Week 3 is in the books and Notre Dame’s regular season is already a third of the way complete. That bye week for the Irish isn’t coming until after the October 14th USC game, as well. There’s still lots of football remaining but it’s also going fast! This past weekend was mostly quiet although a handful of upsets brought us some fun. Colorado is entertaining and Washington looks quite strong–is it the late 1980’s again and does this bode well for Notre Dame’s future?
Here’s the latest 18S Top 20 Poll.
18 Stripes Top 20 Poll
| RANK | TEAM | RECORD | NEXT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Georgia | 3-0 | vs. UAB |
| 2 | Washington (+2) | 3-0 | vs. California |
| 3 | Texas (-1) | 3-0 | at Baylor |
| 4 | Florida State (-1) | 3-0 | at Clemson |
| 5 | Michigan | 3-0 | vs. Rutgers |
| 6 | USC | 3-0 | at Arizona State |
| 7 | Utah | 3-0 | vs. UCLA |
| 8 | Notre Dame | 4-0 | vs. Ohio State |
| 9 | Penn State | 3-0 | vs. Iowa |
| 10 | North Carolina (+1) | 3-0 | at Pittsburgh |
| 11 | Ohio State (+1) | 3-0 | at Notre Dame |
| 12 | Oregon State (+1) | 3-0 | at Washington State |
| 13 | Ole Miss (+1) | 3-0 | at Alabama |
| 14 | Oklahoma (+2) | 3-0 | at Cincinnati |
| 15 | Duke (+2) | 3-0 | at UConn |
| 16 | Colorado (+2) | 3-0 | at Oregon |
| 17 | Oregon (NR) | 3-0 | vs. Colorado |
| 18 | LSU (+1) | 2-1 | vs. Arkansas |
| 19 | Alabama (-4) | 2-1 | vs. Ole Miss |
| 20 | Miami (NR) | 3-0 | at Temple |
Out:
#10 Tennessee
#20 Kansas State
National Storylines
Maryland ran away from Virginia 42-14 on Friday. The Hoos have William & Mary on the schedule but I’m not sure they will get to 2 wins this season.
UTSA were without quarterback Frank Harris and lost at home to Army 37-29. The Roadrunners are now 1-2 after being considered one of the top mid-major teams in the pre-season.
Georgia were trailing at the break and needed a strong 2nd half to come back against South Carolina to win 24-14.
Boston College had 18 penalties for 131 yards and still nearly toppled Florida State. However, the Seminoles escaped 31-29 from Chestnut Hill. I wanted to drop FSU lower but that would mean moving up Michigan.
Speaking of which, J.J. McCarthy threw 3 interceptions in Michigan’s lackluster 31-6 win against Bowling Green.
Maybe it’s an end of an era for Cincinnati. Former Notre Dame wideout Joe Wilkins scored the game-winning touchdown in overtime as Miami Ohio topples the Bearcats 31-24 in the Queen City.
Also being monitored in the “is this era over” category is Oklahoma State getting blown out 33-7 at home to South Alabama. Gundy hasn’t evolved into much of a likeable character and I wonder how much the sharks will quickly circle his tenure if this keeps up?
Texas scored 21 points in the 4th quarter to pull away from Wyoming 31-10.
Tyler Buchner got the start and was eventually benched as Alabama’s offense looks broken in a far-too-close 17-3 win over USF, that included a lengthy rain/lightning delay.
Tennessee’s defense couldn’t stop Florida running back Travis Etienne (172 yards) and the Vols offense didn’t show up enough in a 29-16 loss at The Swamp.
Penn State wins their Big Ten opener 30-13 at Illinois.
Washington led 35-0 at halftime in East Lansing and would go on to cruise 41-7 against Michigan State. Huskies quarterback Michael Penix, Jr. has thrown for 1,332 yards and 12 touchdowns in 3 games.
LSU had no problems handling Mississippi State 41-14 in Starkville.
The BYU-Arkansas game was crazy and finished with the Cougars winning on the road 38-31.
An insane 61-yard field goal for Missouri toppled Kansas State 30-27 in Columbia as time expired.
Is Rutgers sneaky decent this year? The Scarlett Knights beat Virginia Tech 35-16 and are 3-0 and +65 in point differential through 3 games.
Colorado was pushed to the brink but an interception in overtime sealed a 43-35 win over rival Colorado State. However, the Buffs will be without two-way star Travis Hunter for a while after a late and cheap hit on a downfield pass.
The Hudson Card era is now 1-2 at Purdue as they fall to Syracuse 35-20 in West Lafayette. The Orange have started the season a quiet 3-0.
Drake Maye threw for 414 yards as North Carolina beat Minnesota easily 31-13.
Matt Campbell’s career is way off track as Iowa State fell 10-7 at Ohio. He may need to fire his agent. In fairness, Iowa State “missed” a field goal which they actually made.
This isn’t a typo, Iowa scored 41 points in a win over Western Michigan.
Houston lost its Big 12 opener and are now 1-2 following a 36-13 loss at home to TCU.
A late field goal helped UNLV drop Vanderbilt 40-37 in Las Vegas. Clark Lea, what are you doing?
Opponent Watch
Navy (1-2): The Middies fought hard but fell 28-24 on the road at Memphis this past Thursday.
Tennessee State (2-1): In their first home game, the Tigers beat Gardner-Webb 27-25.
NC State (2-1): VMI were no match for the Wolfpack in a 45-7 loss.
Central Michigan (1-2): The Chips travel to South Alabama this weekend, their 3rd road trip of the season so far.
Ohio State (3-0): The Buckeyes used a 35-point 2nd quarter to blast Western Kentucky 63-10.
Duke (3-0): Old Man Elko has the Blue Devils undefeated after an easy 38-14 win over Northwestern.
Louisville (3-0): An Indiana goal line push failed late as Louisville held on 21-14 in Bloomington.
USC (3-0): The Trojans were on a bye this past week.
Pitt (1-2): The Phil Jurkovec disaster class continues as Pitt falls 17-6 at West Virginia.
Clemson (2-1): FAU were shutout until the 4th quarter as Clemson picks up an easy 48-14 win.
Wake Forest (3-0): A late rally saved Wake Forest as they beat Old Dominion 27-24.
Stanford (1-2): The Cardinal just hired their coach from Sacramento State and lost to said team 30-23 in Palo Alto. Ouch.
Week 4 Games to Watch
All time are eastern.
Florida State [-2] at Clemson
Saturday, Sept. 23rd, 12:00 PM, ABC
Prior to last week this looked like it could’ve been a somewhat comfortable win for Florida State. Coming off the Seminoles’ stinker at BC we just might have a good game again on our hands. A reminder that Clemson has won 7 straight in this series.
Oklahoma [-14] at Cincinnati
Saturday, Sept. 23rd, 12:00 PM, Fox
I’m sure Fox is pissed that Cincinnati just lost to a MAC team and sort of ruined the allure of this matchup. Still, there might be some defensive talent for the Bearcats to make this a challenge and this could be Oklahoma’s first real test of the season. I don’t know, it could be an interesting game that’s a lot closer than some people think.
Auburn [+8] at Texas A&M
Saturday, Sept. 23rd, 12:00 PM, ESPN
I am including this game as the 3rd option in a pretty solid Noon window for us easterners. The Aggies offense has shown much more than a pulse this year but I am surprised they’re favored by this much.
Ole Miss [+7] at Alabama
Saturday, Sept. 23rd, 3:30 PM, CBS
The Tide are moving back to Jalen Milroe this weekend which is the sensible decision. Alabama needs this game badly and has to show it has sorted out some of its offensive troubles. If not, I wouldn’t be shocked if Tommy Rees was fired at some point this season.
UCLA [+5] at Utah
Saturday, Sept. 23rd, 3:30 PM, Fox
We’re going to be sorting some things out in the Pac-12 this weekend. Dante Moore has been living up to the hype so far as a 5-star recruit and will enter one of the toughest places to play west of the Mississippi this weekend. As of this writing, Cameron Rising still hasn’t been cleared to play quarterback for Utah.
Colorado [+20.5] at Oregon
Saturday, Sept. 23rd, 3:30 PM, ABC
It stinks that Travis Hunter has to miss time and can’t play in this game. What a dirty hit by the Colorado State defender this past weekend. It’ll be fascinating to see how far Colorado can go while having such an enormous target on its back and plenty of nationally televised games. They had a bit of a hiccup last weekend but I would bet the Buffaloes can cover this huge spread in Eugene.
BYU [+9.5] at Kansas
Saturday, Sept. 23rd, 3:30 PM, ESPN
This game went up a notch after BYU went into Fayetteville and stole a win. Now, the travel a little further north to Lawrence for a really fun early season Big 12 matchup–the first ever for the Cougars. And look at that! Kansas is favored pretty heavily! What a world!
UTSA [+20.5] at Tennessee
Saturday, Sept. 23rd, 4:00 PM, SEC Network
I’m imagining Frank Harris coming back to start for the Roadrunners and UTSA upsetting the Vols inside Neyland Stadium. For as fun as last year was for Tennessee, losing this game would bring out some sharp and ready to use pitchforks.
Oregon State [-2.5] at Washington Sate
Saturday, Sept. 23rd, 7:00 PM, Fox
The last vestiges of the Pac-12 conference squaring off in Pullman. This is the first of 6 currently ranked teams (Wazzu sits at #21 in the AP Poll) that Oregon State will play the rest of the way. It’s weird seeing the Beavers with this kind of potential but it’ll be a hard road to stay as high as they are in the polls today.
Iowa [+14.5] at Penn State
Saturday, Sept. 23rd, 7:30 PM, CBS
I sense a lot of running and punting Saturday night in Happy Valley.
Matt Campbell trying like hell to get the Michigan State job?
Has the ship sailed on Matty Camp?
He was the toast of the town a few years ago, hell after the ND-Mich 2019 dumpster fire, I remember seeing comments for him or pat Fitzgerald to take over as HC…. oof 🙁
*I might be imagining or messing up my timeline, but I’m pretty sure both those fellas names swirled around the ND rumor mill, maybe just amongst the anonymous fan base*
But michigan state already ponied up a $95 million nightmare scenario, what’s to say lightning doesn’t strike twice?
I know it’s only one game, but the Camping World Bowl against ISU soured me on him permanently.
May I ask what soured you?
I know that game was the pundit talking point for upset alert, apparantly ISU was the best 7-5 team ever going in, and notre dame murdered them. Too me that’s more of the media darling external junk, not really on him. But was there a matt Campbell driven aspect going on as well?
Like ISUs whole allure is losing close, and sometimes scoring some upsets, which in the big 12 is just another saturday.
The game was a mismatch on paper (ND should have been in the Orange Bowl against Florida), but that ND team had its flaws and it was an opportunity for a huge, signature upset for Campbell.
From the jump, ISU played scared and to keep the score respectable (which didn’t even work). Their gameplan was pure vanilla. They didn’t do anything to surprise ND or put us off our own gameplan; which was the standard issue ACC Crusher Plan. To me, that does not scream great coaching.
I get that winning at Iowa State is really hard — maybe the hardest job in the P5. But I didn’t come away from that game thinking that Campbell was anything beyond an above-average developer of players.
My wife likes football but with 3 kids i’m lucky to watch much of the game let alone her watch much college football. Anyways I told her buchner was starting for bama and they were scoreless through the first. She said “but why, buchner is terrible”. So my wife is a better qb evaluator than kelly, rees and saban, so I got that going for me.
Separately i’m over the colorado thing. Feldman podcast read “colorado transcends college football”. Guess i’m officially an old man but to me they just suck, they have an awesome quarterback and a coach that loves him some him. Also sanders clock management at the end of the game was horrendous, he got bailed out by shadeur. whatever go ducks
Their offensive line is like 9000% better than anyone thought it would be. That’s been a huge surprise for me.
Colorado-Colorado St. got 9.3M views – 5th most watched CFB game on record and way way biggest number for a late game. That’s a whoa.
This is going to be a gigantic and awesome weekend of college football.
I know rankings don’t work this way, but I think the winner of ND-Ohio State should be #1.
6 ranked vs ranked matchups
6 other ranked teams are on the road
and through all that the eyes of the CFB world are descending upon South Bend
Things are about to get real ugly for UC Boulder here soon me thinks (even if travis hunter was playing)
Should preface this by saying It’s been a helluva coaching job by Deion going from 1-11 to 3-0 with 2 wins over P5 teams but while you can makeover skill groups easily through the portal the neglect in the trenches was felt vs CSU on both sides of the ball (and on defense the LBs are very suspect)
If Colorado doesn’t learn what a drag is Caleb Williams and Bo Nix might light the world on fire lol
You suck, Michigan.