College football doesn’t officially start until we get some inter-conference battles. We got that in week three.
#15 Ole Miss and #2 Alabama put on one incredible football game, complete with a botched snap, and a tipped heave that resulted in a touchdown.
The #13 Louisiana State University
Tigers gave #18 Auburn a bayou beatdown, and the last major conference battle came at the University of Southern California. #6 USC, the darling that they were, was once again upset by rival Stanford.
As a bonus, we had some non-conference ranked play as well.
The oft-injured Irish of #8 Notre Dame found a way to beat the dreaded triple option that #14 Georgia Tech runs. And #19 BYU saw its Hail Mary antics end as they narrowly lost to #10 UCLA 24-23.
The polls had quite the shakeup after all of the dust finally settled. We now have a pair of Big 10 schools at the top despite Ohio State nearly faltering against Northern Illinois.
Ole Miss received 11 first place votes and positioned itself at number three and LSU, despite being number eight, received one first-place vote.
How much fun was last weekend? What are three biggest things to take away from the week? Let’s start with number one.
1. Hotty Toddy Ole Miss
The Rebels won in Tuscaloosa, and in doing so, have now defeated the Crimson Tide for two consecutive seasons. They jumped from 15 all the way to three in the Associated Press poll. They now have the drivers seat to the SEC Championship Game in the West. It’s all great right?
Wrong.
Ole Miss is going to be a force, clearly. But let’s not crown them king yet.
Alabama had five turnovers. FIVE. Ole Miss had zero. ZERO.
And the final score shows that Ole Miss barely found a way out with a W 43-37.
Is this a reason to say Ole Miss isn’t the third best team in the country? No way. They went into one of college football’s toughest confines and came out with a win.
Alabama didn’t have it’s best game and still almost won. That may say more about Nick Saban’s squad than Hugh Freeze’s.
But we all jumped on the Rebel bandwagon after last season’s win. And that went south, although injuries played a major factor in that.
Let’s not pass judgment too quick, there’s a lot of football left to play.
2. Wildcats, Tigers, and Bruins. . . Oh, my!
The Arizona Wildcats ran all over Northern Arizona; go figure. But they have a big weekend coming up and will look to legitimize themselves. UCLA (more on them in a second) comes to town, and so does College Game Day from ESPN. It’ll be a fun game with heavy implications for the PAC-12 and the College Football Playoff.
The first conference game for Arizona and UCLA, the winner gets the clear track to the PAC-12 South title.
The Tigers of LSU and Auburn gave us plenty to talk about. LSU went in and blew the doors off of Auburn, a team that was supposed to win the SEC West.
Now how do we interpret that game? Is Auburn really as bad as people are saying? Maybe. Back-to-back weeks, where they looked unimpressive, do not bode well. They are not a national title contender any longer and are starting to lose relevance in the SEC West as the rest of the teams (Arkansas excluded) are playing well.
Or does the blowout show how good LSU is? Leonard Fournette’s Heisman Campaign was kicked into another gear. It appeared as Auburn didn’t want to tackle him, and for good reason. When they tried he embarrassed them, as evidenced here.
Or is it a little of both? Bingo. Auburn is bad, especially in SEC terms. LSU is good, as they should be.
And finally those UCLA Bruins that I mentioned earlier. Josh Rosen, the freshman sensation, is building a legend right now. However, the one touchdown and three interception game last weekend isn’t helping his cause. It did give UCLA a chance to show that they aren’t a one-man show. Junior Paul Perkins had 219 yards on the ground, and they escaped the late game antics that BYU had used to start 2-0. Now it’s on to Arizona.
3. Who Let The Dawgs Out?
Okay, the story not getting enough play is the University of Georgia destroying rival Steve Spurrier and South Carolina.
They were scoring at will and breaking records. Greyson Lambert silenced the critics a week after his terrible showing against Vanderbilt. He went 24-25, including 20 consecutive passes, for 330 yards and a trio of touchdowns. In doing so, he set a record for competition percentage (96%) with 20+ throws. He also hit nine different receivers.
The Gamecocks aren’t a great team. They’re bad. But it’s still a rivalry game and the Dawgs dismantled them. UGA allowed only 84 passing yards, and despite a couple 13+-yard runs, they shut the running game down.
The Bulldogs have the opportunity to win the East this season, and then will have to prove themselves in Atlanta against whoever escapes the West. But this could be one of Mark Richt’s best seasons as UGA’s head ball coach.
Who jumped to the top in the Heisman Rankings after week three?
1. Trevone Boykin, QB, TCU 21-30, 454 yards, 5 TDs, 1 INT
Boykin has been number one every week for me. And even though this performance was against SMU, he did what he should. Nearly dropping half of 1,000 and throwing five touchdowns. . .great week, he’s still number one.
2. Nick Chubb, RB, UGA 21 CAR, 159 yards, 2 TDs
Chubb has impressed and is one game away from tying UGA-great Herschel Walker with 12-consecutive 100+-yard games. In 11 games as a starter, he has 1,791 yards rushing, only 100-yards shy of Walker’s UGA record in 1981 of 1,891. And that comes on only 244 carries, 141 fewer than the legend.
3. Chad Kelly, QB, Ole Miss 18-33, 341 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs
Okay, Kelly is now a Heisman candidate officially. Tested like no other player in college football has yet to be tested, he passed with flying colors. Beating Alabama can vault a player to the top of the race, Johnny Manziel found that out. For Kelly, he is in it now with very little space from 1-3. He just has to run the table, easy right?
4. Leonard Fournette, RB, LSU 19 CAR, 228 yards, 3 TDs
Fournette has jumped from a player to watch to the thick of the race. He did it against Auburn, and for that to hold a ton of weight he needs them to step up the rest of this season. Stopping Nick Chubb and UGA later this year would make Fournette the best running back in the SEC. If that doesn’t happen the best plan for the former number one recruit is just to keep racking stats up. The rest of the schedule will give him plenty of opportunities to rise in the rankings.
5. Ezekiel Elliot, RB, OSU 23 CAR, 108 yards, 0 TDs
If Elliot doesn’t find a spark soon, he could be out of the rankings. He and the entire Ohio State team have come out of the gates slow. Last weekend, a near loss to NIU could have derailed the entire season, and any accolades the players could hope to gain. For Elliot, he needs to have several huge games to stay on the list. That starts this week against Western Michigan.
Player To Watch: Josh Rosen, QB, UCLA.
Against Arizona this week, a big game could put the freshman on watch lists. He had a rough week against BYU but will be in primetime for week four. Time to produce.
Others: Derrick Henry, Kyle Allen, Connor Cook, C.J. Prosise, Paul Perkins, Anu Solomon
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