Impostor syndrome: Oregon football, Oklahoma on notice (what about Ohio State?)

Blake Toppmeyer, Matt Hayes and John Brice, USA TODAYMon, September 14, 2026 at 5:50 PM UTC

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We have detected fraudulent activity.

And it only took two weeks of the college football season for alarm bells to start firing.

Three top-10 teams went down on the road.

Chaos is the most overused buzzword in college football, but it rang true for the events on the field in Week 2.

Oklahoma: Sputter.

Oregon: Faceplant.

Ohio State: Choke job.

On this edition of “College Football Unfiltered,” a USA TODAY Sports podcast presented by Sports Seriously, host Blake Toppmeyer and his colleagues John Brice and Matt Hayes bust out their fraud kit and determine whether they detect any frauds still lingering in the US LBM Coaches Poll.

Week 2 overreactions: Arch Manning winning Heisman? Ohio State in trouble?

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College football re-rank: Texas replaces Notre Dame at No. 1 in latest 1-138 ranking

Who’s in danger of being college football’s biggest fraud?

Hayes: Do I have to pick a team? Instead, I’ll go with Ohio State offensive coordinator Arthur Smith. You have one key job. Figure out how to get No. 4 the ball! Jeremiah Smith. He’s the best player on the field, and he went the final 24-plus minutes of that game against Texas without a reception. If I’m doing a deconstruction of that Ohio State-Texas game and I’m Ryan Day, that’s what’s on my mind: “What are we doing?” To me, that's the biggest fraud: What is Arthur Smith doing as offensive coordinator?

Brice: Oregon has lost so much equity. Oregon’s problem has been the defense’s inability to get off the field — and here I thought that with A'Mauri Washington and the rest of that defensive line, the Ducks were maybe going to have the best defensive line in all of college football. We've seen none of that. Oregon allowed 554 yards in the loss to Oklahoma State. That’s not Dan Lanning football, and Oregon hasn’t even gotten to its Big Ten schedule. In the preseason, I embraced Dante Moore as my Heisman Trophy pick. Well, you can't win the Heisman in September, but you can lose it. He's lost the Heisman. One other team I think remains overvalued: Texas A&M.

Toppmeyer: Tough to not say Oregon in any fraud conversation at this moment, but I’ll also raise the red flag on Oklahoma. How does that (totally unnecessary) preseason contract extension for Brent Venables look now, after a tire-spinning loss at Michigan? The Sooners still don’t have a solve for their offense. An interception from turnover-prone quarterback John Mateer swung this game in Michigan's favor. The Wolverines owned the line of scrimmage. OU had no run game. Look at Oklahoma's schedule. What do you see? I see 7-5 being more likely than a playoff berth.

Also in this episode

∎ The crew debates whether Texas moved into frontrunner status for the national championship after this signature win against Ohio State, and whether Arch Manning is now the man to beat for the Heisman. Also, putting aside Texas, they offer three teams from around college football as their Week 2 “team of the week,” with teams in the SEC, Big Ten and Big 12 getting some love.

Where to listen to College Football Unfiltered

Be sure to check out USA TODAY Sports' new College Football Unfiltered podcast, hosted by columnist Blake Toppmeyer. You can stream episodes on YouTube or download via Apple podcasts, Spotify or iHeart.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Impostor syndrome: Oregon football, Oklahoma on notice (what about Ohio State?)

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