College Football Blitz, Week 3: Clemson isn’t going anywhere

Rolling around some storylines surrounding the conferences after Week 3 of the college football season.

Week 3 of the 2017 college football season has come and gone, so once again it’s time to delve into what we learned from some of the action throughout the country over the weekend. As is usually the case — unless Notre Dame does something noteworthy or Brian Kelly does something stupid — we’ll start things right off with the Group of 5 and two teams that made more people take notice of them by making statements against the Pac-12.

Group of 5: Memphis and San Diego State eye New Year’s glory

They may not get the attention most of the Power 5 teams get on a weekly basis, but man, the fight for the New Year’s Group of 5 bid seems as if it’s going to be mighty enjoyable to watch play out this year. While coming into the year popular names such as South Florida and Boise State were in the discussion, we’re learning there are other contenders out there, and two of those squads earned some impressive wins over the weekend — the Memphis Tigers and San Diego State Aztecs.

Memphis welcomed in the UCLA Bruins to the Liberty Bowl on Saturday, and in one of the more entertaining contests of Week 3 action, came away with the 48-45 win, knocking off Josh Rosen and the company. Mike Norvell has built one of the more fun offenses in the country to watch with the trio of quarterback Riley Ferguson, running back Darrell Henderson and wide receiver Anthony Miller. Following a game this coming week with Southern Illinois, Norvell and this Tigers team will head into their AAC schedule with tunnel vision on potentially running the table and playing on one of the larger stages come season’s end, especially with a Pac-12 win on their resume.

But speaking of having Pac-12 wins on the resume, the San Diego State Aztecs don’t just have one this season — they have two. One week after drawing some attention their way with a 30-20 win over Arizona State, San Diego State then went ahead and handed Stanford their second loss of the season, 20-17, in a game that was so intense the lights in the stadium went out. No, really, this one was delayed a bit because the electricity in the stadium hit a snag, but when the lights came back on, the Aztecs fought with all they had to move to 3-0 on the year, while collecting themselves another win over a Pac-12 program in the process. The win definitely earned them some much-deserved respect, as they made their first appearance in the AP Poll on Sunday in the No. 22 slot.

It’s abundantly clear these are two squads that are ready to make a serious run at a New Year’s Six bowl as a Group of 5 member. And to make that chase even more intriguing, one of these teams will have a leg up on the other following Week 4, as Stanford and UCLA will battle this coming weekend, making one win look slightly better than the other … at least for the time being.