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2023 Week 3 Game Recap

To make it easier to keep up with each week's games, I want to try and post a weekly recap thread on Sundays. My main goal for this was to help those who may not have watched every game (looking at myself here) to make sure they fill out the weekly /c/CFB poll with accurate game results. I will highlight ranked teams who lost their games to make it easier to see at a glance before filling out the poll. FCS opponents will be italicized.

This week we had three ranked teams drop their games: ^11^Tennessee, ^16^Kansas State, and ^24^Arkansas. All of these teams were favored but couldn't manage to win in the end. We had several ranked teams surprisingly struggle at some point during their games this week, including all of the Top 4 teams, ^10^Alabama, and ^21^Colorado.

Please let me know what other info you might want to see or if you think that this weekly thread will not be helpful.

	Thursday	September 14
^20^ Miami	defeated	Bethune-Cookman	48-7
Memphis	defeated	Navy	28-24

	Friday	September 15
Army	defeated	UT San Antonio	37-29
Maryland	defeated	Virginia	42-14
Air Force	defeated	Utah State	39-21

	Saturday	September 16
Wisconsin	defeated	Georgia Southern	35-14
^4^ Florida State	defeated	Boston College	31-29
Wake Forest	defeated	Old Dominion	27-24
Liberty	defeated	Buffalo	55-27
Missouri	defeated	^16^ `Kansas State`	30-27
Ohio	defeated	Iowa State	10-7
Baylor	defeated	Long Island University	30-7
Kent State	defeated	Central Connecticut	38-10
Boise State	defeated	North Dakota	42-18
^17^ LSU	defeated	Mississippi State	41-14
Louisville	defeated	Indiana	21-14
^6^ Penn State	defeated	Illinois	30-13
Temple	defeated	Norfolk State	41-9
^12^ Utah	defeated	Weber State	31-7
Eastern Michigan	defeated	UMass	19-17
Ball State	defeated	Indiana State	45-7
NC State	defeated	VMI	45-7
^9^ Notre Dame	defeated	Central Michigan	41-17
^10^ Alabama	defeated	South Florida	17-3
^19^ Oregon State	defeated	San Diego State	26-9
Appalachian State	defeated	East Carolina	43-28
Rutgers	defeated	Virginia Tech	35-16
^25^ Iowa	defeated	Western Michigan	41-10
^15^ Oklahoma	defeated	Tulsa	66-17
^22^ Duke	defeated	Northwestern	38-14
Florida International	defeated	Connecticut	24-17
^1^ Georgia	defeated	South Carolina	24-14
^18^ North Carolina	defeated	Minnesota	31-13
Tulane	defeated	Southern Mississippi	21-3
California	defeated	Idaho	31-17
Texas A&M	defeated	Louisiana Monroe	47-3
^5^ Ohio State	defeated	Western Kentucky	63-10
^23^ Washington State	defeated	Northern Colorado	64-21
UCLA	defeated	North Carolina Central	59-7
^7^ Washington	defeated	Michigan State	41-7
Georgia State	defeated	Charlotte	41-25
UCF	defeated	Villanova	48-14
Auburn	defeated	Samford	45-13
Florida	defeated	^11^ `Tennessee`	29-16
UNLV	defeated	Vanderbilt	40-37
Miami (OH)	defeated	Cincinnati	31-24
Nebraska	defeated	Northern Illinois	35-11
Toledo	defeated	San José State	21-17
Middle Tennessee	defeated	Murray State	35-14
Texas Tech	defeated	Tarleton State	41-3
James Madison	defeated	Troy	16-14
South Alabama	defeated	Oklahoma State	33-7
Louisiana	defeated	UAB	41-21
SMU	defeated	Prairie View	69-0
Rice	defeated	Texas Southern	59-7
Arkansas State	defeated	Stony Brook	31-7
Coastal Carolina	defeated	Duquesne	66-7
North Texas	defeated	Louisiana Tech	40-37
West Virginia	defeated	Pittsburgh	17-6
^14^ Ole Miss	defeated	Georgia Tech	48-23
Syracuse	defeated	Purdue	35-20
BYU	defeated	^24^ `Arkansas`	38-31
^2^ Michigan	defeated	Bowling Green	31-6
Kentucky	defeated	Akron	35-3
^13^ Oregon	defeated	Hawai'i	55-10
Sacramento State	defeated	Stanford	30-23
^3^ Texas	defeated	Wyoming	31-10
TCU	defeated	Houston	36-13
Clemson	defeated	Florida Atlantic	48-14
New Mexico State	defeated	New Mexico	27-17
Texas State	defeated	Jackson State	77-34
^21^ Colorado	defeated	Colorado State	43-35
Fresno State	defeated	Arizona State	29-0
Kansas	defeated	Nevada	31-24
Arizona	defeated	UTEP	31-10

10 comments

SatouKazuma

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I like this a ton. I'd suggest also adding a quick recap for ranked vs. ranked games, as well, since those could potentially have big implications for the playoff.

Manibusan

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I’d suggest also adding a quick recap for ranked vs. ranked games, as well

This is a good idea. @ToasterOverlord@fanaticus.social is great at game recaps, I’ll see if he can help out with these.

SatouKazuma

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I was thinking of even boiling it down to game-by-game blurbs for those, just because of the implications.

SatouKazuma

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Glad to know I'm not crazy at least. Thanks for the feedback!

ToasterOverlord

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Sounds like a fun thing to do on Sundays -- I can take a stab at it next week. I'm writing up a quick recap of the Big XII which I'll post as a comment here in just a bit.

The thing that takes time with writing up recaps is that before conference play there are more games to sift through as each school tries to pad their schedule with easy wins. Fortunately, that ends this week! Really looking forward to Ole Miss @ Bama and tOSU @ Notre Dame (even though I'll probably mostly be watching the Roadrunners and Longhorns, respectively).

dbc

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This format is great!

g0d0fm15ch13f

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I see this thread as a great place to have weekly discussions on games and the implications. I'd love to be able to foster that kind of discussion as it helps in the case where you say, didn't watch an overtime thriller because of... well... Game threads have honestly been great so far (sparse but what did we expect) but there isn't often a comment recapping the game for those that weren't in them to begin with.

ToasterOverlord

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My Big XII Week 3 Recap. Probably too late to foster any discussion, but I still wanted to get it in.

We are driving the struggle bus this week! The conference went 9-5 but that doesn't doesn't tell the whole picture.

Tier 1

Texas (3-0), 0U (3-0)

Well well well, if it isn't Yormark's favorite pair of teams leading the conference in their last Big XII rodeo.

Texas really struggled against Wyoming, but I don't think anyone expected an easy win after what they did to Tech in week 1. Offense looked rough for 3 quarters and Ewers especially (fewer passing yards in this game than Wyoming's backup QB). Turns out Texas plays to the level of competition still (and it doesn't help that Alabama looks very mediocre).

0U beat up the 3rd worst FBS team per my rankings going into week 3. We still don't know anything about this squad but you can't deny they can score points (5 TD passes from Gabriel, fits the mould of an 0U QB). The Sooners move up a tier.

Tier 2

K-State (2-1), TCU (2-1)

What can a say about K-State other than ooof. Hard to imagine a rougher way to lose to an old conference foe than by a walk-off conference-record (tying) field goal. This was a gritty game, and kudos to Mizzou for stifling K-State's offense and outperforming Will Howard. I still think the Wildcats are a force to be reckoned with so I'm keeping them in the upper ranks.

Moving back up a tier is TCU for throttling their old (and new again) conference foe, Houston. Although much of TCU's natty-run team is gone, remember that Chandler Morris once beat out Max Duggan for the starting QB job. He looks good and appears to be surrounded with some talented receivers. And the defense had themselves a game (but I might also chalk this up to Houston having a roughshod O-line).

Tier 3

Baylor (1-2), BYU (3-0), KU (3-0), Texas Tech (1-2), UCF (3-0)

Baylor finally wins a game, lol. Against FCS competition, we don't really learn much, but I think they've got enough talent to move up to this very crowded mid-tier. Although it may (hopefully) be short-lived as they face c/cfb's top-ranked Texas squad next week... Not only is Baylor's identity very defensive, they are very much establishing themselves as a running team this year (only 1 touchdown came through the air).

Congrats to BYU for their come-from-behind road win against the Razorbacks! Home and homes where the home team loses -- was BYU taking notes from Texas in week 2? This is a good win and I wanted to move BYU up more, but they did struggle a bit and needed Slovis to play hero ball. I'm not sure where they fit in the Big XII picture so we will learn a lot when they face KU next week.

Speaking of, Kansas drops a tier despite winning. Why? They struggled against a bad Nevada team. (How bad? My rankings had them last in the FBS.) This was the late game so I didn't watch all of it, but Nevada played better than Kansas in the first half which shouldn't be possible. Daniels looked surprisingly average and KU had to resort to running the ball (which is good to know that they can play different styles of offense).

And the other BUTT school finally wins a game as well. Texas Tech and Baylor have had eerily similar seasons thus far: being stunned by a G5, going toe-to-toe but falling short with a highly ranked team, and settling for a mediocre win against FCS competition. And when I say mediocre, Shough is not the guy. He wasn't back then and still isn't now (not with a QBR of 16.2 against Tarleton State). He was pulled early and it's too bad the backup doesn't look any better. Tech's defense had a great game though, keeping them in this tier.

UCF seems to be okay without Plumlee, although we can't say for sure against FCS play. Timmy McClain stepped up, even running when he needs to. With exactly 600 yards of total offense, I think the Knights could do very well in the Big XII this year but I am expecting them to run into a buzzsaw next week with K-State playing angry after their upset.

Tier 4

Cinci (2-1), Houston (1-2), WVU (2-1)

Well Cinci went ahead and lost to a MAC school in overtime so I need to drop them a tier. Although congrats to Miami (OH) from bouncing back after being beat down by Miami (FL) 2 weeks ago in the CONFUSION BOWL! Quick, someone teach Cinci how to cash in in the red zone. Continuously settling for field goal after field goal allowed Miami to stay in this one. Very concerning for Cinci, who will need to play their best to avoid being destroyed at home next week by Oklahoma.

Houston rises out of the basement despite losing again, but only just. Think of them as being somewhere on the steps into the basement. And frankly, with 0 offensive TDs scored, I don't know if they belong in the Big XII. Maybe they're tanking to get Holgo fired?

Congrats on the big win in the Backyard Brawl, West Virginia! I didn't get to watch much of this one but I heard it was a gritty, ugly contest, which is exactly what you want from this game. It brings you up a tier, but unfortunately it may seal your fate of being saddled with Neal Brown for another year. And how much of the team got injured in this game?

Tier 5

Iowa State (1-2), Oklahoma State (2-1)

We have an all new bottom tier this week!

Iowa State, what are we doing? Losing to Ohio seems to be playing into the pre-season narrative of ISU being trash this year and Ohio being the G5 to watch, which I foolishly didn't buy into. Cyclones, if you want to play defensive slug-fests, maybe join the B1G or learn how to make your kicks. Of note (at least to me) is that ISU is now led by QB Rocco Becht, the son of XFL star HC Anthony Becht. (And shameless plug for !xfl@fanaticus.social if you're enough of a weirdo to follow that league)

And the truly worst for last, Oklahoma State. I get that USA is good, but what is going on?! Getting blown out at home? Ooooooof (size large). They are still playing a committee of QBs and, spoiler alert (if you didn't read my recap last week), it's not working. Maybe all those transfers in the off-season was the early warning alarm for this dumpster fire that is now in full blaze.

ToasterOverlord

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I love this idea! I was thinking of dropping my weekly Big XII discussion thread and moving to more of a basic recap, but was worried it wouldn't warrant its own post anymore if it was just one conference. I hope the community can use this thread to comment their thoughts on any of the past week's games.

When I update my poll on Sunday, I kind of skim through all the results without thinking, and my spreadsheet is all chopped up by team. So it's refreshing to have everything in one spot to actually reflect on the weekend's action. The only extra data point that I might suggest including is if the win was at home or on the road.

Manibusan

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When I update my poll on Sunday, I kind of skim through all the results without thinking, and my spreadsheet is all chopped up by team.

Yeah I’ve been using ESPN to try and recap when doing the poll but I think this makes it a little bit easier for me to process at a glance. I also like paying special attention to the teams we have ranked instead of the AP-ranked teams.

The only extra data point that I might suggest including is if the win was at home or on the road.

I thought about something like this but couldn’t quite figure out what it is that I wanted to capture. Using your suggestion, I can simply add a quick column that states Home Win/Road Win. Thanks!

/c/CFB Poll Top 25
1. Texas
2. Georgia
3. Tennessee
4. Miami
T-5. Alabama
T-5. Ohio State
7. Oregon
8. Ole Miss
9. USC
10. Missouri
11. Oklahoma
T-12. Kansas State
T-12. Penn State
14. Oklahoma State
15. Notre Dame
16. Northern Illinois
17. Utah
T-18. Illinois
T-18. Michigan
20. LSU
T-21. Louisville
T-21. UCF
T-21. Washington State
24. Georgia Tech
T-25. Maryland
T-25. UNLV