Week 3 shook up the AP Top 25, and a handful of ranked teams came out of it looking more fragile than the poll suggests.
Five ranked teams fell over the weekend, and the chaos included unranked Kentucky going into College Station and pounding Texas A&M, plus West Virginia handling Virginia over the final three quarters on the way to a double-digit road win. Even some of the heavy favorites had to sweat, with Miami, BYU and USC all getting pushed harder than expected.
That backdrop makes the overrated conversation pretty easy to start with Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish are 3-0 and still carrying the sting of last year’s College Football Playoff snub, but the résumé is light.
Against Michigan State on Saturday, Notre Dame controlled the ball for 37:02 to 22:58 and more than doubled the Spartans in total yards, 395-167, yet the final margin was only 27-10 despite being favored by more than four touchdowns. The defense has been sharp enough, giving up just 23 points through three games, but the run game has been a real issue.
Notre Dame is averaging 3.6 yards per carry and hasn’t produced a run longer than 17 yards. The Irish are fine as a top-10 team, but Ole Miss probably belongs ahead of them right now.
Three of Notre Dame’s next four games are on the road, though a true scare may not arrive until the October trip to BYU.
Alabama’s jump after beating Florida State 50-36 is harder to justify. The Crimson Tide moved up two spots, and the game itself was strange from the start.
Florida State raced to a 21-6 lead, then the delay hit again, and Alabama flipped the whole thing with three touchdowns in a little more than three minutes to seize control by halftime. The Tide never gave it back.
Still, the Seminoles did enough on offense to at least make people blink. They posted a season-high 36 points and 471 yards, and Ashton Daniels threw for 377 yards after failing to reach that number in FSU’s first two games combined.
The attack looks explosive, but the defense has to be rebuilt with a brutal run ahead: five straight games against ranked opponents.
USC also comes out of Week 3 looking shaky. The Trojans were already on notice after a 49-30 win over Louisiana, and the alarm bells only got louder in a 42-35 escape against Rutgers.
The Scarlet Knights have been one of the country’s most disappointing teams, but they hung around for four quarters and cut the lead to one score three different times in the second half, including inside the final five minutes. Rutgers had managed only 21 points in losses to UMass and Boston College, so the fact that it pushed USC this hard says plenty.
The Trojans gave up 460 total yards, and the schedule is about to get much tougher. USC has four ranked opponents in its next six games, beginning with a home date against No.
20 Oregon.
Missouri is another team that didn’t exactly inspire confidence. The Tigers beat Troy 27-17, but it was anything but smooth.
Troy jumped ahead 10-0 in the first quarter before Missouri cashed in on a punt return and two Troy turnovers to score all three of its touchdowns in the second quarter. After that burst, the offense went quiet.
Missouri managed just 3 points the rest of the way, punted seven times, produced only 230 yards, went 2-for-11 on third down and committed nine penalties. Troy also won the possession battle, 37:23 to 22:37.
Quarterback Austin Simmons finished 10 of 19 for 91 yards, a season low after throwing for at least 250 yards against Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Kansas. The road only gets rougher from here, with six of Missouri’s next seven games against ranked teams and the next four coming in a row.
The Tigers head to Mississippi State on Saturday night with upset alert already flashing.
In Other News...
Oregon Now Has One More USC Threat To Worry About
As USC builds toward its matchup with Oregon on Saturday at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, one of the quieter storylines around the Trojans is the possible return of defensive tackle Jahkeem Stewart. Lincoln Riley offered an update on Stewarts status this week, and the early-read is encouraging for a player USC has not had available this season because of a foot injury.
Stewart is still working his way back, but the fact that he is progressing adds another layer to a game that already carries real weight for the Trojans. If USC can get him back in the mix soon, it would give the front a welcome boost at a time when Oregon already has enough to sort through in a high-profile Big Ten showdown. [Read more 🡒]
USCs Fast Start Faces Its First Real Test Against Oregon
Southern California has spent the early part of the season looking every bit like a team that can make noise in its new conference home, and now it gets a measuring-stick game with No. 20 Oregon coming to town for a Big Ten matchup. Jayden Maiava has been the engine for the Trojans, leading the conference in passing yards and touchdowns, while the rest of the roster has helped USC build the kind of balance that usually travels well into big games.
Oregon brings its own challenge, and then some. Dan Lannings team has already shown it can handle the road in Big Ten play, and the Ducks arrive with enough offensive punch and defensive structure to make this USCs most demanding test yet. For the Trojans, the larger question is not whether they have started fast, but whether that start can hold up when the opponent is ranked, disciplined and comfortable in the kind of game that tends to expose soft spots. [Read more 🡒]
USC Heads To Oregon With New Playmakers And Growing Concerns
USC is heading to Oregon coming off a Week 3 stretch that clarified a few things about the roster and raised a few more questions. On offense, King Miller and Kayden Dixon-Wyatt have started to look like real pieces for the Trojans, giving the unit some much-needed fresh production as the season starts to settle in.
Jayden Maiavas play has slipped, and Waymond Jordans role has shrunk at the same time, leaving USC to sort out what the attack is supposed to look like in a tougher environment. The defense has its own issues to clean up, too, with the run front and the secondary both showing the kind of inconsistency that could become a problem quickly on the road in Eugene. [Read more 🡒]