Eight insights from an adventurous third week in college football:

In a crucial third year for the embattled Florida Gators coach, Napier has been beaten in the swamp twice now. The season-opening 41-17 loss to the Miami Hurricanes was pretty bad. Saturday’s 33-20 loss to the Texas A&M Aggies was even worse. The Aggies had to play with backup quarterback Marcel Reed, a redshirt freshman making his first college start, and they still dominated.

Napier may have hit rock bottom when the Aggies marched 99 yards in pouring rain to score and take a 20-0 lead without completing a single pass on the drive. There was just never much hope for the Gators in a home game against a team not ranked among the SEC’s top teams.

That 1-2 start has accelerated the firing warning. On3 Sports’ Florida affiliate Gators Online reported late Saturday night that a meeting of the Florida Board of Trustees had been called for Sunday. Earlier in the day, it did not sound as though Napier could adequately defend his body of work.

“This is one of those places where history, tradition and expectations are paramount,” Napier said afterward. “A lot of really good football teams have played in this stadium in the past and if you play ugly ball and it maybe doesn’t look quite the way we all want it to, then that’s just the way it is. To be honest, I probably would have done the same thing.”

This is against the backdrop of a schedule that is becoming increasingly difficult, with five remaining opponents currently ranked in the AP’s top 16 and four of those in the top 7. Bowl eligibility appears to be an uphill battle. And Florida is striving for much more than just bowl eligibility.

Would the school make a change so quickly? That remains to be seen, but the school has a history of in-season firings. The last three full-time head coaches (Will Muschamp, Jim McElwain and Dan Mullen) were all fired with regular season games still to play. The question is whether athletic director Scott Stricklin will be given the authority to decide whether Napier stays or leaves, as his job could also be on the line.

Texas Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers, who had been outstanding through the first nine quarters of the season, suffered an abdominal strain early in the second quarter of a routine cold-weather win over the UTSA Roadrunners, coach Steve Sarkisian said. While that’s bad news for Ewers, it’s not the concern most programs would have if their star QB was out.

The backup is Arch Manning. And let’s just say that there were some people who were happy to see him play important snaps for the Longhorns.

The newest member of the celebrated Manning quarterback family was the nation’s top recruit last year, waiting patiently behind Ewers – but when he stepped up to the plate on Saturday night, Manning seemed ready for his big moment.

With Texas up 14-0, Manning’s first pass was 19 yards for a touchdown. Three offensive snaps later, he sprinted 67 yards for a touchdown. In the third quarter, Manning threw touchdown passes of 51 and 75 yards. He rushed for 276 yards and five touchdowns on his first nine completed passes and three runs.

It’s worth noting that the 51-yard pass was a bubble screen for Isaiah Bond, which he broke through for six points. And the 75-yard pass to Ryan Wingo was wide open after a coverage bust. But the numbers are outrageous.

With only the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks and a miserable Mississippi State Bulldogs team standing between now and the Red River game against the Oklahoma Sooners on Oct. 12, Sarkisian shouldn’t be in a rush to get Ewers back in the lineup. But Ewers himself might be in a rush — because as good as he is, you don’t want to be outdone by someone who’s showing signs of becoming a superstar.

Tyler Van Dyke of the Wisconsin Badgers suffered a leg injury early in the game against the Alabama Crimson Tide and was taken to the locker room on a cart, ending the Badgers’ slim chances of a home win. And the North Carolina State Wolfpack lost Grayson McCall in the first half of an eventual win over the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs.

“I don’t think it looks really good for us, for him,” Badgers coach Luke Fickell said of Van Dyke’s injury, adding that an MRI would need to be done before they could get a full picture of the situation. NC State coach Dave Doeren did not provide an update on McCall.

Neither transfer QB had played particularly well to this point in the season, but they are clearly their teams’ best options. Both begin conference play next — NC State at the Clemson Tigers next Saturday and Wisconsin at the USC Trojans on Sept. 28.

A week after the Northern Illinois Huskies shocked the nation by beating the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, the Toledo Rockets completely dominated an SEC team. The Rockets, historically the most solid team in the MAC, outscored Mississippi State 28-3 at halftime, extended the lead to 35-3 early in the third quarter and easily took the home victory in Starkville, Mississippi.

The MAC has a proud history of beating giants, but rarely have there been back-to-back Saturdays like this one. This one-two punch goes a long way to disproving the common notion that mid-major teams can no longer compete because the power programs are poaching all their good players through the transfer portal and with piles of NIL cash.

Toledo lost veteran quarterback Dequan Finn to the Baylor Bears in the offseason, but the Rockets are now better offensively with three-year backup Tucker Gleason in the starting lineup. Gleason came into the game against Mississippi State with six touchdowns and zero interceptions, then threw three more TDs and no interceptions against the Bulldogs.

Dream away, but the game between Toledo and Northern Illinois on October 19 could turn out to be an unlikely big game in terms of the College Football Playoffs.

The Pittsburgh Panthers rookie transferred from Alabama after not playing at all in 2023 and became an instant hero for the Panthers. Holstein led a comeback from a 21-point deficit last week at the Cincinnati Bearcats, with Pitt scoring on its final four possessions to win 28-27. Then this week, with the Panthers trailing 34-24 with less than five minutes left in the Backyard Brawl rivalry game against the West Virginia Mountaineers, Holstein led touchdown drives of 75 and 77 yards to score another.

Holstein threw for 301 yards and three touchdowns and ran for another 59 yards against the Mountaineers. This season, he has thrown for 939 yards and nine touchdowns and rushed for 96 yards. Pitt is 3-0 for the first time since 2020 and should enter October playing ACC at 4-0 after facing the Youngstown State Penguins next week.

The Cougars landed on the power conference’s leftover slate along with the Oregon State Beavers when the Pac-12 folded last year, but an improbable comeback is underway in Pullman.

The biggest news came off the field, as Wazzu and Oregon State agreed with Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould to poach four schools from the Mountain West Conference — Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State — to join a revamped Pac-12 in 2026. They will look to add at least two more schools soon.

That at least secures a viable future. But the present looks pretty good too. Washington State beat archrival Washington 24-19 on Saturday to improve its record to 3-0. That was especially nice after the Huskies’ role in the Pac-12’s demise and added to the Cougars’ joy this week.

After losing star quarterback Cam Ward to the transfer portal, coach Jake Dickert turned to backup John Mateer and has had excellent results. Mateer totaled 307 yards and three touchdowns against the Huskies and has scored a total of 11 TDs this season.

(Oregon State didn’t fare quite as well in its rival game on Saturday, falling to the Oregon Ducks 49-14. While the Beavers can still look forward to being part of a rebuilding conference, they also know that the hated Ducks finally looked like the national contender they were supposed to be this season.)

Last week, Texas went to the Big House and beat the defending national champion Michigan Wolverines 31-12. This week, Alabama beat Wisconsin 42-10. Neither win was a surprise to SEC attendees, but the margins were notable — and could leave a mark when the CFP selection committee begins matching teams for at-large selections in the new 12-team playoff later this season.

The Kentucky Wildcats rebounded from an ugly loss to the South Carolina Gamecocks to upset the No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs in Lexington, Kentucky. Trailing by just one point with 3:01 left and in possession, the Wildcats faced a fourth-and-8 attempt at the Georgia 47-yard line and needed just a first down to get within range of the big-legged kicker Alex Raynor.

And Stoops decided to kick the ball away.

That was the result of most hyper-conservative decisions. Georgia, which has a potential No. 1 draft pick at quarterback in Carson Beck, drove the ball into Kentucky territory and punted it back to the Wildcats with just nine seconds left. Kentucky’s best chance to win had already passed by that point, and the Bulldogs escaped with a 13-12 victory.

Stoops also tried to make field goals earlier in the game when a single touchdown could have clinched the win. Kentucky played very well but must feel like it didn’t play its best because it refused to take a few more chances.