Kirk Herbstreit lists his top seven teams from Week 3
While some didn’t find week three’s slate to be too enticing, it provided a lot of storyline to end the first quarter of the college football season. Now, with those results in the book, Kirk Herbstreit has picked seven teams that impressed him from this past weekend’s action.
Herbstreit shared his list of top-performing teams from week three on Twitter on Monday afternoon. The Florida Gators led the way on the list while the ranking also included Missouri, BYU, Sacramento State, South Alabama, Miami (OH), and Fresno State.
1. Florida Gators
Florida, Herbstreit’s top team from this weekend, got their season back on track by handling Tennessee again in The Swamp. The 11th-ranked Volunteers lost the game, and eventually lost their cool, by a score of 29-16 as the Gators held them to one of their worst offensive outings under Josh Heupel.
Billy Napier needed a statement win in Gainesville after how his first season ended and his second one started in Salt Lake City. By running the football and playing great defense, Florida got exactly that in one of their program’s biggest rivalries as they’ve since entered the Top-25.
2. Missouri Tigers
Missouri was another team in the Southeastern Conference that made Herbstreit’s list after they won over a rival in dramatic fashion this past weekend. The Tigers won 30-27 over No. 15 Kansas State and knocked them off thanks to a 61-yard field goal, the longest in conference history, from Harrison Mevis at the buzzer.
The kick only became that much tougher due to a nearly disastrous delay of game penalty by Eli Drinkwitz and Mizzou. Still, Mevis nailed it regardless and pushed Missouri to 3-0, their best start in five years, in 2023.
3. BYU Cougars
We now reach an SEC team that’s on the wrong end of Herbstreit’s list. That’s because BYU went into Fayetteville and defeated Arkansas. The Cougars made up for last year’s loss to the ‘Hogs with a 38-31 win inside Razorback Stadium.
This was a back-and-forth affair that started to lean Arkansas’ way when they took a 10-point lead in the third quarter. From there, though, it was all BYU as QB Kedon Slovis through both of his touchdowns down the stretch to help the Cougars take the seven-point win and remain undefeated.
4. Sacramento State Hornets
Stanford’s season was not off to a good start after a 46-point loss to No. 6 USC. It only got worse in week three, though, once Sacramento State got a hold of them.
The Hornets came out of the Big Sky and onto the Cardinals home field to give them a 30-23 loss. The upset came from the hands of QB Kaiden Bennett as he posted 379 yards of offense and two touchdowns. That sent his team to 3-0 and into the fourth slot on Herbstreit’s list.
5. South Alabama Jaguars
South Alabama went into Stillwater this past weekend and beat Oklahoma State by a score of 33-7. It was all Jaguars as they scored the games first 23 points and only allowed one score by the Cowboys that came in the fourth quarter.
QB Carter Bradley and WR Caullin Lacy connected five times for 104 yards and a pair of touchdowns while RB La’Damian Webb ran for 151 yards and two more scores to help South Alabama surprise the crowd at Boone Pickens Stadium.
6. Miami (OH) Redhawks
Cincinnati felt pretty good about themselves as a team after their first two wins of the season. That was before Miami (OH) came into Nippert Stadium as nearly 15-point underdogs and put a stop to that.
The Redhawks hung in there with the Bearcats long enough to send the game to overtime tied at 24. Then, in OT, QB Brett Gabbert threw his third and final touchdown of the night to WR Joe Wilkins Jr. which ended it and gave Miami their second win of the season.
7. Fresno State Bulldogs
Fresno State was Herbstreit’s final selection after they pitched a 29-0 shutout at Arizona State.
To be fair, QB Jaden Rashada did miss the game after starting the Sun Devil’s first two games. However, that wouldn’t have helped too much considering the defensive clinic that the Bulldogs put on with five picks and three fumbles recoveries for a grand total of eight turnovers.