Week 3 College Football Winners and Losers: Wazzu's revenge, Florida State's stunning 0-3 start

We all love college football here. I love it, and if you're reading this column, odds are you do, too.

I'm never going to complain about a weekend slate when we only get 13 during the regular season, but we can be honest with ourselves: Week 3 was kind of a snoozer.

We knew this would likely be the case. Perhaps College GameDay heading to Columbia for a game between an LSU squad outside of the top 15 and an unranked South Carolina team should have been the tell. That one proved to be arguably the most compelling of the slate, though it was overshadowed by officiating criticisms and a run-time that dragged on for a painful four hours.

Still, that doesn't mean there wasn't much to learn from Week 3. We're now a quarter of the way through the season, and conference play is about to get into full swing. A number of teams have already played one or even two league games.

With that being said, here are the winners and losers from Week 3 as we prepare for a Week 4 slate that features four ranked-on-ranked matchups.

Winner: Pittsburgh does it again

Entering the 2024 season, I had Pittsburgh's Pat Narduzzi listed among the coaches on the hottest seats. While I don't think Narduzzi has entirely escaped that situation with a 3-0 start, it's hard not to be impressed with this two-week stretch for the Panthers.

Last week, they overcame a 27-6 second-half deficit to beat Cincinnati on the road — their largest comeback win since 1971. On Saturday, Pitt did it again, erasing a 10-point West Virginia lead in the Backyard Brawl with four minutes to play in a 38-34 win.

The offense has been the issue in the Steel City since Kenny Pickett matriculated to the NFL, but Pittsburgh may really have something in Alabama transfer quarterback Eli Holstein. He's thrown for nearly 1,000 yards and nine touchdowns with just two picks through three games, and he had 301 yards and three touchdowns on Saturday while leading a game-winning drive.

The Panthers have already matched last season's win total with their unbeaten start, and looking at the remaining schedule, Clemson is the only game in which they are almost certain to be an underdog, and that contest is at home.

If the offense continues to play this well, especially late in games, this team could be a much bigger player in the ACC race than we thought going into the season.

Loser: What is going on at Florida State?

The Week 0 loss to Georgia Tech was concerning. The Week 1 loss to Boston College made it clear that this team had taken a significant step back. But after a loss at home to Memphis in Week 3, coming off a bye, where does Florida State even go from here?

It's nearly impossible to fathom how much this team has fallen off in less than a year, even with everything it lost from last year's roster. FSU went 13-0 heading into the postseason last year before it was snubbed from the playoffs, and it was widely expected to win the ACC entering the year.

Now, Florida State is 0-3, and looking at the remaining schedule, only FCS Charleston Southern feels like a guaranteed win, and that's a rough state of affairs in the ACC of all conferences.

But to answer the question posed above, what's happening at Florida State isn't some great mystery. In fact, it's fairly self-explanatory.

The roster that surged to back-to-back double-digit win seasons in 2022 and 2023 was almost entirely built through the portal and was headlined by stars like Jared Verse, Johnny Wilson, Keon Coleman, etc. None of those players are on the team this year.

Coach Mike Norvell attempted to retool his roster through the portal again this offseason, but so far, it's looking like it was more misses than hits.

Alabama transfer Malik Benson has just 12 catches in three games while running back Roydell Williams — another addition from Tuscaloosa — is averaging fewer than three yards per carry. But perhaps the biggest disappointment has been quarterback DJ Uiagalelei, whose limitations were well-known but appears to have regressed even further, approaching an unplayable form this season.

The inability to develop an in-house successor to Jordan Travis in five years is inexplicable for Norvell. He inherited Travis, a genuinely impressive reclamation project, but amid DJU's struggles, he hasn't turned to either of the backups (and former blue-chip recruits) in Brock Glenn and Luke Kromenhoek, which speaks volumes.

Norvell's strategy doesn't seem to be working anymore, and while his past success and a buyout north of $60 million will probably save him from facing any real pressure unless this season truly goes south, it's hard to feel good at all about the direction of the program at the moment.

Winner: Washington State's poetic revenge

I don't have any particular animosity toward Washington's program and don't really blame it for fleeing a sinking ship for the Big Ten last year. But I'll be damned if I'm not going to enjoy this one.

Washington State notched what will probably be the most cathartic win any team earns this season when it held on to upset Washington and first-year coach Jedd Fisch in the reworked, early season neutral-site Apple Cup, which was held at Lumen Field in Seattle.

The Cougars, along with their lone Pac-12 holdover Oregon State, were left behind during the latest round of conference realignments despite both having much more successful recent track records than Arizona State and Colorado, who both received lifelines. But they're the ones laughing now, even if their general outlook remains bleak — despite the Pac-12 replenishing to add several top Mountain West programs.

This year's team may have the juice, though. After taking care of business against Texas Tech in a big win last week, Wazzu stuffed Washington at the goal line on the decisive play with a minute to go.

Quarterback John Mateer doesn't quite meet the archetype we're used to at this program, but he's a true dual threat who accounted for more than 300 total yards and three touchdowns, two of which came on the ground. Receiver Josh Meredith also went over 100 yards on seven catches.

An at-large berth in the College Football Playoff would likely require running the table (and even then, I don't love the odds), but looking at the remaining schedule, the only games that appear particularly challenging are Boise State and Oregon State, and the latter faces some questions after a beatdown at the hands of Oregon.

It doesn't change the fact that this program got screwed by the changing college football landscape, but I'm sure they're enjoying some sweet revenge against their biggest rival. Coach Jake Dickert, who arrived at his postgame press conference with a cigar asking for a lighter, certainly is.

Loser: South Carolina misses a golden opportunity

Despite falling 36-33 to No. 16 LSU on Saturday, I walked away from the game with an overall more positive view of South Carolina than I had entering it. But man did Shane Beamer and the Gamecocks miss a golden opportunity to start 2-0 in SEC play in this spot.

With College GameDay in town and a raucous crowd in attendance for a game against an opponent it had never beaten at Williams-Brice Stadium, South Carolina jumped out to a 17-0 first-half lead but couldn't secure the win.

There were a multitude of missed opportunities in this game that will haunt Gamecocks fans, be it a likely game-sealing pick-six that was called back due to a questionable roughing the passer penalty late in the fourth quarter or a missed 49-yard field goal as time expired that would have sent the game to overtime.

In fairness to South Carolina, quarterback LaNorris Sellers — who has struggled through the air this season but is a weapon on the ground — exited and did not return. With backup Robby Ashford, the Gamecocks struggled to move the ball quite a bit in the second half.

This team is very strong defensively, and it seems poised to have a much better season than most thought before the year. Still, South Carolina ran for 243 yards and four touchdowns in this game and held a three-score lead at one point. No matter how you spin it, that's a loss that's going to hurt.

Quick Hitters - Winners

• Alabama: We had some concerns about the Tide after they struggled against South Florida late in the fourth quarter, but they looked much stronger in a 42-10 win on the road against an admittedly pretty bad Wisconsin team. Freshman receiver Ryan Williams, who is 17 years old, remains phenomenal.

• LSU: It was far from the prettiest win of the Brian Kelly era, but the Tigers overcame some pretty bad play to complete their second-largest road comeback win in program history. That certainly counts for something!

• Texas Tech: After a major scare against Abilene Christian and an ugly loss at Washington State, I didn't think the Red Raiders were all that good. After a 66-21 win over North Texas in which it led 49-7 at halftime, I'm starting to reconsider a bit.

• Memphis: While the win over Florida State is not nearly as impressive as we assumed it would be when FSU started the year in the top 10, this is still a massive road win for the Tigers against their former coach and will bolster their CFP resume, regardless of what kind of season Florida State ultimately has.

• Oregon: The Ducks were perhaps the most disappointing top-10 team outside of Tallahassee and South Bend through the first two weeks despite avoiding losses in two games that were tighter than expected, but they seem to be figuring things out after blasting rival Oregon State 49-14 on the road.

• Notre Dame: Speaking of the Fighting Irish, they had about as good a get-back game as you could possibly ask for, taking their frustrations from the Northern Illinois loss out on Purdue with a 66-7 road win.

• Western Kentucky QB Caden Veltkamp: Starter TJ Finley was injured early in WKU's 49-21 win over Middle Tennessee and is expected to miss several weeks. The Hilltoppers probably feel pretty good about their backup situation, however, after Veltkamp completed 27 of 30 passes for 398 yards and five touchdowns coming off the bench.

• Texas A&M QB Marcel Reed: Conner Weigman, a game-time decision with what was revealed to be an AC joint injury in his throwing shoulder, didn't ultimately play against Florida on Saturday. That didn't slow down the Aggies as Reed torched the Gators in the Swamp with 178 yards through the air, 83 on the ground and three total touchdowns in a 33-20 TAMU win.

• Texas QB Arch Manning: As we conclude our series on quarterbacks elevated due to injury, we saw our first extended look at Manning against UTSA on Saturday night after Quinn Ewers left the game with an abdominal injury, and he didn't disappoint. He threw a touchdown on his first pass and score five in total, including a 67-yard touchdown run. It's not a QB controversy (at least not yet) but watch this space.

• Toledo and the MAC: Toledo earned one of the biggest wins in program history on Saturday night, stunning a double-digit favorite Mississippi State team with a definitive 41-17 win in Starkville. Between a ranked Northern Illinois team and a Toledo squad with an SEC win, you can't count the MAC out of the CFP race, which is a sentence I did not think I would be writing this year!

• Indiana: Alright, I'm officially on the hype train. Curt Cignetti may have something really fun at IU in Year 1. Making the trip to Pasadena, the Hoosiers spanked UCLA in the Rose Bowl in its Big Ten debut, winning 42-13 between 300 yards and four touchdowns from Kurtis Rourke, the Ohio transfer QB who leads an offense that's cooking right now.

• UCF: This game may have fallen under the radar a bit, but Gus Malzahn earned a huge road Big 12 win as the Knights came back from a 31-13 deficit to beat TCU and secure a 3-0 start.

Quick Hitters - Losers

• Arizona: The 'Cats typically electric offense had no counter-punch to Kansas State's veteran defense on the road in a matchup that technically didn't count as a Big 12 game. They fell behind early and were never really competitive in a 31-7 loss.

• Kansas: I think the Jayhawks can still be one of the best teams in the Big 12 when at their best, but this team hasn't been at its best for a couple weeks in a row now. Jalon Daniels has managed to stay healthy, but he's thrown twice as many interceptions (6) as touchdowns (3) so far this year. He added two more picks to the counter during an ugly Friday night loss to UNLV.

• Wisconsin: The game against Alabama was never going to be close, but to add injury to insult, quarterback Tyler Van Dyke suffered a season-ending torn ACL early in the game. Van Dyke had his own struggles, but that's a loss this offense that's still searching for an identity couldn't afford to take.

• West Virginia: Blowing a 10-point lead in the Backyard Brawl is not a good thing for coach Neal Brown, who avoided the hot seat with a solid 2023 season but is 1-2 to start the year with losses to Penn State and Pittsburgh which were both frustrating, albeit in different ways.

• Washington: Transfer quarterback Will Rogers is the SEC's second all-time leading passer, but he has -350 rushing yards in his career. Please, someone, make it make sense to me why the Huskies called a speed option with him on fourth and goal with the game on the line. Because I'm at a loss.

• Arkansas: The Razorbacks overcame a 17-3 early deficit to beat UAB — a team coming off a 31-6 beatdown loss against UL-Monroe — to win by 10 points. Does that make you feel good about the Hogs in a decisive year for coach Sam Pittman? I sure don't.

• Vanderbilt: Oh, Vanderbilt. It seemed like we could be in store for a fun Commodores team this year after a Week 1 upset against Virginia Tech. Then, coach Clark Lea's team lost at a rebuilding Georgia State in a game where it needed 22 fourth-quarter points just to make the final score respectable.

• Florida: Don't let the 33-20 final deceive you — the Gators were never in this game from the opening kick. The Billy Napier era is over in Gainesville. Nothing that happens in the coming weeks will change that. The roughly $26 million in buyout cash is already secured, per ESPN's Chris Low, and Saturday's loss only served to solidify a decision that had likely already been made. All that remains in question is the timing.

• Mississippi State: The Bulldogs are rebuilding, but no SEC team in any state of rebuild should lose to a MAC squad like this. This defense is sub-power conference level, and I'm sure whoever the Bulldogs play next week will be able to score at wi — oh, it's Florida. Oh, God, it's Florida.

• UCLA: DeShaun Foster never really stood a chance in Year 1 with his late hiring and everything this team lost. But the Bruins look like one of the very worst teams in the Big Ten this year, and any more wins will probably be hard to come by, starting with a trip to LSU next week.

• Colorado State: Look, folks, I understand the Colorado fatigue. But I would posit that the amount of trash talk coming from the Rams, a team that's just 9-18 in two and change seasons under Jay Norvell, was even more egregious. It's part of the game, but you can't do that and get embarrassed by your biggest rival, who you haven't beaten since 2014, 28-9.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: Week 3 College Football Winners and Losers: Wazzu's revenge, Florida State's stunning 0-3 start