https://youtu.be/7t2y3DhNNG0
Alabama and Ole Miss played the game of the week Saturday and the Rebels showed that they might just be the best in the SEC and a strong candidate for one of the Final Four spots in the playoffs at the end of the season. It was an impressive showing in a place that they had not won since 1988 and only the second win in Tuscaloosa in their long-time one-sided rivalry with the Tide. I was very impressed.
With Michigan State’s win over Oregon eariler, I will keep the Spartans 2nd and drop the Buckeyes down to third. Ohio was nowhere to be seen against a rather mediocre MAC team in Northern Illinois. Ohio State is better than they showed but are not the best team in the country, at least not now. They seem to have a problem in finding a quarterback, at least one that they want to call their staring one for the season. This current edition in Columbus is not as good as the team that won it all last year. By years’ end, they should be.
Notre Dame has lost some fine talent to injury yet they continue to win. I like their attitude and their hard nose play against some good teams. A former big time coach says not to overlook the Irish. They will “hit you in the face.” Georgia Tech is a very good team they beat Saturday.
For the Big 12 teams, TCU, Baylor and Oklahoma will score against everyone, but all three have issues with their defense. The day they mess up with turnovers and have an off day, they will find it hard to beat another offensive team which the Big 12 is loaded with. Oklahoma State, West Virginia, and now Texas Tech, will all be dangerous on any given Saturday and the Big 12 winner will be lucky to have only one loss. Don’t expect a Big 12 team in the Final Four if one doesn’t emerge undefeated.
Out west, UCLA’s win over BYU was close but it was a win. As with the Big 12, the PAC will be a shootout and with Oregon, UCLA, Stanford, USC, Arizona State, Utah, and Arizona State all capable of winning it. I like Oregon and if they don’t stumble another time, they could make the Final Four. The PAC is a deep conference, every bit as good as the others in the Group of Five.
Teams that do not impress me currently include Florida State, Clemson, and Georgia. All undefeated, I have issues with all three. Yet, if they keep winning they will be in the mix at the end of the season and Conference championship games to make the Final Four.
My Final Four after week three (based on the end of the season and not week 3 ratings)
- Ole Miss
- Ohio State
- Notre Dame
- Oregon
- Michigan State (first out)
Most impressive team of the week: Ole Miss
Most disappointing team of the week: Ohio State
Player of the week: Leonard Fournette, LSU
FRED’s TOP 25
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Ole Miss
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Michigan State
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Ohio State
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Notre Dame
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TCU
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LSU
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UCLA
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Baylor
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Oregon
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Alabama
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Oklahoma
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Georgia
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Florida State
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Oklahoma State
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Clemson
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Northwestern
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Texas A&M
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West Virginia
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Utah
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USC
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BYU
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Houston
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Florida
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Stanford
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Georgia Tech
Big 12: 5; SEC: 6; ACC: 3; Big 10: 3; PAC: 5; Independent: 2; AAC: 1
Top Photo: Getty Photos
Sorry Fred, but you are way off everyone else, and to put Ole Miss first after beating a highly overrated Alabama team is simply asinine. I will go with the Coaches Poll, which is voted by people who actually know something about the game rather than the AP, which is voted by a bunch of sports writers who write since they can’t do.
Your disrespect of TCU is simply breathtaking, and your current projected playoff four agrees with, hmmm, absolutely nobody that I have seen.
On the other hand, you are entitled to your opinion, no matter how ill informed and silly it may be.
Appreciate your comments David. Disrespect toward TCU? Breathtaking? Maybe you need to focus on something else in your life. Marriage, divorce, children, love of nature……………football ranking of a team “breathtaking?” That is the line of the day for me. Go Frogs this week. I am not a Tech fan.
Fair enough – I didn’t mean to be personal (as stated elsewhere) but I really think that you are selling TCU short. SMU is vastly improved and better than NIU, at least on offense. SMU will be competing for the American Conference title (an accomplishment such as it is), and Minnesota will be contending for their division crown and the B1G championship. I don’t see such a lousy OOC slate (nothing to compare with Baylor’s or other Big 12 teams – it is much stronger, absent SFA of course).
What will it take to convince you that TCU could beat Ole Miss again? That is what I am talking about with the disrespect. It seems everyone sees TCU being undefeated as a fluke, while for others it is a normative state. It has been for TCU for 15 years now, and half a century a long time ago. I guess my question is this: when does TCU get the same benefit of the doubt as your average SEC team? I just don’t see the teams that DO get the benefit of the doubt being any better at all.
First, TCU is one of the ten or so teams that can make the Final Four. It will be tough. Right now their defense is not as good as last year. Believe in SMU and Minnesota if you want. Right now, I’d to with Ole Miss over TCU. Later in the year, who knows. TCU has upgraded it’s program into a Top 10 one, not Top 25. If ranking them 5th after three weeks of football is disrespect, so be it. I don’t think it is and the Final Four isn’t picked until the end of the Conference championship games. I will be blunt and tell you that one loss by any Big 12 team will put them on the outside looking in when the committee picks. TCU, as with any other Big 12 team, has to win them all. When and if TCU beats the Baylors, OU’s, OSU….they will get into the top 4 and that could be this week with a win over Tech.