The Schmidt List: Kelly Bryant has arrived, Florida Hail Mary and more Week 3 fallout

Patrick Schmidt on what he saw from the world of college football last week.

Week 3 of the college football season looked like a relative dud on paper with only one or two marquee games on the schedule. One day we’ll learn that when that happens, that is usually the week when all the crazy stuff happens. What transpired on Saturday is further proof that the college game is in a much better shape than the pro game as the NFL continues to see ratings dwindle and more talk is about off-the-field stuff than the on-field product. I don’t know about you, but I love college football Saturdays as much as I love free pizza and sleeping in on Sunday. Having said that, here is what I thought were the biggest takeaways from the week that was, beginning in Louisville where a new star is developing right in front of our eyes.

Kelly Bryant outduels Lamar Jackson as Clemson routs Louisville

The top story of the week was the one-sided affair between Clemson and Louisville. I predicted Lamar Jackson would don the Superman cape and pull off the upset of the reigning champions and make an early Heisman statement. Neither of those happened as his counterpart on Clemson, Kelly Bryant, outplayed him, and Clemson won 47-21. Bryant finished with 316 yards and two touchdowns on 22-of-32 passing. Jackson put up the bulk of his numbers in garbage time so his 317 yards, three touchdowns and 64 rushing yards don’t tell the entire story. The story was Bryant looking more and more comfortable as Deshaun Watson’s successor and the Tigers defense is the best in the country, fully capable of stopping the single greatest weapon college football has seen in a long time. In fact, Watson tweeted during the game he thinks Bryant is going to be better than he was.

Florida beats Tennessee with a Hail Mary

Florida and Tennessee was one of the ugliest games of the week for three-plus quarters. But when it looked like Florida was going to put it away, the game turned into an offensive explosion. After replay overturned a Florida pick-six and gave Tennessee the ball back on a touchback, the Vols were able to eventually tie the game at 20 after a touchdown by Ethan Wolf and a field goal with 50 seconds left. This all coming after Twitter had fired Butch Jones numerous times. Just when you thought it was headed to overtime, Feleipe Franks scrambled and heaved the ball 61 yards in the air into the waiting hands of Tyrie Cleveland to win the game. Florida had beaten Tennessee for the 12th time in the last 13 meetings and the end of the Butch Jones era at Tennessee was underway.

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USC-Texas

The 2005 Rose Bowl was the best college football game I’ve ever seen in my 35 years. Matt Leinart is who I wish I could be, Reggie Bush was a breathtaking talent reminiscent of Gale Sayers and Vince Young was the most dangerous player with the ball in his hands. Prior to USC and Texas playing for the first time since that game, Leinart and Young reminisced on FOX about the game and it is a must-watch for those who concur with my assertion that it’s the best college game ever played. The 2017 version wasn’t the best college game ever played, but it was an exciting one that went to double overtime. The Trojans got an inspired effort from Tom Herman’s Longhorns, especially Malik Jefferson who was flying all over the field from his middle linebacker position. It wasn’t enough to stop Sam Darnold, Ronald Jones, Deontay Burnett and USC however as they eked out the win. USC dropped in the polls despite the win, but that’s not really a big deal until the playoff rankings come out later this fall.

Josh Rosen

Outside of Lamar Jackson and Baker Mayfield, no quarterback has had a better season than the UCLA junior. Rosen added four more touchdowns and another 400-yard passing effort but threw two costly interceptions. The first was when Rosen had all day in the pocket before throwing extremely late over the middle of the field. Predictably, it was returned for a touchdown. His second interception came in the second half of the fourth quarter when he was picked off in the end zone and trailing by three. He’s an elite talent, but if he doesn’t play a perfect game, UCLA has no chance of contending in the Pac-12.

Saquon Barkley doing Saquon Barkley things

Another week, another chance for the best running back in the country to also prove he’s the best receiver in the country. The longest play of Barkley’s career came on this 85-yard touchdown reception.

Don’t sleep on Mason Rudolph

In the Year of the Quarterback, Rudolph doesn’t get mentioned enough as one of the game’s elite. The senior signal-caller threw for five touchdowns in the first half in Oklahoma State’s 59-21 win over Pitt. He also threw for a career-high 497 yards on 23-of-32 passing. Can we have Bedlam next week?

Mason Rudolph is a player that not enough people are talking about and so is Mississippi State quarterback Nick Fitzgerald. He’s done more than a fine job replacing Dak Prescott as the Bulldogs leader. Able to beat teams with his feet and his arm, there may not be a better quarterback in the SEC this year than Fitzgerald. He led Mississippi State to a blowout win over LSU. Mississippi State doesn’t beat LSU too often, Prescott did it and it was like they won the Sugar Bowl. Fitzgerald led them to lopsided win and Dan Mullen further cements himself as the best coach in the SEC not named Nick Saban.

Overtime

I didn’t see the Boise State game on Friday night, but I did see this clip that went viral on Saturday. The video shows a dog that Boise State uses to retrieve the kicking tee after kickoffs and like the caption says, it’s one of the purest things you’ll ever see. I wish every college had a dog to retrieve the kicking tee.

Prior to the games on Saturday, I watch all three hours of College GameDay. I like to think I’m not alone in that fact. I love the addition of Maria Taylor who has replaced Sam Ponder who is now on NFL Countdown and love that David Pollack is getting more screen time. My favorite part of the show besides the feature story that Gene Wojciechowski has is the various GameDay signs that fans create. With the show at Louisville for their showdown with Clemson, there was a ton of anti-Deshaun Watson signs that poked fun at him not winning the Heisman. He did beat Louisville and he did win the National Championship, so that’s pretty weak trash talk from the Louisville faithful. Watson, himself, caught wind of one of the signs from GameDay and had the perfect response.

https://twitter.com/deshaunwatson/status/909076462195458048

That’s how you do it, Deshaun. I love how there is more and more trash talk from players and coaches. Last week saw Baker Mayfield plant an Oklahoma flag on Ohio State’s field and Penn State coach James Franklin said Pitt beating them was like their Super Bowl, but they treat it like a win vs. Akron. I am all for this trend and hope we see more players not being shy about giving the opposition some bulletin board material.

Next: AP Poll: Winners and Losers

— The Schmidt List returns next Sunday with the latest musings from the world of college football and beyond.