We’ve completed three weeks of the college football season, and we’re beginning to see glimpses of who these teams really are.
It was an eventful day in the Southeastern Conference with one game going to triple overtime, another final-second thriller and one team’s comeback to get their first win.
So who underperformed in Week 3?
Vanderbilt: It was a near catastrophe in Nashville on Saturday. For the better part of three quarters, it looked as if Vanderbilt was going to lose to UMass, arguably the worst team in college football, and drop to 0-3. Derek Mason started a quarterback who wasn’t even on the depth chart the first two weeks, and after a 75-yard UMass touchdown off a fake punt, it was as if you could hear the talk of Mason’s job security growing louder.
Florida: A team that hadn’t beat the Gators in 27 years, and hadn’t won in Gainesville since 1979, took Florida to triple-overtime and had several chances to win. After the Gators’ dominant performance against Eastern Michigan in its (technically?) season-opener, Florida struggled offensively in the first half putting up just three points. The Gators committed eight penalties and relied on its rushing attack to win the game in the third overtime, but from halftime on, Kentucky outplayed the Gators.
Texas A&M: The Aggies struggled with an inferior Rice team in its 38-10 win Saturday night. Reality began to set in in College Station and after the Aggies’ defense looked improved through the first couple of weeks through the season, they got gashed for 481 yards of total offense and other zone read schemes from better teams (ahem, Auburn) are going to give A&M some major headaches.
Tennessee: If you’re looking for moral victories, you won’t find them here. The Vols went to Norman looking to upset the Sooners and didn’t play up to par. Youth was spotlighted on Saturday night, with Oklahoma’s front seven manhandling the Vols’ offensive line. The Tennessee defense did all it could against a Sooner offense that has an arsenal of weapons across the board, but couldn’t hold up with its offense struggling to stay on the field. We knew it’d be a tough test, and it was a great measuring stick for Butch Jones’ progress in Knoxville, but the Vols were still thoroughly outmatched on a big stage.
After living in Birmingham, Ala., Jordan left the ground zero of SEC Nation to head south to Florida to tell the unique stories of the renowned tradition of SEC football. In his free time, his mission is to find the best locales around.
