Louisville's Lamar Jackson becomes talk of college football

On August 31, an article with my name attached to it that focused on pre-season Heisman Trophy candidates ended with this gem: "My list of five Heisman candidates this season is 100 percent can't-miss (bet at your own risk, just in case).

Doh!

Good thing I put that disclaimer in there. Looks like my streak of overlooking the eventual winner might remain intact.

Yes, the season is only three weeks old, but Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson has emerged as a Heisman frontrunner and the talk of college football in leading the Cardinals to No. 3 in the AP poll this week.

Jackson has simply been the best and most exciting player in college football the first month of the season.

He is averaging 459 yards of offense per game and has accounted for 18 touchdowns.

He has passed for 913 yards and eight touchdowns with only two interceptions. He also has rushed for 464 yards and 10 touchdowns.

This isn't a case of a player solely feasting on September weaklings in non-conference. Jackson ran circles around Florida State's defense in a 63-20 victory on Saturday.

Jackson rushed for 146 yards and four touchdowns and passed for 216 yards and one touchdown.

His next big test comes Oct. 1 when Louisville plays at Clemson in a game that will have playoff implications.

CHIP SHOTS

Every coach in the nation should talk to their players about the proper to celebrate a touchdown. Some along these lines: DON'T DROP THE BALL BEFORE YOU CROSS THE GOAL LINE!

Other players have made that same embarrassing gaffe in recent years. It's maddening because it's entirely preventable.

Here's an idea: Hand the ball to the official in the end zone. And then celebrate with teammates.

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If I were still an AP voter, I would put North Dakota State in my Top 25 poll. The Bison's 23-21 victory at Iowa was no fluke.

NDSU was more physical along the lines, which doesn't happen very often to Iowa.

Big Ten athletic directors agreed to stop scheduling FCS opponents moving forward. I'm guessing other conferences will avoid scheduling the Bison, as well, because they have won six consecutive games against FBS opponents.

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Remember all the preseason talk about Ohio State being young and inexperienced after losing a boatload of starters on both sides? Yeah, never mind. The Buckeyes are scary good, again.

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Former Gophers quarterback Philip Nelson, now the starter at East Carolina, ranks fifth nationally in passing at 365 yards per game. Nelson leads the nation in completion percentage at 78.9.

Oops: Notre Dame is 1-2 and realistically already out of playoff consideration, and matters got worse for head coach Brian Kelly.

A tweet imploring Kelly to fire defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder was "liked" by someone operating Kelly's official twitter account.

Kelly explained to reporters that he has several people that monitor his account and that one of them inadvertently "liked" that tweet as they scrolled through mentions.

Notre Dame ranks 94^th nationally in scoring defense and 102^nd in total defense.

Safe bet that Kelly's assistant no longer has access to his twitter account.

Tennessee has lost 11 consecutive meetings against rival Florida entering Saturday's showdown in Knoxville. That's not a misprint. Eleven …. consecutive …. games!

If the streak reaches 12, someone please check on me. Thanks in advance.

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I thought Miami playing at Appalachian State potentially could be a trap game ripe for an upset, but first-year Mark Richt had his team mentally focused in a 45-10 rout.

The Hurricanes have crushed three inferior non-conference opponents to start the season. They have a bye this week before starting ACC play. Curious to see if they can sustain this early momentum under Richt, the former Georgia coach.

Wisconsin opened the season by defeating LSU at Lambeau Field. Tough opening opponent but now comes the hard part.

The Badgers begin Big Ten play Saturday at Michigan State to start a ridiculously challenging five-game stretch that goes thusly:

At Michigan State

At Michigan

Ohio State

Nebraska

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Further proof that preseason rankings are pointless other than to create barstool conversation: Oklahoma.

The Sooners were ranked No. 3 in the preseason and a trendy pick to make the four-team playoff (including by this dummy).

The Sooners fell to 1-2 after getting drilled by Ohio State at home on Saturday. Oklahoma looked out-classed by Houston in the opener, too.