Brian’s College Football Top 5: Week 3
Photo by Michael Hickey from Getty Images
I thought about making this a special college basketball version, considering there are an absurd amount of college basketball powerhouses who have gotten off to a great start, but there were simply too many impressive performances to do that.
I even had to leave off Tulane!
But there’s your acknowledgement, Wave. I noticed you.
5. Florida State Seminoles
Florida State went on the road, lost their QB, best offensive lineman and best defensive player due to injury, and still had a comeback win against Louisville.
There was a time in the offseason every single Seminoles fan wanted Mike Norvell fired because he lost one recruit.
That looks pretty stupid now, doesn’t it?
4. Washington Huskies
Washington is one of the most beautiful stadiums in college football and is located in a major city. They should consistently be a top tier program.
Which is why being a complete disaster last year under Jimmy Lake was something I didn’t buy long term.
Lake is gone, Kalen DeBoer is here and Washington put a beat down on Michigan State to confirm that reports of their death were premature.
The Washington vs Oregon game on November 12th is going to be a must watch game.
3. Appalachian State Mountaineers
App State had College Gameday come to Boone, North Carolina for the first time ever. That’s an awesome moment.
It was made even better by a tip drill Hail Mary leading App State over Troy as time expired.
That is a moment that will live in those students heads for the rest of their lives, and that’s so friggin cool.
College football is the best.
2. Syracuse Orange
Syracuse was supposed to not be very good this year.
Turns out, that was a lie.
Even when Cuse looked like they were facing their first loss of the season, losing the lead with 51 seconds left against Purdue, the Orange drove down the field (with significant help of Purdue penalties) to score the game winning touchdown with 7 seconds left.
Syracuse is now 3-0, and joins Kentucky, Indiana, Duke, UNC, UCLA, Maryland and Kansas as basketball schools who decided to mess around and be good at football this year too.
1. Kansas Jayhawks
Wait a minute…did you say Kansas up there just now?
Yep! I sure did!
Kansas started their season with a dominating win over Tennessee Tech, which is nice but nothing too special.
Then, they went into Morgantown and beat West Virginia in overtime in a game which made me very frustrated and questioning everything about the state of West Virginia football, because how could you possibly lose to Kansas?
And now, after Kansas went into Houston and won 48-30 over the Houston Cougars, it’s become clear.
Kansas is good at football now!
I’m not going to say they’re headed to Dallas for the Big 12 championship, but Lance Leipold has turned this program into a talented and well coached group, with quarterback Jalon Daniels making his mark on college football as an absolute stud.
I did think Kansas would be better this year and that Leipold had the Jayhawks on the right path, but this turnaround was faster than anybody could have imagined.
3-0 Kansas takes on 3-0 Duke this weekend, in a game that is must watch and somehow not basketball.
What a world…
