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There’s a new No. 1 team in the Associated Press Top 25 poll following a largely uneventful week in college football.
Texas overtook Georgia in the pool, garnering 35 first-place votes to 23 for the Bulldogs, after crushing UTSA 56-7 despite losing star quarterback Quinn Ewers midway through. The rest of the top five was unchanged.
It wasn’t pretty, but the Bulldogs got the job done in a tough conference contest. Brandon Robinson’s three-yard run gave UGA its first lead with 12:20 left in the fourth quarter and it managed to hold on from there.
Georgia was perhaps a bit fortunate Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops stayed conservative on a 4th-and-8 on his opponent’s 47-yard line. Rather than try a long field goal with Alex Raynor, who made two 50-plus-yarders earlier in the night or even roll the dice and go for a first down, Stoops punted and in doing so threw away UK’s last best chance at the upset.
Another SEC team in the Top 10 flirted with disaster as Missouri held off Boston College 27-21 at home. The Tigers trailed 14-3 midway through the second quarter before reeling off 24 straight points.
“Was not pretty, wasn’t our best performance top to bottom but really responded,” head coach Eli Drinkwitz said after the game. “We hadn’t been challenged all year and (I) was concerned with so many new faces about what that response would be. Today I think you saw a team that’s committed to each other, a team that responds, a team that’s never out of the fight.”
AP voters clearly weren’t impressed by what they saw from Georgia or Missouri as both lost ground.
Those two games aside, Week 3 provided few surprises.
Texas, Alabama, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Oregon and Miami all won in blowouts. Utah shook off a sluggish start against Utah State without quarterback Cam Rising and pulled away in the second half. Oklahoma and Michigan jumped out to early leads and didn’t look back. Kansas State made a strong statement when it hosted Arizona in a Top 25 clash and held serve in a 31-7 win on Friday.
Further down in the rankings, Nebraska responded to its long-awaited return to the Top 25 by beating Northern Iowa 34-3. Quarterback Dylan Raiola threw for 247 yards, two touchdowns and an interception in his third career start.
Week 4 figures to shape the AP poll in a noticeable way even if there aren’t any unexpected upsets.
USC opens its inaugural Big Ten campaign on the road against Michigan in Ann Arbor. Utah and Oklahoma State will cross paths in a matchup that could have implications on the Big 12 title race. The same can be said of Tennessee and Oklahoma’s clash in the SEC.
College football fans will want to make sure their schedule is clear this coming Saturday.