So let me get this straight – Week 3 College Football Recap

Alright I want to get this crystal clear in my brain.  This week’s AP Poll includes SEC teams as they start this coming week.  But no Big Ten teams because they don’t start for another month.  OK.  Here is the issue with this.  These rankings will mean nothing then.  I mean I will do them the same way but I contemplated putting Big Ten teams in.  Why did I not do it?  Because they won’t be playing for a month.  This is why pre-season rankings shouldn’t happen and maybe, just maybe, rankings shouldn’t happen at all until after the first set of games in October.  Maybe then we would have rankings that kind of mean something.  Or not.  I mean who knows.  It’s college football.  A sport that likes to rewrite the rules all the time is rewriting them like they are on speed.  On-brand for this year and this sport.

Alright enough of the rankings (until later).  Let’s get to the action from the weekend of college football!

Fun-Time Crazy Recap!

• Ugh.  The Cowboys did not look too sharp against Tulsa.  And now Spencer Sanders could be out for a while.  And the offensive line couldn’t really block for Chuba Hubbard.  Overall a shitshow on offense which makes me wonder why I picked the Pokes to go to the Big XII Championship in the first place.  I hope you didn’t use my post to bet on that.  I always tell you not to.
• If you missed the Citadel-Clemson game, don’t worry.  I can recap it for you.  Clemson went up 49-0 just before halftime.  And that ended up being the final score.  I am sure gamblers everywhere were livid at that happening.  Dabo even offered to go to the running clock and The Citadel said no.  And on top of that, I found out that the running clock isn’t an option.  You can shorten the amount of time in a quarter but you cannot go to a running clock in college football.  You learn something new every weekend in college football (or something like that).
• The U is…back?  Maybe Manny Diaz’s biggest victory so far as they looked awesome against Louisville.  I am sure many will be jumping on to the D’Eriq King bandwagon now and rightfully so.  He looked like money and could be the difference maker that the Canes have needed for years now to get over the hump.  As for the Cardinals, I wouldn’t worry.  They are ahead of their gameplan under Scott Satterfield so expect them to still have a winning record this season.
• College Gameday was in Louisville this past weekend.   And where are they going this coming weekend?  Miami, who played Louisville this past Saturday and will host Florida State this weekend.  I get it: it’s to ease up the travel for Kirk Herbstreit to get from the Gameday set to the ABC primetime game location (or wherever he ends up calling a game on Saturdays).  Saying that, I still think they should go places they have never gone before.  With no fans, who cares if Herbie is actually there?  Let him join via satellite when he needs to.  So saying this, I think Week 5’s College Gameday should emanate from Cincinnati for the first time to see the Bearcats host USF.
• Notre Dame is a good ACC team.  I’m not kidding!  Savour this as this may be the only year we can ever say that.
• A week after Louisiana helped the Sun Belt to their best week ever with their upset of Iowa State, they struggled mightily with fellow conference member, Georgia State.  The Panthers kept things very close and the Ragin’ Cajuns had to pull out all the stops to win in overtime.  Man, the Sun Belt is going to be a surprisingly fun conference to watch this season.
• I regretted it last year for a bit and I may do so again this season.  UCF looked mighty good in their win over Georgia Tech and their option offense normal pro-style offense.  I know it’s just Georgia Tech so I have to temper things a bit.  Saying that, I am already regretting my choice of Appalachian State as the Group of Five representative in the New Year’s Six.  UCF could prove me wrong once again and it wouldn’t surprise me one bit.
• Oh Dino Babers.  Syracuse really has not looked good so far this season.  Two seasons ago, it looked like Babers was really building something in Syracuse.  Instead, that season is looking like an anomaly that was all caused by the presence of Eric Dungey.  An 0-2 start to the 2020 season is putting Dino on a serious hot seat.  If things doesn’t improve, Babers will not get another season to attempt to rectify the issues surrounding the program.
• UTSA is 2-0!  Another thing we may never say again (no offense Roadrunner fans).  So embrace it.
• Look, do you want to know how small the schedule still is?  Texas State and ULM got to play on ESPNU…on Saturday afternoon.  Yeah.
• How about what went down in the bayou?  Navy was down 24-0 to Tulane with 7 minutes left in the third quarter.  I was starting to think I was so wrong about this team and that the lack of practices really hurt the Midshipmen.  Instead, they scored the final 27 points of the game to complete the biggest comeback in Navy history (in football).  So we cannot count them out when it comes to the American race.  Also, Army-Navy looks like it could be something seriously special this season, despite the fact it will share the schedule for the first time in a long time.
• Marshall beat Appalachian State.  Doesn’t feel like an upset despite my thoughts about App State.  Doc Halladay continues to do wonders in Huntington with this program.  Maybe, just maybe, the Thundering Herd have to be considered a dark horse contender for the NY6.  If the Mountain West decides not to have a Fall season (and that is still up in the air), the Group of Five race could be very wide open.
• Southern Miss has had a ROUGH start to their season.  They looked hapless in their opener against South Alabama and Jay Hopson ended up resigning before he was fired.  But things looked up on Saturday as the Golden Eagles were taking it to Louisiana Tech for most of the game.  Then LaTech starts their comeback from down 17 and a spectacular catch by Griffin Hebert on fourth-and-goal with only 14 seconds left that had to be reviewed and overturned sunk Southern Miss.  This could be a tough time in Hattiesburg this season.

So really it did end up being a fun day of college football despite having much fewer games to watch.  I am sure my remote control was happy…more like happier.  As for my Top 25, I won’t do one yet.  I don’t think it’s fair to rank teams when the season is in flux like it has been and will be for at least another month.  Once the Big Ten is about to begin their season I will do my first set of rankings.  Otherwise there will be way too much movement and teams will move down the rankings for having the audacity to watch the Big Ten (and perhaps other conferences) just decide to play football.  How dare they!

I will go back to the regular schedule this week.  College football schedule Thursday.  NFL schedule Friday.  Have a good week everyone.