College football Week 3 roundup with the 5 things that matter, winners and losers, overrated and underrated aspects to the weekend, and what it all means
College Football Week 3 Roundup
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College Football Week 3 Roundup
CFN 1-131 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Week 3 Scoreboard | Week 4 Early Lines
What 12-Team Playoff Would Look Like
Hot Seat Coach Rankings
AP Rankings | Coaches Poll
Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak
– Pac-12 is back One Really Big Thing
– New Year’s Six & Gof5 Most Overrated Thing
– Georgia’s blowout Most Underrated Thing
– Preseason is over What It All Means, Week 3
Winners & Losers From Week 3
Winner: Kansas
It’s not like Kansas beat a bunch of Cream Puff State teams on the way to the 3-0 start. Yeah, there was Tennessee Tech, but the O got rolling in road wins against West Virginia and Houston, too. Now Kansas has its first 3-0 start since 2009.
How crazy is this? Kansas was 2-23 in its previous 26 games before this run, and it hadn’t won more than three games in a season since that same 2009 season. Making this even sweeter …
Loser: Kansas State
Just when we all started to fall for Kansas State after a dominant 40-12 win over Missouri, it fell flat in a 17-10 home loss to … Tulane? Maybe it was a lookahead game before going to Oklahoma to start Big 12 play, or maybe the Green Wave are that good. It was a rough loss no matter what.
Winner: Arizona
You’re not crazy to suggest that Arizona was the worst Power Five team in college football over the last few years. It won one game last year, and it only won the 10-3 uggo because Cal was decimated by COVID.
Arizona was 1-23 in its previous 24 games going into the season, but it was able to ruin San Diego State’s grand opening of its new stadium, battled hard in a loss to Mississippi State, and then on Saturday, as an underdog it beat a North Dakota State team that might win the FCS Championship.
Part of the losing streak that led up to the first three games was a 70-7 loss to close out the 2020 season against …
Loser: Arizona State
There hasn’t been a losing season since 2016, and blowing off the strange short-scheduled COVID year of 2020, the last 1-2 start to a season was 1999.
Athletic departments will put up with a lot – Herm Edwards would still be the head coach right now through the NCAA investigations if the team was 3-0. Instead, ASU lost at Oklahoma State two weeks ago – no shame there – and then as a 20-point favorite it wasn’t even close in a 30-21 loss to Eastern Michigan.
Winner: UNLV
The last time UNLV was good at college football was … almost never.
There was a bowl appearance in 2013 – the Rebels lost – and that was the only winning season since 2000. There have been just four winning seasons since 1986, and almost no luck turning this thing around in recent years.
On Saturday, UNLV got revenge for that 2014 Heart of Dallas Bowl loss to North Texas with a 58-27 win. Now the team is 2-1 – the only loss a good 20-14 battle with Cal – and a bowl appearance is a real possibility.
Getting to a bowl might come down to the regular season finale against …
Loser: Nevada
Nevada had four straight winning seasons under Jay Norvell. He left for Colorado State, the offense was starting over, and the results have been mixed in a 2-2 start.
The wins over New Mexico State and Texas State were expected, but the Wolf Pack lost to Incarnate Word from the FCS 55-41, and it didn’t do anything in the rain and delays against Iowa in a 27-0 loss.
Winner: Rutgers
Rutgers has done this before. It went 3-0 last year, and then lost four straight. 2012 it started 3-0 and went on to a nine-win season. Even with the success of early last year, winning a lot isn’t the norm for the program.
Boston College, Wagner, and Temple haven’t exactly set the world on fire, but 3-0 is 3-0, the Scarlet Knight defense is playing great, and it’s scoring, unlike …
Loser: Iowa’s offense
The Hawkeyes last through several big delays and the rain to get by Nevada 27-0. To put this into perspective, the point total was 39, and the two teams didn’t even get close.
A point total of 54 is normal – and slightly low – for an average college game. that’s how many total points were scored in the first three Iowa games.
Iowa is currently dead last in the nation in total offense, 124th in scoring offense, 124th in passing, and 2-1 is 2-1. Get by Rutgers, and all will be okay before hosting Michigan.
– Pac-12 is back One Really Big Thing
– New Year’s Six & Gof5 Most Overrated Thing
– Georgia’s blowout Most Underrated Thing
– Preseason is over What It All Means, Week 3