Winners and Losers of the AP College Football Top 25 After Week 3

Week 3 of the 2020 college football season didn't have many "must watch" games on the schedule, but there was more than enough action to send some ripples through the Associated Press Top 25.

The Top 10 remains unchanged aside from Texas moving into a tie with Auburn for No. 8. No. 1 Clemson and No. 7 Notre Dame were the only teams playing this weekend, and they both pitched shutouts against overmatched foes.

In the other 60 percent of the poll, though, we were treated to the first ranked-vs.-ranked game of the year with Miami defeating Louisville, Oklahoma State was not impressive in the least in its season opener, and the Sun Belt had a rough day with Appalachian State losing and Louisiana needing overtime to win its game against Georgia State.

Admittedly, it was the calm before the storm. Not only is next week the start of the SEC season, but Big Ten teams will also be welcomed back into the AP Top 25 on Sept. 27. It's going to be quite the reshuffling of the deck.

But before we look ahead, let's take one more glance back at Week 3 to nominate some winners and losers of the latest AP poll.

As far as AP winners and losers go, it doesn't get much better than going on the road and comfortably taking care of a ranked opponent.

Louisiana did just that to Iowa State last week and vaulted all the way from zero votes to No. 19 in the poll. This week, it was Miami's turn to dole out some visiting vigor, scoring at will in a 47-34 victory at No. 18 Louisville.

That statement win propelled the Hurricanes up the rankings from No. 17 to No. 12.

Consistency at both quarterback and kicker had plagued Miami for the past several years, particularly in 2019. Neither Jarren Williams nor N'Kosi Perry could be trusted in the pocket, and the 'Canes had three different kickers go a combined 12-of-20 on field-goal attempts.

But that win over Louisville showed that the D'Eriq King and Jose Borregales QB-K combo is one of the best in the country—certainly the best assembled via the transfer portal.

The transfer from Houston threw for 325 yards and three touchdowns, while the transfer from Florida International drained all four of his field-goal attempts, including a 57-yarder that sailed through with plenty of room to spare.

The defense still has a lot of improving to do. Louisville scored four second-half touchdowns, and each drive lasted at least seven plays and covered more than 70 yards of real estate. Hard to imagine Miami will be able to hang with Clemson on Oct. 10 with that type of defensive effort.

Still, it at least sort of feels like the U is back. At any rate, it's back in the Top 15 of the AP poll for the first time since the 2018 preseason.

Early on, it looked like Appalachian State vs. Marshall was going to be a thrill-a-minute shootout.

On the opening drive, Marshall star running back Brenden Knox ran five times for 49 yards and put the Thundering Herd up 7-0. The Mountaineers came right back with an 85-yard touchdown drive of their own, punctuated by an amazing catch by Jalen Virgil on a fade route with a defender draped all over him.

But then everything came grinding to a halt, especially for Appalachian State. The Mountaineers got into Marshall territory on five other possessions, but they were unable to put any more points on the board.

The most heartbreaking of those drives came early in the fourth quarter. Down 17-7 and facing 4th-and-inches at the Marshall 46, they went for it with Zac Thomas finding Mike Evans for a huge gain. However, he fumbled just before reaching the end zone and Marshall's Nazeeh Johnson jumped on it for a touchback.

The Mountaineers also missed a chip-shot field goal with less than three minutes remaining, resulting in a 17-7 loss. Since joining the FBS ranks for the 2014 season, that's the first time they've been held to single digits.

Even if they had won this game, the Mountaineers were probably going to drop out of the AP Top 25 a week from now anyway. They entered the week at No. 23, and the reintroduction of the Big Ten to the rankings for the Sept. 27 poll will inevitably force a handful of currently ranked teams into the "Others Receiving Votes" section. But App State made it a much easier decision, dropping off the radar altogether with the loss.

Got to love the classic equal-but-opposite reaction when an unranked team defeats an opponent on the back end of the Top 25 and then more or less just takes that opponent's spot in the rankings.

Marshall was probably already worthy of AP poll consideration. The Thundering Herd entered the year as one of the top candidates to win Conference USA, and they smoked Eastern Kentucky 59-0 to open the season on Sept. 5.

Beating No. 23 Appalachian State was enough to push them over the hump, debuting at No. 25 in the new poll.

It had been a hot minute since Marshall last defeated a ranked opponent. The Thundering Herd stunned No. 6 Kansas State on Sept. 20, 2003, but they had lost 17 consecutive games against ranked teams since then. They gave Boise State a run for its money in a similar, low-scoring affair early last season, but instead of a repeat of that 14-7 loss, they picked up a 17-7 win over the Mountaineers.

As was often the case last year, Brenden Knox was the star of the show, rushing 28 times for 138 yards and a touchdown. But one of the biggest plays of the game was a deep ball from Grant Wells to Xavier Gaines. The freshman quarterback connected with his veteran tight end across the middle of the field for a 67-yard gain. And one play later, Wells kept the ball on an option and rolled out for a 12-yard touchdown run to put Marshall up by two scores late in the third quarter.

Unfortunately, the Thundering Herd likely will not get to play a single game as a ranked team. Their next scheduled game is Oct. 10, and a horde of Big Ten teams will probably force the Herd out of the rankings by then. You never know, though. Maybe they'll temporarily drop out and then sneak back in with help from other teams losing. Either way, they'll at least spend some time in the AP Top 25 for the first time since 2014.

Oklahoma State was the only Big 12 team playing this weekend, and the Cowboys didn't do much to improve the perception of the conference as a whole after last week's 0-3 record against the Sun Belt.

Boasting the nation's leading rusher from last year (Chuba Hubbard) and one of the most productive wide receivers of the past two seasons (Tylan Wallace), big things were expected from this Oklahoma State offense in 2020. Maybe not quite the 45.0 points per game that the Cowboys averaged in 2017, but certainly better than what they showed in the opener against Tulsa.

They got the victory thanks to an equally anemic (and more penalty-prone) Golden Hurricane offense, but the Cowboys were held to just 16 points and 277 total yards. That yardage output was their first time finishing a game below 280 since the 2014 season.

Starting quarterback Spencer Sanders suffered an ankle injury on Oklahoma State's first drive of the game. He went out on the field for the second drive, but he limped to the locker room after a fumble and did not return.

The backups are JUCO transfer Ethan Bullock and true freshman Shane Illingworth—two guys who were not on the roster last season and had minimal opportunity to get up to speed this offseason because of the pandemic. So, it's at least understandable that they struggled to move the ball against a respectable Tulsa secondary. Still, it was a miserable showing, and the Cowboys dropped from No. 11 to No. 15 as a result.

Elsewhere in the Big 12, Baylor was supposed to have a season-opening game against Houston, but that was postponed less than 24 hours before kickoff. The Bears entered the week just 12 votes behind Pittsburgh for the No. 25 spot in the poll, so even without playing a game, you would assume they'd move into the Top 25 following losses by No. 18 Louisville and No. 23 Appalachian State.

Instead, they were leapfrogged by Marshall, and Louisville didn't plummet far enough to get bypassed by the Bears.

Even with no Big Ten or Pac-12 in the Top 25, the Big 12 only has three ranked teams, and one of them lost a lot of early favor with voters Saturday.

We'll see how it holds up when Pittsburgh starts facing better opponents, but this defense is putting out early "Steel Curtain" vibes.

In last week's 55-0 victory over Austin Peay, the Panthers held the Governors to 137 total yards and forced three turnovers. More than 40 percent of those yards came on a single 57-yard reception.

Similar story this week against Syracuse. They did allow some points in the 21-10 victory, but they limited the Orange to 171 yards of total offense and forced two more turnovers. Again, more than 40 percent of the yards came on a single play—a 69-yard touchdown strike to Taj Harris.

Aside from that, Syracuse did not have a single play go for more than 12 yards. The only reason the Orange were also able to put a field goal on the board was because of a fumble that gave them the ball at the Pitt 14.

Take those numbers with a grain of salt. Syracuse's offense was just as awful last week against North Carolina, and while Austin Peay did surprisingly put up 20 points against Cincinnati this week, we're still talking about an FCS team. Next week's game against Louisville will be a much stiffer test, as will subsequent matchups with Miami, Notre Dame and Clemson.

But Pittsburgh had a solid defense last year and already looks the part on that end of the field again.

The Panthers debuted at No. 25 last week, and they jumped up four spots to No. 21 in advance of that showdown with the Cardinals.

All those good things we just had to say about Pittsburgh's defense?

Yeah, you won't be finding any of those compliments here.

Louisville's defense was downright atrocious in its 47-34 loss to Miami on Saturday night.

Miami scored on four of its first five possessions with help from conversions on 3rd-and-10, 3rd-and-12 and 3rd-and-14. At one point, Miami had a 74-yard play overturned by a penalty, so it just backed up five yards and gained 31 on the next play instead.

At least the Cardinals were able to force some tough third-down plays in the first half, though.

On Miami's first play of the third quarter, Cam'Ron Harris scored on a 75-yard touchdown run on which he wasn't even touched until right before the goal line. On Miami's second play of the third quarter, Jaylan Knighton ran a simple wheel route and caught the ball without a single defender within 10 yards of him. He also scored a 75-yard touchdown. Then in the fourth quarter, it was Brevin Jordan's turn to benefit from blown coverage, running wide-open down the middle of the field for a 47-yard score.

But what else is new, right? The Cardinals gave up at least 50 points seven times during the 2018 season. They were better last year, but not by much, allowing 36.2 points per game against FBS opponents, including a 52-27 loss to what was then a rather dreadful Miami offense.

Louisville was supposed to be one of the fringe contenders in the ACC thanks to an offense led by QB Malik Cunningham, star RB Javian Hawkins and the WR tandem of Tutu Atwell and Dez Fitzpatrick. Even that offense won't be able to make up for this defense.

The Cardinals were No. 18 in the AP poll, but they have now fallen back to No. 24. It's a bit of a surprise they're ranked at all, though.