Another weekend of gridiron action is behind us, and the weekly stock report took account of (nearly) all of it.
Here to document the highs and lows of the college football landscape, let’s take a look at who increased their standing this week, and whose stock took a dive after the latest slate of games around the country.
Stock Up
TreVeyon Henderson (duh)
Starting anywhere else would be criminal.
Ohio State’s true freshman running back ran right into the record books Saturday as he confirmed all the hype heaped his way as a five-star recruit, breaking Archie Griffin’s single-game freshman rushing record to finish the Tulsa game with 277 yards and three touchdowns.
Only Eddie George and Trey Sermon have rushed for more yards in a scarlet and gray uniform, and that was just the first start of Henderson’s career. The Virginia native has only appeared in three college football games and still has years of eligibility remaining with which to pursue plenty more Buckeye records moving forward.
@TreVeyonH4 can FLY
He breaks off for another @OhioStateFB TD pic.twitter.com/QkAvtEa8FJ
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 18, 2021
To the surprise of no one, Henderson swept the Big Ten’s weekly awards Monday, earning co-offensive player of the week honors to go along with his freshman of the week award. Something tells me there will be more of those to come for No. 32.
Freshman defenders
Henderson wasn’t the only Ohio State freshman to have a game-changing impact on the Buckeyes’ up-and-down outing against the Golden Hurricane. While the defensive effort didn’t quite signal a 180-degree turnaround with Matt Barnes supplanting Kerry Coombs as the Buckeyes’ play caller, Ohio State did see some of its young talent step up and make some huge plays early in their respective careers.
Redshirt freshman defensive back Cameron Martinez was named the team’s defensive player of the game, seeing his first snaps of the season at cover safety and returning an interception 61 yards for a touchdown to pad the final score for Ohio State in the final two minutes.
Will a Pick – ever stop giving us chills?
The answer is no.
Cameron Martinez (@C_Mart1k) with the 4th quarter PICK – 6 for @OhioStateFB . pic.twitter.com/psO9bmK040
— Ohio State on BTN (@OhioStateOnBTN) September 18, 2021
Tyleik Williams made an even more important play a few minutes earlier, as the true freshman defensive tackle – who had played just three snaps in the first two games for Ohio State – sacked Tulsa quarterback Davis Brin for a loss of 17 yards on a fourth-quarter third down when the Golden Hurricane still had a chance to tie the game with a touchdown.
Denzel Burke continued his stellar first season, once again leading all Buckeye corners in snaps played and breaking up two passes to give him the third-most in the country (six) through the opening few weeks.
The Ohio State defense continues to take criticism three games into the season, but some young Buckeyes are showing that the future may be bright down the line.
Penn State
James Franklin and company have made sure to prove one thing beyond a shadow of a doubt three games into the 2021 season: this is not the Penn State team that started last year 0-5.
The Nittany Lions now have wins over then-No. 12 Wisconsin and then-No. 22 Auburn on their resume, which is two more ranked victories than Ohio State can claim so far. Penn State’s defense has been stifling, allowing just 14.3 points per game to rank in the top 20 in the country, and opposing quarterbacks have thrown a combined zero touchdowns and four picks against the Nittany Lions.
Jahan Dotson continues to be an electric playmaker at wideout, and Sean Clifford seems to be playing some of the best football of his career under center, as the third-year starter is completing better than 71 percent of his passes so far.
Penn State’s schedule becomes daunting after a final non-conference matchup with Villanova this weekend, but the Nittany Lions have answered the call in two big games already this year.
Michigan State’s QB-RB tandem
In seven games during a 2-5 2020 campaign, the Michigan State offense never scored more than 29 points. The Spartans scored just 19 combined points in matchups with Iowa, Indiana and Ohio State.
Through three games this year, Michigan State hasn’t scored less than 38, and its one-two punch in the air and on the ground has made the Spartan attack a surprisingly prolific one through the first quarter of the 2021 regular season.
Mel Tucker and company already hung a 17-point win on defending Big Ten West champ Northwestern in Week 1, and after cruising to victory over Youngstown State on Sept. 11, Michigan State blew out then-No. 24 Miami (Florida) 38-17 to earn a spot in the AP Top 25 Poll for the first time since September 2019.
Quarterback Payton Thorne threw four passing scores against the Hurricanes, his second straight game with that amount, and now has 10 total touchdowns without any interceptions to begin the year.
At running back, Wake Forest transfer Kenneth Walker III had his second monster performance of the season on Saturday, following up his 264-yard, four-touchdown Week 1 showing with 189 yards from scrimmage and a trip to the end zone against Miami.
GET US HYPE @Kenneth_Walker9 pic.twitter.com/kdTOJiv6Kf
— Michigan State Football (@MSU_Football) September 18, 2021
The Spartans have climbed to No. 20 in the AP poll and continue to look like a legitimate player in the Big Ten East.
Corral’s Heisman hopes
While preseason Heisman favorite Spencer Rattler has more or less underwhelmed so far this year (more on that later), Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corral appears to have emerged as the early frontrunner for the award.
The first player in SEC history with 3 pass TD and 4 rush TD in a single game: Matt Corral @OleMissFB pic.twitter.com/f3W9v5CEJJ
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) September 19, 2021
Granted, the Rebels opened the season with unranked Louisville, Austin Peay and Tulane, but Corral has piled on the requisite stats nonetheless, having accrued 14 total touchdowns and nearly 1,200 yards of total offense.
Ole Miss put up 61 points on Tulane on Saturday and Corral had seven touchdowns himself with three through the air and four on the run.
Corral will have a spotlight showcase against his biggest threat in the Heisman race if Lane Kiffin and company can knock off Bryce Young and top-ranked Alabama next weekend, but you don’t need me to tell you that’ll likely be an uphill battle for the Rebels.
Stock Down
Miyan Williams
Unfortunately for the player that started the first two games of the season at running back for Ohio State, it was nothing that he did during Saturday’s game that lowered his stock. Rather, it was simply the fact that he didn’t play at all while Henderson put on an all-time great rushing performance in his place.
Ryan Day said after the game the redshirt freshman was not held out due to injury, but did miss a day of practice in the lead-up to the game because he wasn’t feeling well. Just two weeks after racking up 125 yards on just nine touches in his first career start, Williams figures to have dropped on the depth chart for the foreseeable future with Henderson emerging as a breakout star against Tulsa.
Chris Olave’s monster start to the year
With the extensive track record and highlight reel Chris Olave has at his disposal, a rare off day can’t do much to hurt his stock at this point. However, his first game without a catch in the past two years does put a halt on the breakneck pace he began the season with.
Olave had 117 yards and two scores on just four catches in the season opener, and caught a career-high 12 passes for 126 yards in a losing effort against Oregon. The typically sure-handed wideout dropped a pass that could have set up an Ohio State score in the third quarter against Tulsa, and had a 47-yard reception wiped out by an offensive penalty in the fourth.
It was a down day for the Buckeye pass game in general, as C.J. Stroud threw for just 185 yards, but with Akron up next on the schedule, there should be ample opportunity to get back in rhythm.
Indiana
It’s hard to begrudge any team for losing to two squads who are currently ranked among the top eight teams in the country, but expectations were high for the Hoosiers entering 2021, and they’ve failed to meet the lofty ones.
Indiana had a shot at redemption this past weekend after getting thoroughly outplayed by Iowa to open the season, but even though Tom Allen’s group was neck and neck with Cincinnati in the fourth quarter, the Bearcats pulled away to win by two touchdowns in the end.
The Hoosiers already have two losses on their record through three weeks, and their upcoming six-game stretch is a brutal one featuring No. 6 Penn State, No. 20 Michigan State, No. 10 Ohio State and No. 19 Michigan.
Meanwhile, Michael Penix Jr. has already thrown more interceptions (six) than he did in either of the past two seasons.
And that should do it for Cincinnati. Another interception for Indiana QB Michael Penix on another terrible decision.
IU has one timeout remaining and Cincinnati has a first-and-goal with 3:31 to go.
— Yahoo Sports College Football (@YahooSportsCFB) September 18, 2021
UCLA
Chip Kelly’s Bruins reached their highest peak in the AP Poll in six years (No. 13) off the strength of an upset win over LSU on Sept. 4, but UCLA came crashing back down to earth with a 40-37 loss to unranked Fresno State this past weekend.
The Bruins actually had a lead with seven minutes to play, but managed to allow 14 points in the final three minutes as Fresno State quarterback Jake Haener finished with 455 yards passing.
Aura of invincibility around top teams
This won’t be much consolation to concerned Buckeye fans, but Ohio State was not the only top-10 team to struggle against a team it was favored to beat – or blow out – on Saturday.
Alabama staved off No. 11 Florida by just two points, Rattler and then-No. 3 Oklahoma managed just a seven-point margin of victory over unranked Nebraska, and Clemson, which started the week at No. 6 in the country, escaped a home matchup with Georgia Tech by an ugly score of 14-8 while D.J. Uiagalelei failed to throw for 200 yards for the third straight game.
All of those teams did end up winning, but the Buckeyes, Sooners and Tigers all dropped at least one spot in the AP Poll because of their underwhelming performances.
