The Pac-12 led week 3 with some of the bigger wins this past Saturday but also suffered some really bad losses with one coach already handed his papers following an embarrassing defeat. Elsewhere, the top of the rankings look the same with Georgia continuing to look terrifying for a program supposedly rebuilding from their 2021 run. That SEC Championship is looming large for playoff glory.
Here’s the latest top 20 rankings from your favorite website.
18 Stripes Top 20 Poll
| RANK | TEAM | RECORD | RESULT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Georgia | 3-0 | 48-7 W at South Carolina |
| 2 | Ohio State | 3-0 | 77-21 W vs. Toledo |
| 3 | Alabama | 3-0 | 63-7 W vs. UL-Monroe |
| 4 | USC | 3-0 | 45-17 W vs. Fresno St. |
| 5 | Clemson | 3-0 | 48-20 W vs. Louisiana Tech |
| 6 | Tennessee (+1) | 3-0 | 63-6 W vs. Akron |
| 7 | Oklahoma (+1) | 3-0 | 49-14 W at Nebraska |
| 8 | Arkansas (-2) | 3-0 | 38-27 W vs. Missouri St. |
| 9 | Kentucky (+1) | 3-0 | 31-0 W vs. Youngstown St. |
| 10 | Michigan (+4) | 3-0 | 59-0 W vs. UConn |
| 11 | Florida (+1) | 2-1 | 31-28 W vs. USF |
| 12 | Utah (+1) | 2-1 | 35-7 W vs. SDSU |
| 13 | Texas (+2) | 2-1 | 41-20 W vs. UTSA |
| 14 | Penn State (+6) | 3-0 | 41-12 W at Auburn |
| 15 | Oklahoma State (+2) | 3-0 | 63-7 W vs. Arkansas-Pine Bluff |
| 16 | Ole Miss (NR) | 3-0 | 42-0 W at Georgia Tech |
| 17 | Oregon (NR) | 2-1 | 41-20 W vs. BYU |
| 18 | Miami (-7) | 2-1 | 17-9 L at Texas A&M |
| 19 | Washington (NR) | 3-0 | 39-28 W vs. Michigan St. |
| 20 | Wake Forest (-1) | 3-0 | 37-36 W vs. Liberty |
National Storylines
I saw tweet during the Notre Dame game that it may be time to wonder if Georgia is actually better than last year’s National Championship winning team. The Dawgs have already played a pair of Power 5 teams and are +120 in point differential.
Nebraska came out fired up against Oklahoma forcing a 3-and-out before taking a 7-0 lead. It got really dark really fast as Oklahoma blew their doors off by 35 points with a +253 total yards advantage.
Florida State overcame an injury to quarterback Jordan Travis and picked off Louisville late to seal a 35-31 road victory. The Seminoles are now 3-0 on the season.
APP STATE HAIL MARY TO WIN IT WITH NO TIME REMAINING!
Indiana trailed for most of the game and needed overtime to get past Western Kentucky. The Hoosiers remain unbeaten at 3-0, though.
Northwestern turned it over 4 times and ended up losing 31-24 to previously winless Southern Illinois. You hate to see it.
In front of a home crowd of hundreds, UCLA needed a 24-yard field goal as time expired to beat South Alabama. The Bruins are yet another team coming off a lackluster week 3 but also heading into the weekend 3-0.
Penn State is looking real good. Auburn turned it over 4 times and ended up getting run off their home field.
Ole Miss shut out Georgia Tech and now enter our rankings for the first time in 2022. That is the 28th loss of the Geoff Collins era in just a little over 3 years.
Kansas went into Houston and won by 18 points. The Jayhawks are 3-0!
Wake Forest were +2 on turnovers and still had all sorts of problems with Liberty. The Flames scored a touchdown with just over a minute remaining and decided to go for the 2-point conversion and win instead of a tie. They ran a zone-read reverse and it didn’t come close to making it.
Arkansas was having a real bad day against Bobby Petrino-led Missouri State, even trailing 17-7 and 27-17 before pulling away late with a trio of 4th quarter touchdowns.
Florida looked pretty poor being outgained by USF while allowing nearly 300 rushing yards. They should probably drop further in our rankings, but can you put Utah ahead of them?
One coach whose stock is quickly rising is Washington’s Kalen DeBoer who took the Huskies and rocked visiting Michigan State this past Saturday. Quarterback Michael Penix, Jr. threw for 397 yards and 4 touchdowns as Washington led 39-14 in the 2nd half.
Texas was on upset alert while trailing UTSA at halftime. However, the Horns sharpened up in the 2nd half to win by 3 touchdowns.
Every few years we get treated to Michael Irvin giving a psychotic, heart attack-inducing pep game talk hyping up Miami and every time they lose. Maybe sit things out for half a decade, Mike. The Canes gained 124 more yards than Texas A&M but couldn’t find the end zone in a 17-9 loss.
Virginia needed a 26-yard field goal as time expired to get past Old Dominion 16-14 in Charlottesville.
The Chris Klieman era at Kansas State took a big hit as the Wildcats gave up a late 4th quarter touchdown to lose 17-10 to Tulane. The Green Wave are now 3-0 this year.
You have to think Herm Edwards’ time in the desert was on its last legs as Arizona State lost by 9 points to Eastern Michigan and the school ended up firing him on Sunday evening. I can’t imagine EMU has many Power 5 victories in their history.
Colorado is extremely bad right now. They’ve been outscored 128-30 on the season following Saturday’s 49-7 loss at Minnesota. Karl Dorrell has won only 3 out of his last 15 games against Power 5 competition.
OUT:
No. 9 BYU
The Cougars tumble out of the rankings but still have plenty of opportunities left on their schedule (Notre Dame, Arkansas, Boise, Stanford) to get back inside our top 20.
No. 16 Air Force
The Falcons offense was nowhere to be seen in a 17-14 loss on the road against the Fighting Josh Allen’s.
No. 19 Michigan State
Wisconsin transfer running back Jalen Berger was held to 27 yards on 13 carries in the loss at Washington.
Opponent Watch
Ohio State (3-0): Three receivers went over 100 yards in Ohio State’s win over Toledo, and one of them wasn’t Jaxon Smith-Njigba who came back from injury with just a couple catches.
Marshall (2-1): The Herd gained nearly 200 more yards than Bowling Green but fall in overtime thanks to 3 turnovers. That’s a really bad loss to one of the worst teams in FBS.
California (2-1): My wife commented that she liked Cal’s matte blue helmets, so they have that going for them.
North Carolina (3-0): Oh, an ACC opponent with a bye before playing Notre Dame.
BYU (2-1): Oregon led 38-7 in the 2nd half and completely controlled this game.
Stanford (1-1): The Cardinal were off this week before traveling to Washington.
UNLV (2-1): The Rebels offense woke up with 576 yards while cruising 58-27 over North Texas.
Syracuse (3-0): A wild 4th quarter saw Syracuse and Purdue combine for 42 points and was finished off by this Garrett Shrader touchdown to win it for the Orange who now move to 3-0.
Clemson (3-0): The Tigers run game rumbled for 280 yards and 4 scores to dispatch Louisiana Tech 48-20.
Navy (0-2): Yet another opponent with a week 3 bye.
Boston College (1-2): Phil Jurkovec threw for 320 yards, George Takacs caught 7 passes, and Boston College takes down Maine 38-17 to pick up their first win of the season.
USC (3-0): The Trojans have gone over 500 yards in each of their first 3 games and beat Fresno State 45-17 in the Coliseum on Saturday night.
Week 4 Games to Watch
Clemson (-7.5) at Wake Forest
This is one of the most lopsided series in the country. It’s also the first of a handful of games that could allow Clemson to get upset and miss the playoffs and maybe even forego another ACC title for *gasp* the second year in a row.
Baylor (+2.5) at Iowa State
Matt Campbell has been off the radar a little bit trying to keep things going with this rebuild job and riding high after the win over Iowa, finally! I wouldn’t feel comfortable betting the Cyclones to cover this spread, though.
Indiana (+16.5) at Cincinnati
During the pre-season, you could’ve envisioned maybe this would be a good game. Both teams are coming off some struggles last week but that line shows plenty of faith in Cincinnati. This will be the Bearcats last Power 5 opponent in the regular season.
Florida (+11) at Tennessee
ESPN GameDay is back in Knoxville for the first time in 6 years. Back in 2016, the Vols were on GameDay 3 times in 5 weeks including the Bristol Motor Speedway win over Virginia Tech, a 10-point home win over the Gators, then a double-OT thriller loss at A&M. That 2016 win over Florida is the only one for Tennessee since 2004! This is a massive game for the Vols to win.
Arkansas (+2.5) at Texas A&M
Remember when I had Arkansas with the toughest schedule in the nation? Well, it almost caught up to them in week 3 and now they get to travel to College Station then Alabama. This is going to be a season-defining couple of weeks for the Hogs.
Wisconsin (+18) at Ohio State
Wisconsin’s offense against any Power 5 defense with a pulse has been abysmal and this is going to be a breeze for the Buckeyes.
USC (-6.5) at Oregon State
The Beavers may be the best team in the country that no one is talking about. We know the history of USC traveling to Corvalis, too. That seems baked into this spread. Then again, Oregon State barely beat Fresno and USC just pounded them into the ground, if you’re into the transitive property and such.
For an nd team that started 0-2, staring down a 5 loss season with a new coach with a good amount of question marks, I cannot imagine a worse top 20 poll. It has all the teams I hate the most. ohio state, usc, clemson, michigan, throw in oklahoma who is coming after the best recruit and penn state who is a regional recruiting rival. kind of a mess when recruiting is the one area nd can still win in. I guess at least LSU isn’t in there
LSU could sneak in there in a couple weeks at 5-1. But it would be brief, as they then play Tennessee, @UF, Ole Miss, Bama, @Ark, UAB, @aTm. Really glad that isn’t our schedule this year. Yikes.
I mean it sucks to admit but they’re gonna be pretty good pretty quick, but like you said the back half of that schedule is brutal. It definitely made me think ND should have been and will need to be much more aggressive in the transfer portal next year, at least at qb. Jayden daniel’s is their entire offense and nd would definitely be 2-1 if they had jayden.
between ND & SCar in college and the carolina panthers
this is gonna be a long fall for me lol
The Wisconsin-Ohio State game will be an interesting comparison to ND. Ohio State is favored by about the same amount (a little more than they were against us, IIRC) and there’s a chunk of our fanbase that adores Wisconsin and thinks we should emulate everything their program does.
I’m with you, Eric — I expect Wisconsin to get squashed.
Florida has to be the worst team you’ve had in the top 11 of this poll since…well, since ND to start the year I guess. Richardson looks like when Wimbush started throwing Interceptions too. He has to improve, right? If not, I wouldn’t be shocked to see them lose 6 games this year, he looked that bad.
I don’t think either of A&M or Arkansas are particularly good, which is going to make the result of this Saturday’s game so annoying. Either A&M wins, and the media narrative is that they’ve found their QB now and get bumped up into the top 15 or top 10, or Arkansas wins, and the media narrative is that they’re a legit title contender. The SEC gets the benefit of the doubt either way.
New masthead is pretty cold.
Average 18S user when they see Tom E. Rees
Salute to the Salukis. Some bad teams and bad games in the Big this week. Northwestern’s only win is over Nebraska to start the season. Can they lose their first three at home (Miami, OH this week)? NW lost to Duke by 8. The Jayhawks are favored over the Blue Devils by 9. Iowa plays Rutgers in a matchup of the two lowest scoring teams in the Big. In addition to the possibility of Cincy beating Indiana, the Chattanooga Mocs could well beat Illinois in a Thursday night game. The Illini lost to Indiana. Woof.