Mark Ingram made a triumphant return for the Tide (IGN)
Week 3 didn't have the bells and whistles of last week's Monster Saturday. There were some huge matchups and good games that kept the remote busy. Here are winners and losers from Week 3:
Winners:
Alabama RB Mark Ingram The defending champs are clicking and just got their Heisman Trophy winner back in the lineup. Ingram rushed for 148 yards and 2 TDs on just 11 carries in a win 62-13 win over Duke. He missed the first two games after injuring his knee during the week of practice leading up to the San Jose State game. Ingram looked crisp and showed no ill effects of his injured knee against the Blue Devil defense. The Tide get him back at a good time: they face #10 Arkansas in Fayetteville in a huge SEC West matchup.
Michigan State Mark Dantonio showed some guts by calling that fake field goal against Notre Dame in the Spartans 34-31 OT win. If that play doesn't work, the world is second-guessing him and his team for making a questionable call. Instead, the Spartans are 3-0 and in the Top 25 for the first time in two seasons.
Auburn Being down at the half at home 17-3 against Clemson wasn't looking good. But Cam Newton helped rally Auburn back, throwing two TDs in the third quarter, forcing overtime where senior kicker Wes Byrum came through with a 39-yarder to keep the Tigers undefeated.
Arizona and QB Nick FolesNot many people gave the Wildcats a chance over Iowa on Saturday night. But the Wildcats jumped out on the Hawkeyes with a blocked punt that set up their first touchdown, a 5-yard pass from Nick Foles to David Douglas, and an 85-yard interception return by Trevin Wade putting them up 14-0. After Iowa climbed back into the game, largely on mistakes and ineffective offense, Nick Foles stepped up after throwing the go-ahead interception return for a touchdown to lead a 9 play, 72-yard drive that culminated in his 4 yard TD pass to William Wright with 4:02 to play. The win catapulted the 'Cats into the upper half of the Top 25 and introduced a bigger part of the country to a good QB in Foles.
Arkansas QB Ryan MallettMallet continued his great 2010 campaign in leading the Razorbacks to a thrilling road win over Georgia. Mallett was 21-33 for 383 yards and 3 TDs including the game winner, a 40-yarder to Greg Childs with 15 seconds left. Mallett faces a bigger challenge when the top-ranked Crimson Tide come rolling into the Ozarks Saturday.
Losers:
The ACC in inter-conference play Save for wins by NC State over Cincinnati Thursday night and FSU over BYU, the ACC stunk up the joint in inter-conference matchups with the SEC and Big East. We all saw what Alabama did to Duke in Durham, but Maryland got into a huge hole against West Virginia and couldn't climb. Most damning was Clemson loss to Auburn in OT. The Tigers had a 17-3 lead going into half time and allowed Auburn to come storming back and lost the game on a missed 32-yard FG after a make was negated on a procedure penalty.
Iowa Much like Auburn, Iowa got into a big hole. They managed to climb out, but were thwarted by late heroics by Arizona and Nike Foles. The Hawkeyes are still in the running for the Big Ten championship, but any thoughts of an undefeated season and a shot at Glendale probably disappeared in the desert Saturday.
Houston and QB Case Keenum The Cougars were picked by many people to be BCS-Busters this season with a favorable schedule and a star quarterback in Keenum. After traveling to UCLA Saturday night, they received not only a 31-13 loss, but they lost Keenum to a torn ACL which will sideline him for the remainder of the season and probably end his career at Houston. Keenum was poised to break several NCAA career passing records this season, including Timmy Chang's passing yards mark and Graham Harrell's touchdowns record. To add further injury to insult, his backup junior Cotton Turner was lost for the season with a broken collarbone in the same game. Now, coach Kevin Sumlin and Houston's Air Raid attack rests in the hands of freshman QB Terrance Broadway. Yikes.
Kansas and California, Friday Night College Football The thought of college football on Friday night is still a lose-lose situation in my eyes. For two schools from BCS conferences, it was a lose-lose result. The Golden Bears couldn't stop Nevada QB Colin Kapernick and the Wolfpack's Pistol attack and were blown out of Reno in short order. How's that defense going to do against Oregon State, Oregon and Stanford later in the season? Turner Gill is probably wishing he would have stayed in western New York. After an improbable loss to FCS North Dakota to start the season, Kansas rebounded to beat Georgia Tech but dropped another contest to Southern Miss, only gaining 3.9 yards per play.
