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Five Takeaways from Week 3 of the College Football Season

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Shane Falco

09-20-2022

  1. Top Ten Dominates

Unlike in Week 2, the Top Ten had no trouble with their opponents in Week 3. It was a rout almost everywhere you looked, with a combined score of 522 to 120. CJ Stroud, Bryce Young, and Stetson Bennett all dazzled as Heisman Trophy contenders. Stroud had 367 yards and five touchdowns, Bryce Young had three in the air and one on the ground in a thrashing, and Bennett continued his dare-you-to-doubt-me campaign with 282 yards and two touchdowns, all in a thrashing. 1st Quarter bets are becoming increasingly popular and Georgia has been crushing their 1Q bets, dominating opponents right out of the gate.

The biggest game, at least among the top 10, heading into this weekend was Oklahoma vs. Nebraska. With so much history between these two programs, Scott Frost being fired, and a competitive 2021 matchup, everyone was talking about this early Saturday matchup. Nebraska started the game off right by driving down the field on their initial possession and scoring whenever they wanted against the OU defense. "The Scott Frost Curse has been lifted," people exclaimed. However the proclamation proved to be a dead cat bounce, Nebraska didn't score again until 3:17 of the fourth quarter. Former UCF quarterback Dillon Gabriel led the Sooners to a 49-14 victory. The Sooners appear to be in great shape as they prepare for conference play and the Red River Shootout in three weeks.

  1. The Georgia wrecking ball keeps coming

Georgia and Stetson Bennett resumed their assault on the collegiate football landscape last Saturday when they arrived in South Carolina. Bennett has been one of the season's most surprising players, considering that despite winning a championship last year, few people seemed to regard him as a competent quarterback. He finished with a record of 16-23, 284 yards, and two touchdowns. He was also the team's leading rusher, with 36 yards and a touchdown. With an electric jab step he took a rush to the house and left the hedges in shock. He was also seen puking on the field, similar to what all of us degenerates do every weekend only with alcohol. When Kirby Smart was asked why, he replied "He hydrated too much". The team gained 200 yards on the ground as a whole; and have an excellent running back by committee situation going in Athens that comes at you in waves.

However, it appears that Spencer Rattler will never recapture the buzz that surrounded him during his redshirt freshman year at OU. He had a terrible throwing performance, with two interceptions and a 50% completion rate. Despite only allowing 7 points in a conference game, the Georgia defense will undoubtedly cause problems for any quarterback.  Georgia will play Kent State in one more exhibition game before beginning conference play. Georgia's first true test will come in late October against Florida in the World's Largest Cocktail Party game. South Carolina appears to be returning to the bottom of the conference after going 0-2 in conference play this year; gone are the days when they had Stephen Garcia and Conner Shaw.

  1. Blue Bloods are good at Football now?

While the origin story of Blue Bloods is fuzzy, there is no denying which teams belong in that category when it comes to College Basketball. They include Duke Kentucky Kansas North Carolina and UCLA. In Football outside of UCLA the others just haven't been competitive. However Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Kansas are all off to fast starts in sports for which they are not well-known. All four have a 3-0 record this year. Kentucky appears to be a contender for the SEC East after defeating Florida in the Swamp in Week 2. Kentucky's recent rise makes it less surprising considering they have had moderate success the last few years, but Kansas has taken people by surprise. Their three victories have come against two FBS teams, West Virginia and Houston, both of whom were ranked at one point this year and one FCS team, Tennessee Tech.

Although Kansas has not won more than three games since 2009, which is remarkable to say the least, I do not believe they will have a Cinderella year like they did in 2007 when they reached the Orange Bowl. It should be no surprise to anyone who watches football that their head coach, Lance Leipold, is a winning strategist. He won Division 3 championships at Wisconsin Whitewater, and at Buffalo, he increased his win total from two to ten in four years. Not since the days of Mangino has Kansas been this large!

  1. The PAC-12's Last Stand

Despite the fact that the PAC-12 no longer has divisions, the teams from the former PAC-12 North have performed admirably this season. With the exception of Oregon's loss to last year's National Champion Georgia in week one, Oregon, Washington, Oregon State, and Washington State had a combined record of 11-1. This is supported by some spectacular victories, such as Washington State's win over a ranked Wisconsin team in week 2, Washington's win over an 11th-ranked Michigan State last week, and Oregon's dominance of top-20 BYU.

Washington appears to have solved many of the issues they had with previous coach Jimmy Lake, who was fired last year and replaced by former Fresno State coach Kalen DeBoer. They will almost certainly surpass their four wins from last season when they host Stanford this week. If the Beavers want to keep their winning streak going, they must put on a strong performance the following week when USC comes to Corvalis in a game I believe they can win. Corvalis is not an easy place to play, as evidenced by the great USC teams of the early 2000s, who were 7-3 with all losses occurring there between 2000 and 2010. This will be USC's first significant test of the season playing away from home.

PAC-12 games are always a favorite amongst the degenerates because of the chaos, high scoring and frankly just their place on the schedule. It is a natural way to press your winnings or losings at the end of an action packed College Football day.

  1. Florida Gators go from team to watch to uh-oh

No other team has had as many ups and downs this season as Florida. Since his breakout game against Utah, Richardson  has been disappointing after he was anointed a Heisman Trophy contender.  In a Week 2 loss to Kentucky, he threw two interceptions and had a completion percentage of less than 50%. The following week, he threw two more interceptions as Florida narrowly avoided an upset of an outmatched South Florida team in a game that Florida had no business winning 31-28 based on their performance. Florida's situation will not improve this week as they travel to Tennessee to play the Vols in their first away game of the season. The Vols will be the largest favorite they have ever been heading into The Swamp at -10.5, the line opened at 4.5 and was HAMMERED up to that number. The Vols have been on a heater as of late beating a very good Pittsburgh team and crushing Ball State and Akron. In what might be our favorite play of the weekend. We like Tennessee with the points.

Ever since Urban Meyer had a fake heart attack on the sidelines to leave a program he had built full of convicts.  In terms of recruiting and on-field performance, the Gators have been on a downward spiral. They've gone through a slew of coaches, some who were simply incapable of performing under the spotlight in Gainesville, others who had odd quirks like kissing players on the lips before games. Billy Napier, hopefully, will be the answer for Gator fans. He's coached some good games so far, but he's been hampered by some of the on-field play.