Who's Hot, Who's Not in College Football After Week 3

The college football season is three weeks old, and in that small-but-not-tiny sample, a number of players have stuck out as particularly impressive or disappointing.

Some preseason Heisman campaigns have panned out perfectly in nonconference play, combining team success with statistical buildup. These players seem poised for season-long acclaim.

But other preseason favorites have gotten off to less auspicious starts, at least relative to expectations, and need to snap out of their funk.

If their production doesn't catch up with their talent soon, they seem doomed for an offseason of questioning.

Hot: QB Marcus Mariota, Oregon

Season Stats: 49-of-82, 889 yards, 7 TD, 0 INT; 15 carries, 262 yards, 4 TD

Marcus Mariota had the unenviable task—at least from a notoriety perspective—of kicking off head-to-head with the Alabama game last week, so not many viewers got to see him dismantle and embarrass Tennessee.

To put it frankly, though, as good as Johnny Manziel has been, Texas A&M's loss (and Braxton Miller's injury) has opened the door for Mariota to become the Heisman front-runner.

The stats are definitely there, and he's playing for the nation's No. 2 team—which, by season's end, might be No. 1.

The completion percentage was a work in progress after two weeks, but he was better against the Vols, completing 70 percent of his throws. All said this year, he's averaging 10.8 yards per passing attempt and 17.5 yards per rush.

The latter is second-best in America among players with at least four carries per game.

Cold: QB Logan Thomas, Virginia Tech

Season Stats: 47-of-100, 517 yards, 3 TD, 4 INT

Things could only go (and have gone) uphill since Logan Thomas' disastrous 5-of-26 performance against Alabama, but they haven't improved to the hoped-for extent.

Thomas' next game after the Tide was against FCS Western Carolina, and even though Virginia Tech racked up 45 points, he finished with a quarterback rating of just 61.9 and threw a pair of interceptions.

In Week 3 against East Carolina, Thomas fixed the interception bug and improved his efficiency, but he could only help the Hokies muster up 15 stinkin' points.

Against a C-USA opponent—even a pretty good one—that simply will not cut it.

Hot: RB Melvin Gordon, Wisconsin

Season Stats: 37 carries, 477 yards, 4 TD

Melvin Gordon's career sample size continues to grow, making his prolific yards-per-carry average look less and less like a big-play fluke and more like his actual ability.

After gashing Arizona State for 193 yards on 15 carries, including an 80-yard jet sweep to start the second half, he's now averaging 12.9 yards per rush for the season. 

No other running back with 25-plus carries is averaging over 10, and the only quarterback who is is BYU's Taysom Hill (which might need to be adjusted for playing Texas).

For the record, Gordon led the nation in yards per carry last year too, and for his career he's rushed for 1,196 yards on 119 carries—an average of 10.1 per touch.

Cold: RB T.J. Yeldon, Alabama

Season Stats: 42 carries, 224 yards, 2 TD; 1 reception, 4 yards

Let's not get carried away. This is all relative to expectation. T.J. Yeldon has by no means been bad.

But he's been a far cry from the All-American people expected.

It's taken 42 carries for Yeldon to reach 224 yards this season, an average of 5.3 that's a full-yard dip from last year as a true freshman. The sample is still thin, but Yeldon was supposed to take bounding steps forward this year, not baby steps back.

Against Texas A&M, he also fumbled on the goal line in the fourth quarter, setting the Aggies up for a 95-yard touchdown pass that got them back within one score.

Between that and the 15-yard taunting penalty he received, Yeldon might be squarely in Nick Saban's doghouse. Now he needs to play himself out.

Hot: WR Stefon Diggs, Maryland

Season Stats: 16 receptions, 387 yards, 3 TD

There is plenty of early competition for the All-American receiver spots—*cough* Mike Evans—but few have stated a louder case (without being noticed) than Stefon Diggs.

The former 5-star recruit played his freshman year with a walk-on linebacker at quarterback, the product of Maryland's historic bad luck, and somehow managed to finish with 848 receiving yards.

This year, with an actual signal-caller in the lineup (and a pretty good one in C.J. Brown), he's been allowed to truly break out.

His numbers would be even more impressive, but Maryland has been allowed to take its foot off the gas in all three of its easy wins. Still, 24.2 yards per catch is nothing to scoff at, especially with seven receptions of 25-plus yards.

Cold: WR Brandon Coleman, Rutgers

Season Stats: 12 receptions, 139 yards, 2 TD

Brandon Coleman was a force to be reckoned with in 2012, bolstering an otherwise anemic Rutgers offense with 43 catches for 718 yards and 10 touchdowns.

He got off to a similar start this season, racking up nine catches for 94 yards and two touchdowns in the Scarlet Knights' overtime loss to Fresno State. He appeared to be on course for an All-AAC season.

But Coleman's last two games have been underwhelming to say the least. He had just two catches for 30 yards against Norfolk State and one catch for 15 yards last week against Eastern Michigan.

Those are opponents whom Coleman and his 6'6" frame should have dominated. For some reason, that wasn't the case.

Hot: OLB Anthony Barr, UCLA

Season Stats: 16 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, three forced fumbles

Anthony Barr, a converted running back turned pass-rush nightmare, entered the season amid much fanfare and is pegged as a likely top-five pick in April's NFL draft. On Saturday in Lincoln, he made a point of showing why.

UCLA went into Memorial Stadium and punked the Huskers, and Barr led the defensive charge with 11 total tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss (resulting in 20 lost yards), and three forced fumbles.

The senior is almost unblockable when he comes around the edge. Last year he was one of the best sack artists in college football; now he's added a little bit of run-stuffing and all-around playmaking to his game.

Cold: Everybody on Oregon State's Defense

Season Stats: 37.0 points per game, 467.7 yards per game, 7.0 yards per play

What on earth has happened in Corvallis? How can the defense possibly be this bad?

The Beavers placed 25th in Football Outsiders' Defensive F/+ Rankings last season, allowing just 5.2 points per play en route to an out-of-nowhere successful year. They returned enough players—including star end Scott Crichton—to suggest decent play in 2013, but so far that has been far from the case.

FCS Eastern Washington toasted the Beavers' rebuilt secondary in Week 1, allowing Vernon Adams to put up Johnny Football-like numbers (500-plus total yards, six touchdowns) en route to an upset win.

Then, after a win over lowly Hawaii, Oregon State's defense let Utah, which isn't exactly an offensive powerhouse, go for 500-plus yards and put up 48 points—though this time Sean Mannion and the offense were able to bail it out.

Still, this is one of the most disappointing units in America, and it doesn't seem set to improve any time soon.