{"id":854115,"date":"2026-09-20T07:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T07:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/854115\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T07:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T07:50:11","slug":"college-football-winners-losers-alabamas-keelon-russell-dazzles-texas-am-faceplants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/854115\/","title":{"rendered":"College football winners, losers: Alabama”s Keelon Russell dazzles, Texas A&M faceplants"},"content":{"rendered":"

College football’s Week 3 slate looked like it had a few memorable matchups, but it delivered a weekend that we’ll remember for a while. Headlining the list is the performance of Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, who wrested away the Heisman board with his incredible performance against Lane Kiffin’s Ole Miss.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even back to Friday, No. 13 Texas Tech survived a battle with No. 22 Houston in an instant classic in Lubbock, while No. 5 Miami got a nearly record-setting performance from QB Darian Mensah.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then, No. 23 Louisville beat No. 16 SMU to take control of the ACC title race, and Kentucky picked up its first top 10 victory under coach Will Stein. But more than the wins, a few individual performances have defined the weekend, including that of Chambliss. Here are the winners and losers of Week 3 early in the primetime slate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Winner: QB Trinidad Chambliss, Ole Miss<\/p>\n

Chambliss’s first-half performance against No. 7 LSU was masterful. His final drive of the second half will live forever in the echoes of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. After the Rebels blew a 17-point lead, Chambliss led a game-winning touchdown drive, capped off with a 14-yard touchdown run on a perfect read pull.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Grand Rapids, Michigan, native took a risk by coming back to school instead of following Lane Kiffin to Baton Rouge. With 363 yards and three total touchdowns in an upset victory, Chambliss is instead creating an unmatched legacy in Oxford. Following his performance, Chambliss took over as the betting favorite to win the Heisman Trophy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Loser: Oklahoma<\/p>\n

Any thought that the Sooners could rebound from a tough loss to Michigan are over. Oklahoma is just bad and their offense will be a liability. The Sooners came painfully close to losing to New Mexico in a 14-6 decision. The Lobos had the ball in the Oklahoma red zone with fewer than three minutes remaining and a chance to tie.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Following the game, coach Brent Venables declined to express his confidence in offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle, stating flatly that he is the offensive coordinator they’ve got. Of course, Venables has already fielded four offensive coordinators in five seasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The unit has steadily declined as the previous staff’s skill talent ages out of the program. Now, Oklahoma could be staring down the barrel of a third losing season in five years under Venables. For comparison, Bob Stoops and Lincoln Riley combined for four seasons below 10 wins in 22 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Winner: West Virginia<\/p>\n

The last time West Virginia was ranked was 2018, the final year of the Dana Holgorsen era. Since then, the program has been essentially irrelevant, totally unable to make an impact against quality opponents. After a 38-27 win over No. 25 Virginia, though, all of that could soon change.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. scored five touchdowns to wholly outplay Beau Pribula on the other sideline as the Mountaineers romped to 3-0. With 247 yards on the ground, the program is really starting to look like a Rich Rodriguez program. More than anything, though, West Virginia is finally fun again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Loser: Colorado<\/p>\n

There was some real optimism around the program after a promising Week 1 performance against Georgia Tech. The go-go offense under Brennan Marion was humming and the defense did an excellent job of creating disruption. But in a demoralizing 41-7 loss against Northwestern, all those good feelings quickly dissipated.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Colorado played fine in the first half, but three turnovers led to 14 Northwestern points. A turnover on downs led to another score, and the blowout was soon on. Overall, Colorado’s offense finished with four fumbles, and the defense was totally unable to slow down inconsistent QB Aidan Chiles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Suddenly, a road trip to Baylor next week looks more daunting. After that, it’s a four-game stretch against No. 13 Texas Tech, No. 17 Utah, Oklahoma State and Kansas State. If these are the Buffs we get, Colorado could soon be facing a six-game losing streak.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Winner: RB Jadan Baugh, Florida<\/p>\n

Florida had to fight hard to keep Jadan Baugh on campus, but man, was the investment worth it. In the Gators’ first test against Auburn, Baugh was unreal, recording 162 yards and three touchdowns on 26 carries. The offense under first-year offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner delivered, and the defense held an explosive Auburn unit to 24 points until the last six minutes of the fourth quarter. Florida should break the rankings this week, continuing the wave of excitement under first-year coach Jon Sumrall.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Loser: NC State<\/p>\n

NC State put itself into hallowed territory with its loss to Vanderbilt: They pulled off arguably the worst final football play of all time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Leading by three points with seconds remaining, all the Wolfpack had to do was fall down. A safety would all but clinch the win, and that appeared to be the call.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead, quarterback CJ Bailey tried to make something happen with his legs to buy more time. Vanderbilt stripped the ball and recovered in the end zone with one second left on the clock to pull off a stunning 35-31 victory.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Frankly, there’s no path forward in the Dave Doeren era after this embarrassment. He finds himself squarely on the hottest of seats.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Winner: QB Keelon Russell, Alabama<\/p>\n

Alabama quarterback Keelon Russell has flashed prodigious talent in his first year as the starter, but his consistency has been suspect. He needed a real breakout moment, a four-quarter performance. Florida State came ready to play against the No. 10 Crimson Tide, but Russell was ready to deliver.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After going down 15 points in the second quarter, Russell scored three touchdowns over a 2:36 period to end the half to give Alabama an improbable lead. With the game close in the third quarter, Russell put his foot down and broke off a 57-yard touchdown run to give the Crimson Tide a two-score lead they would never surrender.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Russell’s final stat line was impressive: 320 yards passing, 56 yards rushing and four total touchdowns. The Dallas native has arrived.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Loser: Texas A&M<\/p>\n

The No. 9 Aggies showed reasons for concern over the first two weeks, but a 10-point loss at home to Kentucky sent the program into full-on panic mode. The Wildcats completely outplayed Texas A&M from the start, jumping out to a 28-7 lead and overcoming an early missed field goal to still go on a run.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Quarterback Marcel Reed was especially disappointing in the loss. The second-year starter threw for only 4.8 yards per attempt and two interceptions as the Aggies were totally outclassed by Kentucky transfers Kenny Minchey and CJ Baxter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After the loss, Texas A&M’s playoff dreams are on life support with a road trip against No. 7 LSU coming next week. After that, there’s still No. 1 Texas, No. 10 Alabama and No. 15 Tennessee on the schedule. Could Texas A&M follow up a playoff berth by missing a bowl game? It’s on the table.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Winner: The state of Kentucky<\/p>\n

To the winner go the spoils, and Kentucky is a huge winner after pulling off a road top 10 upset in Will Stein’s first road SEC game. Stein talked big game when he took the job in Lexington, and his Wildcats immediately challenged Alabama and Texas A&M in his first two big games. Kentucky will be a problem in the SEC.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not to be outdone, No. 23 Louisville pulled off a massive victory against No. 16 SMU at home to take control of the ACC Championship Game race. Trailing by three points late in the fourth quarter, star running backs Keyjuan Brown and Isaac Brown each broke off long touchdown runs to take a 41-31 lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Regrettably, Western Kentucky wasn’t able to put up much of a fight against Indiana, but this still has to rank among the biggest football days in the state’s modern history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Winner: WR Jeremiah Smith, Ohio State<\/p>\n

There have been countless great wide receivers to walk through the halls of Ohio State. In Week 3, Smith formally stamped himself as the best. With 85 yards against Kent State, Smith took the all-time lead with 2,958 receiving yards, passing Michael Jenkins’ 2,898 for No. 1 in the Ohio State record books. Smith has two of the top six receiving seasons in Ohio State history and is positioned to extend well past the 3,000-yard mark. With another strong season, he could soon challenge John Standeford’s all-time Big Ten record of 3,618 yards — despite playing only three seasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Loser: The Weather\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a year filled with weather delays, Week 3 delivered some of the worst. At one point, Florida State-Alabama and Clemson-North Carolina were in deep weather delays. South Carolina against Mississippi State was pushed into the late window. Storms blanketed Auburn before the Florida game, though they thankfully cleared before kickoff. As of publication, BYU-Colorado State on CBS is in weather delay. In addition to ruining crowds and pregame activity, all these weather delays ruin the flow of the college football schedule. Figure it out, big weather!\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"College football’s Week 3 slate looked like it had a few memorable matchups, but it delivered a weekend…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":854116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[1607,399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":["post-854115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-college-football","tag-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=854115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/854116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}