NCAA Football 2011: Week Three Review

Thoughts and observations from Week Three of the 2011 season:

LSU play the best defense in the country. They are ridiculously deep across the front four, and their entire starting unit this year can probably play in the NFL. The question is, can their offense hold up their end of the bargain down the stretch? If so, maybe we are looking at the next BCS National Champion.

After a few early nervous moments in the Glass Bowl, Boise State survived their road test on Friday night, and looked reasonable against a Toledo unit who almost beat Ohio State in Columbus last Saturday - and probably would've beaten the Buckeyes had they not committed 14 penalties, many of them stupid ones.

Florida State might well win the ACC in December. They might be the most talented team in that conference, but on Saturday night it was dumb, stupid penalties that cost them a victory against Oklahoma. Jimbo Fisher and his coaches must be pulling their hair out. Dead ball personal fouls do not help a team win a football game, especially not against the best team in the country. A few promising offensive situations were stymied and ultimately wrecked because of lame-brain mistakes. That's part of why the 'Noles fell 23-13.

Finally, after nine turnovers in two games that had them 0-2, Notre Dame finally showed a bit of the talent that the Golden Domers allegedly had. They beat Michigan State 31-13 in South Bend, recording their first win of the year to somewhat level out their season. Even so, they committed three turnovers. QB Tommy Rees accounted for two of those. If they keep up turning over the football 3 or 4 times a game, they'll lose more than they'll win. The Irish record is 1-2, but without turnovers and defensive lapses - see last week's efforts at the death - they might've been 3-0.

Texas went into the Rose Bowl and spanked UCLA, returning the favour after the Bruins marched to Austin and beat the 'Horns there last year, 34-12. The Longhorns won 49-20, with Case McCoy and Jaxon Shipley leading the way. The bigger story coming out of this game might be UCLA at 1-2 heading into Pac-12 play, head coach Rick Neuheisel's increasingly hot seat in Westwood. The fans cannot be happy. Four Bruin turnovers doesn't help, either.

The weekly Case Keenum update. The darkhorse Heisman hopeful led Houston to a 35-34 victory (and to a 3-0 record) vs. Louisana Tech. His stat line: 24-38 for 346 yards, 3 TDs and 2 INTs for a QB Rating of 155.2.

The magical run of the defending National Champions, Auburn, ended today. And in grand fashion. The Clemson Tigers ran up 619 yards of offense on their way to a 38-24 victory in Death Valley, South Carolina. Their QB Tajh Boyd was a lazy 30-42 for 386 yards and 4 TDs. This might be the beginning of the downfall for Auburn's defense. It was absolutely shredded today.

Very quietly out west, USC are going about their business. They beat Syracuse 38-17 today, improving to 3-0 on the season. Once again, QB Matt Barkley was superb, going 26-39 for 322 yards and 5 scores. His star WR Robert Woods had 8 catches for 81 yards and a touchdown. It seems like USC's defense is more stout than last year - really, it couldn't be much less stout than last year - and they might worry a few Pac-12 teams down the stretch. All they have to play for are wins. And Barkley is red-hot right now.

Speaking of red-hot Pac-12 outfits, Stanford did another demolition job - their second in as many years - of Nick Foles and the Arizona Wildcats. It was 37-10 in Tuscon tonight, with the Cardinal rolling up 567 yards of offense. QB Andrew Luck had a quiet day, just 2 touchdowns and 325 yards from 20 passes made. it was RB Stepfan Taylor who did the hard yards, running it 22 times for 153 yards. Stanford are good. Real good.