Column:College football makes early-season noise

Three weeks of college football have come and gone. With conference play almost underway, let’s take a minute to look at some teams that have stood out thus far.

Clemson
The No. 21 Tigers have come to play this year. Clemson began the season unranked but posted an impressive win against then-No. 21 Auburn on Saturday, 38-24. This brought an end to Auburn’s 17-game win streak.

Clemson is one of four ranked Atlantic Coast Conference teams in this week’s Associated Press Poll, while USA Today lists five in its Top 25 poll. This makes for an unusually powerful ACC conference.

Next week, No. 11 Florida State travels to Clemson to open ACC play. A home victory will be necessary to help the Tigers prove themselves for the remainder of the season.

Michigan State
The preseason No. 17 Spartans did not seem as ready as Notre Dame did when they entered South Bend on Saturday.

Despite coming off a 44-0 victory against Florida Atlantic the week prior, Michigan State looked sloppy and unprepared. The Spartans committed 12 penalties for 86 yards. They had only 29 rushing yards to Notre Dame’s 114.

The Fighting Irish were 0-2 going into that game, so the Spartans should have been prepared for a determined Notre Dame team.

Michigan State has now been dropped from the AP Top 25. They have one more game against Central

Michigan before opening conference play with Ohio State.

The Spartans do not have an easy road ahead of them if they hope to get back to a BCS bowl game.

Michigan, Wisconsin and Nebraska are all still ranked and will be three consecutive opponents in the month of October.

Notre Dame
As with every year, Notre Dame players and fans started the season believing they would win every game. It is clear that illusion has yet again been smeared with the first two games.

Preseason polls put the Fighting Irish at No. 16. Then there was an embarrassing 20-23 loss at home to South Florida followed by a loss to rival Michigan in Ann Arbor.
The team redeemed itself with a strong victory against Michigan State, but which Notre Dame team we will see for the rest of the season is unknown. They have some time to figure it out before taking on USC at home in late October.

This season may be vital to the Irish with the current conference chaos. It could be time for Notre Dame to finally join a conference. Which one it chooses may depend on its final record.

The season is still young, and conference play will bring a whole new element to a season that started with a dark cloud due to several NCAA allegations of foul play. So for now, all we can do is wait and see what next Saturday brings.

-cursini@indiana.edu
Caitlin Ursini is a senior in journalism.