USA TODAY's college football staff tells you what college football's past weekend meant to the six BCS conferences and the rest of Football Bowl Subdivision.ACC: In what will be remembered as one of the blackest Saturdays in conference history, the ACC fell completely out of the national championship conversation only two weeks into the season when all of its ranked teams were beaten.
It started with James Madison's stunning 21-16 upset of No. 16 Virginia Tech. Six days after losing to third-ranked Boise State in the final seconds, the Hokies lost to a Championship Subdivision team for the first time in coach Frank Beamer's 24 years.
No. 12 Miami could not keep pace with second-ranked Ohio State in Columbus in a rematch of the 2003 national championship game. Hurricane quarterback Jacory Harris threw four interceptions.
In a replay of the 2001 national title game, No. 10 Oklahoma buried 18th-ranked Florida State 47-17 in Norman, piling up 487 yards in total offense. FSU Heisman hopeful quarterback Christian Ponder completed only 15 of 36 passes and was intercepted twice.
Rounding out the lost weekend was 17th-ranked Georgia Tech, which lost at Kansas 28-25 a week after the Jayhawks were beaten by FCS member North Dakota State, 6-3.
The only bright spot came with Wake Forest's 54-48 win over Duke, the second-highest scoring came in ACC history and the second consecutive week the Demon Deacons crossed the 50-point line.
Big 12: OK, Turner Gill is not in over his head in the Big 12. Kansas isn't a mess. These don't figure to be empty weeks in Lawrence before the Jayhawks' basketball team starts practice.
If Gill and KU laid the biggest egg of the season's first week, falling to lower-division North Dakota State, they delivered Week 2's most stunning reversal in Saturday's 28-25 win vs. Georgia Tech. Most promising was the young talent that emerged: redshirt freshman quarterback Jordan Webb, who threw three touchdown passes to three different receivers in his first start, and running back James Sims, a true freshman from Irving, Texas, who collected 101 yards and a TD in his college debut (he didn't get on the field against North Dakota State).
Gill, whose coaching credentials were one winning season and an overall 20-30 record in four years at Buffalo, had heard a week's worth of suggestions that his hiring was a mistake.
"I didn't prove anything," he said. "...One game doesn't define our program. Two games doesn't define our program. We're trying to do something over a long period of time, and we're just trying to move forward."
The Jayhawks get another test Friday night at Southern Mississippi.
Keep an eye, too, on Baylor and mended quarterback Robert Griffin -- the next hurdle for TCU on Saturday. Griffin, one of the country's top freshman talents two years ago, further stamped his recovery from knee surgery by running for two TDs and passing for two in a 34-6 victory vs. Buffalo. He has rushed for 7.8 yards a carry and three TDs and thrown for almost 270 yards a game and four TDs in the Bears' 2-0 start.
-- Steve Wieberg
Big East: How to describe Week 2 for the Big East?
Not quite a disaster?
Better than it could have been?
Not as impressive as it should have been?
When West Virginia trailed Marshall 21-6 in the fourth quarter Friday, the Mountaineers were minutes from a loss that would have echoed through the state for years. Then they tied the game on a touchdown and two-point conversion with 12 seconds left and won when the Thundering Herd missed a field goal in overtime.
Quarterback Geno Smith did a nice job of bringing WVU back with two long TD drives in the fourth quarter, but it shouldn't have been that difficult.
Rutgers also was in trouble in the fourth quarter, trailing Florida International 14-13 before pulling out a 19-14 win. More improvement is needed in Jersey.
Syracuse led Washington 10-0 in the first quarter, then was scorched by Jake Locker and outscored 41-10 the rest of the way.
South Florida hung with Florida for a while before the Gators pulled away to win by 24 when the Bulls started turning the ball over.
But Louisville got new coach Charlie Strong his first victory, topping Eastern Kentucky 23-13 by scoring all its points in the second quarter.
-- Jack Carey
Big Ten: Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson has emerged as the league's big star. A week after setting a school record for total offense with 383 yards in a win against Connecticut, Robinson carried the Wolverines past Notre Dame 28-24 with another record day, this time gaining 502 yards of total offense. He rushed for 258 on 28 carries and threw for 244 yards.
Through Week 2, Robinson leads Division I in rushing, averaging 227.5 yards and total offense (442.5).
* In almost routine fashion, Ohio State has lived up to expecta-tions. The Buckeyes knocked off the visiting Miami Hurricanes 36-24. QB Terrelle Pryor rushed for 113 yards and a touchdown and also passed for a TD.
* Penn State flopped at Ala-bama, losing 24-3. Freshman QB Rob Bolden and his teammates simply were overmatched against the defending national champions.
* Minnesota's 41-38 loss against visiting South Dakota will fuel speculation about coach Tim Brewster's job security – or the lack of it.
-- Marlen Garcia
Pac-10: What's this, defense in the Pac-10?
It's just two weeks, but the toothless sieves of 2009 -- that is, Pac-10 defenses -- seem to have acquired some toughness in 2010.
Last season, the league resembled a pinball game arcade, with scores and yards piling up faster than anyone could keep count. When the season ended, the Pac-10's best defense statistically was Arizona State, which was just 12th nationally in total defense.
The 2009 Pac-10 team that averaged the fewest points allowed? Hah, it was Southern California at 20.4 points a game. Yeah, those same stingy Trojans who gave up 47 points to Oregon and 55 to Stanford.
But turn the page already.
This week's NCAA stats:
* California leads the nation in total defense, followed by 3) Arizona, 7) Stanford and 11) Oregon.
* Arizona is second nationally in fewest points per game, followed by 5) Cal, 7) Oregon and 11) Stanford.
Best defensive performances Saturday were Stanford shutting out UCLA in the Rose Bowl, Oregon hammering Tennessee 48-13 in Knoxville, and Cal humiliating Colorado 52-7 at Berkeley.
This week's biggest Pac-10 defensive tasks: Arizona vs. Iowa, ASU at Wisconsin, Washington vs. Nebraska.
-- David Leon Moore
SEC: While the story of Alabama's offense was running back Trent Richardson's career- high 144 yards on 22 carries, the Crimson Tide's 24-3 win over Penn State wasn't all old school.
On its second series, Alabama used a five-receiver set throughout its 68-yard scoring drive. "It was kind of our plan to go no-huddle empty against them early in the game to try to wear them out a little bit, spread them out," Alabama coach Nick Saban said.
On that drive, quarterback Greg McElroy connected with receivers Julio Jones, Darius Hanks, Marquis Maze and Kevin Norwood (36-yard TD reception). "It's exciting, " McElroy said. "It takes you back to high school a little bit. It's very school-yard."
And new school.
There were three conference games this weekend with South Carolina's defeat of Georgia making the biggest headline. LSU and Auburn in the west each won on the road with the latter Tigers holding off resurgent Mississippi State.
-- Kelly Whiteside
Elsewhere: Air Force is flying high after snapping a six-game series losing streak to Brigham Young. The convincing 35-14 decision not only put the Falcons in a position to challenge TCU and Utah in the Mountain West, but it also added more intrigue to next week's visit to No.9 Oklahoma as the league tries to grab another win from an automatic qualifying conference. The Air Force secondary limited the Cougars to 88 passing yards with an interception, though the Sooners' combo of Landry Jones to Ryan Broyles might prove harder to contain.
Prolific Houston QB Case Keenum saw his streak of 31 consecutive games with a touchdown pass come to an end in Friday night's 54-24 home win against Texas-El Paso. Instead, it was Bryce Beall and Michael Hayes who took care of the scoring with three rushing TDs apiece. The Cougars rode the victory to their first appearance of the season in the Top 25, but Keenum left the game in the second half. He appeared to take a blow to the head while trying to make a tackle following an interception and was helped off the field. His availability for next week's trip to UCLA has not yet been determined.
Nevada's 51-6 home thumping of future Mountain West opponent Colorado State might have slipped under the radar. But the Wolf Pack lost to the Rams 35-20 at Fort Collins last season amid a 0-3 start, and their fans hope that result is a sign that another trend of wilting in the spotlight could also be reversed. They won't have to wait long to find out; 24th-ranked California is coming to Reno for a Friday night showdown.