CFB Wrap-Up: Takeaways from Week 3's biggest games

College Football Wrap-Up recaps the most important developments from the day's action and examines their significance moving forward.

Arch Manning arrives

First of all, let's put this on record: There should not be a quarterback controversy with Texas and Quinn Ewers deserves to be the starter. Having said that ... my God, Arch Manning.

Manning arrived at Texas in 2023 as one of the most hyped high school prospects in college football history. He showed exactly why Saturday in Austin. Manning was pressed into unexpected action after Ewers departed versus UTSA due to a strained abdomen and immediately set the night ablaze with a 19-yard touchdown on his first throw.

Football fans are very familiar with Manning touchdown passes, but Arch's next act was something foreign to both Peyton and Eli: The sophomore raced 67 yards for a touchdown once Texas got the ball back. The rout was on, and the final numbers were a remarkable 223 yards passing and a whopping four touchdowns, plus the other score on the ground.

Ewers spent the second half watching the game in street clothes with no reported timeline for his recovery. The starting job will likely be waiting for him when he returns to the lineup, but Manning showed why Texas fans should be excited about both the remainder of this year and the 2025 campaign.

Milroe making Heisman case

Entering Saturday, Tim Tebow and Johnny Manziel were the only Power 5 quarterbacks to post three straight games with at least two rushing touchdowns and two passing touchdowns since 2008. That list is now three after Jalen Milroe capped a brilliant three-week start under Kalen DeBoer at Alabama with an incredible showing in a dominant win at Wisconsin. The senior threw for 196 yards and three scores and rushed for 75 yards and two touchdowns as the Crimson Tide hung 42 points on the Badgers.

In DeBoer's first season as Alabama's head coach, Milroe already has over 750 yards of offense and 14 total touchdowns. While his electric running ability certainly grabs the headline, there might not be a more explosive passer in college football. His down-by-down consistency still may raise some questions, but nobody can manufacture a quick score like Milroe. That was on display right before halftime when the offense got the ball at its own 27-yard line with 44 seconds to play. A 47-yard completion to Ryan Williams and a 26-yard connection with Germie Bernard got the Tide into the end zone with 19 seconds to spare.

Should Milroe continue his torrid pace once conference play begins, he could join Tebow and Manziel on another list as a Heisman winner.

Napier's time is up at Florida

The next time Florida plays in The Swamp is Oct. 5 when UCF visits. Don't expect Billy Napier to lead the Gators out of the tunnel - at least, not if the school wants the stands to be full.

Saturday presented the latest - and likely last - piece of proof that the head coach isn't the right guy to get Florida back on track. It was a 33-20 loss to a Texas A&M team that didn't inform freshman quarterback Marcel Reed he'd be making his first start until after warmups. An Aggies outfit that hadn't won a true road game since 2021 utterly dominated both lines of scrimmage. Mike Elko, who's been in College Station for three games, has already made more progress with his program than Napier has in three years.

Florida's schedule this year is arguably the toughest in the nation. However, the meat of that challenging slate was supposed to be at the end, giving Napier some time to build a case for keeping his job. That "case" now consists of a win over FCS program Samford and a combined 74-30 scoreline in two home losses to Miami and the Aggies.

Don't feel bad if you're struggling to remember a significant FBS win by Florida under Napier; not everyone can vividly recall something that happened 336 days ago. That number alone should be enough to make Florida accept the $25-million buyout and send Napier packing tonight.

Kentucky punts away Georgia upset bid

Kentucky had a chance to do something nobody has done to Georgia in the last 42 tries: Take down the Bulldogs in a regular-season contest. Trailing by one and facing a fourth-and-8 on Georgia's 47-yard line with three minutes to play, Mark Stoops opted to punt the ball back to his opponents. Another 10 yards for the Wildcats would not only have converted a first down, but it would have also gotten them within Alex Raynor's field-goal range. The standout senior was already a perfect 4-for-4 on the night, including a 55-yarder.

Instead, Georgia took over on its own 15-yard line after the punt, moved the ball 45 yards, and killed 2:49 of clock. Kentucky was eventually left with nine seconds on the clock from its own 20 - a virtually impossible setup for getting into field-goal range. Stoops' decision boiled down to whether he thought his team had a better chance of a) stopping the Bulldogs three times, making them punt, and then having his offense move the ball into field-goal range on an elite Georgia defense or b) gaining 8 yards and converting a first down. He chose the former, and as a result, the Bulldogs remain undefeated while Kentucky falls to 1-2.

Kentucky should be commended for giving Georgia one of its toughest regular-season tests in recent years. The Wildcats exposed some flaws in the Bulldogs and gave future opponents an example of how to slow down the No. 1 team in the country. However, years down the road, nobody remembers the upsets you almost pulled off. People revere the teams that actually completed the task, and Stoops punted away the opportunity to finish the job in Lexington.

LSU can't play a normal football game

The Brian Kelly era at LSU can be described in many ways, but perhaps the most apt is that it's never, ever boring. Saturday was the latest example of the veteran coach's wild ride with the Tigers as LSU came back multiple times on the road - once from 17 points down - to beat South Carolina in the final minutes. The 36-33 final score represents the 19th time in LSU's last 20 games that at least 50 total points have been scored.

Kelly has built an explosive offense that can erase a deficit at virtually any point in the game. Unfortunately for the Tigers, he's also somehow built a defense that can put the team in a deficit at virtually any point in the game. That was on full display in going down 17-0 to start the contest. Part of that deficit was allowing a blocked punt that led to an eventual touchdown by the Gamecocks.

LSU also fell victim to a goal-line stand from the South Carolina 2-yard line where the Tigers failed to find paydirt four times in a row. Nevertheless, Garrett Nussmeier led a drive to give LSU the lead with 1:12 to play. Not even the final 72 seconds were stress-free, as the Gamecocks moved the ball against a prevent defense down to the 32-yard line but missed a potential tying field goal at the gun.

Kelly's Tigers allowed touchdown runs of 75 and 66 yards in the contest, turned the ball over twice, allowed a punt block, got stopped four times from the 2-yard line ... and won on the road in the SEC.

Stay weird, LSU. It's highly entertaining for the neutral fan.

Florida State's disaster rolls on

Sometimes, nobody knows their team better than the fan base. Let us present Exhibit A from the Florida State versus Memphis matchup Saturday in Tallahassee.

This particular fan hit the nail on the head with a sign that the broadcast found early in the contest, and that phrase would prove prophetic about the display on the field. The Seminoles were an absolute mess in losing their third straight game to start the season. The loss was bad enough on its own, but last year's ACC champions paid the Tigers $1.3 million for the game and grabbed an unfortunate piece of history in the process.

Yes, the addition of DJ Uiagalelei in the transfer portal continues to look like a brutal reach, with the passing attack once again grounded by poor throws, awful protection, and receivers who consistently struggle to get separation. However, this isn't anything new for the Seminoles under Mike Norvell. Florida State has started a season 0-3 just three times in program history. Norvell is now responsible for two of those in his five-year tenure.

Norvell's made his name as an offensive play-caller, but that area has been the biggest offender for Florida State this season. The Seminoles have failed to top 14 points in two straight games now and totaled only 238 yards of offense Saturday. Norvell said earlier in the week that he wanted his players to "cut it loose," according to 247 Sports' Brendan Sonnone. The offense averaged just 4.3 yards per play and managed only two drives where it gained more than 50 yards. If that's cutting it loose, it's scary to imagine what tightening it up would mean.

Norvell said afterward that "everything is under evaluation," but there's one person who isn't, and that's the head coach himself. He cashed in on the Seminoles' brilliant season last year with a monster contract that will earn him over $9 million this year and keep him tethered to the program until 2031. Protected by that enormous buyout, Norvell is likely safe in Tallahassee for a long time, even with the heat that's on the program right now.

Notre Dame did what?

For the second week in a row, "Notre Dame did what?" is a valid question following its game. Thankfully for fans of the Fighting Irish, this Saturday's trip to Purdue provided a very different kind of surprise than last week's stunning home defeat to Northern Illinois.

Notre Dame rebounded in the biggest way possible, hanging 66 points on the Boilermakers in a 59-point blowout win. The result is both the most points ever allowed by Purdue and the worst loss in that program's 137-year history.

Last week's shocking loss clearly woke up the Fighting Irish. Without the benefit of a conference champion berth in the playoff, Notre Dame needs to win out in impressive fashion to guarantee itself a postseason spot. Handing a program its worst loss in 137 years is a good way to start.

Backyard Brawl delivers

The Backyard Brawl is one of the most underrated rivalry games on the college football calendar with Pitt and West Virginia routinely producing incredible theater. That was the case once again Saturday as the Panthers scored two touchdowns in the final 3:06 of action to walk away with a 38-34 win.

In case the on-field drama wasn't enough, Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi saved something extra spicy for the end.

The Panthers were penalized 12 times for over 110 yards in the win while West Virginia had just seven flags on the day. Mountaineers coach Neal Brown bluntly disagreed with Narduzzi's take.

Both schools now have 364 days to let tensions build before the next edition kicks off Sept. 13 next year.

Missouri passes 1st test

The only ranked-on-ranked matchup for Saturday's slate was Boston College's trip to Missouri. The Tigers have risen to No. 6 but hadn't exactly been tested by Murray State or Buffalo. That changed when the upstart Eagles came to Columbia, representing the first big challenge for Eliah Drinkwitz's program.

The blueprint for Bill O'Brien's impressive 2-0 start as Eagles head coach was built around fundamentals: rushing the football and stopping the run. That led to an impressive road win at Florida State - a triumph that's admittedly lost plenty of shine based on the Seminoles' subsequent results - and a dominant home victory. The Missouri defense would have none of that, snuffing out Boston College's run game by holding Thomas Castellanos, Kye Robichaux, and others to just 46 yards on 26 carries. That paltry 1.8 yards-per-carry average was almost 4 yards below the Eagles' average on the season.

On offense, the Tigers were once again very balanced, with Brady Cook linking up with Luther Burden III and Theo Wease Jr. in the passing attack. That receiver duo piled up 11 catches for 170 yards and a score. Add Nate Noel's 121 yards on the ground, and Missouri's got the pieces to make a run for the SEC.

The Tigers host Vanderbilt next weekend before an early bye gets them set for a trip to Texas A&M. The Aggies are coming off a blowout win at Florida and should serve as a solid measuring stick for Missouri's playoff hopes.