Two full weeks of college football means we’ve got answers.
Big deal. We’ve still got questions. Lots of them.
But here’s the five biggest questions in college football entering Week 3:
Which does Oregon football need fixed the most: QB Dante Moore or Ducks’ defense?
Moore, a consensus first-round prospect in the 2027 NFL Draft, closed the 2025 season with an interception in each of his team's final four games. But Oregon's offense sputtered against its last three Power conference opponents and managed just 12 first downs in last week's stunning 39-31 loss to Oklahoma State.
That same Oklahoma State team was held to 10 points by Tulsa, which piled up 15 first downs, all three offensive touchdowns
and more than 360 total yards. Moore completed just 14 of 29 passes against the Cowboys, and coach Dan Lanning said afterward that the quarterback required two bags of IV fluids.
The Ducks won't reach a third straight College Football Playoff without Moore playing at a high level. However, they also won't get there if the defense continues to perform like this.
Boise State controlled the ball for 5 minutes, 40 seconds longer than Oregon in nearly pulling off a season-opening upset. Last week, Oklahoma State averaged 7 yards per play, including 6 yards per carry on 40 rushing attempts.
It's hard to pinpoint Oregon's biggest problem because both sides of the ball have been disappointing. The Ducks rank 80th nationally in total offense and 117th in total defense.
Can Ohio State build an offensive flow that translates to Big Ten play
Ohio State’s offensive issues against Power conference opponents, dating back to the end of last season, are becoming impossible to ignore.
Julian Sayin threw four interceptions over the Buckeyes’ final three games last year and added another in last week’s epic collapse against Texas, a game in which Ohio State set plenty of records, most notably the dubious distinction of blowing a 20-point fourth-quarter lead.
In their past four games against Power foes, the Buckeyes have scored three touchdowns or fewer each time, a drought that stretches from the end of the Brian Hartline era into the opening chapter of Arthur Smith’s tenure.
Growing pains were always going to be part of the process. But blowing a 20-point lead accelerates the timetable. Ohio State is paying Kent State the same $1.9 million it paid Ball State to open the season to serve as this week’s tune-up opponent but there is only so much that can be learned from a mismatch.
The Buckeyes need it to work. Their defense is elite, but it cannot be expected to completely shut down offenses such as USC, Indiana and Oregon, especially now that the margin for error created by the Texas game is gone.
Has Arch Madness already won the Heisman Trophy?
Hell to the no. As discussed previously on USA TODAY’s College Football Unfiltered podcast, it’s entirely possible to lose a Heisman Trophy in September. See: Moore, Dante; Sayin, Julian. It’s equally impossible to assure oneself of the sport’s highest individual honor — especially when Manning faces a minefield schedule that still includes games away from home against Tennessee, Oklahoma, LSU and Texas A&M as well as home tilts against Florida, Missouri and Ole Miss.
Want to pick someone other than Manning to track with real potential? Focus on Notre Dame’s CJ Carr, who has enjoyed similar betting odds as Manning among oddsmakers and has an exponentially more user-friendly schedule.
Speaking of QBs: How good is Tennessee freshman Faizon Brandon?
The college football world will learn much more about Brandon on Sept. 26, when those Manning-led Longhorns make their long-awaited trip to Neyland Stadium to face the Original UT. (One school was founded in 1794. The other came along much later, after Volunteers helped secure Texas independence. But I digress.)
Through two games, however, the early returns have been impressive. Brandon followed his debut with a road win under the lights at Bobby Dodd Stadium against a Georgia Tech program that has now lost five straight games dating to Nov. 22, 2025. The 18-year-old true freshman has totaled five touchdown passes, two rushing scores and zero interceptions while averaging 16.3 yards per completion.
Like Manning, he also won't lack opportunities to strengthen his résumé. After this week's buy game against Kennesaw State, Tennessee still has dates with Alabama, LSU, South Carolina, Texas A&M and, of course, Texas. The schedule is loaded with chances to prove whether the hype is warranted.
Is the Big Ten more top-heavy or bottom-light?
It is, assuredly, the latter. For all its potential top-three or top-four greatness, the Big Ten is off to the kind of plodding start that once defined the league’s offenses.
Rutgers appears headed toward becoming the first Power conference program to make a coaching change, with Greg Schiano still searching for his first win and No. 11 USC arriving this weekend.
Michigan State and Purdue are in the midst of full-scale rebuilds, which happens in this sport. The problem is that the two programs have combined for 37 losses since the start of the 2024 season.
Maryland has dropped 16 Big Ten games over the past two years, and the Terps enter this weekend as modest three-point underdogs against ACC foe Virginia Tech, now led by first-year coach James Franklin.
Meanwhile, Iowa is still trying to figure out how it escaped with a win against an Iowa State program that was gutted following Matt Campbell’s departure to Penn State. Illinois squandered a halftime lead and was outscored 10-3 after the break in a home loss to Duke. Wisconsin, meanwhile, opened its season in its own backyard by getting routed by Notre Dame at Lambeau Field.
And then there’s poor P.J. Fleck and the Minnesota Tarnished Gophers. They welcomed a Mississippi State team projected near the bottom of the SEC and may have inadvertently launched the breakout campaign of emerging Bulldogs quarterback Kamario Taylor.
The Big Ten may very well produce a fourth consecutive College Football Playoff champion. But if the league’s heavyweight contenders are in championship shape, the bottom half of the conference is badly in need of its own conditioning program.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: College football’s 5 biggest questions for Week 3 starts atop the Big Ten
