College Football Top 25- Week 3

What a weekend for college football. This is shaping up to be one of the most unique seasons we’ve had in a while, as powerhouses such as Clemson and Ohio State see themselves at .500, and surprise teams such as Cincinnati continue to hold strong in the top 10. Oregon returns to the glory of the Mariota days, Iowa continues to dominate the Hawkeye state rivalry, and Notre Dame proved yet again they are the most overrated team in the nation. There is a lot to unpack here, so let’s get into it.

If the season ended tomorrow, the 4 teams in the College Football Playoff should be Georgia, Alabama, Oregon, and Iowa. How can anybody debate that? Georgia took on UAB at home without star quarterback JT Daniels and easily won 56-7. While they aren’t a real threat to the top teams in the nation, UAB is a pretty solid Group of 5 opponent, so Georgia’s dominance was somewhat impressive. (On a side note: if you don’t know the story of UAB football, I highly recommend looking it up. Head coach Bill Clark is a hero down there, I expect a 30 for 30 soon.) Meanwhile, Alabama extended one of the most impressive streaks in college football, beating their 99th consecutive unranked opponent, Mercer, 48-14. That’s right, Alabama hasn’t lost to an unranked team since November 24, 2007, when the Auburn Tigers defeated them 17-10. The previous record was 72 straight wins, which Alabama broke in 2017. This level of dominance is perhaps the most impressive the sports world has ever seen. Georgia and Alabama are a given. How Alabama has 60 first place votes compared to Georgia's 3 is beyond me, but they are undisputed at 1 and 2.

Just when we thought this season was going to be yet another 5-team race of Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Ohio State, and Oklahoma, the underdogs rise up and take back control. Oregon played the best football of any team in the country this week. They were disciplined, organized, and not at all intimidated by this Buckeyes squad. Quarterback CJ Stroud, however, looked very unnerved, and the play calling reflected that.

It's early in the game on a 4th and 7. Take a look at the first down marker. The Oregon defensive backs are all aware of exactly where Ohio State needs to get to on the field, and they just play right in front of it. Now look at where the Ohio State receivers are playing. Both players running slant routes are 3 yards behind the line to gain, curious positioning on a 4th down. Honestly, this tells me that Ryan Day just does not have faith in his quarterback. He would rather force his receivers to make a play in open field than put them at the marker, which would likely necessitate a tight throw from Stroud. The Buckeyes did not convert this 4th down, and you have to wonder what was going through Ryan Day’s head there. Either way, the Ducks played that absolutely perfectly.

On offense, Oregon crushed Ohio State in the run game, and a lot of that had to do with the Buckeyes inability to cover the run pass option. Take this 77-yard touchdown run from CJ Verdell, for example.

The run pass option play is a designed play that will be successful with either a run or a pass depending on how the defense plays. The quarterback has a split second to read the defense, usually just 1 or 2 players, to determine whether a run or a pass will be more successful, hence the “option”. On this play, the option is between handing the ball off to the running back or pulling the ball back from the handoff and throwing it to the tight end who comes across in motion before the play. Ohio State’s defensive end doesn’t try to rush into the backfield, instead he chooses to stay put, waiting for the quarterback to roll out on the pass. Unfortunately for Ohio State, the middle linebacker also bites on the pass, following the tight end in motion. With the pass covered and the middle of the field wide open, quarterback Anthony Brown chooses to rush the ball and hands off to CJ Verdell. Oregon’s right tackle makes a key block, and Verdell runs right past the one man to beat. 21-7 Ducks. This happened all day long, and it’s one of the biggest reasons Oregon was able to win this football game.

Oregon easily deserves the 3 spot, but Ohio State barely deserves the top 10. Between not having much confidence in Stroud and their defense getting run over two weeks in a row, I just don’t know where to put this team. I expect the Buckeyes to be able to turn things around, so I put them at 10 for now, but they need to right the ship quickly.

I am not sure if I am more impressed with Iowa or more disappointed in Iowa State, so I’m splitting it in half. I think Iowa has one of the best defenses in the country, and I also think Iowa State blew this game. I have a running list of quarterbacks who get a ton of hype but are really just barely average (Brian Lewerke, Connor Cook, Adrian Martinez, Christian Hackenberg, Bryce Petty, Josh Rosen, etc.), and Brock Purdy might just be the poster child for this club of washups. This is an Iowa State team that returned 10 starters on offense, including Purdy and star running back Breece Hall. At the beginning of the season, I would’ve said they formed one of the best returning QB/RB duos in the nation, but as it turns out, they are the reason Iowa State lost this game. Purdy had 3 interceptions and Hall lost a fumble at his own 5-yard line, which was then returned for a touchdown. The worst part for the Cyclones is this game was entirely winnable thanks to their defense. Listen to these game stats: Iowa State outgained Iowa by 166 yards, had 146 more passing yards, almost 2 more yards per play, had 10 more first downs, and they ended up losing 27-17! If I am a defensive player for Iowa State, I am entering my name in the transfer portal tomorrow. You just can’t lose a game like that when you have every advantage possible, especially when Iowa has one of the worst starting quarterbacks in the country leading their offense. This was such a winnable game for Iowa State, I just can’t believe they lost.

As for Iowa, their defense will keep them in any game they want, but Spencer Petras needs some improvement. I’m not sure how you can expect to win games with a QB who goes 11/21 for 106 yards. I put them at 4 because I think they have one of the top resumes in the country so far, but I’m not sure I expect them to stay there for long. That’s one of the biggest differences you’ll see between my poll and the AP Poll. I don’t care if I think a team can’t sustain their success, my rankings are based on what has happened so far this season. Iowa over Oklahoma is a perfect example of that. At the end of the year, Oklahoma is much more likely to be ranked higher than Iowa, but Oklahoma looked bad last week, and I really couldn’t care less about a team who schedules an awful FCS program who is 16-39 in their last five seasons. I’m not saying the Sooners are bad, but they just have not been very impressive so far, so putting them over Oregon and Iowa isn’t fair given their resumes at this point in the season.

Oregon and Iowa were the picks I really wanted to explain the most, so in the interest of brevity I’ll keep the rest of my analysis to bullets:

• Cincinnati and Coastal Carolina continue to get no respect despite the fact that they both have better quarterbacks than all but maybe 3 schools on this list. If they keep winning, I expect both to be in the Top 10 very soon.

• Remember when I said last week Notre Dame is extremely overrated? Well they almost lost to Toledo at home. Continue to fade the Irish.

• Arizona State is the newest riser in what looks to be a revamped Pac-12 Conference. Head coach Herm Edwards has his team in great shape as they head to face BYU next week.

• Michigan looked impressive once again in a big win against Washington. Running back Blake Corum leads the nation in all-purpose yards. Look for them to continue to roll until they face a tough matchup with Wisconsin on October 2nd.

• Arkansas belongs in the top 25 after beating Texas this week, but I’m not sure how the Longhorns fell from 15 to 36 in the AP Poll. Yes, it was a bad loss, but UNC didn’t drop that far when they lost to Virginia Tech. Just doesn’t seem right.

There you have it. Saloon Takes Week 3 Top 25. Next week is void of any really big games outside of Penn State vs Auburn and Arizona State vs BYU, so expect things to look somewhat similar in Week 4. If you enjoyed reading, feel free to send this to friends and sign up with your email to get notified when I post again!