On the Line: The Group of 5 takes center stage

In case you've missed it, we here at FootballScoop (along with our partners at Athlon) launched the Group of 5 poll at the onset of the season. Response from coaches has been universally positive, and the play on the field has given us many reasons to celebrate the football played in those leagues. (Hello, Northern Illinois.)

The Week 3 slate, light on intrigue in the Power 4 -- one ranked matchup, and it's No. 24 BC at No. 6 Mizzou, GameDay at LSU-South Carolina(???) -- brings us plenty of games that will shape the race for the Group of 5 Playoff spot(s). All rankings from the FootballScoop Coaches Poll.

-- Arizona State at No. 7 Texas State (7:30 p.m. ET Thursday, ESPN): Fresh off slaying rival UTSA for the first time, Texas State braces for the biggest home game in school history. Arizona State is much improved from last season -- the Sun Devils out-rushed Mississippi State 359-30 -- which makes this opportunity all the greater for GJ Kinne's team. Texas State is No. 11 nationally in net points per drive and No. 5 in net yards per play. 

-- No. 4 UNLV at Kansas (7 p.m. ET Friday, ESPN): UNLV is third in the nation in rushing this young season, fresh off a 503-yard performance against Utah Tech. Kansas is 17th. This may be a game where both teams run for 200-plus.

-- No. 1 Memphis at Florida State (noon ET, ESPN): Hoo boy. The voters think Memphis is really good, but are they good enough to deliver a death blow to a Florida State team that's had two weeks to circle the wagons and author the best performance they're capable of -- whatever that may mean? 

-- Cincinnati at No. 13 Miami of Ohio (noon ET, ESPNU): In a rivalry that dates back to 1888, Cincinnati and Miami are both 60-60-7, so there will be absolutely no fear of the Big 12 Bearcats from the MAC RedHawks. And considering Cincinnati has beaten one FBS team in a calendar year, there shouldn't be.

-- ARV North Texas at Texas Tech (noon ET, FS1): Texas Tech is 129th against the pass and 117th against the run through two weeks. Granted, North Texas is 87th in yards per play against South Alabama and Stephen F. Austin, but... sheesh.

-- No. 5 Tulane at AP No. 15 Oklahoma (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN): Does last week's near-miss against AP No. 14 K-State inspire the Green Wave to finish the job against Oklahoma, or was that their best shot at knocking off an AP Top 25 Power 4 team this year?

-- No. 10 Toledo at Mississippi State (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPNU): Did you see that Mississippi State was out-rushed 359-30 last week? Beyond the obvious opportunity there, the Rockets should be getting a beat up Bulldogs squad licking its paws with Florida, then No. 2 Texas and No. 1 Georgia upcoming. 

So, there are seven opportunities for ranked Group of 5 teams to take down Power 4 opponents, including one in four successive ESPN windows -- Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday early and Saturday mid-day. 

The subplot to Texas A&M-Florida that no one wants to talk about (but I can't ignore). We have two choices here: to stick our heads in the sand, or to tell the truth. I choose the latter, which means that Texas A&M isn't going to Gainesville to simply beat the 2024 Florida outfit, they're going there to potentially take their quarterback.

Billy Napier's job status is one of the overarching story lines of the season, and he did no favors by authoring that 41-17 clunker to Miami in the opener. The other overarching storyline? The transformative impact (both good and bad) of transfer quarterbacks. Whatever Miami paid to keep Cam Ward out of the NFL draft was worth it, and then some. (See: Miami 41, Florida 17.) On the flip side, there's Notre Dame with Riley Leonard, Florida State with DJ Uiagaleilei, Auburn with Payton Thorne... and Florida with Graham Mertz.

That takes us to Saturday. Mertz will reportedly return to action after missing last Saturday's Samford game with a concussion, and he's expected to split time with DJ Lagway. Lagway, who was the No. 1 quarterback in the class of 2024. Lagway, who hails from Willis, Texas, an hour's drive from College Station. 

The jury is very much out on Conner Weigman, who posted a 200 QB rating against McNeese and a 55 against Notre Dame. 

There's a lot still to happen between now and the portal window opening at the end of the regular season. But the outcome of this game could go a long way toward setting the stage for early December. 

Additional Games: 

-- No. 20 Arizona at No. 14 Kansas State (8 p.m. ET, Fox): It's the second straight week we've had a big game involving Big 12 teams that's not a Big 12 game, following Utah's 23-12 win over Baylor last week. 

-- No. 4 Alabama at Wisconsin (noon ET, Fox): Alabama has been to Camp Randall once before, in 1928. Can the Crimson Tide clean up last week's issues in the secondary against [checks notes] a team that threw for 406 combined yards against Western Michigan and South Dakota?

-- No. 13 Oklahoma State at Tulsa (noon ET, ESPN2): The good: Oklahoma State was the first team since 2020 to allow 550 or more yards with a minus-200 yardage differential and still find a way to win last week against Arkansas. The bad: Oklahoma State allowed nearly 650 yards against Arkansas.

-- No. 16 LSU at South Carolina (noon ET, ABC): This game features three of the absolute freak athletes in the game today -- South Carolina wide receiver Nyck Harbor (6'5", 235, faster than your wife falls asleep on the couch during Couples Movie Night), South Carolina edge Dylan Stewart, and LSU linebacker Harold Perkins. How good are the teams around them? Remains to be seen.

-- No. 24 Boston College at No. 6 Missouri (12:45 p.m. ET, SEC Network): Yep, it's the one AP ranked matchup of the day, and it features two 2-0 teams whose four wins have combined to win one game. Buffalo (a Mizzou opponent) defeated FCS Lafayette in Week 1, otherwise the three remaining opponents the Eagles and Tigers have beaten are winless.

-- No. 9 Oregon at Oregon State (3:30 p.m. ET, Fox)
-- Washington State vs. Washington at Seattle (3:30 p.m. ET, Peacock): Credit to these schools for finding ways to get these games played. Their colleagues in Oklahoma should take note. No offense to anyone involved, but I hope Oregon State and Washington State hammer their pompous in-state rivals. 

-- No. 18 Notre Dame at Purdue (3:30 p.m. ET, CBS): Purdue played Indiana State and then took a week off, so it's fair to say Ryan Walters' team has been prepping for this game for six weeks. For his sake, hopefully Marcus Freeman patched the holes that NIU exposed in Notre Dame's tape. 

-- West Virginia at Pitt (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2): Two games in, the returns on Kade Bell in Pittsburgh. The Panthers dropped 55 points on Kent State, then put 28 on Cincinnati -- a number Pitt only reached one time against Power 4 opponents last season. Let's see if they can get there again against WVU's 109th-ranked defense.

-- Appalachian State at East Carolina (4 p.m. ET, ESPNU): Last year, in proclaiming North Carolina was done playing App State, he encouraged NC State and East Carolina to take on the Mountaineers. Now the Pirates are doing just that. App State has won two straight in this series, including a 43-28 decision last year in Boone. 

-- No. 12 Utah at Utah State (4:30 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Network): Utah makes its first trip to Logan since 2012, a 27-20 Aggies victory. 

-- No. 5 Ole Miss at Wake Forest (6:30 p.m. ET, The CW): The story of Ole Miss's season will be told in how the Rebels perform against LSU, Oklahoma and Georgia. But that won't stop Lane Kiffin from trying to whip the public into submission by dropping 50-plus as often as he can. 

-- Indiana at UCLA (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC): Ben Bolch of the LA Times had a great story on all the fans Indiana, Iowa and Minnesota are expected to bring to the Rose Bowl this fall, which begs the question: will UCLA get out supported in its own building by... Indiana? Probably not, but they very well get out-scored by a Hoosiers team that dropped 77 on Western Illinois. 

-- Colorado at Colorado State (7:30 p.m. ET, CBS): The rematch doesn't have near the juice of last year's Sunglasses Bowl, but it's still CSU's first home game with Colorado since 2015, and thus the biggest game in Canvas Stadium's history since its 2017 opening. 

-- New Mexico at Auburn (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2): Two weeks in and we're making manhood jokes about Auburn's season. 

For Hugh Freeze's sake, here's hoping this game goes better than the last time Auburn hosted a team from the Land of Enchantment. 

-- Rice at Houston (8 p.m. ET, ESPN+): In the 46th Battle for the Bayou Bucket, Rice seeks its first back-to-back wins over their crosstown rivals since 2000-01.

-- San Diego State at Cal (10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN): In a week highlighted by Group of 5 teams taking on winnable Group of 4 opponents, what a perfectly fitting way to end with a future #Pac12AfterDark game. Or at least we hope.