THE LOOKAHEAD

Which Week 3 fight is for you?

As any college football fan knows, styles make fights. From the air raid to the triple option, every coach has a special something he thinks gives his squad a chance to compete against anybody. Even when they absolutely don’t.

Week 3 isn’t what you’d call an embarrassment of riches in the scheduling department. Ty and Dan dropped a comprehensive preview on Wednesday afternoon, detailing all the big matchups. Notably, there are plenty of stylistic matchups that could make for intriguing television. Here are a few to watch out for:

Minnesota at North Carolina: Stoppable Force Meets Movable Object

Experts will tell you this is a matchup of Minnesota’s staunch defense vs. North Carolina’s offensive excellence, but I’m far more interested in the flip side. We know quarterback Drake Maye will probably be remarkable for UNC, and we think Minnesota’s defense will at least be a nuisance. But what happens when the Gophers’ offense takes the field?

UNC sacked South Carolina quarterback Spencer Rattler nine times in Week One. But, the Gamecock offensive line might be abysmal. We could see a big early statement for the Heels. We could also see Minnesota’s Athan Kaliakmanis look like a Heisman contender before averaging 3.7 yards per attempt in his next Big Ten game. I can’t wait to find out.

Tennessee at Florida: Unbridled Optimism vs Creeping Desperation

Last year was just the start for Tennessee. Quarterback Joe Milton may be a bit raw, but he’ll still cook in Josh Heupel’s system. Florida, you ask? Oh, well you know, this year’s really a bit of a rebui— oh God watch out, it looks like Graham Mertz is trying to throw it this way.

Vols and Gators fans might be on opposite ends of the optimism spectrum, but this game could get weird. The Swamp is a tough place to play, and Florida got within a touchdown of Tennessee on the road last year.

Or, Tennessee wins by 20, Billy Napier gets run out of town, and Florida’s boosters start debating whether it’s worth their immortal souls to bring back Urban Meyer.

Outrage vs The Man: UNC fans, Nico Ragaini vs NCAA, Big Ten

Just three weeks into this young season, some notoriously toothless institutions have already garnered ire, this time for enforcing the bizarre rules they usually can’t do much to uphold. 

First, the NCAA denied UNC receiver Devontez Walker immediate eligibility after he transferred from Kent State. This was Walker’s second undergraduate transfer, which usually means he’d need to sit out a year. The wrinkle: Walker never actually played at his first school, NC Central. He couldn’t have. Central didn’t have a season in 2020 due to the pandemic.

In the wake of the denial, UNC head coach Mack Brown ripped the NCAA, saying it “couldn’t care less about the young people it’s supposed to be supporting.” The NCAA has since reported violent threats made to its volunteer committee members involved in the Walker decision. To recap: kid loses eligibility for no good reason, volunteer workers receive violent threats for no good reason, we all feel really great about our favorite sport.

Meanwhile in corn country, Iowa receiver Nico Ragaini was reprimanded by the Big Ten after he used some choice (read: very common for an angry college kid) language to express his frustration about a missed pass interference call in last week’s CyHawk game. It might be the most explosive thing an Iowa receiver has done this decade.

And they say the Hawkeyes struggle on the offensive side.

Duke vs Northwestern: Being a Good Team vs Being Northwestern

Chin up, Wildcats. You still have the lucrative Chicago TV market.

Blue Devils by 90.

-Bradley Hohulin

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THE HIDDEN GEMS

Flip on those headlamps for Spelunker Saturday

We dubbed Week 3 as “Spelunker Saturday,” because while everyone else is looking back at Week 2 or ahead to Week 4, we’re down here in the caves, switching on our headlamps and looking for the gems within this fertile college football earth.

For our money, the four “Big Dogs” for Week 3, are Kansas State at Missouri, Washington vs. Michigan State, Tennessee vs. Florida and Pitt vs. West Virginia. But there are plenty of other matchups that stir our curiosity, including LSU vs. Mississippi State, Penn State vs. Illinois, South Carolina vs. Georgia, Georgia Tech vs. Ole Miss, and Louisville vs. Indiana.

True to form, we zeroed in on a few potential storylines that you should watch for on your spelunking journey:

💎 The Totally Random Lookahead Game

Florida State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, Ole Miss, and other ranked teams are heavy favorites in Week 3 with monster matchups on deck in Week 4. Don’t be surprised if one of them goes into cruise control a little too early and plays a closer game than expected. I’ve randomly got Boston College +26 against Florida State, which could absolutely backfire on me.

💎 The Joe Milton Yip Factor vs. Florida

Is this a thing? Probably not. Could it be a thing? Yes. Tennessee’s Joe Milton has a habit of throwing every pass with maximum force. For the most part, this is the kind of thing that delights NFL scouts and lights up highlight reels. However, it’s in big games like this — when the adrenaline is pumping and the muscles are a little tighter — when a sailed pass over the middle can come back to bite you. The Swamp is loud, proud and will test Milton.

💎 Ravin’ Tayven Jackson vs. Louisville

Indiana officially has a new quarterback! Meet Tayven Jackson, the former four-star recruit who transferred in from Tennessee. Jackson is actually from Greenwood, IN, which is about an hour away from Bloomington and just south of Indianapolis where this game is being played. The Hoosiers are a 10-point home underdog and I think they could beat Louisville outright.

-Ty Hildenbrandt

THE LOOKBACK

Things you missed from last week

Deion Sanders is showing an innate ability to make a mountain out of a mole hill and use it as motivation for his team. Just this week, after Colorado State’s Jay Norvell offered some holier-than-thou commentary about Deion’s recruiting mannerisms, Coach Prime responded by turning this weekend’s game into a bit of a blood feud:

Washington State and Oregon State are taking the Pac-12 to court and I’m absolutely rooting for them to win. (Also, I have no idea what happens if they win.)

OK, so my understanding is that NC State’s brand new scoreboard was not actually hit by lightning. The malfunctions below were the result of a nearby lightning strike. It seems like all is well now, but we’re still waiting on official word on NC State’s offense…

Our friend Geoff Schwartz took a look at the all-22 video from Texas-Alabama and broke down how the Longhorns put the Bama defenders on skates. You can access the full 10-minute video breakdown here:

Speaking of which, the Texas-Alabama game was the most watched regular season college football game on ESPN since 2015:

This is both extremely charming and extremely Jim Harbaugh:

-Ty Hildenbrandt

THE VERBALLERHOOD

Join in on the fun

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Our midnight YouTube live streams are where all the cool kids hang out to break down the week that was. We’ll give our reactions to all the big games, play your aforementioned Reverbs, mix it up with the commenters and celebrate another great week of college football. Here’s the link to tomorrow’s stream.

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