Week 3 GameDay Kickoff: Key matchups, teams that have surprised us, plus quotes of the week
With conference games that will open through the country during week 3, we are about to obtain a much firmer understanding on the 2025 university football landscape. Among other things, this weekend will provide new windows in the first year in Georgia and Tennessee when the Bulldogs will go to the Neyland stadium. Elsewhere in the dry, Florida visits LSU n ° 3 with the pair of dry competitors, assuming very different but also heavy issues respectively. Meanwhile, some of the most surprising start -up stories in university football will continue to take place on Saturday with the n ° 18 south of Florida leading the load while the boom bulls venture south to Miami n ° 5.
Our university football experts give an overview of key confrontations in the pair of high -level clashes of the dry this weekend, the programs that have surprised us so far and the best quotes from the last seven days entering week 3. – Eli Lederman
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Georgie-Testnessee | Florida-Lesu
Teams that surprised us | Weekly quotes
What will Georgia and Tennessee need their new initial QB?
Georgia: The quarter-arrière Gunner Stockton obtains its first test on the dry road in Tennessee on Saturday, and the Bulldogs will seek it to deliver more in the game of fields at the bottom of the field. Stockton played well in the first two victories of Georgia on the Marshall program and the FCS Austin Peay program, supplementing 69% of its attempted passes for 417 yards with two affected and no interception. He also ran for two scores against the thunderous herd. His legs were not really a factor in the victory closer to last week than expected against the governors. Stockton took care of football and did not define in bad situations, but Georgia needs more explosive games in attack. He only tried 10 passes beyond 10 yards. Georgia went to the transfer portal to obtain the USC Zachariah and Noah Thomas of Texas A&M branch, and Colbie Young is back after sitting in most of the 2024 season due to a suspension. These game leaders must be more involved in attack, as well as the tight ends Oscar Delp and Lawson Luckie. If Georgia will beat Tennessee for the ninth consecutive time, Stockton must be more comfortable to fly the ball, in particular against a secondary that is missing the half of the starting corner Jermod McCoy (ACL) and Rickey Gibson III (ARM) due to injuries.
Tennessee: The volunteers could not have asked for a lot more than a quarter of transfer Joey Aguilar during their first two victories against the East Tennessee program of the Syracuse and FCS program. The old State Starter application completed 66.1% of its attempts for 535 yards with five affected and no interception. He launched a touch of 73 yards at Braylon Staley against Orange and a 53 yards in Mike Matthews against the Buccaneers. He might have to do even more against the defense of Georgia, which brings promising security KJ Bolden and the Coin Daylen Everette, a potential first round choice in the draft of the 2026 NFL. The bulldogs will try to stifle the Tennessee racing game and go after Aguilar in his pocket. Georgia Kirby Smart coach and defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann have had the number of coach Josh Heupel in recent seasons. Bulldogs have not abandoned explosive parts, a trademark of the Heupel system. In each of the last three defeats against Georgia, the high -flying offensive of volunteers failed to launch for 200 yards and had no touch. – Mark Schlabach
What do Florida and Lsu need to capitalize to win?
Florida: In addition to avoiding penalties, especially spitting a player? Gators must play with emotion and intensity that accompany their knowledge of their season in balance after a shocking defeat of 18-16 against the USF. They can do so by settling the tone for the defense, which played well for stretching against the Bulls, but then abandoned 87 yards on eight games on the last training. The LSU had trouble traveling the ball through two games, and the frustrations boiled after a 23-7 victory against Louisiana Tech, in which the Tigers have an average of 3.8 yards per race. In their victory over LSU last year, Florida maintained the tigers at 2.9 yards per race. The good news for Florida is that it will not be faced with a quarter-threatening quarter like Byrum Brown. So if the Gators can limit the LSU back, they will give themselves a chance. – Andrea Adelson
LSU: Gators can be more desperate, but tigers should be very motivated after what happened in Gainesville last fall. LSU’s defense resembles the best of the two units and must cause more distress for DJ Lagway, which has an average of 17.4 yards by completion during the victory in 2024. The tigers rushed nine times Lagway but have never dismissed it. They also abandoned in the fourth quarter with two authorized affected affairs. LSU upgrades on defense and home game, where coach Brian Kelly implored that the crowd should “be up to our curriculum vitae as the most difficult place to play in the country”, must become factors that have results. Garrett Nussmeier is still the upper quarter, and if LSU can advance Caden Durham – he had 95 yards on the ground against Florida last season – Tigers should prevail. – Adam Rittenberg
Five teams that have surprised us so far
South Florida: It would have been very easy to watch the first two games of the southern season of Florida and that both – against Boisse State and Florida – affected probable losses. Instead, the Bulls went out and started 2-0, making a surprising first case as the best group of 5 teams. The victory against the state of wood was particularly impressive due to the imbalance (34-7). Boisse State was nothing like the team that reached the playoffs last season (losing the balloon Ashton Jeanty, of course, played an important role in this area).
UCLA: After the Bruins finished the 2024 season winning four of their last six games, they brought in the Nico Iamaleava transfer quarter during the offseason. It was reasonable to be optimistic about the management of the football program. Two games later, the UCLA looks like an outsider in the nine big ten games on its calendar. The Bruins were not at a competitive distance during their 43-10 defeat against Utah, then lagged 23-0 to UNLV before making it more respectable in a defeat of 30-23 last week. Now Ucla will have to prepare for another season to play in a pink Bowl more than half empty.
Kansas state: The only thing between the Wildcats and a start of 0-3 is a last-minute touch against the Dakota in the north of the FCS. Their three -point defeats against Iowa State and Army are not the end of the world, but this team had to compete for the title Big 12 (and could still, to be fair) and has not yet looked at the role. Against the army, the quarter-Arrière Avery Johnson was limited to 172 yards and 14 yards on the ground. This is not a formula with which K-State can win.
Florida state: The Tallahassee roller coaster was a crazy walk. No other university football era seems plausible for a team to win 19 matches in a row, then to lose 11 out of 13, then to return immediately to the top 10. And yet it is life that the seminoles have lived in recent seasons. The FSU had to be better this season, but its convincing victory against Alabama during week 1 could have been the most surprising result of the young season.
Mississippi state: After finishing 2-10 last season with a dry campaign without victory, the Bulldogs did not have much momentum. But after an upheaval of this is not. 12 Arizona State, it may be a team that could be the bowling alley at the end of the season. With matches against Alcorn State and Northern Illinois the next two weeks, a 4-0 departure seems likely before the start of the conference game glove. – Kyle Bonagura
Weekly quotes
“According to Who? Archi said that to you?” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian answered a question this week while speculation was running on the health of the quarterrière de Longhorns Arch Manning. “I have never filmed any of you when you use the bathroom, so I don’t know what you do when you do this.”
“Who has one? What is it like? What does a solidified quarter look like? What is it like? Colorado coach Deion Sanders said when he was asked if he had worries about the absence of a “solidified quarter-rear” with the quarter-back of the third Ryan Staub rope should start in front of the Kaidon Salter veteran and the recruit Julian Lewis in week 3. “It could mean something with your list if it is clear,” continued. “SO [when] This clear guy goes down, what’s going on with the second? I like where we are, guy. I like what we have. I like what we are playing with. I like these dice, I tremble. “”
“I just wanted to see if we could,” said Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz, about the illegal free kick of the Tigers against Kansas during week 2 which prompted the Big 12 to suspend the head of officer responsible on Tuesday. “You know, it’s like asking your parents if you can do something you know, they should probably not let you do it. But sometimes they are wrong.”
“I love Darian to death,” said Tulane coach Jon Sumrall about Duke and the former quarter-arre of Green Wave Darian Mensah before the week 3 visit of the week 3 of the Blue Devils in Tulane. “I said it publicly: if you play a snap, 100 snaps, 1000 snaps for me, I will love you for the rest of my life. I care about him, I wish good luck, I saw him this summer – I only have love for Darian.”
“I have spoken to many who believe through the country, it is the progress we have to make,” said Brian Kelly of LSU about the response of the coach of Ohio Buckeyes, Ryan Day to the changes of the transfer portal offered. “I want to get my list set. Now, I know there are probably 12 or 16 teams that could be in the playoffs at that time. I am sorry, it does not cry on the yacht. I mean, we must get this thing and its best position at this time to allow us to define our lists in the future.”
