After a month of the 2025 college football season, we're starting to see the real contenders and the pretenders separate themselves from the pack in every conference. Namely, a certain school in West Texas as a contender, and a certain school in South Carolina (or maybe two) as massive pretenders. Let's recap all the action below!
Top 10 Headlines
● It wasn’t the cleanest performance, but #4 Miami pulled away late from flailing Florida to move to 4-0. The Canes dominated the line of scrimmage yet again, holding the Gators to a paltry 141 total yards. That included only 61 passing yards from DJ Lagway, who again looked lost against a very good defense. The Canes, who might have the best resume in the country with wins over the Gators, Notre Dame and USF, get an off week before a suddenly huge matchup against FSU in two weeks.
● #9 Illinois and #19 Indiana played as ranked teams for the first time since 1950(!), and the home team made quite the statement. The Hoosiers absolutely mollywhopped the Illini, winning 63-10 to prove that last year’s magical run was no fluke. Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza passed for 267 yards, the Hoosiers blocked a punt for a touchdown early and never looked back. They have clearly established themselves as a contender to return to the CFP from the Big Ten, while Illinois has plenty of questions to answer after such a big blowout loss.
● #3 LSU, #7 Florida State, #6 Oregon and #8 Texas all rolled over weaker opponents. The Longhorns in particular seemed to shake off some of the offensive issues that plagued them through three weeks in a 55-0 drubbing of Sam Houston State.
● #1 Ohio State, #2 Penn State, #5 Georgia and #10 Texas A&M were all idle before they begin their conference slates.
Best of the Weekend
● It turns out you can buy a team in the offseason and turn yourself into a contender. Ok, that’s a simplification of what #17 Texas Tech did in the offseason, but their transfer portal spending spree has definitely paid off so far. After a slow start, they ran away from #16 Utah to win 34-10 in Salt Lake City. This big win came after losing starting QB Behren Morton to a potential concussion. Red Raiders backup Will Hammond thoroughly outplayed ballyhooed Utes QB Devon Dampier, and this win is an early statement that Tech is not only a Big 12 contender, but a CFP contender too.
● In one of the most poorly officiated games I’ve ever seen in person, #11 Oklahoma did just enough at home to eke out a win over former quarterback Jackson Arnold and #22 Auburn. Both teams combined for 22 penalties and 184 total penalty yards and the refs were involved with several controversial replay reviews, including an Auburn fumble return touchdown that was overturned and a late Oklahoma catch that was ruled complete after initially called an incompletion. The better story was how good both defenses looked, with the Sooners setting a program record with 10 sacks against their former signal caller. This included a safety on Auburn’s final drive to solidify the win. OU QB John Mateer didn’t have the best day at the office, but after Auburn went up late, Mateer calmly led OU to the go-ahead score. Oh, and Auburn wide receiver Cam Coleman? That dude is generationally good.
● A very close Big Ten battle in Lincoln went the way of the Victors: #21 Michigan and true freshman QB Bryce Underwood left Nebraska with a 30-27 win. Though Underwood didn’t pass for a ton of yards, he looked poised and in control of his offense in a very hostile environment. Though the Huskers got a Hail Mary to end the 1st half, they couldn’t get the offense needed to overcome the Wolverines. Nebraska has now lost 28 straight games to ranked opponents. Gross!
● The final Iron Skillet game for the time being went the way of the home team. TCU pulled away late to beat SMU 35-24, claiming the Iron Skillet trophy for the foreseeable future. It’s a damn shame that this game is going away.
● Other interesting finals: UNT moved to 4-0 after an overtime road win over Army. #18 Georgia Tech also moved to 4-0 for the first time since 2014. #13 Ole Miss blitzed G5 contender Tulane 45-10 in Oxford. Arizona State got a last-second road win over Baylor to start out 1-0 in the Big 12. #25 USC continues to be sneaky good after beating Michigan State 45-31 in a late, late game.
Worst of the Weekend
● The last time Clemson started 1-3, it was 2004, aka when George W. Bush was in his first term as President of the United States. That changed on Saturday when the Tigers got trounced at home by Syracuse. Dabo Swinney’s recent rants about his past success ring empty now with how poor Clemson has looked so far this season. Can they realistically get rid of him? I’m not so sure, but at 0-2 in the ACC, Clemson’s season is close to being over before September ends. Who would’ve thought the game between Clemson and North Carolina in two weeks would feature the Tigers with a worse record than the Tar Heels? UNC still stinks by the way, losing big to UCF on the road.
●The other Palmetto State P4 team’s stock is falling fast too. South Carolina was competitive with #23 Missouri for a while, but a total of -29 rushing yards sunk them in a 29-20 road loss. QB LaNorris sellers returned and threw for over 300 yards but lost over 29 on the ground, and suddenly the Gamecocks are 0-2 in the SEC.
● A coach who I do think is close to getting fired resides in Stillwater. Oklahoma State, fresh off the biggest loss of Mike Gundy’s career a few weeks ago at Oregon, lost at home to Tulsa in one of the most lifeless offensive performances of his time at OSU. The Cowboys are 1-2 and have lost their last 11 games to FBS opponents. This was the first time Tulsa had won in Stillwater since 1951 when Harry Truman was President!
●Sam Pittman seems likely to join Gundy soon in the unemployment line. His Arkansas Razorbacks jumped out to a big lead on the road to G5 Memphis, only to barf that lead away late. Then, when they were in prime position to kick a game-winning field goal, they fumbled the ball away in the Memphis red zone to seal another embarrassing loss.
● Final coaching hot seat entry: Wisconsin fell victim to Maryland, getting whomped at home to drop the Badgers to 2-2. Luke Fickell got the dreaded vote of confidence from the Wisconsin AD; he’ll be gone pretty soon. It’s wild to me how Fickell just hasn’t worked in Madison, but his Air Raid schemes just don’t fit a ground-and-pound school like Wisconsin.
Fun Corner
● Louisville showed plenty of hospitality to Bowling Green by giving their locker room cat Pudge his own road locker. How nice!
● Should this Oklahoma touchdown have counted? They tricked Auburn with a fake substitution that left Isaiah Sategna wide open for the score. The SEC released a statement saying it was improperly officiated. Shocking given how the rest of that game went.
● After last week’s basketball on the field incident, Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss are back to their old tricks again. Lane did it better than his players did though.
● I will always share the UNT Stone Cold Steve Austin turnover celebration.
● Michigan fill-in head coach Biff Poggi is a national treasure.
● Maryland is 36-10 in September since joining the Big Ten in 2014. Unfortunately, the Terps have to play in October and November too.
Week 3 Heisman Standings
1. Carson Beck, Miami QB: No QB in the country has the wins that Beck has so far, but they’ve all been at home. After an idle week, he’ll have another chance to boost his Heisman odds with a trip to Tallahassee to take on the highly-ranked Seminoles.
2. John Mateer, Oklahoma QB: When his team needed him most, the Sooners leader promptly led his team down the field and took the ball in for the score himself. He’s been the entirety of OU’s offense with their inability to run the ball consistently.
3. Garrett Nussmeier, LSU QB: The Tigers signal-caller’s win over Clemson looks less impressive by the week, but he’s still having a good overall season. A big test at Ole Miss is up next.
4. Jayden Maiava, USC QB: After 4 games, the Trojans QB has over 1000 passing yards, has 9 touchdown passes and no interceptions, and has his under the radar team 4-0.
5. Tommy Castellanos, Florida State QB: TikTok Tommy hasn’t slowed down since that opening win over Alabama, though all those other wins have been over much lesser competition. The aforementioned game against Miami at home will be huge.
6. Fernando Mendoza, Indiana QB: The transfer from Cal has proved to be a perfect replacement for Kurtis Rourke. He's led Indiana to nothing but blowout wins, and the victory over Illinois legitimized the Hoosiers as contenders yet again.