The Couch Power 10, Week 3

Last week I talked about how college football always tends to deliver, and crowed with delight about how Week 2 was phenomenal despite seeming on the surface to be a natural letdown with a more meager slate. Well, sometimes meager slates really do end up just being meager slates.

Such was the case in Week 3, a week that only held two matchups featuring two ranked teams, and whose edition of College Gameday was based out of Columbia, South Carolina to highlight a matchup between a team with one loss already and their unranked opponent. One of the aforementioned ranked showdowns was a disappointment, with Kansas State cruising at home against Big 12 foes Arizona and new coach Jedd Fisch. The other, with #6 Missouri hosting the surprise successes Boston College, actually was a very good game, but Mizzou's exciting comeback win was somewhat buried on ESPN2 in the Noon slate logjam.

Elsewhere in mildly, decently anticipated showdowns, Alabama bounced back from a rough performance vs. USF to dominate Wisconsin in Camp Randall, Notre Dame bounced back from being humbled by NIU by whipping the tar out of Purdue on the latter's home field, Oregon dominated Oregon State in the first 'inter-conference' edition of the Civil War, while Washington State got revenge on Washington in the first inter-conference Apple Cup. In the most anticipated game of the day, North Carolina overcame an ugly start to ease past NC Central; I know you all were worried. Still, even a down week has highlights, and Saturday was not a total loss, bookended by two SEC showdowns on ABC that lived up to the hype! Early on, LSU and South Carolina justified the College Gameday selection by putting on a thriller, in which the Tigers overcame a 17-0 deficit and stunned Williams-Brice Stadium with a late winner. Then, in the nighttime prime matchup, unranked Kentucky came oh-so-close to scoring a huge upset against top-ranked Georgia; the Wildcats' defense almost entirely stifled Carson Beck and the Bulldog offense, but the Dawgs' one trip to the end zone proved to be enough, as Kentucky could do nothing but put 4 field goals in, falling just short in a 13-12 decision.

Just a refresher, since it's been nary a year since you've heard from this ranking: this is not a definitive ranking on how good the teams are, or on who I think will be/deserves to be in the playoff at the end of the year. Rather, it's more of a "What if preseason rankings and bigwig bias didn't predetermine the top teams" kind of thing, an ideal ranking of the country's teams based on what they've actually proved on the field to date. Don't be mad cuz I'm doin' me better than you doin' you:

1. Texas

A visit from plucky in-state rivals UTSA fresh off Texas's huge win at Michigan had trap game potential, and an injury to Heisman hopeful QB Quinn Ewers could not have done anything to assuage Longhorn fans' fears. No matter- backup QB Arch Manning looked like a future star in his own right, as he threw for 3 TDs and ran for another en route to a 56-7 demolition.

2. USC

USC got to rest on their laurels after their bright start to the season, and watched as other top teams like Georgia flirted with disaster, and the Trojans' own big win over LSU aged nicely with the latter's big win on national TV.

3. Tennessee

It's not that wins over Chattanooga or Kent State exactly move the needle for me. Rather, it's the fact that the Vols have beaten the two teams by a combined scoreline of 140-3. On Saturday night, they led the Golden Flashes 65-0 AT HALFTIME. And those two enormous wins were sandwiched around a 51-10 blitzing of a Top 25 NC State team in Charlotte. This Saturday's undefeated showdown at Oklahoma will be the perfect barometer for just how good this Tennessee team is, but so far they're looking DAYUM good.

4. Georgia

Georgia still owns one of the most impressive wins of this young season in their Week1 dismantling of Clemson, and that result + now owning an SEC road win gives them the 2nd best strength of record, according to ESPN's metric. And it's true that sometimes great teams need to win ugly games. But boy, Kentucky came awfully close to ending their incredible 41-game regular season winning streak, and even though the Cats came up just short, they probably exposed more holes in Georgia's team than any of their fans-- or particularly Kirby Smart --would have liked to acknowledge are there.

5. Northern Illinois

Northern Illinois had a bye week this week, and taking a week to rest after beating a Top 5 team in the country and vaulting to the top of ESPN's strength of record feels like an appropriate gift. Watching that same team they beat turn around and drop 66 points on a Big Ten opponent was just the cherry on the top.

6. Kansas State

Kansas State, perhaps more than any other program in America, has the largest delta between success and visibility of their program. It feels like most of America-- myself included! --forget about these guys every year, even when they're near the top of the rankings and yet almost every season they churn out a very good year and punch above their weight (we are, after all, less than 2 years removed from their Big 12 title, Sugar Bowl berth, and Top 10 finish). So far, same ol', as I saw next to no national chatter about the Wildcats, but their Friday night destruction of #20 Arizona capped a very impressive opening stretch to the season, following a shutout in their opener and a comeback road win at plucky Tulane last week. A big two weeks await them now, with two more consecutive games coming vs. ranked conference foes, namely BYU and Oklahoma State.

7. California

Cal's impressive start to their new ACC era continued over the weekend with a comfortable win over Mountain West stalwarts San Diego State. The Golden Bears currently hold a Top 5 strength of record per ESPN, and have a golden opportunity this weekend to lump on the misery for 0-3 Florida State. Lord knows they're already doing so on Twitter.

8. Missouri

Mizzou is hoping to build on their 11-2, Cotton Bowl-winning year last season and had looked the part through the first couple games, but hadn't really been testing. A rejuvenated Boston College represented their first test, and for much of the game, the Eagles threatened to fail the Tigers; late in the 2nd quarter, though, Brady Cook and the offense woke up and never looked back, scoring 24 unanswered to turn an 11-point deficit into a 13-point lead, and holding on down the stretch to score a ranked win. With the way Mizzou's schedule sets up, don't be surprised if they're 7-0 rolling into Alabama in late October.

9. Miami

The last couple spots in this week's Power 10 go to teams that are still in search of a signature win, but have looked pretty damn good. Miami is probably foremost among these; their season-opening blowout of Florida hasn't aged great, necessarily, as the Gators look like a downright mediocre team with a head coach on life support. But that doesn't change how impressive it is that they have opened 3-0 with a total scoreline advantage of 159-18. Might this finally be the year for the Canes?

10. Ole Miss

And in the same vein as Miami: Lane Kiffin's Ole Miss rolled into this season with their highest preseason expectations in some time, and though their opponents to date haven't afforded them the opportunity for a significant win, the Rebels have still lived up to the hype. Saturday's 40-6 coast at Wake Forest (which reportedly caused the Wake athletic office to go ahead and cancel the return game in Mississippi next season) brought their season aggregate to 168-9. No touchdowns conceded, and an average scoreline of 56-3. Not a shabby start!

Just missed: UNLV, Nebraska, Illinois, Memphis, Washington State, 2024 Heisman winner Omarion Hampton (seriously, though)