The powerhouse Southeastern Conference will have at least two top-10 teams lose in Week 3.
It could be three if No. 10 Alabama doesn’t beat pesky Florida State.
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Kentucky stunned No. 9 Texas A&M on the road Saturday, winning 31-21 behind three transfers: quarterback Kenny Minchey, running back CJ Baxter and safety Jordan Castell.
Minchey, a Notre Dame transfer, completed 14 of 18 passes for 252 yards and two touchdowns. He connected on his final 11 throws. Baxter, a former Texas standout, ran for 87 yards and two scores. Castell, a three-year starter at Florida, finished with a team-high 13 tackles and an interception.
“I’m not shocked,” first-year coach Will Stein said on the field afterward. “This is how these guys practiced every single day. This is what Kentucky football is supposed to look like. So proud of our guys coming on the road, the eye of the storm. How freaking cool is this? Let’s go!”
Stein, 36, replaced longtime Kentucky coach Mark Stoops in December and became the third first-year Wildcats coach to beat a top-10 team — first since Joker Phillips in 2010.
“We knew it was going to be a bar fight, a fistfight, old school,” Stein said. “We were the tougher team tonight. That’s how we won the game.
“This is what we wanted, BBN. Let’s freaking go!”
No. 7 LSU and eighth-ranked Ole Miss will finish later Saturday and provide another top-10 loss.
Alabama led Florida State 26-21 at halftime, rallying after trailing 21-6 early in the second quarter. It was an eye-popping deficit for a Crimson Tide team that shockingly lost at home to the Seminoles to open last season.
Lane Kiffin was wildly booed long before he arrived at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on Saturday for the LSU-Ole Miss game.
Kiffin appeared remotely on ESPN's “College GameDay," and Mississippi fans still angry about how he left the Rebels for LSU late last season greeted him with a chorus of expletive-laced chants. It was a clear sign of what Kiffin and the Tigers should expect when they play at Ole Miss later Saturday.
“I really appreciate you guys gaslighting them with this,” Kiffin said from the team hotel.
It was the latest in a growing buildup for the first top-10 matchup between No. 7 LSU and eight-ranked Ole Miss since 1962.
It started when Kiffin left the Rebels to take the LSU job and a $91 million contract just as the team he had coached for six years was days away from its first appearance in the College Football Playoff. Kiffin wanted to stay through the playoff, but Ole Miss moved on to coach Pete Golding and advanced to the CFP semifinals. LSU finished 7-6, capped by a loss in the Texas Bowl.
The off-field storylines haven't stopped since. Kiffin's comments about whether Black players could be recruited to Ole Miss, lawsuits alleging Ole Miss transfers owe big money for reneging on their NIL deals and LSU’s now-abandoned defiance of rules against rostering former pro players have only brightened the spotlight for this one.
LSU threw another wrinkle into the mix by saying midweek that quarterback Sam Leavitt was “doubtful” to play, sparking immediate fan accusations of gamesmanship. He's been upgraded since and is expected to start.
Kiffin himself acknowledged there could be “hatred” in the stands Saturday. Security has been dramatically increased as authorities expect 100,000 people in Oxford, a town whose school-year population of about 25,000 is virtually all students.
The winner improves to 3-0 on the season — and gets savory bragging rights.
There is a good one in the ACC: No. 16 SMU at No. 23 Louisville, the league leaders in total offense featuring SMU's Kevin Jennings (402.5 yard per game) and Louisville’s Lincoln Kienholz (375.0).
Both are eager to keep pace with No. 5 Miami, which beat Wake Forest 33-20 on Friday night as Darian Mensah completed 30 of 34 passes, including his first 24 attempts, for 220 yards and three touchdowns.
In the Big 12, two of the favorites opened league play with a terrific game Friday night in Lubbock, where No. 13 Texas Tech held on for a 28-26 win over No. 22 Houston. Cougars QB Conner Weigman came up just short of a 2-point conversion in the final minute, a play that went to the Big 12 replay review room — the broadcast audience was able to watch and listen to the analysis — before it was upheld.
There also are several intriguing matchups pitting 2-0 teams that can be best viewed as measuring stick games, including Virginia Tech at Maryland, Mississippi State at South Carolina and these:
— Florida at Auburn. Gators QB Aaron Philo, who will make his first road start, has completed 76% of his passes with five touchdowns. Byrum Brown, who has been new Auburn coach Alex Golesh's starting QB for all or part of four seasons, was a 1,000-yard rusher last year.
— No. 25 Virginia vs. West Virginia in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Mountaineers, 2-0 for the first time since 2018, are playing their border-state rival for the first time since 2002.
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