It’s only Week 2, but already the year’s long gone for some

Top-ranked USC took the day off, but some schools worked triple overtime on a second Saturday in September so crazy it will be remembered by couch potatoes everywhere except for maybe in Boise.

While the Trojans were lounging poolside:

* Archrival UCLA needed defensive end Bruce Davis’ forced fumble and a late cosmetic touchdown to make it look as if the Bruins beat Brigham Young by 10 points at the Rose Bowl.

Two weeks ago you wondered whether UCLA would be 11-0 on Dec. 1 when it meets USC. Now you wonder if the Bruins will be 2-1 after they meet Utah.

* Nebraska, which is hosting USC next weekend in Lincoln, needed a non-call on what seemed like fourth-down pass interference to survive a three-point win at Wake Forest.

Can’t flag ‘em all, right?

* No. 7 Texas rallied from a 10-0 deficit to beat Texas Christian and save its old-guard membership from having to relive nightmares of 1961, when TCU upset No. 1 Texas, 6-0, in what became known as “The Cockroach Game” because Texas Coach Darrell Royal said afterward of TCU: “They are like a cockroach. It isn’t what he eats or totes off, but what he falls into and messes up.”

* Appalachian State improved to 2-0 en route to a possible third-straight I-AA title and Associated Press national crown now that the wire service will allow (as of Friday) votes to be cast for subdivision schools.

So where might the Mountaineers debut in today’s AP poll?

* Michigan and Notre Dame collapsed to a combined 0-4 for the first time ever, setting up next week’s epic battle in Ann Arbor that, word has it, will be moved off the Big Ten Network to the Food Network.

Michigan’s 39-7 defeat to Oregon was the Wolverines’ worst since 1968. The day held promise early when Akron jumped to a 2-0 lead over arch-rival Ohio State.

But before Wolverines fans could place merchandise orders at the Akron bookstore, the dreaded Buckeyes rallied to win and Michigan football continued its downward spiral.

No one is saying Michigan Coach Lloyd Carr (tick) deserves to get fired (tick) yet, but you sense (tick) the clock running out (tick) on the coach who delivered Michigan a national title in 1997.

In two weeks, Michigan has gone from Appalachian to Apoplectic State.

Who can say where Oregon, which plays eight-man football out in the patty-cake Pac-10, goes from here.

In 2003, the Ducks upset No. 3 Michigan in Eugene, made the cover of Sports Illustrated and celebrated by losing four of their next five.

* Notre Dame gave freshman quarterback Jimmy Clausen his first start since he led Westlake Village Oaks Christian to the state championship last December at the Home Depot Center. The opponent then was Santa Rosa Cardinal Newman.

This time he took on Penn State, in front of 110,000 fans, and Clausen was respectable in defeat.

One positive: Clausen had three interceptions and fewer than 100 passing yards in his last high school game but finished with 143 passing yards and only one interception against presumably better Penn State.

Big Dome Problem: The Irish have yet to score an offensive touchdown this season, but look out for Notre Dame in 2008 -- Charlie Weis’ fourth season.

* Tyrone Willingham, who never got a fourth season as Notre Dame coach, saw his Washington Huskies improve to 2-0 after beating Boise State in Seattle and ending the Broncos’ 14-game winning streak.

* Fresno State and Texas A&M; played the game of the day in College Station.

Fresno State had it all but won in overtime until receiver Marlon Moore fumbled the game-winning touchdown into the end zone. Fresno State was spared defeat by a roughing-the-passer call but eventually ran out of sweat in a 47-45, triple-overtime defeat.

Fresno State Coach Pat Hill, who has long seen the haymaker punch as the way of breaking into the BCS, took one on the chin as he fell to 10-20 against BCS schools.

In other games USC fans should have been monitoring closely:

* No. 2 Louisiana State routed No. 9 Virginia Tech in a game that proved LSU is good and the Atlantic Coast Conference isn’t.

ESPN’s Lee Corso said at halftime of the LSU game that the Tigers, not USC, deserved to be No. 1 because, well, that was the game Corso was covering.

* No. 3 West Virginia earned a hard-fought win at Marshall and introduced a new short subject: Waking Noel Devine. The debate on YouTube last year was whether the 5-foot-8 Devine or USC-bound Joe McKnight was the best tailback coming out of high school.

After watching the West Virginia freshman score two touchdowns and gain 76 yards in five carries against Marshall, it’s Devine for now.

* No. 4 Florida, the defending national champion, did what it was supposed to do to Troy:

* No. 5 Oklahoma followed its crushing 79-10 win over North Texas with a crushing 51-13 win over Miami in Norman. It doesn’t make up for three straight losses to Miami in the mid-1980s, but it must have felt good in a better-late-than-never, Barry Switzer, retribution sort of way.

* No. 10 California got another long touchdown run from DeSean Jackson but almost sat too long on its lead before winning at Colorado State.

And this just in: Hawaii, billed as this year’s Boise State, survived a time-zone trip to beat Louisiana Tech in overtime, keeping the Warriors’ major bowl chances attached to the respirator.

The best thing about Saturday?

There’s another one next week.

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chris.dufresne@latimes.com