Six biggest disappointments in college football after Week 3

Three weeks into college football's 2025 season, some teams are on the rise and others are already spiraling down. But it's more than just teams-- here's a list of six of the biggest disappointments of the college football season to date.

Big-name QBs

Arch Manning was awful in Week 1 and hasn't really recovered. Cade Klubnik has been bad. DJ Lagway threw five picks in a potentially season-defining Florida loss. Nico Iamaleava has been so bad that he got his coach fired. The big-name QBs have not produced as expected in the season to date.

Notre Dame

Not only are the Irish 0-2, and not only did they lost both games by thin margins because of an inability to make big plays, but their very identity has been off. All-everything RB Jeremiyah Lowe? Well, he's got 127 rushing yards after two games. The Irish seem to still be trying to find their identity, but after an 0-2 start, they basically have to run the table to get back into the CFP conversation.

AP voters

For the second straight week, there've been suspicious AP ballots. Not suspicious in terms of controversial, susicious in terms of establishing that the voters aren't actually paying attention. The coaches' poll is long understood to be a group of SIDs putting together a list that a coach rubber stamps. But AP voters are increasingly divorced for reality, and it's bad for the game.

Early-season coach firings

Sure, DeShaun Foster and Brent Pry's teams (UCLA and Virginia Tech) were going nowhere. But firing a coach after three weeks is absolutely punting on a season. Nobody's hiring a new coach before Thranksgiving in any case. Literally just overlooking players on the field in the interest of keeping boosters in the boat is an ugly, ugly look.

More TV broadcasting splitting

Arguable the biggest TV broadcast of Week 3, Miami vs. South Florida, won on the CW. Keeping up with the relevant college football action on a given Saturday is taking increasingly massive numbers of streaming sources. Given NIL issues, conferences and schools will continue to sell to the highest bidder. But big games that almost no one can or does see isn't really in the best interests of anyone or anything except athletic departments' bottom lines.

Clemson

Everything lined up for Dabo Swinney's team to challenge the narrative that he couldn't compete in the portal era. But the Tigers have now taken two losses and trailed Troy in between. Clemson has been disinterested and seems to have been lapped in the ACC by not just Miami but also Florida State and arguably a couple of other teams. Nobody's calling for Swinney's firing, but a chance to rebound to his glory days has been absolutely wasted.