-ready. Landeskog, whose wife is from Toronto, has better resources for dedicated medical time in his offseason home.
MacFarland said he won’t start to get excited about the idea of Landeskog returning until he is cleared for more intense skating, such as stops and starts. That’s still months away. MacFarland said the issue is that Landeskog will probably start to feel good in a few months, but if he has one setback, they’re back to square one if he must redo the surgery. So although the Avalanche are optimistic about Landeskog’s early reports — his rehab has been going very well, no hiccups so far — the team is taking a cautious approach, knowing Landeskog’s career hangs in balance.
Landeskog is under contract through 2029. “We’re going to do what’s best for Gabe long term,” MacFarland said.
Poitras in the middle in Boston
One of the best stories of the young season is the emergence of 19-year-old Bruins center Matthew Poitras. Boston has struggled in drafting and developing centers over the past few years, and it is thin at the position after the dual retirements of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci. Enter Poitras, a 2022 second-round pick. Poitras’ agent, John Walters, met with the teenager in the middle of summer. As the two said goodbye in the driveway, Walters said: “You know, the Bruins lost Bergeron and Krejci. You can make the team, you just gotta believe how good you are. Don’t go in there thinking you’ll be sent back to juniors.”
Poitras’ response? “Oh, I plan on it.”
Poitras has a quiet confidence. He told me he doesn’t like being in the center of attention but credited Brad Marchand specifically for being so friendly and funny to be around, which has made him feel included. That’s the Bruins culture.
The day before a game last week, Walters called Poitras at the hotel — where he’s currently living in Boston — and asked what he was doing. Homework.
Poitras is enrolled in college courses, required by his junior team. He’s taking microeconomics. “I hate it,” Poitras admitted to me. He’d much rather just be a professional hockey player.
Thursday, Nov. 2, against Toronto will be Poitras’ ninth NHL game — the point where Boston has to decide whether to send Poitras back to juniors or if he’s staying for the season. The Bruins have not been in this position with a player in 20 years, when Bergeron was a rookie. So they told Poitras they’d take it day by day. Every time the Bruins thought Poitras might dip, he finds a way to level up. The Bruins’ third game of the season, against San Jose, was Poitras’ worst as a pro. He followed it up two games later with a two-goal performance against the Ducks, then scored again in the next game against the Blackhawks.
Boston will use the three-game homestand leading up to the Toronto game to decide Poitras’ future. But unless he takes a serious dip, it looks as if he’s staying — and can dip out of that econ class.
Bedard off to strong start
So much attention has been focused on Connor Bedard to begin his rookie season, and he has lived up to the hype. From an off-ice perspective, I give a ton of credit to the 18-year-old for being professional and accommodating with how many requests he’s gotten. “He just gets it” is a phrase I’ve heard a lot around the Blackhawks. For his very first NHL game, Bedard did a media scrum after morning skate, a first-period intermission interview with me, second-period intermission with Sportsnet and postgame with me followed by general availability. That’s incredible accessibility.
New NHLPA boss Marty Walsh has made this an emphasis. As he goes around and meets with players, he is explaining that if they want hockey-related revenue to rise — which would increase the salary cap, and eventually decrease the dreaded escrow — guys need to put themselves out there more. Visibility and creating narratives around the game is important. Hockey players have traditionally been trained to think that was selfish. Now they’re being taught it’s actually selfless, creating more prosperity for the future generations.
On the ice, Bedard expects to score every game. You can see his frustration when it’s not there, but he’s learning to manage it. Coach Luke Richardson said Bedard is used to the extra coverage on the ice; he’s seen it for years in juniors. When he is being shadowed on the power play — in the same way teams treat Alex Ovechkin or Steven Stamkos — Bedard is learning he needs to move. Look for him to start switching places with Seth Jones in these scenarios. At 5-on-5, Bedard is excellent at drawing two defenders, then using his hockey sense to make a pass and find open ice. Bedard isn’t afraid to drive the middle of the ice, but he also tends to try taking on guys 1 vs 3, which is hard to do at the NHL level.
Overall, Richardson would like to see Bedard shoot more. The rookie is sometimes waiting for the perfect pass or shot, but with his lethal shot, Richardson believes Bedard will be able to sneak it through defenders and past goalies more often.
Balancing now and the future in Pittsburgh
There was renewed energy around the Penguins ahead of the season. Trading for Erik Karlsson, coming off a 100-point season, set the tone. But new GM Kyle Dubas did more work than that. He brought in several players to training camp on PTOs, which created real competition. Dubas also rounded out the team’s depth; Pittsburgh’s bottom six finally has an identity, and there are a handful of players ready for call-up in Wilkes-Barre who have a couple hundred games of NHL experience.
Although Dubas gave the Penguins some quick fixes to maximize this season — another one where it appears core players Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang, even entering their mid-30s, are still playing at elite levels — he’s clearly balancing future concerns. Example: the contract situation for Jake Guentzel.
Guentzel loves playing in Pittsburgh, and the Penguins love Guentzel. As coach Mike Sullivan told our broadcast team before the opener, “Sure, a lot of players can play with Sidney Crosby, but not all of them can score 40 goals.” Sullivan called Guentzel a “superstar.” But the 29-year-old winger is on the final year of a five-year deal ($6 million AAV) and contract talks are on hold for now. From what I’ve heard, Dubas wants to see how the team does this season to get a better understanding of where the Penguins are before making any commitment.
Guentzel, for his part, has six points in his first five games. It seemed as if he was going to miss at least the first five games of the season after summer ankle surgery. However, I am told that Guentzel “hated” the conservative timeline the Pittsburgh medical staff assigned him. He circled the home opener on Oct. 10 and knew he wouldn’t miss it. He’s a man on a mission this year.
Trouble in Tampa?
The Tampa Bay Lightning‘s emphasis this offseason was on improving defensively. GM Julien BriseBois told me that when they were winning Stanley Cups, they were a top-six or top-eight defensive team. He felt they lost their way last season and gave up too many scoring chances. So the Tampa Bay coaching staff, led by coach Jon Cooper, made an adjustment to the system. And the roster changes BriseBois made in the offseason (bringing in Calvin de Haan, Tyler Motte, Luke Glendening, Conor Sheary, Austin Watson) had that in mind. All the while, the team is feeling the pinch from trading prospects and draft picks for Stanley Cups — they’ve drafted a first-rounder just once since 2019 and are without first-round picks again in 2024 and 2025.
Cooper told me his message this year was simple. When you get knocked out of the playoffs in the first round, and have your longest offseason in five years, guys should come back angry and hungry. Tampa has a group that plays with a lot of pride, one that possibly could withstand losing star goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy until December.
But the team just isn’t as balanced as it used to be. The flat salary cap forced the team to say goodbye to several stalwarts this summer — Alex Killorn, Pat Maroon, Corey Perry, Ross Colton, Ian Cole, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare — and early injuries have exposed their lack of depth.
• The fact that captain Steven Stamkos, a pending UFA, didn’t get a contract offer this summer is a big topic … but we might not get answers on his future for a while. BriseBois told Stamkos and his representatives they would wait until after the season to negotiate, waiting to see how the year goes.
Stamkos also had difficult negotiations in 2016 before ultimately signing a mega eight-year contract two days before he was set to hit free agency. I’ve talked to two of Stamkos’ friends, and they said the same thing: “This one feels different.” I’ve also talked to some of Stamkos’ ex-teammates on the road who believe that it will ultimately get sorted out, that everyone just needs a little time and space. Stamkos clearly wants to remain with the Lightning. But he has seen other players get taken care of and wants to be paid what he believes he’s worth — not just take whatever is left over. BriseBois has said he wants Stamkos to retire in Tampa Bay but also to be contending for Cups while he’s doing it. Given the current state of the team, you can see the chasm.
In Starkville, they stormed the field with cowbells.
In Gainesville, they might soon be storming the castle with pitchforks.
For the SEC’s tale of two cities on Saturday, it was the best of times for Mississippi State and, if not the worst of times for Florida, it was perhaps the moment any hope for a revival under Billy Napier reached its nadir.
It was a Saturday about which much of the college football world offered a collective yawn in advance, but the day delivered its share of highlights and surprises, from Clemson‘s early struggles against Troy, to Baylor‘s rollicking comeback against SMU, to Bill Belichick racking up win No. 1 in college.
But all of that took second billing behind the audacity of the two most unlikely scores in the SEC.
Mississippi State, which had been in danger of being relegated to the title of “new Vandy,” had won just one of its past 17 games against Power 4 competition, but when No. 12 Arizona State rolled into Starkville on Saturday, the Bulldogs were ready.
Quarterback Blake Shapen threw touchdown passes of 48 and 47 yards and, with 30 seconds remaining in the game and trailing by 3, a 58-yarder to Brenen Thompson to seal the 24-20 win.
0:40
Mississippi State upsets Arizona State on game-winning TD
Blake Shapen throws the game-winning touchdown in the final minute as Mississippi State upsets Arizona State.
What followed was utter euphoria unseen in Starkville since they announced the opening of a new Bass Pro Shops. The fans stormed the field, pulled down the goalposts, and, we assume, carried them off to be displayed at the town’s most sacred shrine: the Chili’s off Route 12.
– no context college football (@nocontextcfb) September 7, 2025
Meanwhile, after USF’s go-ahead field goal as time expired knocked off the 13th-ranked Gators 18-16, Florida fans were left to rage against the football gods at their town’s most sacred shrine: the Chili’s off Archer Road.
Last season’s late run that included wins over LSU, Ole Miss and Florida State had offered ample hope that, perhaps, things were finally turning for the Gators. The post-Tim Tebow era has had its highlights, but each was followed almost immediately by a sudden, sharp and occasionally such massive failure that it could only be described as “Zook-tastic.” And so it was with the hope engendered by last year’s four-game winning streak, too.
DJ Lagway struggled to push the ball downfield, Florida was 4-of-12 on third down and the Gators’ defense had no answers for the magic of USF quarterback Byrum Brown, who threw for 263 yards and ran for 66 more.
When the dust settled, Napier was forced to take a hard look in the mirror and ask: “Does anyone remember my LinkedIn password?”
After watching the USF-Florida game, the Department of Labor Statistics has revised Friday’s jobs report from the US adding 22,000 to 22,001 jobs.
– ����️♈️�� (@ADavidHaleJoint) September 6, 2025
Florida still has eight games left against ranked teams, including five of its next six. The lone exception in that run is Mississippi State, which certainly doesn’t look like an easy win now either. A reality in which the Gators finish 2-10 seems entirely possible. Also, the state of Florida hasn’t had a power team finish 2-10 for, like … months.
That Mississippi State, the worst team in the SEC a year ago, could knock off last year’s Big 12 champion would normally be cause for Greg Sankey to drive his car through Brett Yormark’s rose garden while leaning out the window yelling, “Scoreboard!”
That Florida lost to an in-state team from a Group of 6 conference that doesn’t even have its own stadium would be cause for everyone who abhors the SEC’s arrogance to point and laugh and let the air out of Kirby Smart’s tires.
That both occurred on the same Saturday, within hours of each other, is destined to leave us all feeling a bit unfulfilled. Two weeks into a new college football season, perhaps that’s a good thing. That even the mighty SEC feels so uncertain is a reminder that we’ve just begun this story. We don’t yet know who the heroes are, which makes it entirely possible Mississippi State will be one. We don’t yet know which characters will meet with a tragic end, though Napier and Virginia Tech‘s Brent Pry certainly look the part.
If these are the opening chapters of 2025’s Dickens novel, we’re in for a heck of a ride the rest of the way.
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Heisman five | Notes from the road
Week 2 Vibe Check
Each week, the biggest games grab the headlines, but dozens of other performances move the needle in college football, too. We try to capture those here.
Trending up: Illinois’ tournament hopes
Duke outgained Illinois by 19 yards on Saturday but still managed to lose by 26 points, 45-19. It was a nifty statistical trick that can be blamed on a flurry of takeaways by the Illini defense, which converted four Duke fumbles and a Darian Mensah interception into 21 points. After the game, Duke noted the strangeness of the outcome, pointing out that it usually waits until the Elite Eight to waste a strong offensive performance because of too many turnovers.
Trending up: Stern discipline
Syracuse narrowly escaped an upset bid against UConn on Saturday, 27-20 in overtime. Syracuse trailed 14-3 at one point, took a 20-17 lead into the final minute of action, then saw the Huskies tie the game with a 41-yard field goal as time expired. A defensive stand in overtime preserved the win, but head coach Fran Brown was less than pleased with the overall performance, forcing his players to run sprints after the game.
You can tell Fran Brown is not happy after that game. He’s making the entire team run sprints post game right now.@NunesMagician pic.twitter.com/lnNl0U6ULy
– Christian De Guzman (@CTDeGuz) September 6, 2025
Worse, Brown also gave explicit “no iPad for a week” orders and put QB Steve Angeli in timeout until he calmed down.
Trending down: Ill-fitting jerseys
Against Gardner Webb, Georgia Tech nearly repeated the brutal start it endured a week earlier vs. Colorado. In Week 1, the Jackets turned over the ball on each of their first three drives. This time, they fumbled away their first possession and tossed a pick on the next. Tech did rebound nicely for a 59-12 win, but the real disappointment was the lack of the Snuggy Jersey (the jersey roomy enough for the whole family to snuggle up and watch old footage of Paul Johnson’s offense, but versatile enough to wear when returning kicks). Unfortunately, Tech head coach Brent Key was not a fan and banished the jersey for good. It’s now stored in College Football’s forgotten treasures warehouse next to the Turnover Chain, Civil ConFliCt trophy and Houston Nutt.
I need to know more about why the Georgia Tech Punter has a XXL Jersey. Did he forget his? Switch numbers ?? There has to be a good reason for it.
�� pic.twitter.com/tkib90Lxno– Alison Mastrangelo (@AlisonWSB) August 30, 2025
Trending up: Celebrity showdowns
There was plenty of star power on display in Boulder, Colorado, in Week 2 as the Buffaloes welcomed Delaware. On one sideline was Deion Sanders, an NFL Hall of Famer, former two-sport star, reality TV personality and one of the biggest brands in sports. On the other sideline was Delaware, which is the country’s fifth-largest producer of shoehorns. The paparazzi was out in full force hoping to get a shot of Coach Prime or Delaware’s Ryan “Coach Tac-Shaver Infomercial on the CW at 3 a.m.” Carty, but the edge, in the case, went to Sanders. His Buffs overcame a sluggish start, no doubt due to being in awe of all the celebrities on Delaware’s sideline (Judge Reinhold, Teri Polo, the guy who works the overnight shift at the Wawa on Union Street), winning 31-7 behind two touchdown passes from third-string QB Ryan Staub. The Hens, meanwhile, had to settle for drowning sorrows with other A-listers at Elisabeth Shue’s late-night hot tub party.
Trending up: Revenge games
If last week was Florida State‘s coming-out party in a win over Alabama, Week 2 offered the Seminoles a chance to enjoy some sweet revenge. FSU walloped East Texas A&M 77-3, then celebrated by shouting, “That’s what you get for stealing Jimbo Fisher” and “We just scored a point for every $1 million you had to pay him to leave” all while its battered opponents helplessly insisted that, in fact, East Texas A&M is a completely different school than Texas A&M.
Trending up: Participation trophies
Division III Rowan was up 17-14 against Case Western with 2:07 left in the third quarter Saturday when a spate of bad weather rolled through — stand by, we’re Googling “Where is Rowan?” — New Jersey, suspending the action. Both sides waited patiently for four hours, listening, we assume, to Bruce Springsteen’s “The River” album on repeat, before school officials, coaches and the referees mutually agreed, according to Rowan’s press release, to call the game a 17-17 tie. The last tie at the FBS level of college football came 30 years ago when a Wisconsin and Illinois game finished 3-3, leading to the advent of overtime throughout college football and the forward pass in the Big Ten.
Trending up: Cash cows
Earlier in the week, Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy lamented all the money Oregon spent to build a winner, only for Ducks coach Dan Lanning to retort with a series of “Yo momma’s so poor” jokes and a 69-3 drubbing of the Pokes on Saturday. Meanwhile, Oklahoma, flush with enough cash this offseason to lure star transfers such as QB John Mateer, held off Michigan, a school whose NIL budget is currently earmarked to pay down NCAA fines and get Connor Stalions that new telescope and fake beard he has been asking for, 24-13. The lesson: Teams are only as good as their players, and good players don’t come cheap. On a totally unrelated note, we just received an email from a deposed oil baron in Oklahoma who just needs our credit card and social security numbers to help secure a fortune, which he’ll happily share with us.
Trending down: Coaching legacies
On Nov. 17, 2007, Nick Saban’s Alabama team lost to Louisiana-Monroe 21-14. On Saturday, Kalen DeBoer’s Alabama team beat Louisiana-Monroe 73-0. The math on this is pretty simple: DeBoer is approximately 10 times as good a coach as Saban.
Meanwhile, Clay Helton made his long-awaited return to Los Angeles, taking his Georgia Southern team to USC, a school that fired him in 2021 despite a .657 win percentage at the school — right in line with the Trojans’ current coach, Lincoln Riley (.651). But on Saturday, Riley and USC rolled to a 59-20 win, proving once and for all that hiring him was absolutely the right call.
Rivalry Rundown
Week 2 isn’t a true rivalry week, but it did feature a number of passionate tilts between old enemies.
Cy-Hawk Trophy
Iowa State defeated Iowa 16-13 and held on to the Cy-Hawk Trophy thanks to a pair of circus catches by tight end Gabe Burkle on a go-ahead fourth-quarter drive.
WHAT. A. GRAB.
Gabe Burkle & the Cyclones are in Iowa territory with 2 minutes left pic.twitter.com/J77SRMFfu2
– Bussin’ With The Boys (@BussinWTB) September 6, 2025
It’s the sixth time in the past seven years of the rivalry in which neither team topped 20 points, and in this year’s incarnation, neither squad managed more than 238 yards of offense.
Iowa State prevailed thanks to the leg of kicker Kyle Konrardy, who booted field goals of 44 yards and 27 yards, as well as a 54-yard game winner.
Iowa threw for 83 yards in the game, a tally Kirk Ferentz frustratingly noted was almost the full length of the field and should’ve been plenty enough to win. Still, as punishment, only the defense and punters were allowed to get ice cream at the Tastee-Freez afterward.
In the past seven games in this series, Iowa’s QBs have combined to complete just 51% of their throws, averaged 4.4 yards per pass, thrown just one touchdown and five picks.
Border Showdown
The hatred between Kansas and Missouri dates back nearly two centuries. The hatred between Kansas and Missouri dates back nearly two centuries, ignited by years of guerrilla warfare during the Civil War and reaching its apex when Chase Daniel engineered a truly epic series of prank calls to Mark Mangino’s house in 2007. But since 2011, when Missouri departed for the SEC, the rivalry had remained dormant — until Saturday.
The renewed ferocity between the two programs was on display early, as Kansas jumped out to a 21-6 lead, only to see Missouri roar back. Beau Pribula threw for three touchdowns in helping the Tigers pull away to a 42-31 win — their fifth straight in the series.
And, as is the customary stakes for the loser of this rivalry, Kansas is now forced to take responsibility for the Kansas City Royals.
Baylor-SMU
What was once a heated rivalry in the old Southwest Conference had gone dormant for the past nine years, but Baylor and SMU renewed hostilities in Dallas on Saturday.
SMU hadn’t won in this series since 1986 — the year before the program received the dreaded “death penalty” for running the country’s best NIL collective — but the Mustangs appeared poised to break the streak, nursing a 14-point lead with less than six minutes to play.
But Baylor didn’t back down, riding QB Sawyer Robertson to two late touchdowns to force overtime, where the Bears won on a walk-off field goal, 48-45. Robertson finished with 440 yards passing and four touchdown throws, then did doughnuts in SMU’s parking lot in a Trans Am with a big gold eagle on the hood, just for spite.
Bayou Bucket Classic
Houston upended in-city rival Rice 35-9 behind 132 yards rushing and two touchdowns from running back Dean Connors. The win means, for the second straight year, Houston retains the Bayou Bucket. But don’t feel bad, Rice. Popeye’s sells a Bayou Bucket with three sides for just $21.99. You really can’t beat that deal.
Under-the-radar play of the week
With five minutes left in the first half, and Kent State already trailing 38-0, center Dustyn Morell delivered a play that perfectly sums up the current state of the Golden Flashes program.
Worst snap in football history
Thank you Kent State pic.twitter.com/tgZ85ATr2Y
– Unnecessary Roughness (@UnnecRoughness) September 6, 2025
Texas Tech scored following the fumble recovery and went on to win 62-14. It’s hard to entirely fault Morell though. He’d been eating caramels before the play and his hands were sticky.
Under-the-radar game of the week
With just 1:43 to go, UMass allowed Bryant — a team that’s just 11 guys who all showed up at the local YMCA wearing Kobe Bryant jerseys on the same day — to march 78 yards and drill a 25-yard game-winning field goal. The Minutemen fell 27-26, the most embarrassing moment in the program’s football history since — we’re guessing last week. The good news for UMass is it’s just a mere 35 days away from playing Kent State.
Heisman five
Arch Manning is currently sitting in his car outside the Heisman House listening to mix tapes and wondering how many touchdown passes a guy has to throw against San Jose State to earn a guest pass for the weekend.
1. Oklahoma QB John Mateer
Against one of the nation’s best defenses, Mateer accounted for 344 total yards and three touchdowns in an Oklahoma win over Michigan, shocking fans throughout Columbus, Ohio, who had no idea such a thing was possible.
2. Utah QB Devon Dampier
After torching UCLA in its opener, Utah beat Cal Poly with ease Saturday, as Dampier accounted for three touchdowns for the second straight week. Unfortunately, because the game happened in Utah, no Heisman voters watched.
3. Florida State QB Tommy Castellanos
One week after running all over Alabama, Castellanos used his arm to torch East Texas A&M, racking up 237 yards and three touchdowns. Normally, the ultraconfident Castellanos would talk a little smack to next week’s opponent to set the stage, but FSU gets Kent State in Week 3 and, honestly, that probably doesn’t feel worth it.
4. Baylor QB Sawyer Robertson
Robertson has thrown for 859 yards and seven touchdowns without a pick through two games — both against upper-tier Power 4 competition. He’s suddenly turning heads among NFL scouts. Also, the drive-thru girl at Whataburger threw in some extra fries the last time he was there.
5. LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier
Nussmeier had a less-than-exciting performance in a 23-7 win over Louisiana Tech, throwing for 237 yards, one touchdown and a pick. It was part of a trend of SEC teams struggling to put away lesser competition Saturday, as Georgia and Texas A&M also waited until late in the second half to secure their wins. At least they’re all not Florida.
Game day notes
In making repeated comments about the disparity between Oregon’s budget and Oklahoma State’s earlier this week, head coach Mike Gundy might have both preempted and prompted what transpired at Autzen Stadium on Saturday.
From kickoff, the Ducks dominated every phase of the game on their way to a commanding 69-3 shellacking of the Cowboys. The way Oregon came out of the gates, stepped on the gas pedal and didn’t take their foot off until they were up 48-3 halfway through the third quarter when they brought in the offensive backups (who still got a touchdown of their own) seemed very purposeful. Not only did the Ducks seem interested in beating Gundy’s team, but also in making a statement.
Oregon did not punt until the fourth quarter (their first punt of the season in two games), and the only drive it had through its first eight that did not end in a score was a turnover on downs in the first quarter. The Ducks had a 59-yard touchdown run on their second offensive play of the game and a 65-yard touchdown pass on their third offensive play of the game. Explosive plays were everywhere at Autzen as the OK State defense provided little to no resistance on the day.
The back-to-back pick-sixes late in the third quarter to take the score of the game from simply overwhelming to outright historic were just salt on the wound. As teams exited the field once the clock hit zero, AC/DC’s “Moneytalks” played over the speakers, fittingly serenading Oklahoma State on its way back to Stillwater.
For the Pokes, it was the kind of performance that might prompt a deeper look at the state of their program. For the Ducks, it was a showcase that showed why, despite losing their starting quarterback, top receiver and elite linemen on both sides of the ball after last season, Oregon still has the depth and talent to be a title contender. — Paolo Uggetti
When Beau Pribula made what he called “an impossible decision” in December to leave Penn State as the Nittany Lions were preparing for the College Football Playoff, he did so to set himself up for days such as Saturday. Pribula left Happy Valley for the opportunity to compete for a starting job elsewhere, quickly landing at Missouri, where starter Brady Cook was out of eligibility.
Coming out of training camp, Mizzou coach Eli Drinkwitz said the quarterback competition between Sam Horn and Pribula would extend into the season, but Pribula inherited the job by default when Horn was injured on his first snap last week. Pribula shined in that game against FCS Central Arkansas, but considering the level of competition, it was hard to read too much into his performance. This week, it was different. With the rivalry against Kansas renewed, Pribula completed 30 of 39 passes for 334 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions in the 42-31 win. He looked the part of a quarterback who can successfully lead the Tigers into the SEC gauntlet that awaits.
Considering the circumstances of his departure from Penn State, Pribula’s immediate success must come with an extra layer of satisfaction for him. He would have been stuck behind Drew Allar again at Penn State and now has shown the country he, too, can play at a high level. Pribula’s situation in December was a factor in the recent proposal by the FBS Oversight Committee to move the transfer portal window to January, so it will have less overlap with the playoff. — Kyle Bonagura
Exhale, Horns, Arch is all right. A week after a disappointing performance in a 14-7 loss at Ohio State, Arch Manning got off to a bit of a slow start again on a sleepy, overcast, 11 a.m. Austin kickoff. He started 3-of-6 for 11 yards on the Longhorns’ first two drives, including a badly overthrown ball to Ryan Wingo that could’ve been intercepted if the defender had another step.
But on the next drive on third down, Manning got an easy throw and catch to Parker Livingstone, who turned it upfield as a defender slipped and raced 83 yards for a touchdown. By halftime, Manning was on fire and the rout was on, including three straight touchdown passes on three straight attempts, as Texas scored four touchdowns in 4:56 of game time.
But it wasn’t all smooth for Manning. He heaved an ill-advised throw into double coverage under pressure for an interception at the San Jose 13. He fumbled on a sack at his own 1-yard line in the third quarter but recovered it.
But he came back with a 20-yard touchdown run, tiptoeing down the sideline and showcasing the athletic ability that coach Steve Sarkisian said this week he should embrace.
The Longhorns had too many penalties (12-115), a few dropped passes and some protection problems they’ll need to get fixed before SEC play starts. But the defense held the Spartans in check, forced four turnovers a week after not having one against the Buckeyes, and Manning joined Colt McCoy, Vince Young and David Ash as the only Texas QBs over the past 20 years with two or more games of two 20-plus-yard TD passes and a 20-plus-yard TD run.
Sarkisian said he was pleased with the response by a quarterback who could’ve let his competitiveness linger after last week’s disappointment.
“I think he’s hard on himself differently than maybe I’m hard on him, but I’m also trying to ease some of that,” Sarkisian said. “When he gets hard on himself, I try to back himself off of that and try to make sure he’s got the right amount of confidence when he goes and plays because he’s a very talented player.” — Dave Wilson
Illinois eventually resembled a College Football Playoff contender at Duke, but first it reinforced the importance of being opportunistic and finding new ways to win. The Illini were sluggish in the first quarter and for much of the first half. Their celebrated offensive line couldn’t keep Vincent Anthony Jr. and Duke’s pass rushers away from quarterback Luke Altmyer. A Bret Bielema-coached team surprisingly couldn’t run the ball. At times, Illinois didn’t really look ready.
But the Illini found themselves on the right side of the handful of plays that determine outcomes. Duke’s repeated mistakes on special teams and on offense in Illinois’ end of the field were too many to overcome. Any team that is minus-5 in turnovers on its home field has no business winning.
Still, Illinois had to capitalize and did behind Altmyer, whose experience and talent showed up repeatedly. Altmyer completed 22 of 31 passes for 296 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions, spreading the ball to a largely new group of wide receivers. Illinois certainly misses Pat Bryant and Zakhari Franklin, but offensive coordinator Barry Lunney Jr. hoped for more explosiveness with this receiving corps and got it, as Hank Beatty, Justin Bowick and others delivered.
Bielema’s championship teams at Wisconsin were built on elite line play and the power run. This Illini squad hasn’t really hit its stride with the run game, and ultimately might be pass-heavy with one of the nation’s more proven quarterbacks in Altmyer and a dynamic group of wideouts. Illinois won’t be able to count on every opponent to make the number of mistakes Duke did, but the Illini now have a track record of taking advantage, which should serve them well during Big Ten play. — Adam Rittenberg
The curse is broken. Matt Campbell and his Cyclones have finally defeated Iowa in Ames for the first time in his tenure. Iowa State’s latest bout with its rival, a 16-13 win, was a nail-biter decided in the final minute as usual.
In securing its first home win over Iowa since 2011, Iowa State has won three of its past four against its in-state foe. Six of the past seven Cy-Hawk winners have scored 20 points or less. It takes a remarkable amount of toughness to survive these low-scoring brawls.
But this might be Campbell’s toughest team yet.
Throughout his tenure, the head coach has fixated on “winning on the margins,” doing all the little things right to overcome any talent deficit and get games into the fourth quarter. These days, the proof is in the results: Iowa State has won eight of its past nine games decided by one-score margins.
Kicker Kyle Konrardy got to be the Cy-Hawk hero yet again, drilling a clutch 54-yard go-ahead field goal in the final two minutes. He got that opportunity thanks to Rocco Becht guiding a 13-play, six-minute drive in the fourth quarter that featured three third-down conversions. Iowa State’s defense finished the job with pass rusher Tamatoa McDonough, a little-known transfer from Yale, slamming Iowa quarterback Mark Gronowski down for back-to-back sacks to kill any hopes of a game-winning drive.
“These are milestone moments,” Campbell said. “Our kids, the schedule, what we’ve been up against — real toughness.”
This team had to have the right stuff from the start to pull this off. It took everything the Cyclones had to survive a 24-21 win over Kansas State in Ireland during Week 0. Then they had to come home and figure out how to keep playing their best ball. In many ways, they still haven’t. But what Campbell loves most is the way this Becht-led squad plays with steady resolve, how it can hang in there when things aren’t going its way and keep pushing.
This rivalry win is more proof that this group knows how to win in the fourth quarter — and the Cyclones might be ready to go win the Big 12, too. — Max Olson
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Eli Lederman
NORMAN, Okla. — A week after John Mateer threw for the most yards in an Oklahoma quarterback debut against Illinois State, the transfer passer’s instinctive playmaking highlighted an imperfect performance that helped propel the No. 18 Sooners to a 24-13 win over No. 15 Michigan on Saturday night.
While Oklahoma smothered Wolverines freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood, Mateer completed 21 of his 34 passes for 270 yards with a passing touchdown and an interception. He also finished with a team-high 19 carries for 74 yards, adding a pair of rushing scores on either side of halftime in his second career start for the Sooners.
“You saw what he can do,” Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables said of Mateer. “He falls forward a lot. He’s got great strength and great skills. Tough guy. He’s fearless. He attacks everything without fear.”
Playing behind four new offensive line starters, including freshman left tackle Michael Fasusi, Mateer remained poised against the Michigan pass rush early, connecting on completions of 34, 31 and 21 yards across the Sooners’ initial pair of offensive drives. According to ESPN Research, Mateer finished 8-of-13 with 156 passing yards and a touchdown in blitzing situations Saturday.
Oklahoma opened the scoring on its opening possession via a pop pass from Mateer to wide receiver Deion Burks, who logged a team-high seven receptions for 101 yards. Mateer’s 2-yard rushing score with 22 seconds remaining in the second quarter handed Oklahoma a 14-0 halftime lead, and he used his legs again for a 10-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter.
Mateer’s 19 carries marked the fourth-highest single-game tally of his career and included three runs of at least 10 yards. With his pair of rushing scores, Mateer joined Lamar Jackson and D’Eriq King as the only FBS players to record at least one passing and rushing score in eight consecutive games since 2015, according to ESPN Research, dating to his breakout campaign at Washington State last fall.
“John’s a willing runner,” Sooners offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle said. “He understands what it takes to win. They’re definitely designed QB runs in the game. At the end of the day, you’re just trying to win a football game, and John Mateer is willing [to run]. He probably took a big hit or two tonight. But hopefully all for the good of the team.”
Mateer’s night was not without mistakes. He was intercepted by Michigan defensive back TJ Metcalf in the first quarter after overthrowing tight end Will Huggins. Mateer was nearly intercepted again after halftime, and his third-quarter overthrow in the end zone beyond the hands of tight end Jaren Kanak cost the Sooners seven points as the Wolverines mounted a second-half comeback.
But Mateer’s risk-taking and flair for the extraordinary were also the drivers for Oklahoma in only the Sooners’ third win over a top-15 opponent under Venables. The Sooners led 14-7 early in the third quarter when Mateer shed a tackle in the backfield, rolled to his right and fired a 36-yard strike to wide receiver Isaiah Sategna. Mateer ran in his second touchdown and lifted the Sooners to a 21-7 advantage just two plays later.
“The thing with John, I trust that kid to like no end,” Arbuckle said. “He understands moments and situations. He knows when to take a chance, when not to take a chance. So whenever he lets one rip and puts the ball in what someone may say is a risky situation, whenever he does that, I have the utmost confidence that he’s making the right decision.”
Another one of Mateer’s risks paid off early in the fourth quarter, ultimately launching an 8:27 drive that allowed Oklahoma to drain the remaining minutes and any lingering hope of a Michigan comeback.
Facing second-and-10 from the Sooners’ 38-yard line, Mateer again rolled out and — with Wolverines linebacker Jaishawn Barham bearing down on him — made a daring throw off his back foot into heavy traffic to find Kanak for a 9-yard connection.
“[Kanak] kind of went to the open space and I threw it a little dangerous,” Mateer said. “But he made it happen.”
A timely bit of innovation, Mateer’s throw marked the start of a 16-play, 78-yard scoring drive that effectively iced Oklahoma’s Week 2 victory and showed off the very best of Mateer and what his game-changing playmaking ability can offer the Sooners.
Oklahoma visits Temple in Week 3 before embarking on a gauntlet of an SEC schedule at home against Auburn on Sept. 20.
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