Week 3 is in the books, and our experts are analyzing some of the emerging stars of the season while looking forward to this week's biggest games.
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Which team has the most explosive offense in the country?
Dinich: This is a toss-up between Miami, Ole Miss and Tennessee. They are all statistically comparable, but I'm going with the Vols, who have 43 total explosive plays so far (rushes of at least 10 yards, and passes of at least 20 yards). What's remarkable about Tennessee is that rookie quarterback Iamaleava is just getting started. "Every rep that he gets on game day is only going to continue to make him better," Heupel told me. "He's been really good about taking care of the football in general. He had a couple interceptions [against NC State], but that's all 11 truly operating as one. He's had really good command, he's got great demeanor and as much if anything every rep he gets is only continuing him to grow."
Rittenberg: Miami is my pick, and not just because of its explosiveness but its efficiency, which coordinator Shannon Dawson values. The Canes have punted three times in as many games and have just two three-and-outs. "If you want to look at the best stat to tell whether an offense is worth a s--- or not, then you ought to look at yards per play," Dawson told me. "Yards per play will tell you everything." Miami ranks third nationally at 8.66 yards per play, thanks to electric quarterback Ward, a deep group of backs and wide receivers and an "elite" offensive line. "We're not having a lot of negative plays," Dawson said. "We're going forward, we're converting third downs, and we're scoring on drives. That's efficient football." Ward is clearly the catalyst, but Miami also has four players with more than 100 rushing yards and six with 92 or more receiving yards. "We have a very deep running back room, we roll a lot of guys in there, so I don't know if one guy is going to get abnormal numbers," Dawson said. "It's much like the receiver room, we're rolling four or five receivers in, along with three tight ends. So the ball is getting spread around to a lot of people."
