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What to Watch, Week 2: Oregon-Michigan State, the rematch

Graham Watson

The first weekend of the college football season did not disappoint.

There were major upsets, major dominations and major players making triumphant returns.

Sadly, there aren’t a lot of great games this week, but we’ll point out the ones you should be watching as we look ahead to Week 2.

Game of the week:
No. 7 Oregon at No. 5 Michigan State, 8 p.m. ET
A year ago, these two teams produced a thrilling game that resulted in a 46-27 Oregon win. And we could see a similarly high-scoring game after both teams struggled defensively in their season openers. Oregon allowed 42 points to FCS opponent Eastern Washington and the Spartans allowed 24 points to a Western Michigan team that passed for 365 yards.

If Michigan State is going to get payback for last year’s loss, it will need a strong performance from quarterback Connor Cook, who completed just 15 of 31 last weekend. He completed 29 of 47 passes for 343 yards against the Ducks a year ago.

New Oregon starting quarterback Vernon Adams completed 19 of 25 passes for 246 yards and two touchdowns and added 94 yards on the ground against Eastern Washington before being knocked out of the game after a blow to the head. Adams told media earlier this week he was fine and will play.

Many believe this game catapulted Oregon to its eventual place in the College Football Playoff final. Could Michigan State enjoy the same boost?

Game to watch:
No. 19 Oklahoma at No. 23 Tennessee, Sat., 6 p.m. ET
Tennessee is supposed to be much improved this season with an entrenched starting quarterback in Josh Dobbs and a strong backfield with Jalen Hurd and Alvin Kamara. However, the Vols defense, especially its secondary, left a lot to be desired in the season opener and will face another tough test in Oklahoma this weekend.

Sooners new starting quarterback Baker Mayfield took some time to get comfortable in the season opener against Akron, but once he did, he finished with the best debut for any Sooner quarterback. Oklahoma’s “air raid” offense should have a field day against Tennessee’s porous secondary. If the Sooners’ defense can control the line of scrimmage like they did in this game a year ago, they should limit most of Tennessee’s offensive options and come out with a victory.

Also check out…
No. 14 LSU vs. No. 25 Mississippi State, 9:15 p.m. ET
This game is LSU’s season opener since weather cancelled last week’s contest against McNeese State. The LSU defense is always tough, but not sure what to expect from an LSU offense that was hit and miss a year ago. New starting quarterback Brandon Harris has been drawing rave reviews in practice and running back Leonard Fournette is coming off a 1,000-yard season.

Mississippi State didn’t look that impressive in its season opener against Southern Miss. Quarterback Dak Prescott was the team’s leading passer and the leading rusher and it was pretty evident that the Bulldogs would go as far as he would take them.

If LSU’s defense can limit Prescott’s offense, it should control this game easily. However, many teams tried to do that a year ago and most of them failed.

Channel surf through…
No. 20 Boise State at BYU, 10:15 p.m. ET – Boise State did not look impressive in its opener against Washington last week. Perhaps it was the emotion of playing against a coach who helped transcend the Boise State program that created the lackluster performance, but it will need to be better to beat a BYU team that is coming off an emotional win against Nebraska.

BYU lost starting quarterback Taysom Hill to a season-ending foot injury, but it was backup Tanner Mangum that orchestrated the come-from-behind win against the Huskers. Mangum also is from Boise, so this game has special meaning to him.

Boise State cruised to a 55-30 win against the Cougars a year ago, but this game might be a little more difficult in Provo. The task for BYU, however, will be changing its entire offensive gameplan to fit Mangum's skillset, which is different from Hill's.

This game will be much closer than it was a year ago.

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Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter!

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