We've covered Mizzou's 30-27 win over Kansas State every way we can think of. Here are my thoughts on the rest of what went on around the country:
1) So, maybe the SEC East is gonna be pretty interesting. Georgia trailed South Carolina 14-3 at halftime before winning 24-14. The Bulldogs are 3-0, but it's getting late to say it's early and Georgia hasn't been super impressive so far. It's really hard to threepeat. UGA is still the best team in the division and I'm not sure it's close but I'm also not sure they can't lose a game or two along the way. Meanwhile in Gainesville, Florida held Tennessee to its third-lowest point total in the Josh Heupel era in a 29-16 Gator win. We know who the worst team in the East is (more on that later), but from 2-6, it depends on the day and Georgia isn't invincible. I'd still pick the Bulldogs to win the division, but I'm not sure who I'd take second right now.
2) The SEC West might not be drama free either. The "dynasty is over" talk has risen to a low roar in Tuscaloosa after Alabama put out a pretty dreadful performance in a 17-3 win over USF. LSU steamrolled Mississippi State behind Jayden Daniels going 30/34 for 364 and two touchdowns and running for another 64 and two scores. Don't count Ole Miss and Texas A&M out of this conversation either.
3) Eli Drinkwitz is no longer on the hottest seat in the SEC. He's now in a position where it would be absolutely shocking if we were having a conversation about his job security at the end of the year. He's been replaced by one of two guys. Sam Pittman and Arkansas lost to BYU in Fayetteville 38-31. Here are the Razorbacks' next four games: at LSU, vs Texas A&M, at Ole Miss, at Alabama. They're staring 2-5 directly in the face.
The other candidate is Clark Lea, whose Vanderbilt team lost 40-37 to UNLV on a last-second field goal (insert Barry Odom finally beat Vandy joke here). The Commodores blew a 17-0 lead and mismanaged the hell out of the final few minutes in what I can only describe as the best bad football game I've watched in a long time.
4) It was a bad, bad day for the Big 12. Iowa State lost to Ohio. Cincinnati fell to Miami (OH). Oklahoma State carried the banner of brutality in a 33-7 loss to South Alabama (FWIW, USA coach Kane Wommack would have been on my hot board if I'd had to make one). Kansas barely beat Nevada and Texas struggled with Wyoming for a while. The Big 12's playoff hopes reside almost exclusively in Austin.
5) Nobody had a worse week than Michigan State. The Spartans added on to the whole "our coach had phone sex which may or may not have been consensual with an advocate for the rights of sexual abuse victims" storyline with a completely uncompetitive 41-7 loss to Washington in which Michael Penix Jr. (early Heisman leader) threw for another 473 yards and four touchdowns. It's gonna be an absolute trainwreck of a next three months in East Lansing.
6) Colorado is still undefeated, but won't stay that way long. The Buffs have been the biggest story in college football. After two wins that caught the eyes of the college football world, both major pregame shows were in Boulder. CU survived a bad Colorado State team 43-35 in double overtime. Considering where the program was nine months ago, it's not a bad result, just a reminder that year one under Deion Sanders won't be without some speedbumps. They're going to start soon. CU is at Oregon and home for USC in the next two weeks.
7) Iowa scored 41 points! The Hawkeyes beat Western Michigan, which I can only assume has the worst defense in the history of organized football, 41-10. They have 85 points in three games, which brings the season average to 28.3. Brian Ferentz is on track to both average 25 points and win seven games, which means he gets to work for his dad for another year. It was the most points Iowa has scored since a 51-14 win over Maryland on October 1, 2021 and, yes, I absolutely am going to update the Ferentz tracker every week in this space.
8) Mizzou opponent tracker:
Middle Tennessee: Beat Murray State 35-14, host Colorado State this weekend
Memphis: Beat Navy 28-24, but didn't look great. The Tigers are 3-0 ahead of next week's game
Vanderbilt: Lost 40-37 to UNLV, now 2-2 on the year, host Kentucky next weekend
LSU: 2-1 after a 41-14 win over Mississippi State. Host Arkansas Saturday
Kentucky: Moved to 3-0 with a 35-3 win over Akron, at Vandy Saturday
South Carolina: Fell to 1-2 with the loss to Georgia, host Mississippi State next weekend
Georgia: Beat South Carolina, now 3-0, host UAB
Tennessee: 2-1 after the loss at Florida, host UTSA
Florida: 2-1 after beating the Vols, host Charlotte
Arkansas: 2-1 after the loss to BYU, at LSU
9) Stock report
Stock up: Miami, PAC 12 playoff hopes, parity across the country, Neal Brown's job security
Stock down: Blue bloods, Buffalo, Virginia Tech, Stanford
10) Five games I'll follow outside of Mizzou vs Memphis:
Florida State at Clemson, 11 am, ABC: The Noles could have lost to Boston College, but I'm thinking that's a look ahead performance. This should be a good one.
Ole Miss at Alabama, 2:30 pm, CBS: I think the Tide wins. But I mostly think the Tide wins because it's Alabama. Ole Miss has been the better team so far.
UCLA at Utah, 2:30 pm, TBD: I think the Utes win but this is their first test. The PAC-12 is going to be by far the most fun conference to follow this year.
Ohio State at Notre Dame, 6:30 pm, NBC: This one's gonna be fun.
Iowa at Penn State, 6:30 pm, CBS: If Penn State's a real contender, it doesn't stumble here.
1) So, maybe the SEC East is gonna be pretty interesting. Georgia trailed South Carolina 14-3 at halftime before winning 24-14. The Bulldogs are 3-0, but it's getting late to say it's early and Georgia hasn't been super impressive so far. It's really hard to threepeat. UGA is still the best team in the division and I'm not sure it's close but I'm also not sure they can't lose a game or two along the way. Meanwhile in Gainesville, Florida held Tennessee to its third-lowest point total in the Josh Heupel era in a 29-16 Gator win. We know who the worst team in the East is (more on that later), but from 2-6, it depends on the day and Georgia isn't invincible. I'd still pick the Bulldogs to win the division, but I'm not sure who I'd take second right now.
2) The SEC West might not be drama free either. The "dynasty is over" talk has risen to a low roar in Tuscaloosa after Alabama put out a pretty dreadful performance in a 17-3 win over USF. LSU steamrolled Mississippi State behind Jayden Daniels going 30/34 for 364 and two touchdowns and running for another 64 and two scores. Don't count Ole Miss and Texas A&M out of this conversation either.
3) Eli Drinkwitz is no longer on the hottest seat in the SEC. He's now in a position where it would be absolutely shocking if we were having a conversation about his job security at the end of the year. He's been replaced by one of two guys. Sam Pittman and Arkansas lost to BYU in Fayetteville 38-31. Here are the Razorbacks' next four games: at LSU, vs Texas A&M, at Ole Miss, at Alabama. They're staring 2-5 directly in the face.
The other candidate is Clark Lea, whose Vanderbilt team lost 40-37 to UNLV on a last-second field goal (insert Barry Odom finally beat Vandy joke here). The Commodores blew a 17-0 lead and mismanaged the hell out of the final few minutes in what I can only describe as the best bad football game I've watched in a long time.
4) It was a bad, bad day for the Big 12. Iowa State lost to Ohio. Cincinnati fell to Miami (OH). Oklahoma State carried the banner of brutality in a 33-7 loss to South Alabama (FWIW, USA coach Kane Wommack would have been on my hot board if I'd had to make one). Kansas barely beat Nevada and Texas struggled with Wyoming for a while. The Big 12's playoff hopes reside almost exclusively in Austin.
5) Nobody had a worse week than Michigan State. The Spartans added on to the whole "our coach had phone sex which may or may not have been consensual with an advocate for the rights of sexual abuse victims" storyline with a completely uncompetitive 41-7 loss to Washington in which Michael Penix Jr. (early Heisman leader) threw for another 473 yards and four touchdowns. It's gonna be an absolute trainwreck of a next three months in East Lansing.
6) Colorado is still undefeated, but won't stay that way long. The Buffs have been the biggest story in college football. After two wins that caught the eyes of the college football world, both major pregame shows were in Boulder. CU survived a bad Colorado State team 43-35 in double overtime. Considering where the program was nine months ago, it's not a bad result, just a reminder that year one under Deion Sanders won't be without some speedbumps. They're going to start soon. CU is at Oregon and home for USC in the next two weeks.
7) Iowa scored 41 points! The Hawkeyes beat Western Michigan, which I can only assume has the worst defense in the history of organized football, 41-10. They have 85 points in three games, which brings the season average to 28.3. Brian Ferentz is on track to both average 25 points and win seven games, which means he gets to work for his dad for another year. It was the most points Iowa has scored since a 51-14 win over Maryland on October 1, 2021 and, yes, I absolutely am going to update the Ferentz tracker every week in this space.
8) Mizzou opponent tracker:
Middle Tennessee: Beat Murray State 35-14, host Colorado State this weekend
Memphis: Beat Navy 28-24, but didn't look great. The Tigers are 3-0 ahead of next week's game
Vanderbilt: Lost 40-37 to UNLV, now 2-2 on the year, host Kentucky next weekend
LSU: 2-1 after a 41-14 win over Mississippi State. Host Arkansas Saturday
Kentucky: Moved to 3-0 with a 35-3 win over Akron, at Vandy Saturday
South Carolina: Fell to 1-2 with the loss to Georgia, host Mississippi State next weekend
Georgia: Beat South Carolina, now 3-0, host UAB
Tennessee: 2-1 after the loss at Florida, host UTSA
Florida: 2-1 after beating the Vols, host Charlotte
Arkansas: 2-1 after the loss to BYU, at LSU
9) Stock report
Stock up: Miami, PAC 12 playoff hopes, parity across the country, Neal Brown's job security
Stock down: Blue bloods, Buffalo, Virginia Tech, Stanford
10) Five games I'll follow outside of Mizzou vs Memphis:
Florida State at Clemson, 11 am, ABC: The Noles could have lost to Boston College, but I'm thinking that's a look ahead performance. This should be a good one.
Ole Miss at Alabama, 2:30 pm, CBS: I think the Tide wins. But I mostly think the Tide wins because it's Alabama. Ole Miss has been the better team so far.
UCLA at Utah, 2:30 pm, TBD: I think the Utes win but this is their first test. The PAC-12 is going to be by far the most fun conference to follow this year.
Ohio State at Notre Dame, 6:30 pm, NBC: This one's gonna be fun.
Iowa at Penn State, 6:30 pm, CBS: If Penn State's a real contender, it doesn't stumble here.
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