Big Ten football power rankings after Week 2: Michigan makes huge jump - Wolverines Wire

This wasn’t exactly a banner week for the Big Ten.

Week 2 had a series of bigger nonconference showdowns: three Big Ten teams played SEC teams. The highlight game featured Ohio State at Texas. Michigan hosting Oklahoma was right behind it, and then Minnesota hosted Mississippi State. Only one team passed the test. However, the most shocking result was Oregon lost on the road to a not good Big 12 team, Oklahoma State. Illinois, Purdue and Rutgers also didn’t uphold the banner. Each lost to ACC schools: Duke, Wake Forest and Boston College, respectively.

However, Iowa overtook Iowa State, and everyone else managed against Group of Six teams.

There’s been a major shift across our Big Ten power rankings coming out of Week 2. Here is the latest.

The two potentially worst teams in the Power Four faced off in the Red Bandana game, and Rutgers won the race to the bottom: It lost. The Scarlet Knight offense couldn't quite get enough, though it continues to be solid. But starting out at 0-2 on the season, RU went from the middle-bottom of the Big Ten straight to last. And it appears as if it will stay here for some time.

Credit to the Boilermakers for taking a middling ACC team to double overtime, but until it starts to actually win games like these, it's difficult to see where the wins actually are on the schedule. The pass game isn't the problem. The defense and run game continue to underwhelm. It feels like this program may be turning the corner, but it isn't there yet.

This was supposed to be Minnesota's moment in the sun: A third-tier Big Ten team takes on a third-tier SEC team. Given all of the talk of SEC supremacy having been equalized, this home game for the Gophers was supposed to show the conferences had relatively level teams not just at the top, but closer to the middle and bottom. However, the Gophers were blown out quickly. The Bulldogs scored 28 first-half points and 10 more in the second half.

The defense was abysmal, allowing nearly 500 yards. Just as confusing: The Gopher run game was nonexistent with 13 yards on 15 carries. The pass game led by Drake Lindsey might be the only thing of note, but with everything else going on in Minneapolis, perhaps there are deeper-seated issues with this team from top to bottom.

Northwestern was on bye this week but will start its 11-week slog next week when it hosts Colorado before it goes to Indiana, hosts Penn State and then has a nonconference game against Ball State.

Illinois was supposed to be better than this. The Blue Devils have a former standout Big Ten defensive coordinator, Manny Diaz, leading the charge, so perhaps they knew what it was going to take to win. Despite having a halftime lead over Duke, the Illinois offense and defense faltered in the second half, allowing 10 points while scoring only three. The Illini had no answer for Nate Sheppard, and now there is concern about the defense in Champaign after two straight weeks of not exactly living up to expectations.

They have one week to get right against Southern Illinois, because the following week they travel to Columbus, where the offense tends to reign supreme.

Credit to Michigan State for going out and having a convincing win, no matter the opponent. The Spartans took a 14-7 lead over the in-state Eagles into the locker room at halftime before scoring 21 unanswered points in the second half. The defense was solid, but the big surprise on Saturday was the emergence of the run game. We'll see next week if MSU can be more competitive against Notre Dame than Wisconsin was in Week 1.

Don't look now, but the Terps are 2-0 and rolling offensively. Sophomore quarterback Malik Washington continues to impress, managing 347 yards and two touchdowns, making up for a relatively anemic run game. However, the defense, which had long been optional in College Park, came to play in Storrs. It allowed 223 yards to the home team, while the offense accounted for 475.

Maryland hasn't played anyone of note, but the fact it's getting solid wins early in the season potentially could carry some benefits down the line. We'll know a lot more next week when the Terrapins host James Franklin and Virginia Tech.

The Badgers didn't play a team of note, but it just needed to wipe the sour taste out of their mouth after falling apart in the second half to Notre Dame last week. It managed to do so, jumping all over Western Illinois in the first half and allowing just three field goals over the course of the game. You'd like to see a more lopsided score against an overmatched opponent, and certainly more success in the pass game and in run defense. But it's a step in the right direction for a team that hasn't had many of those in recent years.

A week after barely beating Washington State, the Huskies barely beat a not-great Utah State team. Sure, the game wasn't quite as close as the two-point score differential would indicate, but Washington never really put Utah State away, either.

The defense was solid, as was quarterback Demond Williams Jr. However, he's essentially the entire offense. The Huskies are going to need to find someone else to make some plays on a regular basis.

It was about as typical a game between Iowa and its in-state rival as it could be. The teams looked relatively even, and it came down to the last moment. As usual, this was a defensive showdown, with Hank Brown being the better of the two quarterbacks (both internally and externally) while the Cyclones managed to have the run-game advantage.

It's an escape with a win however you can get it, and the Hawkeyes did just that.

Last week, Nebraska struggled in the first half against Ohio. But in Week 2, it looked like Ohio State against a former Buckeye, Bowling Green coach Eddie George. It wasn't perfect. Anthony Colandrea tossed four touchdowns, but one of his four missed passes was an interception. But the run game was fantastic, as was Colandrea in general. Matt Rhule might have something.

It took a while for the Nittany Lions to get going, but they eventually did. Taking advantage in the third quarter, Rocco Becht led the charge with 268 yards and three touchdowns on 21 for 27 passing. The pass defense looked very good but the run defense is going to need some work against the better Big Ten offenses.

The schedule is amenable until mid-October when Penn State has USC and Michigan back to back. Until then, Matt Campbell has time to forge his team.

The most shocking outcome of Week 2 was Oregon, one of the presumed preseason national champion contenders, being taken down by a struggling Oklahoma State team in Stillwater. What made it even more surprising is it wasn't much of a fluke.

Nothing about the Ducks' offensive game looked good, nor did its defense. Dante Moore looked closer to his tenure at UCLA than any of his time in Eugene. Perhaps just as shocking was the defense allowing Drew Mestemaker to throw for 317 yards and run for 109 more and Caleb Hawkins to run for 110 yards.

This doesn't eliminate Oregon from contention, but it certainly raises major concerns.

The Bob Chesney era started with a bang, and it's continuing. The Bruins are 2-0. San Diego State, despite being a Group of Six team, is no slouch, and though both teams found themselves in a stalemate for some time, UCLA found a way and then piled on late. There are concerns: Nico Iamaleava, as efficient as he was, still isn't quite showing out as much as hoped. But he did enough, and the defense held former Michigan quarterback Jayden Denegal to just 45 yards passing. Meanwhile, his former teammate, Semaj Morgan, had six catches for 73 yards.

Will this ranking hold? It's too early to tell, but at the moment, the Bruins are interesting, at the very least.

The good news is USC continues to show that it's dominant offensively. The bad news is it was in kind of a fight against a Group of Six opponent.

The Trojans had a major lead early. In a late night in the Coliseum, USC took a 28-10 halftime lead over Louisiana. But the defense surrendered an additional 20 points in the second half. No, the Cajuns weren't as heroic as Texas this week, but this is the second time in three games cracks have appeared in Los Angeles. Perhaps it's nothing, but we'll know more in two weeks when Oregon comes to town.

Michigan makes the biggest rise this week. It has likely the third-best win in college football.

After being a national punchline for a week, the Wolverines were the sole Big Ten team facing an SEC opponent to handle business, shocking the college football world. And the funny thing is they didn't look fully improved -- simply more competent.

The offense ran Bryce Underwood 18 times for 87 yards and a touchdown, and though he only mustered 111 yards on 53% passing, he was effective and deployed in a way that stressed the Oklahoma defense. Speaking of defense, the Wolverines allowed fewer than 300 yards for the second straight week. They have surrendered one touchdown through two games.

The Wolverines were the better team in all three phases, but still have a lot to fix. This week, they'll take on UTEP.

Ryan Day is often on just about every top 10 coach list up near the top, and he has a national championship on his resume. However, whenever he loses a game, it's generally a similar script: falling apart in the second half, playing conservative ball in order not to lose and special teams disasters.

But Saturday may have provided something we've not seen out of the Buckeyes under Day: squandering a 20-point fourth-quarter lead.

Benefiting from two first-quarter turnovers, the Buckeyes jumped all over Texas in Austin, so much so that we turned the game off at halftime. Thankfully, we turned it back on in the fourth quarter, when the Longhorns scored 21 unanswered points and won the game. It would be interesting to see how this game would have gone if Texas hadn't made so many self-inflicted mistakes early in the game. Because Ohio State was riding high early, only to see the early advantage disappear. But at least Jeremiah Smith had eight catches for 164 yards though most of that came in the first half.

Let's be frank: IU has yet to play anyone of note. North Texas provided a challenge for a half in Week 1, but Howard was never going to test the Hoosiers, and wouldn't have even before Curt Cignetti arrived in Bloomington. But credit to the defending champs (both in the Big Ten and nationally) for doing precisely what they were supposed to do. With over 500 yards of offense and a stifling defense that allowed just 57 total yards, Indiana continues to be a force. We'll see more about what it looks like down the stretch, but it's deserving of being No. 1.