A pair of Southeastern Conference match-ups and two more Top 25 contests highlight the third week of the college football season on Saturday, Sept. 19.
No. 2 Alabama (2-0) entertains No. 15 Mississippi (2-0), while No. 13 LSU (1-0) welcomes No. 18 Auburn (2-0).
“Ole Miss certainly has an outstanding team,” Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban said during his weekly press conference. “They have a lot of experience returning.”
“Obviously when you score over 75 points a game, you have a pretty dynamic offense in a lot of ways,” Saban added. “They have a lot of good players, they have a great scheme, and they do a really good job at executing.”
In the first two weeks, Mississippi beat Tennessee-Martin 76-3 and Fresno State 73-21. The Crimson Tide have beaten Wisconsin 35-17 and Middle Tennessee 37-10.
LSU won its SEC opener last week 21-19 at Mississippi State.
“We look forward to playing Auburn,” LSU Head Coach Les Miles said. “Auburn is a very, very quality team, deep-rooted SEC history with LSU. We’re a young team with some veterans and if they make a decision that they want to be something very, very special, they’re going to have to commit to it and it’s going to take a lot of hard work, but this is a team that has that kind of talent.”
The Tigers beat Louisville 31-24 in their opener and followed that with an overtime 27-20 win over Jacksonville State last week.
In the other two contests between ranked squads, No. 8 Notre Dame (2-0) gets a visit from No. 14 Georgia Tech (2-0) and No. 10 UCLA (2-0) plays No. 19 BYU (2-0) at home.
“We get right back to work here against an outstanding Georgia Tech football team,” Notre Dame Head Coach Brian Kelly said. “we know what’s in store for us. We’re excited about the challenge coming off an exciting win (over Virginia).”
BYU is preparing for its fight against the Bruins.
“There’s a lot of optimism and hope looking forward to the UCLA game, which is another great challenge for us,” BYU Head Coach Bronco Mendenhall said.
“It’s fun to have these kind of opponents week in and week out,” Mendenhall continued. “The players are excited, the coaches are excited, and I think the fan base will be as well.”
Here are the rest of the Top 25 games: Northern Illinois (2-0) at No. 1 Ohio State (2-0); SMU (1-1) at No. 3 TCU (2-0); Air Force (2-0) at No. 4 Michigan State (2-0); Stanford (1-1) at No. 6 Southern Cal (2-0); South Carolina (1-1) at No. 7 Georgia (2-0); No. 9 Florida State (2-0) at Boston College (1-1); No. 11 Clemson (2-0) at Louisville (0-2); Georgia State (1-1) at No. 12 Oregon (1-1); Tulsa (2-0) at No. 16 Oklahoma (2-0); Nevada (1-1) at No. 17 Texas A&M (2-0); Northern Arizona (2-0) at No. 20 Arizona (2-0); No. 21 Utah (2-0) at Fresno State (1-1); Connecticut (2-0) at No. 22 Missouri (2-0); No. 23 Northwestern (2-0) at Duke (2-0); Troy (1-1) at No. 24 Wisconsin (1-1) and Texas-San Antonio (0-2) at No. 25 Oklahoma State (2-0).
Editor’s note: Quotes, photos and logos courtesy of CollegePressBox.com.