Week 3 of the college football season returned back to normal for the most part. There were no major upsets, everyone who was supposed to win did win and outside of South Alabama giving UCLA a scare, there were no real close Cinderella games. It was more like the college football Gods decided to have the planets realign from all the craziness that we had the first two weeks of the season. Will that continue this week or will the pandemonium break loose again? As always, CJ Lang will guide you through this college football season with all the storylines, player profiles and game previews you will need. Enjoy!

Favorite Storylines

Bye-Bye Bedlam

With Oklahoma’s decision to leave for the SEC with Texas it will mark an end to the Bedlam series, which is an annual game the Sooners played against their rival Oklahoma State. This week both schools have been firing shots at the other regarding who’s at fault and why the other won’t let the series continue. I think we all know that non-conference schedules are booked out years and years in advance so when Oklahoma State made its non-conference schedule for the next 10 years there was no way that they could have known that Oklahoma was going to be leaving the Big 12. But this Bedlam series goes back 118 years and since that time, there were only two years that the game was not played, 1905 and 1909. It’s sad to see such a historic series end, especially considering the circumstances, but not all good things last. And to be honest, I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing for Oklahoma State since the Sooners own a 90-19-7 series record against them. So let’s all make sure to enjoy the next two seasons while it lasts.

Pac Zero?

I really don’t think it’s a good sign that the Pac-12 commissioner had to come out this week and say that he doesn’t anticipate any more teams leaving the conference. Obviously, the college football world was shocked in June when USC and UCLA announced that they would be leaving in 2024 for the Big Ten. That sent huge ripple effects throughout the nation, and now there are rumors that Washington and Oregon could be on their way out as well to the Big Ten. Not to mention there are also rumors that the Big 12 is heavily recruiting Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah to join their conference to make up for the loss of Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC. If the NCAA were ever to mandate super conferences, then I think this is the time. With the transfer portal and the fact that we now have free agency in college football, regional recruiting doesn’t mean as much as it once did. And now to think that you have a team from Los Angeles, California in UCLA playing in the same conference and potentially division as a team from Piscataway, New Jersey in Rutgers then what are we doing here?

Player Spotlights

Quarterbacks

Aidan O’Connell (SR – Purdue) 6-3, 210 lbs.

You may not have heard of Aidan O’Connell before, but he holds the distinction with Drew Brees of being the only Purdue quarterback in history to throw two 500-yard passing games in the same season. He currently leads the Big Ten in passing yards and is second in the Big Ten in passing completions, passing touchdowns and completion percentage, and is in the top six in those same metrics in all of FBS. Last year, he threw for 3,712 yards with 28 TDs and 11 INTs. He’s definitely not going to blow you away with his running ability; in fact, over his four-year career at Purdue he has -203 rushing yards, but last season for the Boilermakers he had a 71.6% completion percentage in 12 games played, which equates to a perfect passer rating of 158.5. After giving away fourth-quarter leads to Penn State and Syracuse this season, Purdue will look to get back on track this week against Miami FL transfer quarterback N’Kosi Perry and the FAU Owls.

Michael Penix Jr. (JR – Washington) 6-3, 213 lbs.

Michael Penix Jr. spent the first four years of his college playing days at the University of Indiana. He could never get consistent playing time and transferred to the University of Washington this spring. So far he has not disappointed. Over three games, he has 1,079 passing yards, 10 TDs and one INT and he leads the Pac-12 in virtually all quarterback statistics. He was named Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week after last week’s victory versus No. 11 Michigan State where he had 397 passing yards and four TDs in the upset victory. This week the Huskies play Stanford at home, which is the team who always plays them tough. Their head coach David Shaw is 7-4 against Washington in his career and coming off of their bye week, so Stanford will be more than prepared for Washington. We will see what Penix Jr. and his team can do with that fresh new No. 18 ranking against the Cardinal.

Running Backs

Mohamed Ibrahim (SR – Minnesota) 5-10, 210 lbs.

As a junior in 2020, Abraham was named the Big Ten Running Back of the Year following a 1,076-rushing yard and 15-TD campaign. Many people might not have known that he was primed for the NFL Draft when, during the Ohio State game in 2021, he tore his Achilles and was out for the season, limiting him to only 30 rushing attempts. He decided to come back this year as a fifth-year senior and has not let the Achilles narrative keep him down so far. He has 464 rushing yards with seven TDs on the season, but over his career, he’s never really been involved in the passing game. He has never caught more than eight passes in a season. Even though he knows if he wants to make it in the NFL that is one thing he needs to improve on, he has always been very efficient at pass blocking and blitz pickups and has shown an ability to be patient for the blockers to execute their blocks to allow the holes to develop, ala Le’Veon Bell. Ibrahim and the Gophers have a big test this week when they travel to Lansing to take on Michigan State.

Chase Brown (Redshirt JR – Illinois) 5-11, 205 lbs.

The nation’s leading running back after three weeks of the college football season is not from Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State or Texas. He is from Champaign, Illinois! Chase Brown currently leads FBS with 496 rushing yards. He has not run for less than 146 yards in any of the three games he has played this season with his high water mark being 199 rushing yards against Indiana in week 2. As a three-star recruit coming out of Florida, he initially signed with the Western Michigan Broncos but transferred to Illinois after his freshman season. After getting more integrated into the offense last year, he ran for 1,005 rushing yards and five TDs and added 14 receptions for 142 receiving yards. He is currently on the Senior Bowl, Maxwell and Doak Walker Watchlists. This week the Illini play FCS’s Chattanooga who is about to play their second game in a span of six days, but these Mocs are not somebody to look over. They are currently undefeated at 3-0 and ranked ninth in the FCS rankings. We will see if Chase keeps pace with his ridiculous yards per game rushing total this season.

Wide Receivers

Will Sheppard (JR – Vanderbilt) 6-3, 200 lbs.

Vanderbilt is 3-1 on the season, but they have a huge test this week and are 40.5-point underdogs as they travel to Tuscaloosa to take on the Tide. One thing that they do have going for them is WR Will Sheppard. He currently leads the SEC in receptions (23) and receiving yards (313), and he leads the nation in receiving touchdowns (7) and points scored (42). As a three-star recruit in the 2020 class, Sheppard mainly got offers only from HBCUs but ended up signing with Vanderbilt. As a freshman, he only had two catches for 30 yards but had a little breakout last season when he played in 11 games and had 43 catches for 577 yards and four TDs. Considering that he’s only played four games so far this year, has already halfway to his season-high in receiving yards and has already doubled his touchdown totals, I would say that he’s primed for a great year this season. And let’s be honest, Vanderbilt will be playing from behind (more than likely), and when you have to play from behind in football, you don’t have time to establish the run game. So I would anticipate Sheppard getting a ton of targets this week against Alabama.

Keylon Stokes (SR – Tulsa) 5-10, 202 lbs.

Keylon Stokes is playing his sixth year of college football this season, and he is off to a fast start! In his first three games played, he had 169 yards, 135 yards and 153 yards receiving respectively with one TD in each game. He had his breakout year as a redshirt junior in 2019 with 1,040 receiving yards and six TDs, yet kind of fell off the next two seasons. He looks to be fully healthy to start 2022 and not only is he third overall in receiving yards in FBS, but he is also top three in receptions, receiving yards, TDs, yards from scrimmage and punt return yards in the AAC. He is someone to definitely keep an eye on this week as the Golden Hurricane travels to Oxford to take on Lane Kiffin’s Running Rebels of Ole Miss. Tulsa has the No. 1 passing offense in FBS, but the Ole Miss defense is no joke either. We will see if Stokes can break through vs. a big-time SEC opponent.

Tight Ends

Brock Bowers (SO – Georgia) 6-4, 230 lbs.

Finally…the Brock has come back to the big time! After a stellar freshman season where he set a Georgia school record for most receiving TDs and was the Bulldogs leading receiver with 56 catches, 882 yards, and 13 TDs, we all had incredibly high expectations for Brock Bowers heading into 2022. But after his opening two games where he averaged two catches for 48 yards, Bowers finally had that big breakout. Last week at South Carolina he had five catches for 121 yards and two TDs, and just for giggles, he added a five-yard rushing TD as well. He was named Pre-Season All-SEC and is on both the Biletnikoff and Mackey Award Watchlists. He will be a pass-catching monster when he graduates to the NFL and when you pull up the stats from each Georgia game, go straight to the receiving totals and see what their TE did. Brock Bowers will be a name you will need to remember come Sundays.

Payne Durham (SR- Purdue) 6-5, 255 lbs.

Payne Durham had a breakout year last year after getting sporadic playing time during his underclassmen years at Purdue. Last season he hauled in 45 receptions for 467 yards and six TDs. Last week in a tight loss versus Syracuse, he had nine catches for 83 yards and two TDs. He is one of QB Aidan O’Connell’s first reads, and despite his size, he moves really well. He is not in for just blocking, he is integrated into their offense. We should see him heavily targeted this week against FAU in a high-scoring affair between two teams with great passing attacks.

Games Of The Week

No. 5 Clemson (-7) vs. No. 21 Wake Forest

Both of these teams are coming into this game at 3-0. But neither of them has played stiff competition up until this point. Clemson’s closest game to this point with a 35-12 victory over Furman and last week Wake Forest snuck by Liberty 37-36. Now both of these teams start their ACC schedule this Saturday in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Clemson has won the last 14 straight contests between these two teams but has been susceptible to the pass this year, as they rank 86th in the nation in passing defense. Wake Forest QB Sam Hartman leads the Demon Deacons with the sixth-best passing offense in the nation. The home-field advantage could be a big plus for Wake Forest, and this game could potentially be a deciding factor for who plays for the ACC Championship at the end of the season. Right now, Clemson is a seven-point favorite, but this game could easily go either way. I would not be surprised to see some students on the field come Saturday afternoon.

No. 20 Florida vs No. 11 Tennessee (-10.5)

Florida has won the last 15 of 16 meetings between these two teams, but this one feels slightly different. After Florida knocked off No. 5 Utah in Week 1, they lost to a strong No. 8 Kentucky team and barely beat South Florida last week at home. Now they travel to a very raucous Knoxville, where the Vols are currently ranked No. 11 and are ready to change the narrative on this series. In the three games they played so far this year, Tennessee has blown out their two non-conference opponents, Ball State and Akron, and they beat a very good-ranked Pitt team on the road. Tennessee has a very tough schedule coming up in Florida this week then they have their open date, but then over the next five weeks they play LSU, Alabama, Kentucky and Georgia. So this is a game they really need if they want to make a run at the SEC Championship. Both of these teams have good offenses they just do it in different ways. Florida has one of the better rushing offenses in the nation, but their passing game with QB Anthony Richardson has been lackluster. And on the other sideline, Tennessee has the eighth-best passing offense in the nation but ranks 84th in rushing. Regardless, this game will be fun to watch, and the crowd should be crazy. I anticipate Rocky Top being played a plenty.

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