College Football 2011: Winners and Losers from Week 3

The third week of the college football season is half way over. We've had a great wave of first games blow through us like a tidal wave. There have been some great comebacks, some close-but-no-cigar comebacks, and teams that end streaks dating back to the 2010 season. 

Who were the winners? Who were the losers?

You will just have to click through the slides to see. 

We will be updating this throughout the night, so if UCLA happens to come back, or if Washington can upset Nebraska, we will put this on this slideshow later.

Loser: Penn State

Penn State did win today 14-10, so why are they losers? Well, to put it simple, they lost to the Temple Owls. A team that they hadn't lost to since the 1940s!

Penn State struggled last week against Alabama to score points. This wasn't a big problem, since it's Alabama, and they probably have five to six NFL-ready players out of their 11 starters on defense. 

But to only score 14 points against Temple, who may have one NFL player on their defense, is just embarrassing.

With the offense struggling and the Big Ten portion of their schedule coming up, how many wins can we expect from Penn State this season?  

Winner: Tajh Boyd, Clemson QB

Holy bleep, did Tajh Boyd just destroy the Auburn defense today? He alone led a Clemson comeback that ended with Auburn losing their first game since the 2009 season. 

His stats were out of this world, as he shredded up the Auburn defense with 386 yards passing on 30 completions and four touchdowns. 

We were ready to put Auburn's running back, Michael Dyer, here as our winner. But Dyer's defense let him and the Auburn fanbase down today. 

We all knew that the Auburn defense was bad this year. They were carved up by a true freshman quarterback from Utah State in Week 1. But this was just a bad, bad performance today.

But for Tajh, he made a highlight tape today that we will be seeing when/if he's drafted in April.

Loser: Tino Sunseri, Pittsburgh QB

Let's see, where do we begin with Tino? 

He had his team up 24-10 in the third quarter, only to lose the game 31-27, throwing an interception on the game-winning drive.

He did throw two touchdowns today with 255 yards passing, so that's good. 

But, he did have two interceptions that not only cost Pitt the game today, but cost them the top spot in the Big East conference. 

Those two interceptions both were on drives that had the Panthers team moving to either score or win the game. 

This may have been Tino's last game as the Pitt's starting quarterback, which, if so, will be a great thing for the Panthers fanbase. 

Winner: Duke

Let me channel my inner Dick Vitale for this slide.

"OH MY THE DOOOOOOKIESSSS! DIAPER DANDY DISPEY DOO TOUCHDOWNAROOOOOOO!"

The Dukies are 1-0 in the ACC for the first time in a long time. They had a great performance from their junior quarterback Sean Renfree, throwing for 359 yards today with two touchdowns. 

Maybe Duke has a football program that will make a bowl game this year? 

Loser: The Kansas Jayhawks Defense

Georgia Tech had 768 yards of total offense today against Kansas. That's a Kansas team that isn't some Division I-AA school. It's a Kansas team that just four years ago was playing in a BCS Bowl Game.

This Kansas team was 2-0 heading into today's game. But good gravy, did they have an awful performance today. 

They allowed not one, but two Georgia Tech running backs to gain over 100 yards today. They allowed Tech's quarterback to average 23.4 per throw (four completions on seven attempts). 

Personally, I'd hate to be in the film room on Sunday watching this game back. Let's hope that they can rebound next week against Texas Tech.

Winner: Malcolm Brown and the Texas Longhorns

Last year the UCLA Bruins came into Austin Texas and upset the Longhorns. They not only beat the 'Horns, but they embarrassed them.

Last year Texas did not have a running game and thus they did not have Malcolm Brown. Thank goodness this year Brown is a Texas Longhorn and gives Texas their best running back since the days of Jamal Charles, Cedric Benson and Ricky Williams.

Brown rushed for 110 yards and a touchdown today in a big Texas win.  

Loser: Michigan State

Coming into this game the Notre Dame Fighting Irish were losers of two close games. Michigan State, a ranked team, had zero reason to be an underdog in this game. But, Vegas was giving points to the ranked Michigan State Spartans—in fact, they were giving them as many as six.

But, Vegas must have known that either Notre Dame is a good team or Michigan State wasn't deserving of their ranking.

The numbers in this game are even everywhere, except in the rushing game where Notre Dame dominated Michigan State.

The final score was: Notre Dame 31, Michigan State 13. Michigan State suffered their first lost and possibly a steep fall in the rankings tomorrow.  

Winner: Russell Wilson and the Wisconsin Offense

For the third straight week, this Wisconsin Badgers team has looked like a team that could play for the National Championship in January. They are led by the best passer in the Big Ten in Russell Wilson. They have possibly the best defense in the Big Ten. And have covered every week this year.

Okay, that last one was a personal win for me.

This team has given up seven points in the last two games while scoring 84. 

Loser: Maryland's Uniforms

This was better than the piece of hot garbage that made LeBron James go on Twitter and say "OMG Maryland's Uniforms #Ewwwwwwww."

For a better grasp on what Maryland tried to do today, you can read my column on them.

Winner: self-plugging my work.  

Winner: Vanderbilt's Defense

Don't look now but the Vanderbilt Commodores are 3-0 and tied for first place in the SEC East division. 

Today they opened their SEC part of their schedule against the Ole Miss Rebels. Vanderbilt came out to play today as they picked off five Ole Miss throws. One of the interceptions was returned for a touchdown.

Will Vanderbilt win the SEC East and play in Georgia for the Conference Championship? 

Probably not, but with three wins already, they are setting themselves up for a Bowl Game.