Good morning, and welcome back to CFB Roundup from CFB Home – the first daily newsletter that’s all college football, all the time with no bias, no slant, and no fluff.

YESTERDAY’S RESULTS:

TODAY’S SCHEDULE:

Betting Information as of time of writing

Arizona State Overcomes Early 14-Point Deficit, Beats Texas State 31-28 on Road

Arizona State is officially 3-0 for the first time since 2019 after a close win over the Texas State Bobcats in San Marcos, TX last night.

After an impressive 10-play, 8 minute and 37 second drive for Arizona State resulted in a 7-0 lead, Texas State scored 21 unanswered points as the Bobcats also forced two 3-and-outs to take a 21-7 lead.

However, Arizona State battled and was able to knot the game up at 21 going into halftime with a Sam Leavitt rushing TD helping even things up with only 6 seconds remaining in the first half.

Each team got the ball 8 times in the 2nd half, with Arizona State putting up the decisive field goal with 6:29 remaining in the 4th quarter.

In Texas State’s 8 possessions in the 2nd half, the Bobcats’ drives ended either with a turnover or turnover on downs on 5 occasions.

Ultimately, Arizona State improves to 3-0 and Texas State loses a tough one at home that it had plenty of opportunities to take.

Pac-12 Formally Announces Introduction of Four Mountain West Programs

The Pac-12 has officially announced the formal additions of four Mountain West programs into the Pac-12’s attempt at revival. Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, and San Diego State (only one of which is an actual state) are the conference’s first official announcement showing an expansion aimed at preserving the “Conference of Champions.”

To remain a conference in the NCAA’s eyes, the Pac-12 needs to get to 8 total members, which does raise an interesting question of which two programs will the Pac-12 consider adding to retain its status beyond the NCAA’s grace period.

The new schools are anticipated to begin competing in the Pac-12 for the 2026-27 academic year and are all expected to each pay an exit fee to the Mountain West of $18M plus a 10-12M penalty thanks to the scheduling agreement between the Mountain West and the Pac-12. This means the additions of Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, and San Diego State are costing the Pac-12 upwards of $100M combined.

Cam Ward: Miami Not Even Close To Playing Its Best

Miami Hurricanes QB Cam Ward recently shared that he thinks, despite Miami’s strong start, the Hurricanes are not even close to playing up to its full potential.

Ward shared, “if you go back and really watch the tape from the first game, I would say there was a minimum of ten bad plays just from a quarterback and receiver standpoint. And from this last game, the biggest takeaways were the fourth downs, and that was us just not doing little things. So that’s something we have to clean up. … You say you want to win games but if we don’t clean up the little stuff now it can hurt us in the back end. So we’re getting better at that.”

Miami presumably will have a little more time to clean things up before ACC play, as they host the 1-0 Ball State Cardinals this weekend and then travel to play the feisty USF Bulls on the road to round out the non-conference schedule.

Texas A&M QB Conner Weigman Listed as Questionable against Florida

For the first time this week (and season), Texas A&M QB Conner Weigman is listed as questionable for Texas A&M’s Week 3 matchup against Florida.

Florida also has 14 players listed on its injury report, but none of which are QB Graham Mertz, who will be someone to watch as Florida and Billy Napier wrestle with which Gator is QB1 moving forward, Mertz or DJ Lagway.

As for Texas A&M, LB Scooby Williams is the only other Aggie with Weigman in the group of questionable players for the Aggies, as RB Rueben Owens, DB Tyreek Chappell, DB Trey Jones III, and OL Mark Nabou Jr. are all listed as out.

Ryan Day: Not Calling Plays Keeps My Eyes Up

Ohio State coach Ryan Day brought in former UCLA head coach Chip Kelly to be his offensive coordinator and call the plays. This has freed up Ryan Day, who used to call the plays for the Buckeyes, to keep his eyes on what’s happening on the field and get to experience the highs and lows of the game a little more.

Day being asked about this stems from when he spent the course of a few plays yelling at a line judge about a forward progress call (or non-call, rather). Said Day, “when you have the calls, you got to call the next play, and you can’t get into it. But, yeah, I’m gonna fight for everything … It doesn’t matter what the score is. That’s my job as coach, because these players are counting on me to do that.”

Not calling the plays has also allowed Day to manage the game more holistically, saying, “not having to call the plays has certainly allowed me mort of that opportunity to be more involved in the game management, seeing the clock, communication in all three phases, encouraging the players and everything else.”

South Alabama Sets 21st Century Record, Beating Northwestern State 87-10

South Alabama beat FCS Northwestern State yesterday by a final score of 87-10 to give the Jaguars its first win of the season.

In scoring 87 points, it set a Sun Belt record and were the most points scored by an FBS team in the 21st century. The last time a team scored that many points were when Fresno State put up 94 against New Mexico in 1991.

At the end of the first quarter, the score was 24-10, but then the Jaguars proceeded to put up 63 unanswered points.

South Alabama “only” finished with 622 yards of offense but did average about 12.2 yards per play and the defense did force four turnovers to set up short fields.

Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea: About Balancing Diego Pavia’s Health and Aggressive Decision Making

The Diego Pavia experience is an exciting one, as the Vanderbilt QB plays aggressively and unafraid of the consequences. However, coach Clark Lea shared that he is trying to strike the right balance of letting Pavia play loose without being reckless.

Lea shared in his weekly press conference that, “I am concerned. I also want to be careful not to change the way he plays his game. … But I want to be careful, because we also have to form an identity and play to our identity.”

Through two games, Pavia has thrown the ball 29 times for 273 yards and two touchdowns, while he’s ran the ball 39 times for 155 yards and two touchdowns, truly showing off his dual threat capabilities that make him so dynamic.

2026 4-Star S Zelus Hicks Commits to Texas

Consensus 4-star safety in the 2026 class, Zelus Hicks, has committed to Texas over offers from the likes of Georgia, Clemson, Ohio State, Auburn, and others.

Hicks said that things moved quickly with Texas once he got an offer from the Longhorns. “Things moved quickly with Texas. … They tell me I am #1 on their board, and they are #1 on my board, so it is a perfect match.”

Hicks ranks highest from ESPN, where he is ranked as the 19th best prospect nationally and the #1 safety in the 2026 class. According to On3’s industry composite, Hicks ranks 33rd nationally and 3rd for his position.

This is Texas’ 3rd commitment for the 2026 class, all of which are 4-stars. Of the 21 programs who have enough commitments to warrant an On3 team ranking for the 2026 class already, Texas’ is already 3rd nationally behind only Oregon and Penn State, who have more commitments than the Longhorns but the lowest recruit rating average.

Just looking at recruit rating average, Texas currently leads all programs with Georgia following closely behind.

Missouri TE Brett Norfleet Expected to Be Available vs. #24 Boston College

Missouri missed its big tight end target Brett Norfleet while it steamrolled Buffalo in Week 2. But ESPN’s Pete Thamel is reporting that Brett Norfleet is expected to be good to go for the Tigers when they host #24 Boston College in the lone ranked vs. ranked matchup on Saturday.

Given that WRs Luther Burden and Theo Wease also missed some or all of the Buffalo game last week, too, confidently having another target for QB Brady Cook to throw to is good news for Missouri’s offense.

Texas A&M’s Mike Elko on Team: Have to Take Time To Build It Right

Texas A&M coach Mike Elko was recently asked about his philosophy for building a program to experience sustained success.

For Elko, he sees the key is taking the time to build the foundation up the right way, saying, “I think part of it is building a strong foundation. I think that’s one of the things that we’ve been very, very intentional about how we put it together. … But it has to get built, right? And somebody has to take the time to build it right and again, I understand the SEC. … We didn’t walk into a foundational program that had been really, really well established.”

Other Commitments/Decommitments

3-Star (84) CB William Wiebush commits to Wake Forest