College Football Awards, Week 3 (2024) September 16, 2024

Posted by intellectualgridiron in Sports.
Tags: Alabama, Ball State, Barry Odom, Boston College, Brian Kelly, college football, Colorado, Colorado State, Curt Cignetti, Florida, Florida State, football, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Indiana, Iowa, Jeff Lebby, Kansas, Kansas State, Kent State, Kentucky, Kirby Smart, Louisiana-Monroe, Louisville, LSU, Marshall, Miami (Fla.), Mike Norvell, Minnesota, Mississippi State, Missouri, Nevada, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oregon, Oregon State, Penn State, Purdue, Ryan Walters, San Jose State, Shane Beamer, South Alabama, South Carolina, TCU, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, Toledo, UCF, UNLV, UTSA, Vanderbilt, Washington, Washington State, Wisconsin
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COACHES
Wish I were him:  Curt Cignetti, Indiana

Glad I’m not him: Ryan Walters, Purdue

Lucky guy: Brian Kelly, LSU

Poor guy: Shane Beamer, South Carolina

Desperately seeking a wake-up call: Kirby Smart, Georgia

Desperately seeking a P.R. man: Barry Odom, UNLV

Desperately seeking sunglasses and a fake beard: Jeff Lebby, Mississippi State

Desperately seeking … anything:  Mike Norvell, Florida State

TEAMS
Thought you’d kick butt, you did: Miami (Fla.) (defeated Ball State 62-0)

Thought you’d kick butt, you didn’t: Georgia (defeated Kentucky 13-12)
Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you did: UTSA (lost to No. 3 Texas 56-7)

Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you didn’t:  Toledo (defeated Mississippi State 41-17)

Thought you wouldn’t kick butt, you did:  Notre Dame (defeated Purdue 66-7)  

Dang, they’re good: Tennessee
Dang, they’re bad:  Purdue

Can’t Stand Prosperity:  Vanderbilt

Did the season start?  Mississippi State
Can the season end?  Florida State

Can the season never end? Kansas State

GAMES
Play this again:  No. 16 LSU 36, South Carolina 33

Play this again, too: UCF 35, TCU 34

Never play this again: South Alabama 87, Northwestern State 10

What?  Washington State 24, Washington 19

Huh?  UNLV 23, Kansas 20

Double-Huh?  Georgia State 36, Vanderbilt 32

Are you kidding me??  Colorado 28, Colorado State 9

Oh – my – God:  Toledo 41, Mississippi State 17

NEXT WEEK

rankings are current AP (week 3)
Ticket to die for:  No. 7 Tennessee @ No. 15 Oklahoma

Keep an eye on this one:  No. 12 Utah @ No. 13 Oklahoma State

Best non-Power Four vs. Power Four  matchup: Purdue @ Oregon State

Best non-Power Four matchup: San Jose State @ Washington State

Upset alert: Georgia Tech @ No. 19 Louisville

Must win: No. 11 USC @ No. 18 Michigan

Offensive explosion: No. 8 Miami (Fla.) @ South Florida

Defensive struggle: Iowa @ Minnesota

Great game no one is talking about: No. 13 Kansas State @ BYU

Also:  No. 24 Illinois @ No. 22 Nebraska

Intriguing coaching matchup:  Kyle Whittingham of Utah vs Mike Gundy of OK State

Who’s bringing the body bags? Louisiana-Monroe @ No. 1 Texas

Why are they playing?  Kent State @ No. 8 Penn State

Plenty of good seats remaining: Eastern Washington @ Nevada

Plenty of good seats remaining, SEC edition:  Florida @ Mississippi State

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?  Marshall @ No. 3 Ohio State

Week 3 Thoughts:

After a third week of college football, can we all now move on from all these beginning-of-season body bag games?  Well, yes and no.  Next week will yield a much thicker stack of good matchups compared to the thin gruel we had to endure this week.  But there will always be a gross mismatches each week, sometimes in the literal sense (Louisiana-Monroe @ Texas, anyone?), sometimes accidentally as the matchup was a scheduled conference game.

That said, some games this week proved to be more interesting than first thought.

No. 16 LSU @ South Carolina

Were it not for South Carolina losing its starting QB to injury, it is likely that Brian Kelly would not have escaped Columbia with a much-needed win.  As it is, by luck he has managed to his season afloat with hope – for now.

No. 4 Alabama @ Wisconsin

Many of us were unsure what sort of game we were in for.  Was Alabama vulnerable, after their lackluster performance against South Florida the previous week?  Would Wisconsin be able to take advantage of its uniquely hostile home field atmosphere?  It turned out to be neither of those two cases.  Rather, Bama is still Bama, at least for now, and Wisconsin could be in for a relative down year compared to recent successful seasons.  The combination of those two scenarios lead to an understandably lop-sided affair in favor of the Tide.

Boston College @ No. 6 Missouri

Is Boston College that good, or is Missouri that overrated?  When typically faced with such a choice, my default answer is usually “a little bit of both”.  After all, the Tigers at a No. 6 ranking are supposed to be, on paper, better than Tennessee and Miami (Fla.).  Are we to believe that Mizzou is better than either of those two in reality?  If you are to believe such, then save us all the time and the trouble and preemptively check yourself into a nuthouse now.

That said, while the Tigers are overrated, they are still good, and BC acquitted themselves well by playing Mizzou so closely.  Other ACC teams shall take this bunch lightly at their own peril.

No. 1 Georgia @ Kentucky

After South Carolina spanked the Wildcats, one would have reasonably thought that the Bulldogs would deliver an old-fashioned butt-whipping to Kentucky in Lexington.  As things turned out, not so much.  Georgia was lucky to escape such a head-scratching defensive struggle, 13-12.  Kirby Smart’s disapproval of his team’s dismal offensive output was palpable in his post-game interview.  Such conditions are always the catalyst for brutal Sunday practices, which is why I would not want to be a Georgia player right now.

Colorado @ Colorado State

Either the Buffaloes did a good job getting ready for a big rivalry game, or Texas knocked so much stuffing out of the Rams earlier this season they still have yet to recover.  Colorado went from a chronic inability to advance the ball down the field to dropping four touchdowns on their hated in-state rival.  How else to account for such a head-scratching outcome?

Is this to say that Colorado has turned a corner?  Pump the brakes on that, and re-evaluate after they play respectable conference foe Baylor this week, or, more to the point, dangerous Kansas State the week thereafter.  Notwithstanding last night’s outcome, they could possibly lose the next six games.

Oregon @ Oregon State

Where was this version of Oregon hitherto hiding?

Texas A&M @ Florida

Either the Aggies have found something resembling an offense, or Florida is simply that bad.

Notre Dame @ Purdue

Turns out that Notre Dame is not quite as overrated as we first thought.  On the other side of the coin, Purdue suffered its worst loss ever to its in-state rival, 66-7.  Such a disastrous outcome is a sign to the more keen observers of the Purdue program that Ryan Walters is not simply Darrell Hazell 2.0; he’s worse.  Keep in mind that Walters is supposed to be a defensive guru, and yet his team yielded that scoreboard-melting sum.  Also keep in mind that Purdue had two weeks to prepare and they still laid that massive egg, on the 100^th anniversary of its home stadium, no less.