It’s only Week 3 and there is still so much of the season left to go, but when you look up and down a packed slate, it has a “moving day” feel to it.
Are you a real competitor? Or are you going to start fading off the pack?
Is your coach trending toward a massive extension? Or a massive buyout?
The results we see Saturday will have a real impact on establishing the season-long narratives around coaches and programs that matter.
With a loss to No. 16 Texas A&M, No. 8 Notre Dame’s College Football Playoff hopes would take a massive hit a year removed from finishing as national runner-up. The 0-1 Fighting Irish likely won’t have another top 25 opponent on the schedule, barring USC going on a run, and could have too weak a resume to get in even if they finished 10-2. Conversely, a Texas A&M program that internally feels like it has the talent to be a playoff contender would be well on its way to being firmly in the mix.
If No. 18 South Florida can somehow win its third consecutive game against a top 25 opponent, the Bulls would be the massive frontrunner to secure an automatic playoff bid as the top Group of Six team. New USF “CEO of athletics” Rob Higgins might not have a big enough Brink’s truck to keep Alex Golesh, who is already setting himself up to be one of the hottest coaching candidates come hiring season.
The man Golesh just beat, Billy Napier, is hoping no major hires will have to be made in Gainesville this season. After the loss to USF, Florida looms as the biggest potential job to open up this season if Napier can’t find a way to get himself back off the hot seat like he did a year ago.
Across state lines in Alabama, there are two coaches who could surely use a win this weekend. Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer isn’t on the hot seat yet, but two losses before even playing Georgia would be an outright disaster for the second-year coach. Fans were angry after the Florida State loss; they’d be apoplectic if they lose to the Badgers at home. Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell made big offseason moves in bringing in quarterback Billy Edwards and offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes to take a necessary step forward this season. A repeat of last season’s 42-10 blowout loss to the Crimson Tide won’t bode well.
We have three games featuring two top 25 teams in Notre Dame-Texas A&M, USF-Miami and No. 6 Georgia at No. 15 Tennessee. We have tasty matchups like a skidding No. 12 Clemson at undefeated Georgia Tech and Diego Pavia taking the 2-0 Vanderbilt Commodores into Williams-Brice Stadium against No. 11 South Carolina.
Week 1 is for overreactions. Week 2 is mostly cupcakes. Now, we start getting a feel for which teams are real versus which are on the path to irrelevancy.
More notable Week 3 storylines to watch …
Is Joey Aguilar for real?
The vibes are great right now in Knoxville. Tennessee is 2-0, new starting QB Joey Aguilar has been very good and the Vols’ ex, Nico Iamaleava, isn’t exactly lighting it up for 0-2 UCLA. As we detailed earlier this week on CBS Sports, Aguilar has done everything right since unexpectedly arriving at Tennessee, particularly in building relationships with his new teammates.
“Nico didn’t do himself any favors here with his teammates,” a Tennessee source told me this week. “And Joey came in and he did the opposite. And I think the team, especially Miles Kitselman and those older guys, were looking for that.”
The big question is whether Aguilar can keep it up against Georgia this weekend. It’s one thing to impress against Syracuse and East Tennessee State; it’s quite a different story to do so against Kirby Smart’s defense. The money has been pouring on the Volunteers in Vegas as the Bulldogs dropped from a 5.5-point favorite down to 3.5.
If Tennessee can win against Georgia and keep the momentum rolling, Aguilar has a chance to be a folk hero in Knoxville. A loss and all the excitement around the new QB could dim.
‘In hindsight, we’re good’: Tennessee sources revisit Nico Iamaleava saga, embrace Joey Aguilar as better fit
Chris Hummer
Billy Napier really needs a win
The Billy Napier hot seat conversation cranked up in a big way after a disastrous loss to South Florida last weekend. With a treacherous schedule ahead that begins against LSU on Saturday, Napier and the Gators really couldn’t afford a loss to the Bulls. But what’s done is done, and soon we’ll find out if Napier still has some magic left to get himself off the hot seat with another run. It won’t be easy against an LSU team that has Heisman co-favorite Garrett Nussmeier and a rebuilt defense that ranks in the top 15 nationally in rushing, scoring and total defense.
After LSU, Florida gets this gauntlet: at No. 5 Miami, No. 7 Texas and at No. 16 Texas A&M. Napier probably needs to split these upcoming four games to feel good about his job security headed into the back-half of the season. The sour taste of the USF loss isn’t going away anytime soon, but leaving Baton Rouge with a win would hit the spot like a to-go daiquiri.
The Darian Mensah game
Duke-Tulane might not scream a sexy matchup to you, but there’s a very intriguing subplot that makes this no ordinary nonconference game. A year ago, Darian Mensah was an unknown player before he won the Tulane job and guided the Green Wave to a 9-4 record. He later entered the transfer portal before the bowl game and cashed in on one of the richest deals for a college football player ever, worth up to $8 million over two years, when he left for Duke. Naturally, Tulane would love to show Mensah he made a bad decision leaving. Both sides know each other well and will test each other’s tendencies.
Is Mensah worth the hefty price tag? A win over Tulane would sure help, especially after the Blue Devils lost at home last week in a big opportunity against No. 9 Illinois.
Beyond the obvious revenge factor, there are real playoff implications here for Tulane. The Green Wave were a popular preseason playoff pick, including by yours truly, but as mentioned above, USF has taken the driver’s seat for that G6 spot. Tulane already has a win over a Power Four school (Northwestern), which helps, but would greatly benefit from at least winning one of its next two games against Duke and No. 17 Ole Miss to start making up ground on the Bulls.
Darian Mensah returns to Tulane: Journey for $4M QB comes full circle as Duke heads to New Orleans in Week 3
John Talty
Salty Talty
Each week this space will be my airing of grievances, my opportunity to let the audience know what has been really grinding my gears. Hopefully it’ll be mostly college football-related, but it’s a good bet travel, family and other day-to-day life annoyances will find a way in.
Deion Sanders has been in the media spotlight for a long time — as a player, as a coach and even as a member of the media working for CBS Sports, NFL Network and Barstool Sports. He wasn’t a journalist, but he’s been around plenty of them and should generally know how things work.
It’s why his comments earlier this week were frustrating and, frankly, disingenuous when he claimed the media didn’t care about being right and didn’t face consequences when they were wrong.
“You know, in today’s media, we don’t care about being correct anymore, we just want to be first,” Sanders said. “And there’s no subjection to you when you’re wrong. Nobody says nothing, you just go with it. I’m not saying that’s the case, but that’s where we are in media.
“Nobody gives a dern about being correct, and right. Everybody just wants to be first. That don’t make no sense to me. I would love the integrity we once had with media, I would love that.”
First off, the “media” is such an easy strawman to build up when in reality it’s not a monolith. Every reporter can be different, every organization can prioritize different things. We aren’t all taking marching orders from Mr. Media.
But, in my decades of doing this, I think, by and large, the journalists I’ve encountered and work with care a great deal about being right. It’s not, as Deion said, simply about being first. My colleague Matt Zenitz and I could bore you for hours on stories we’ve missed out on because we tried to go above and beyond in being respectful and professional about handling sensitive information. There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes when pursuing breaking news stories.
And if you’ve ever gotten something wrong — whether that was spelling a name wrong, reporting something that may have been right in the moment and things changed – you absolutely heard about it from fans, those involved, etc. It’s partly what makes covering college football so great — people deeply care about how their favorite teams are covered and will let you know if they think you’re wrong.
In this instance, Deion was mad over an ESPN report that Ryan Staub was expected to start against Houston. Guess what? After taking the majority of first-team reps, he likely will.
And when he does, it sure would be nice to see a certain coach hold himself accountable for denigrating an entire industry over a reporter who was first and right.
Read the full article here