Week3 of the 2026 college football season is now in the books! In the Big Ten, that meant the start of conference play, including USC’s road trip to face Rutgers.
So what did we learn this week? Here are a few takeaways from a relatively quiet week in the conference:
Mike Locksley is in trouble at Maryland
Maryland has been one of the worst teams in the conference over the past few years, and Saturday evening’s 35-26 loss to Virginia Tech did not do much of anything to suggest that things will be different this year. It feels like Locksley is living on borrowed time as the head coach of the Terrapins.
UCLA has a star in Wayne Knight
Knight, who followed head coach Bob Chesney from James Madison to UCLA, put on a show Saturday night against Purdue, rushing for 177 yards and two touchdowns. Knight has found the end zone
eight times in the Bruins’ first three games of the season. Sorry Stetson Bennett, but there might be a new mailman in college football.
Purdue’s defense is bad
On the other hand, Purdue’s offense actually looked solid against UCLA, but the Boilermakers’ defense was horrific, giving up 52 points. Granted, no one really expected much from Purdue this season, but Saturday night in Pasadena only further confirmed that this team is still not particularly close to competing for anything of note.
Northwestern has the potential to be a sleeper team
The Wildcats certainly caught the eyes of the country with their 41-7 blowout of Colorado over the weekend. Granted, most of the attention was on Deion Sanders and the Buffaloes for the embarrassing loss, but don’t count out Northwestern as a sleeper team in the Big Ten this year.
The Big Ten runs through Los Angeles (for now at least)
With just two conference games over the weekend, only two Big Ten teams can say that they have a win in league play this year: USC and UCLA. For the time being, at least, the conference runs through Los Angeles.
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This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: What we learned from Week 3 of college football in the Big Ten
