We had laughter, and we had rivalry tears. We had a second-and-59. We had what felt like record-setting levels of chippiness and yellow flags -- FBS teams averaged 59.5 penalty yards per team (most since Week 5 of 2022), with 15 teams topping 100 penalty yards. We nearly had the No. 1 team falling to an unranked opponent.
Both Tennessee and South Alabama put us on 100-point watch until mercy set in. A MAC team blew out an SEC team. Texas lost its Heisman-favorite quarterback to minor injury, and his backup looked even better. Indiana (???) looked incredible again (!!!).
Week 3 of the college football season had its share of unique moments. And it left us with 43 unbeaten teams. With everyone having had a chance to leave a couple of different impressions, it's time to do what I do: rank all 43. How do you do that? With the eye test? By leaning on metrics? By determining who has the better résumé? By declaring "Ain't played nobody!" and punishing teams arbitrarily?
All of the above, of course! A little bit of everything! Let's get to it.
Jump to a section:
Ranking unbeatens | Biggest surprises
Heisman of week | 10 favorite games
1. Texas Longhorns (3-0)
SP+ and FPI rankings: third and first, respectively
SP+ strength of schedule to date: 34th
Odds of reaching 12-0, per SP+: 23.1%
What they did in Week 3: def. UTSA 56-7
The Longhorns smoked the (admittedly flawed) defending national champions last week, and their backup quarterback would immediately become a Heisman favorite (like the starter) if he became the starter. This is a pretty scary team at the moment.
