Welcome to Glass Slipper! Perhaps the JJ McCarthy superfans started gloating a touch too early; please enjoy the show.

- Jacob Rhee

Here are my 10 biggest takeaways from Week 3 of the college football season.

1. Race to the bottom.

Clemson is unranked. Unranked. A lot of Tigers folks get irritated when I perform a temperature check on Dabo Swinney’s seat; I don’t understand how you could possibly blame me at this point.

The program is sliding down the mountain, and you want to sign up for another half-decade? Yes, Dabo raised the standard to a ridiculous height. Thanks to his own stubbornness, he can’t meet it anymore.

2. The Haynes King redemption arc.

Sat behind Kellen Mond in 2020. A season-ending injury in 2021. Benched for Conner Weigman in 2022. Turnover-prone in 2023. Over the past two years, Haynes has grown into one of the better signal-callers in the sport. He gives me JT Barrett vibes; limited from the pocket, but tougher than any other human in the stadium.

King’s funky delivery will always make me giggle, but he’s got the Georgia Tech in prime position to reach the conference title game.

3. What’s next?

Poor Luke Fickell. That man is such a good football coach. Though Wisconsin might let him finish the campaign, it feels like those parties should separate.

Luke should go right back to Cincinnati and ask for his job back. He’ll be presented with a contract before even finishing the request. If Matt Patricia scurries back to the NFL and Fickell wants a defensive coordinator spot, I’d welcome him with open arms.

4. Ahmad Hardy is elite.

We have an unexpected entrant into the Heisman sweepstakes, folks. 462 rushing yards and five touchdowns after three weeks, and none of it feels fluky. Missouri’s schedule is not a complete gauntlet, either. No LSU, no Georgia, no Texas. A path to New York exists.

5. Is USC good?

I don’t think so. Sorry. The wideouts are awesome, and that defense does look more crisp than usual. I can certainly understand why the fans are tiptoeing back towards the bandwagon.

We’re about to find out exactly who USC is. The Trojans host Michigan State next, followed by three ranked opponents and a trip to Lincoln. If they make it out of that stretch with two losses or fewer, I’ll gladly admit defeat.

6. Gunner Stockton, accept your flowers.

He just won me over. Only championship-caliber quarterbacks are capable of hanging 44 against that crowd in Knoxville.

Stockton doesn’t have the luxury of simply acting as a game manager; this Georgia roster is not historically great. Saturday proved that he’s more than that anyway. No. 14 can be the reason why the Dawgs hang their third banner in five years.

7. A QB controversy at Ole Miss?

It’s pretty rare for a top-13 team to have any sort of battle at the sport’s most important position, with a quarter of the regular season in the books. At the very least, Lane Kiffin needs to take a hard look at this. Austin Simmons threw multiple interceptions in each of the Rebels’ first two contests. He gets hurt, and Ferris State transfer Trinidad Chambliss tallies 415 total yards and three total touchdowns in a win over Arkansas.

Look, Kiffin didn’t just add a Division II dude in the spring for no reason. He obviously loved something about Chambliss, and I’m sure that spark returned while watching him deal two nights ago. With the schedule about to heat up, it’ll be fascinating to see if Bad Boy Lane decides to roll with the hot hand.

8. The Tyler Buchner disaster.

Oh no. I feel so bad for the kid. It’s Mark Andrews all over again. The Irish made plenty of mistakes, but a graduate student dropping the snap on a critical extra-point attempt? That’ll live in infamy, unfortunately.

Notre Dame’s task is incredibly simple. Run the table, and you’re probably still in. Lose one more, and spend the foreseeable future getting eviscerated by your fan base. Time for Marcus Freeman to go to work.

9. Vanderbilt flexes.

The Commodores are beginning to talk tough in the media, then back it up on the field. This is the same program that secured an invitation to a bowl game exactly three times in its first 106 years of existence. The flip has been impressive, yet extremely difficult to comprehend.

Barring a stunner, Vandy will stride into Tuscaloosa on October 4th with a perfect record. Beat the Tide again, and Kalen DeBoer’s job is in legitimate danger.

10. Time to peek ahead.

A trio of ranked matchups are around the bend. Texas Tech and Utah. Auburn and Oklahoma. Illinois and Indiana.

The landscape is ready to shift.

Pressroom

Spin It

“Poolside” by Summer Salt. Enjoy.