College Football: Week 3 Wrap-Up

#24 North Carolina def. East Carolina 31-17
I know North Carolina is supposed to be good. And I'll admit that they play aggressive defense and occasionally get a pretty pass from QB T.J. Yates, but I gotta say, there was a pretty clear lack of talent on both sides in this game. Tar Heel receiver Eric Highsmith is an able replacement for current NY Giants starter Hakeem Nicks, but other than that, the cupboard looks a little bare. On the ECU side of the ball, Patrick Pinkney was pretty good when he had time to throw, but it was pretty much a moot point, as he rarely did. Relatively easy win for the Tar Heels and their defense looks good enough to stop Georgia Tech next week, but we should know more about 'em when they play Florida State and Virginia Tech in late October.

Notre Dame def. Michigan State 33-30
I always prefer it when Notre Dame loses, but I have to admit that this was a pretty entertaining game. The Irish came within one play of a loss. MSU QB Kirk Cousins had calmly led a beautiful and potentially game winning drive down to the red zone and was in a position to try for the winning touchdown with the tying field goal as a booby prize when he inexplicably threw a jump ball across his body that was of course intercepted by ND safety Kyle McCarthy (who, the announcers informed us no fewer than four times, has a finance degree). Still, the "again?" look on Charlie Weis' face while MSU was driving was enjoyable and one monumentally bad decision aside, I can only hope MSU has come to its senses re: its QB controversy and picked Cousins over his Terrelle Pryor-like (read, good athlete, not a reliable pocket passer) backup, Keith Nichol.

Iowa def. Arizona 27-17
Well, now I do know the name of precisely one player on the Arizona roster: supremely ineffective quarterback Matt Scott. Give the Iowa defense credit - they really made his day tough. In fact, the Hawkeyes dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, which was important because they got a pretty shaky performance from QB Ricky Stanzi (probably because he misses the Fonz). I know there are a lot of Big Ten haters out there, but I think the Big Ten may have passed the Pac Ten this weekend. Nice win for the Hawkeyes. I hope Stanzi's getting his head together for the showdown with Penn State next Saturday night.

Florida State def. #7 BYU 54-28
And Game 1 FSU it was! Christian Ponder was back in fine form and way too much for the Runnin' Mormons to handle. Though frankly, if you're BYU and you're defending 3rd and 2 to 5, don't you know the QB draw is coming?!? Apparently, they didn't, because it beat them about 100 times. I admit I was kind of rooting for BYU, but it's still nice to see the pretenders (hello, Utah and USC) knocked out of the way. Now, if someone could just beat Boise State.

#2 Texas def. Texas Tech 34-24
Bonus game for 'ya - this was on in a bar I was in, so I did end up watching after all. And actually, it wasn't near as much of a blowout as I (or anyone else outside of Lubbock) thought it would be. The Red Raiders pretty sorely missed Michael Crabtree, but Taylor Potts was fairly effective. (Graham? Taylor? If the next one is named Wyatt, I'm boycotting.) For all of his (somewhat manufactured?) oddity, Mike Leach must be one heck of a coach and/or recruiter. Meanwhile, Texas looked a little slow at first -- apparently Colt McCoy had the flu like the rest of college football -- but picked it up towards the end. That McCoy-Shipley combo is tough to stop. It's clear they've spent a lot of time practicing together.

This week's 'Yell at the TV' moment directed squarely at Kirk Cousins: "take the sack, take the SACK, TAKE THE SACK...game over."

In other news: I would get all excited about having called the Washington upset, but everyone called it. That was ripe for the picking.....In the 'too little, too late' category, nice game Terrelle Pryor and OSU. Way to really take it to a cupcake.....I thought Clausen's injury was strange. If I knew I was going to get hit, the absolute last thing I would do is go down on one knee and sit on my foot. That said, it did conveniently allow him to go into the locker room early so that the interception on the Hail Mary pass could go on Dayne Crist's stats and not his.....This is the second straight week where I've seen Michael Floyd drop his second pass of the game while the announcers talk about what great hands he has.....At one point, the announcers praised Notre Dame for "eating the clock" while they were losing.....One of my favorite smash-mouth players, South Florida QB Matt Grothe, is out for the season with a torn ACL. Bummer for him and for the Bulls......Hilarious moment in the Washington-USC game, which I was lucky enough to see the end of: after Locker led the drive into field goal range with the score tied, the Huskies called one more running play to run down the clock and perhaps pick up a few more yards for kicker Erik Folk. RB Chris Polk powered through the line for a four yard gain and the USC linebacker that tackled him got up and strutted around to celebrate his big hit. Talk about taking your eye off of the ball. You can see it for yourself at 5:15 of this video.