Since this week did not have a single matchup with ranked teams, it might seem like anything coming out of this week was much ado about nothing. While some of it might be, I do think this week had some impactful games with meaningful results. In this article, I will talk about what all mattered this week.

Herm Edwards Proving Doubters Wrong

When Arizona State hired Herm Edwards after the 2017 season, I and many others had quite a few questions. Before his debut season in Tempe in 2018, Edwards had not coached football at any level since 2008 when he was fired by the Kansas City Chiefs. I thought that this hire would certainly fail as Edwards had extremely limited coaching experience in college and has been out of the game for so long. As of now, it looks like I might have to eat crow on that. While the Sun Devils went an uneventful 7-6 last season, they are now 3-0 in 2019. Last week was another big win for Arizona State as they won an ugly game at Michigan State. It was sloppy, but the Sun Devils were able to win on the road against a ranked team.

While I thought that Arizona State might have just succeeded last season due to their immense skill position talent, it is now looking like Edwards is a good talent developer. Arizona State is already seeing a lot of younger players be big contributors on the team. The most known example of this is true freshman quarterback Jayden Daniels. Through three games, Daniels has completed 61% of his passes for 728 yards on 9.5 yards per attempt. Daniels also has yet to throw an interception this season and has added 75 rushing yards. Daniels played well on Arizona State’s final scoring drive in the fourth quarter, completing 4/7 passes for 52 yards and adding another 27 rushing yards, showing a lot of poise for a true freshman while making some big plays. While Daniels is quite talented I think a big reason for his success, and the success of any true freshman quarterback, is having confidence instilled in them by their coach. Arizona State’s 2018 recruiting class is also already producing numerous key contributors. Brandon Aiyuk has been a key target for Daniels and has 302 receiving yards so far and is a very good deep threat. On defense, Merlin Robertson has been a key contributor at safety, as has Aashari Crosswell. Jermayne Lole is another playmaker at defensive end.

I think Edwards is showing his ability to develop players and put them in great position to succeed. It will be interesting to see how the rest of this season. I think Arizona State is going to be a dangerous team and they also do quite well in big games. Under Edwards, the Sun Devils are 4-2 against the spread when playing ranked teams and have three outright victories.

UCF Can Hang

While UCF has not lost a regular season game since 2016, there are many reasons people have doubted them. The fact that they do not play in a Power Five conference hurts their reputation, as has their occasional struggles to get by AAC opponents. Their biggest knock in my opinion is that they have never beaten a traditionally good Power Five opponent in the regular season. Their Peach Bowl win over Auburn in 2017 was very impressive, but the game has been dismissed by people saying Auburn was not motivated to play (they have a point but I still think a win is a win and it is dumb to dismiss it). While they blew out Pittsburgh last season, that Pittsburgh team went just 7-7. With Stanford coming to town, the Knights knew this was a prime opportunity as it was the biggest name program they faced in the regular season since their run.

UCF beat Stanford on Saturday by a score of 45-27 but they were ahead 28-7 at the end of the first quarter and never saw their win probability slip below 97.9% after that. Dillon Gabriel looks like a star in the making at quarterback for the Knights. The true freshman from Hawaii completed 22/30 passes for 347 yards and four touchdowns. Gabriel came out of nowhere in camp to take the job and has more than seized the opportunity. Gabriel is very accurate as a passer and also plays with a lot more field vision and awareness than one would expect from a true freshman. It will be interesting to see how he develops as the season goes along. Greg McCrae added 109 yards on the ground on just 11 carries. Richie Grant and the secondary had a good day as they held Stanford to less than five yards per passing attempt and a completion percentage of less than 50%. After that win, UCF again looks like the favorite to be the Group of Five representative in the NY6 Bowls.

Clay Helton’s Seat is Warmer

After thrashing Stanford 45-20 in week 2, it seemed like USC head coach Clay Helton took some pressure off of himself. Unfortunately, all of that went down the drain as USC fell at BYU on Saturday. After playing very well against Stanford, true freshman quarterback Kedon Slovis fell back to earth as he threw three interceptions including one that sealed the game for BYU in overtime. I think Slovis still has potential but occasional games like this are almost a guarantee for a true freshman quarterback. USC’s offensive line is better than last season’s but it still needs some work. Turnovers plagued USC this game as did the fact that they were just 6/17 on third down. On defense, USC allowed to many big plays as BYU had 12 gains of at least 15 yards. This was a game that USC should be expected to win. USC’s next three games are all against ranked opponents, and I worry the Clay Helton will be fired by then.

Penn State Needs Some Work Still

Over the last few years, Penn State has been a consistently good program in the Big 10. The team has always had star power offensively and a strong defense. Over the past couple seasons, the Nittany Lions have had a big changing of the guard on offense as the stars who led them to two straight NY6 Bowls all went on to the NFL. This has put a lot of pressure on many of the well renowned recruits head coach James Franklin has brought in. While some have, others have not and Penn State does not look like they have reached their full potential as a team because of it. A lot of this was evidenced in their game against Pittsburgh on Saturday. Penn State might have won, but there are still some concerns as they beat a meddling Pittsburgh team just 17-10 at home and Pittsburgh had an opportunity to tie it at the end of the game.

The Nittany Lions did very well stopping the run against Pittsburgh, allowing less than one yard per rush. Penn State has a very talented front seven that has greatly elevated the play of this defense. Where they struggled was defending the pass. Pittsburgh had 372 yards through the air and they had two players with at least 90 receiving yards. While Penn State does not play any quarterbacks who’s passing abilities should strike absolute fear in an opponent, Pittsburgh was not a team that fit that bill either and they had a lot of success through the air against Penn State. If the secondary can improve, Penn State’s defense could be near or at the top of the Big 10.

On offense, the Nittany Lions have actually had success through the air with a new starter at quarterback. Sean Clifford struggled a bit against Pittsburgh but did very well in the first two games of the season. Clifford also has a touchdown to interception ratio of 6/0 and can make plays with his legs. Where Penn State struggles on offense is on the ground. After Miles Sanders went to the NFL, Ricky Slade looked to be the next guy up. He has been a bit underwhelming so far. Journey Brown ran for 109 yards against Pittsburgh which is impressive, but an 85 yard touchdown is included in that. If not for that touchdown, Penn State would have barely averaged two yards per carry. When they go into the thick of Big 10 play, Penn State can not afford to be one dimensional offensively. I think this team has tremendous talent, they just need to piece it all together. Also I just have to say that it is disappointing that Pittsburgh and Penn State’s rivalry will not be played for the near future and they should play every year.

Virginia Tech is Not That Good

Virginia Tech made a bowl game by the skin of their teeth in 2018 as they had to beat rival Virginia and beat Marshall in a weather make up game to get to six wins. Their loss in the Military Bowl gave the Hokies their first losing season since 1992. While that did not inspire confidence, Virginia Tech returned a lot of talent from last season and looked as though they would have more success in 2019. During the offseason, some less inspiring news came out of Blacksburg. To start things off, Virginia Tech had an astounding 16 players leave the program via the transfer portal. If that was not enough, there were also reports surfacing that players on the team were hoping they would lose their last regular season game so the season would end.

In their season opener, Virginia Tech got bullied on defense by Boston College. Virginia Tech struggled defensively in 2018, but they returned 10 starters. After that loss, the Hokies have had two uninspiring wins over Old Dominion and Furman. Against Furman on Saturday, the Hokies trailed 14-3 at halftime and had to claw back to win 24-17. Virginia Tech has clearly been playing below their talent level. Ryan Willis is a solid quarterback, they have some talent at receiver, and their defense has experience and is coached by a terrific defensive coordinator in Bud Foster. I fear that head coach Justin Fuente has lost the locker room. Virginia Tech has had a worse record overall and in ACC play in each of Fuente’s three seasons and they need to reverse that this season if he wants to stick around.

Maryland Hype Was a bit Much

Maryland kind of has a thing for starting off the season well. Since 2014 and counting this season, Maryland has and 11-1 record in their first two games and sit at 9-3 against the spread. In that same time frame, they have started 3-1 or better four times not counting this season (since they have played three games). They have just two Bowl berths in that time. Maryland tends to fall off after the first couple weeks and definitely by the end of September.

This season seemed different though as Maryland thrashed Howard 79-7 in their opener and beat a ranked Syracuse 63-20 in week two. After that, they went into their matchup with Temple on Saturday ranked in the top 25 for the first time since 2013. Unfortunately for the Terrapins, the hype seems to have fallen flat yet again as they lost at Temple 20-17. Maryland put up 60 points in their first two games, but struggled quite a bit offensively agonist Temple. Josh Jackson did well in the first two games but completed just 39% of his passes on Saturday for less than five yards per attempt. While Maryland does not have a ton of receiver talent, it still is a bad look to have the passing stats Jackson had Saturday. Anthony McFarland held things down well at running back with 132 rushing yards. Defensively, Maryland actually played pretty well too. The Terrapins had an impressive two safeties on the day. Maryland’s defense also stopped Temple on 11/14 third down attempts and forced three turnovers. Where things went wrong was when they allowed a couple of big plays and let Temple grind away and score on a six minute drive in the fourth quarter that ended with Maryland’s cornerbacks getting caught napping on a touchdown pass. Still, the defense played their part. On offense, the Terrapins were just 5/21 on third down and 1/6 on fourth down. Four of the five missed fourth down conversions came in the red zone. Maryland also missed a field goal from a manageable 42 yards. While Maryland might not be a top 25 team, they still can be solid if they just learn to finish off drives.

Iowa State Might Not be That Good

The biggest game of this weekend was probably the Cy-Hawk Classic between Iowa and Iowa State. This game was fully set up to be an all out slog as there were multiple long delays due to the inclement weather and they played on a wet field. The first half was especially ugly as six straight drives ended in either a punt or turnover as Iowa State led 7-6 at the half. Iowa State scored quick out of the locker room as Brock Purdy hit Tarique Milton for a 73 yard touchdown less than a minute into the third quarter. After that, there were mostly long drives. Iowa was able to turn those into points while Iowa State did not. The Cyclones looked to have one last shot to score when Iowa was punting to them with 1:29 left in the game. Unfortunately on the play, Datrone Young ran into Deshaunte Jones who was about to field the punt. The ball hit off the back of Young and Iowa recovered. That muffed punt eliminated the opportunity for Iowa State to have another try and Iowa was able to kneel out the clock.

Iowa State was in the lead for over 40 minutes of game time. Where things went wrong for Iowa State was that they allowed Iowa to sit on the ball in the second half and also saw their drives stall out at the same time. On offense, I think Iowa State needs to find a reliable running back. Tarique Milton and Deshaunte Jones have established themselves as solid receivers but no running back has stepped up. They also can not let teams hang around like they did with UNI in their opening game. I think Iowa State is showing more cracks than what most people had thought originally, but they have just played two games and this season is far from over.

Florida and Kentucky are Good, Not Great

The most exciting game that I watched this weekend was probably the matchup between Florida and Kentucky. This rivalry has amped up a bit recently as it has had some exciting matchups the last few years. Florida struck first on a touchdown pass from Feleipe Franks to Freddie Swain, but Kentucky answered back as Ahmad Wagner brought down a circus catch for a touchdown and Sawyer Smith ran in another as Kentucky held a 14-7 lead at halftime. With Kentucky up 21-10, things looked much worse for Florida as Franks went down with a dislocated ankle that will keep him out for the rest of the season. With backup Kyle Trask in, the Gators actually battled back and eventually brought home a 29-21 victory as Trask ran in a touchdown to put Florida ahead 22-21 and Josh Hammond added to the lead with a 76 yard touchdown run.

Florida did come out on top this game, but they still have work to do. The run game for Florida did not do well at all. If you take away the 76 yard run by Hammond, Florida barely averaged two yards per carry. This is partially on the running backs but also on the offensive line. The run blocking must improve before Florida plays the likes of LSU and Georgia. The Gators got outplayed by Kentucky for three quarters of this game despite Florida clearly having a talent advantage. Florida did have three interceptions on defense, but they still did not take advantage of a backup quarterback as much as I would have hoped. I think their issues are still fixable though and they should win at least nine games if Kyle Trask can do decent. The offensive line will need to improve in order for Trask to really hit his potential.

Kentucky really gave this game away. Sawyer Smith had good moments at quarterback, but he also threw three interceptions and lost a fumble. On defense, they let Florida beat them through the air too easily. Kentucky will need to improve their secondary if they want to have a defense close to as good as what they had last season. Kentucky also shanked a 35 yard field goal that would have put them in the lead with a minute to go. Kentucky should be a solid team, but will need to make some changes to elevate from that. I also will add that it is stupid when a team is trailing and is clearly trying to set up a field goal. Do not put the whole game on your kicker. At least try to go for a big play.

Some Random Thoughts:

Wake Forest is 3-0 and is really starting to look more and more impressive. With the easy schedule in front of them, Wake Forest will be a team to watch for.

Despite the loss to Wake Forest, Sam Howell did pretty well at quarterback for North Carolina. The true freshman has some serious potential.

Kansas slaughtered Boston College 48-24 Friday night for their first road win over Power Five opponent since 2008. The Jayhawks were led by 182 rushing yards from Khalil Herbert and 121 rushing yards from Pooka Williams.

Washington State is now 3-0 after their win over Houston. The Cougars will be an interesting team to watch once Pac 12 play starts.

JK Dobbins had a big day for Ohio State as he ran for 193 yards in a 51-10 Buckeyes victory over Indiana. Ohio State has looked like a real playoff team so far this season.

Georgia Tech suffered a pretty embarrassing loss as they fell to FCS for and former triple option ally The Citadel. Georgia Tech should think of this as their punishment for not sticking with the triple option.

Mississippi State lost at home to Kansas State, but the highlight of the game was when their quarterback Garrett Shrader took a massive leap of faith to attempt to get a first down. He was hit in the air and absolutely took flight.

So Kansas State might actually be pretty good which would have really surprised me before the season. The Wildcats are 3-0 and boast a pretty strong defense.

Another embarrassing loss this week was Colorado losing to Air Force 30-23 in overtime. I still have faith in Colorado, but their defense needs work. Air Force running back Kadin Remsberg deserves a shoutout as he had 146 rushing yards on the day and linebacker Jeremy Fejedelem also deserves a shout out for putting up 14 total tackles and two tackles for loss.

West Virginia beat North Carolina State 44-27 which was a bit of a surprise. The Mountaineers saw a big day from true freshman receiver Sam James who had 155 receiving yards.

Overall, this was a great weekend for the Big 12 and therefore of course all of College Football.

The ACC is looking pretty bad right now. The whole conference is basically the Bluth family from Arrested Development with Clemson playing the role of Michael. Also Florida State is definitely George and Miami is definitely GOB.

Eastern Michigan beat Illinois which is Eastern Michigan’s third straight win over a Big 10 opponent. Chris Creighton has done an absolutely amazing job there and should get a Power Five job soon.

BYU is starting to look pretty good after their win over USC. Quarterback Zach Wilson can seemingly always make big plays out of nowhere and does a great job leading the offense (the constant Johnny Manziel comparisons by the announcers in the USC game seemed a bit over the top though). Also cornerback Dayan Ghanwoloku also had a monster game.

Minnesota took down Georgia Southern 35-32 on a game winning catch by Tyler Johnson with 13 seconds left. I seriously do not get how Minnesota wins these games.

The way Michigan State lost to Arizona State was pure nightmare fuel. The Spartans hit a field goal to tie things up but then had a penalty for having too many men on the field. Of course once they moved the ball back and had to kick again, it was a wide miss. That was a bit gut wrenching to watch I have to say. Then again, they still probably need to have their luck balance out from having the luckiest college football team I have ever seen during their 2015 playoff run.

Chuba Hubbard had 256 rushing yards for Oklahoma State in their 40-21 win over Tulsa. I am terrified of their matchup with Texas this weekend.

Due to mass injuries at running back, third string quarterback Roschon Johnson is sort of becoming a running back for Texas and actually had 59 rushing yards on 11 carries and 30 receiving yards and a receiving touchdown in Texas’s 48-14 win over Rice.

Florida State just looked like a our dumpster fire in the fourth quarter of their loss at Virginia. First off, the Seminoles allowed 21 points in the fourth quarter as they lost 31-24. They had four personal fouls in the fourth quarter alone. Their players showed no urgency to get to the line on their final drive where they were hoping to tie the game. They also instead of spiking the ball just frantically ran a run play that was stuffed. Florida State is playing so far below their talent level and so undisciplined it is embarrassing. Cam Akers deserves so much better.

Southern Miss and Troy put on an absolute passing clinic in their matchup last Saturday night. Both quarterbacks threw for over 450 yards. Troy has four players with over 100 receiving yards and Southern Miss had two players with over 180. Southern Miss won 47-42 in this barn burner of a game.

Khalil Tate is back my friends. The Arizona quarterback had an outstanding game in their 28-14 win over Texas Tech where he dazzled through the air and on the ground. Tate threw for 185 yards and ran for 129. Also Arizona’s clock draining March in the fourth quarter was unbelievable. They ran 13 plays, gained 99 yards, scored a touchdown, and killed 7:13 of game time all in one drive.

Auburn ran absolutely wild on Kent State. The Tigers had 467 rushing yards as a team and were led by 135 yards from JaTarvious Whitlow. Backup quarterback Joey Gatewood ran for 102 yards and it looks like he will see time in certain packages over the season.

Clemson dismantled Syracuse 41-6, putting an end to any rumor that Syracuse could have pulled the upset.

TCU killed Purdue on the ground in their 34-13 win. I also will be interested in how Max Duggan will do as the starting quarterback, a title he was given after this game.

Jalen Hurts refusing to celebrate a win is one of the more interesting plot lines of this season so far that deserves more attention.

This week’s cool uniform award goes to Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, LSU, and Boise State.

To be notified when I post, follow my Instagram @ impassionedsportsnerd.

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

Like this: Like Loading...