Week 3 served as a bucket of cold water for a few teams across the state of Texas. The 13 FBS teams in the Lone Star State combined for a 6-7 record over the weekend.

The Aggies were embarrassed at home against Kentucky. SMU committed three turnovers in a road loss to Louisville that put the Mustangs in the backseat of the ACC race early. North Texas was humbled in a 14-point loss to Texas State. The No. 1 Longhorns looked hungover in the sloppy win over UTSA.

There were some bright spots, however. Texas Tech and Houston played a classic on Friday night in a matchup worthy of a rematch in Arlington for the Big 12 championship. Texas State bounced back from the UTSA loss with an inspiring win over North Texas. And Sam Houston won its first game at Bowers since 2024 when the Bearkats thumped Nicholls.

Let’s dig in.

The Marcel Reed Problem

College quarterbacks can be separated into three piles: trucks, trailers, and dumpsters. Texas A&M quarterback Marcel Reed is not a dumpster. In other words, he isn’t trash. He led the Aggies to an 11-0 start last year and into the College Football Playoff. But he also wasn’t a truck. Reed wasn’t THE reason Texas A&M was in SEC contention. That was more about a great offensive line, a wide receiver core led by K.C. Concepcion, and a defense that had the SEC Defensive Player of the Year.

Reed was a trailer because he was being pulled. The bad news for Texas A&M was that the truck left for the NFL. Ten players, tied for the most, were drafted in 2026. Reed lost Concepcion, four starters up front, and his play caller when Collin Klein took the head coaching job at Kansas State. For the Aggies to repeat the 2025 success, and maybe even build on it, Reed needed to graduate from trailer to truck in the offseason.

He didn’t. That was clear on Saturday in the home loss to Kentucky. The same Kentucky team that was outscored 32-0 in the halftime by an Alabama team that’s starting a redshirt freshman quarterback. Reed missed the layups all day. He was outplayed by Kenny Minchey. Reed was 24-of-36 on throws that traveled 14 yards or fewer through the air. He was 2-of-13 on throws 15 yards or longer.

Elite college football teams don’t necessarily need a truck at quarterback to win championships. But this Aggie squad isn’t elite. The offensive line isn’t amongst the SEC’s best, and neither are the running backs. The wide receiver core is elite, but does that matter if their quarterback can’t hit wide open receivers in crunch time? And I think it is safe to say the Aggie defense isn’t elite, either.

Texas A&M is 2-1 and headed to LSU next week. Mike Elko’s teams have been great early in the year through two years as the head coach. It is the end of the season that’s caused problems.

Look at the schedule and it is possible to imagine the current version of Texas A&M missing the playoffs because the schedule is brutal. A trip to LSU is next up. The Aggies must travel to Missouri, Alabama, South Carolina, and Oklahoma. They host Tennessee and Texas. Games against Arkansas and The Citadel are gimmies. The rest? Toss ups at best.

The long-term trajectory of Texas A&M is hard to ignore. Elko & Co. are dominating on the recruiting trail and that gives the program a national championship ceiling down the road. But not now. Not with Reed.

We already saw the ceiling with Reed and that was in 2025. And even then, Texas A&M was 1-2 against Top 25 teams and ended the year with three points in the CFP loss to Miami.

Texas Tech misses Lee Hunter

Most of the ink spilt on the Texas Tech struggles to start the 2026 season was concentrated on the offense and quarterback Will Hammond. Even I wrote a 1,000-word column after the Week 3 win over Houston about Hammond’s rough offseason and how the win over the Cougars solidified himself – to the team and the fan base – that he is the signal caller for the Red Raiders.

When folks have discussed the defensive slide through three weeks in Lubbock, the first names mentioned are David Bailey and Jacob Rodriguez, and with good reason. Rodriguez was arguably the best defensive player in college football last year and Bailey was the second overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.

But as a made the long journey from Lubbock to Austin in my truck on Saturday morning, the one name that kept popping up in my mind was Lee Hunter. Texas Tech led the nation in run defense last year while allowing 68.14 yards per game. The Red Raiders only allowed three teams to top 100 yards rushing against them last year and the most given up in any single game was 126 against Kansas State last Nov. 1. Shiel Wood’s unit hadn’t allowed a team to rush over 100 yards since, which was a seven-game streak, the longest in the nation.

By the end of Houston’s first drive of the second half, the Coogs had already topped 150 yards. It was easy to watch Texas Tech get moved off the ball from the press box in The Jones (I’m not calling it Galaxy Stadium, sue me). Texas Tech misses its anchor. It misses Hunter as much as any player from last year.

The Red Raiders scored 33 points in the 2025 win over Houston. They scored 28 in the win on Friday night. But the 26 points allowed was 15 more than the matchup with the Cougars last year. The defense allowed 2.2 yards a carry last year while never giving up more than 4.2 yards a carry in a single game. Houston averaged 4.8 yards a tote while gaining 176 yards on the ground.

Houston won in a loss

Willie Fritz would put me on "The List” for suggesting that his Houston squad should be happy after a loss. I’d probably be running the stairs of the stadium by Sunday afternoon if he reads this. There are no moral victories in Fritz’s world. He views Friday night’s loss to Texas Tech as a missed opportunity. After all, his squad was one inch from tying the game up late in the fourth quarter and some self-inflicted wounds – like the seven penalties committed – gave a good team like Texas Tech too many openings.

But that won’t stop me from being impressed with Houston and believing that this team could see Texas Tech down the road in the Big 12 Championship game. The Cougars didn’t belong on the same field as Texas Tech last year. This year, Houston was the better team for large portions of the game, including the 10-0 lead early and the late touchdown drive that almost sent the game into overtime.

Conner Weigman was excellent, completing 27-of-38 passes for 282 yards and three touchdowns while adding 56 yards on the ground. Hopefully the national pundits who acted like there was a true quarterback battle in Third Ward feel silly. The defense forced two turnovers. Guys like Patrick Overmyer, Makhi Hughes, and Amare Thomas were excellent.

Houston wasn’t afforded the same schedule luck as Texas Tech. The Cougars travel to Kansas State and Utah before the end of October. They host Oklahoma State between those two trips. Back-to-back road trips to Colorado and West Virginia loom in November. But each of those is winnable for a team that came an inch short of knocking off the heavy conference favorite.

That doesn’t won’t make Fritz feel better about the loss. But it should make his team feel confident about its prospects in 2026.

Bobcats run past North Texas

Quarterbacks get a lot of the hype under G.J. Kinne.

Lindsey Scott Jr. won the Walter Payton Award, which recognizes the top offensive player in the FCS, under Kinne at UIW in 2022. T.J. Finley threw for 3,439 yards in 2023. Jordan McCloud was the reigning Sun Belt Player of the Year when he transferred to Texas State for the 2024 season and then passed for 3,227 yards. Last year, Brad Jackson emerged as the best young quarterback in the G6.

But the underrated aspect of the Kinne offense is the run game. His UIW team in 2022 topped 3,000 rushing yards as a team. His Bobcats have ranked in the Top 30 nationally in rushing yards per game in all three seasons. They led the state of Texas in rushing in 2024 and 2025.

So it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that Texas State’s run game looks dominant again in Year 4. The Bobcats ran for 337 yards and three touchdowns on 49 carries in the 14-point win over North Texas. Torrance Burgess Jr. rushed for 214 yards. Davian Jackson averaged 7.7 yards per rush and scored three times.

Brad Jackson remains the key to the offense and he looked back in form during the win, completing 16-of-22 passes for 268 yards and four touchdowns to zero interceptions. When he performs well, this offense is almost impossible to stop because of the balance.

Mean Green fall to earth

There weren’t many more impressive wins in Week 2 than the one experienced by North Texas over UNLV. It was a complete domination and there wasn’t anything fluky about it. The Mean Green bullied the Rebels in Denton and put the G6 world on notice. They rode that momentum into a trip to Texas State where the line was only three points in favorite of the Bobcats, meaning it was a coin flip on a neutral field.

A win would’ve catapulted North Texas into American Conference contention and Texas State into a panic. Instead, the Bobcats found their feet and the Mean Green lost their way as a run defense. They held UNLV to 98 yards on 39 carries – 2.51 yards a carry – in the win last week. They even held Indiana in check, relatively, in the Week 1 loss against the defending champs.

But Texas State gashed Matt Powledge’s unit. North Texas allowed 232 rushing yards and three touchdowns through eight quarters. The group surrendered 337 yards and three scores on the ground in four quarters against Texas State.

In a game where Tayven Jackson threw for 483 yards, North Texas lost by 14. That can’t happen if the Mean Green have hopes of reaching a bowl game and playing meaningful conference games into November.  

Road turnovers catch up with SMU

The Mustangs got away with their sloppy play in the Labor Day road win over Florida State to start the season. They weren’t so fortunate against Louisville. Kevin Jennings threw two interceptions, the team committed eight penalties, and the run defense allowed 265 yards and four touchdowns.

This game was to decide the favorite to face Miami in the ACC Championship game. The loss puts SMU in the backseat. But the good news is that the schedule eases after a pair of conference road games in three weeks. The toughest game left in conference is the home game against Virginia on Oct. 17, which comes off an open week for SMU.

SMU must clean up its mistakes to get back in the conference race. That starts with Jennings, who has been a turnover machine on the road. Since the start of 2024, Jennings has thrown for 33 touchdowns and five interceptions in 14 homes games. He’s thrown for 25 touchdowns and 23 interceptions in the 16 road games during that same time frame.

What is Baylor’s ceiling without D.J. Lagway?

I know this is a question and not a thought but it is one I’ve been pondering all afternoon. Big 12 play starts next at home against Colorado and Lagway hasn’t played since the one-point loss to Auburn in Week 1.

Since then, backup Nate Bennett has led the Bears to wins over Prairie View A&M and La Tech. Not a gauntlet, for sure, but he’s played well. He’s accounted for four touchdowns in both wins and is averaging 283 passing yards a game.

The ceiling isn’t as high without Lagway. But I’m not sure the floor changes much without him. If Baylor can run the ball – 44 runs to 24 passes against La Tech – and play defense, a bowl bid is on the table. Maybe that’s the answer.

The Bears hope they don’t need to find out. The good news about the injury is that it came before two winnable games. But Lagway’s injury history suggests it won’t be the last time Bennett will be needed this season.

The TCU Worry-Meter

Sonny Dykes hired Gordon Sammis as the new offensive coordinator to improve TCU’s run game and to limit turnovers. The Frogs averaged 2.72 yards per rush and lost a fumble in the Week 0 loss to North Carolina. In golfing terms, I was willing to give TCU a breakfast ball. Traveling across the pond to play a football game is a weird situation. There is no point in overreacting to the outcomes.

But the Horned Frogs didn’t look much impress in those categories during in Week 3 win over Arkansas State. They scored 10 points in the fourth quarter to make the box score look better than the game film. TCU led 14-7 at half and struggled to move Arkansas State off the ball in the run game for four quarters. The team also lost the turnover battle, 1-0.

Even sack adjusted, TCU averaged just 3.4 yards per carry. Jeremy Payne averaged 3.6 on 24 rushes. Joe Pitchford averaged 3.7 on seven carries. QB Jaden Craig was sacked once and finished with 20 yards. No TCU run went for more than 11 yards.

Craig was impressive through the air, however, especially in the second half. He completed 21-of-29 passes for 337 yards and three touchdowns to one interception. Dykes wanted to put less on his quarterback in 2026. But if the run game struggles against North Carolina and Arkansas State, why would it be much better against future conference foes like BYU, Utah, and Texas State?

Owls’ road gets tougher

Rice has one of the tougher schedules in the G6. The Owls traveled to No. 3 Notre Dame in Week 2 and hosted Western Michigan – the team that Michigan needed an extra second to beat – in Week 3.

The non-conference slate ends next week at Fresno State, a potential dark horse in the renovated Pac-12. The American Conference schedule includes UTSA, Tulsa, Tulane, and Army at home as well as trips to East Carolina, FAU, North Texas, and Temple.

The defeat against Western Michigan wasn’t the worse loss of the week, however. Rice head coach Scott Abell confirmed that Quinton Jackson, the team’s leading returning rusher and a Swiss Army knife for the Owls, is out for the season. He was injured in the loss at Notre Dame.  

The road to a bowl game and a .500 record in the regular season was already tougher than normal. It is an even bigger climb without Jackson. More will be put on the plate of young running backs D’Andre Hardeman and Tyvonn Byars, who combined for just 61 yards and 19 carries. QB Jacurri Brown might have to put the Owls on his back. He tried against Western Michigan, rushing for 128 yards and a touchdown and throwing for 121 and a score.

The growing gap between P4 and G6

The 13 FBS teams in the state of Texas are split nearly evenly between the P4 and the G6. There are seven teams that represent three of the four P4 conferences and six others that play across four different G6 leagues. It is a far cry from the landscape in the Lone Star State when Dave Campbell started this company over 60 years ago.

The fact that we have at least one team in seven of the 10 FBS conferences does allow us to look at trends. One that I’m fascinated with is the growing gap between the P4 and the G6 in the state. While the transfer portal and revenue sharing have shrunk the gap between P4 programs, it has widened it between the P4 and the G6.

The first three weeks of the season are proving that point. The seven P4 teams in Texas are a combined 16-5 through three weeks and five of the seven were ranked in the Top 25. All seven boast a winning record heading into Week 4. Conversely, UTSA is the only G6 program in Texas above .500 heading after three games. The six teams hold a combined record of 7-11.   

Week 3 FBS Scores

Texas Tech 28, Houston 26
Texas State 49, North Texas 35
Kentucky 31, Texas A&M 21
Louisville 41, SMU 31
Michigan 52, UTEP 17
Baylor 36, La Tech 19
Western Michigan 28, Rice 21
Texas 30, UTSA 6
TCU 31, Arkansas State 7
Sam Houston 59, Nicholls 0