Best of College Football: Week 3
Best/Worst of Week 3
Best: Georgia having a “pink out” for Wendy Anderson, the wife of Arkansas State head coach Blake Anderson, who died from breast cancer last month, in their 55-0 win over the Red Wolves.
Worst: Pat Narduzzi electing to kick a 19-yard field goal while down 17-10 with less than five minutes left in the fourth quarter. Granted, Pitt couldn’t score in three tries from the one-yard line, but their defense had been playing well all game and Penn State would have gotten the ball at their own one if they managed to hold the Panthers again. Kicker Alex Kessman clanged the chip shot field goal off the upright, and Pitt ended up losing after a last-second pass fell incomplete.
Best: This play from Mississippi State QB Garrett Shrader
This effort didn't result in a first down…BUT OH MY GOODNESS. pic.twitter.com/qdKpKldiRG
— CBS Sports HQ (@CBSSportsHQ) September 14, 2019
Worst: This play from Iowa State’s special teams
Two Iowa State teammates ran into each other and fumbled the punt return to close the game 😬
— Bleacher Report CFB (@BR_CFB) September 15, 2019
(via @CBSSportsHQ)pic.twitter.com/nnpLfaoCpy
Best: Southern Mississippi led Troy 26-21 going into the fourth quarter, then all hell broke loose. After Golden Eagles receiver Neil McLauren connected with Jordan Mitchell on a 51-yard touchdown pass to extend the lead to 33-21, Troy returned the ensuing kickoff 69 yards for another score. Not to be outdone, Southern Miss returned the next kickoff 100 yards to complete a sequence of three touchdowns scored in just 25 seconds of game time. Three more touchdowns were traded in the quarter, both teams scored 21 points in the fourth, in a 47-42 win for Southern Miss. Quarterbacks Jack Abraham and Kaleb Barker combined for 967 yards and six touchdowns in the game.
Worst: Michigan State kicker Matt Coghlin missed field goals of 47 and 31 yards in the second quarter, and he would’ve made a 42 yarder in the fourth quarter to send the game to overtime…..except the Spartans had 12 men on the field. So Coghlin lined up for another 47-yard attempt, and missed again to give Arizona State a 10-7 win over Michigan State. In saying that, the Spartans likely should’ve had one more attempt after a Sun Devil player appeared to jump the snapper.
Best: Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze spent Week 1 coaching from a hospital bed in a press box, and Week 2 coaching from a medical chair. This week, Freeze was able to sit on the sidelines in his own “elevated seating area”. After having surgery due to a potentially life-threatening strand of staph infection just one month ago, it’s nice to see Freeze able to coach from the sidelines again.
Worst: Georgia Tech being a 27-point favorite and losing to an FCS team that runs a triple-option offense, even if it is the same FCS team (The Citadel) that was tied 10-10 with Alabama at halftime last season. This wasn’t the Bulldogs team that was supposed to beat the Yellow Jackets at home, they visit Atlanta on November 30th.
Top Games of Week 4
(10) Utah at USC
(11) Michigan at (13) Wisconsin
(8) Auburn at (17) Texas A&M
(22) Washington at BYU
SMU at (25) TCU
West Virginia at Kansas
(16) Oregon at Stanford
(7) Notre Dame at (3) Georgia
Three Stars of Week 3
1) Tua Tagovailoa, QB, Alabama
28/36, 444 Yds, 5 TD
Alabama had a 69-game streak of reaching at least 100 yards rushing as a team snapped in their 47-23 win over South Carolina. With the way Tagovailoa was throwing the ball, it didn’t matter too much. Three of his touchdown passes came in the first half, and he added one in both the third and fourth quarters to keep the Tide ahead in a game that could’ve been a lot closer. Tagovailoa became the first Crimson Tide player to throw for 400 yards and five touchdowns in the same game, and his 444 yards is good for third-most in school history. Alabama doesn’t face LSU until November 9th, but it’s looking like the game might end up being a shootout… just like we all predicted.
2) JK Dobbins, RB, Ohio State
22 Att, 193 Yds, TD; 2 Rec, 14 Yds, TD
Indiana has done a good job at playing Ohio State close in recent years, at least for one half anyway, but an offense led by Dobbins and QB Justin Fields rushed out to a 30-3 lead in the first half and never looked back. Dobbins rushed for 175 yards in the first half, including a 26-yard touchdown on a play where he broke six tackles. He ended up on the bench the rest of the game after catching a 4-yard touchdown early in the third quarter. Dobbins will look to replicate his numbers next week against Miami (OH).
3) Kaleb Barker, QB, Troy
29/43, 504 Yds, 4 TD
We mentioned the Southern Mississippi-Troy game earlier, and even though the Trojans ended up losing, Barker did his best to keep his team in the game. He threw three of his four touchdowns in the second half, two in the fourth quarter, and did an excellent job spreading the ball around as four Troy receivers had at least 100 receiving yards. Barker set a school record for passing yards while becoming the first Trojan QB to eclipse the 500-yard mark, an accomplishment made even more impressive since he had never thrown for more than 300 yards in a game during his college career.
Honorable Mentions
Jalen Hurts, QB, Oklahoma: 15/20, 289 Yds, 3 TD; 14 rush Att, 150 Yds, TD
Dillon Gabriel, QB, UCF: 22/30, 347 Yds, 4 TD
Ian Book, QB, Notre Dame: 15/24, 360 Yds, 5 TD
Malcom Perry, QB, Navy: 5/7, 151 Yds, 2 TD; 24 rush Att, 156 Yds, 4 TD
Chuba Hubbard, RB, Oklahoma State: 32 Att, 256 Yds, 3 TD
TJ McDaniel, RB, SMU: 8 Att, 159 Yds, 3 TD
Darius Anderson, RB, TCU: 16 Att, 179 Yds, 2 TD
LeVante Bellamy, RB, Western Michigan: 15 Att, 192 Yds, 3 TD
Champ Flemings, WR, Oregon State: 5 Rec, 142 Yds, 2 TD
Quez Watkins, WR, Southern Miss: 7 Rec, 209 Yds, 2 TD
Antonio Gandy-Golden, WR, Liberty: 8 Rec, 174 Yds, 2 TD
Tyler Johnson, WR, Minnesota: 10 Rec, 140 Yds, 3 TD
Kansas Jayhawks Offense: 48 Points, 329 Rush Yards, 1st road win over a P5 opponent since 2008 (48 games)
Image Credit: Scott Taetsch/Getty Images
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