Bob Gaughan recaps the third week of college football, which featured several predictable routs, a few upsets, and some incredible finishes.

Florida State 52 Wake Forest 0
Florida State had no sympathy for the Demon Deacons just like I have no sympathy for anyone that watches “Keeping Up With The Kardashians”.  It didn’t help that Wake Forest All-ACC DT Nikita Whitlock missed the game.  Florida State players weren’t joking this week when they said they hadn’t showed anything the first two weeks and had the full arsenal in store for Wake Forest. Chris Thompson rushed for 197 yards on 9 carries.  He had touchdowns runs of 74 and 80 yards in the second quarter. QB EJ Manuel had a solid performance throwing two touchdowns and rushing for a third.  The FSU defense has allowed only three points all year. 

Ohio State 35 California 28
Ohio State looked like the class of Big 10: or 12 or 9 if you don’t count: “Double Secret Probation" for the next ten years for Penn State, Minnesota since Glen Mason left, and Ohio State since they can’t go to a bowl game this year. Everything was going as planned in the first half for the Buckeyes as they took a 20-7 halftime lead.  Then they forgot to come out for the third quarter.  Cal made it a game by out gaining OSU 195-25 in the third quarter.  QB Braxton Miller saved the day for Urban Meyer’s team by throwing a 72 yard touchdown pass with 3:26 left.  Miller was a part of all of the Buckeyes points throwing for four touchdowns and running in a fifth.  California missed three field goals in the game.

Pitt 35 Virginia Tech 17
Paul Chryst leaving Wisconsin seems to have hurt two teams.  As former offensive coordinator at Wisconsin the Badgers are now horrible on offense.  Pitt fans weren’t happy either after starting the season 0-2.  Everything turned around in this one as Pitt caused four turnovers and came away with a much needed victory against the 13th ranked team in the country.  Tech QB Logan Thomas had a miserable day throwing three interceptions and completing only 14 of 31 passes.  Pitt controlled the clock by pounding Ray Graham and Rushel Shell all day on the ground.  Pitt rolled up 538 total yards against a usually stinging Virginia Tech defense.

TCU 20   Kansas 6
A very efficient Casey Paschal complete 24 of 30 passes for 335 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Horned Frogs to victory.  Brandon Carter caught eight passes for 144 yards and both of Paschals’ touchdown passes.  TCU owns the nations longest winning streak at 10 games.  This game marked TCU’s debut in the Big 12 conference.  Kansas fell to 1-2 under Charlie Weis.  As each year goes by don’t you think what Mark Mangino did at Kansas is going to look better and better?


Alabama 52 Arkansas 0
On an upcoming episode of "Mythbusters", the team will test if Nick Saban's scowl is as effective as the Alpha-Gorgon Medusa of Greek Legend.  Think about this -- just a week ago this was supposed to be a battle of top 10 teams.  No question that John L. Smith’s tenure at Arkansas will be one and done.  Tyler Wilson missed this game and for the second week in a row the Razorback offense was non-existent with out him.  The Alabama offense had struggled last week had no such problems this week.  Running behind future NFL player G Chance Warmack, the Tide rushed for 226 yards and put this one away early.  The Alabama defense held Arkansas to 44 yards in the first half.


Penn State 34 Navy 7
There is happiness again in Happy Valley.  Penn State took advantage of four Navy turnovers to give Bill O’Brien his first victory as Penn State coach.  Matt McGloin threw for 231 yards and four touchdowns in the win.  This Navy team isn’t nearly as good as the Navy teams that we have come to expect in recent years.  Just like in their opening loss to Notre Dame they allowed touchdowns in Penn State’s first three possessions.


Florida 37 Tennessee 20
Good news for the NFL team from Tennessee, Jake Locker hurt is non-throwing shoulder and should be able to start, bad news for Titans is Locker hurt is non-throwing shoulder and should be able to start.  Tyler Bray looked like the college version of Locker in this one.  Bray had a good first half but faded badly in the second half.  He took a body language class from Jay Cutler.  Have to hand it to Florida who went on the road in consecutive weeks and won in Kyle Field and Neyland Stadium.  Big plays won it for Florida.  Florida struck on touchdowns from 80 and 75 yards to pull away in the second half.  This was the first time these two teams met as ranked opponents since ’07. 


Northwestern 22 Boston College 13
If there is a swearing hall of fame then Sammy Baugh, writer Dan Jenkins and now retired Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun are in it.  I mean that as a compliment they are true masters when it comes to cussing.  If I were a Boston College fan I would have been cussing at the screen in this game.  The Eagles defense played a bend but don’t break defense and forced Northwestern into five field goals but in turn they gave up 560 yards of offense and Northwestern controlled the ball for 36 minutes.  Northwestern ran 100 offensive plays in the game.


Louisville 39 North Carolina 34
Louisville jumped out to a 36-7 lead and held on for dear life as they survived a furious North Carolina comeback to hang on for a five point win. The Cardinals needed a goal-line stand in the final two minutes to preserve the win. North Carolina has too much talent to play such an awful first half.  The Tar Heels have three potential first round picks in guard Jonathan Cooper, DT Sylvester Williams and OT Brennan Williams. Louisville QB Teddy Bridgewater lit them up in the first have throwing for 218 yards and three touchdowns before halftime. In the spirit of the NHL owners, I hate this recap that I just wrote.


Missouri 24 Arizona State 20
Arizona State offense scored 108 points in the first two games.  The Sun Devils offense was held silent for the first three quarters.  I’ve never seen the two headed quarterback system work long term.  Arizona State switched quarterbacks at times on every other play.  I’m not a fan.  The Sun Devils offense came alive in the fourth quarter when they went with Taylor Kelly as their quarterback on every play.  Missouri was coming off a tough home loss to Georgia.  Missouri switched quarterbacks to tall Corbin Berkstresser, who managed the game effectively.  Missouri caused four turnovers, which turned out to be the deciding factor in the game.  It was a weird game with a ton of bad snaps from both teams.

Western Kentucky 32 Kentucky 31 OT
Second straight week a team from the Sun Belt beats a team from the SEC.  The game ended in OT when Western Kentucky threw the ball across the field twice in converting the 2 point conversion to seal the victory.

Stanford 21 USC 14
This was supposed to be a revenge game for the Trojans.  USC couldn’t beat Stanford with Andrew Luck at the helm.  Stanford obviously didn’t know they were supposed to lose.  It isn’t a surprise that USC was a flawed team but what was surprising was how bad the Trojans offense looked.  Matt Barkley was under pressure the entire game.  Barkley was sacked five times in the game.  USC was held to under 300 yards of offense and only 23 yards rushing.  USC was held scoreless in the second half.  Stanford beat up the Trojans. The number two team in the nation goes down. Matt Barkley for Heisman t-shirts can now be sold at a discount at the USC bookstore.

Notre Dame 20 Michigan State 3
Notre Dame this week became a somewhat part of the ACC.  The ACC looks more desperate than the Cleveland Browns for starting Brandon Weeden. Much was on the line here for Michigan State and the Big 10, as with this loss the Big 10 is out of the national championship talk.  It is only Week 3.  Watching this game it seemed football was set back 25 years.  Neither team has a quarterback that is a quality passer.  The Notre Dame defensive line dominated the game.  Michigan State has to run Le’Veon Bell to be effective.  Bell was held to under 80 yards on the night.  Don’t look now but Notre Dame is relevant again on the national scene.

Bills Fans:
If you are worried Bills QB Ryan Fitzpatrick has been exposed as a Linguine-armed, Ivy League Trojan Horse who will bring about the downfall of Western New York Civilization, here are 10 quarterbacks that all will or can come out in the next NFL draft.

Geno Smith-West Virginia, Matt Barkley-USC, Mike Glennon-NC State, Tyler Wilson-Arkansas, Landry Jones- Oklahoma, Logan Thomas-Virginia Tech, Tyler Bray-Tennessee, Aaron Murray-Georgia, EJ Manuel-Florida State, Tajh Boyd-Clemson