Rob's Rankings: Early-season surprises; 'American Horror Story'

CLASS OF 2019 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | State | Position | Team

CLASS OF 2020 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | State | Position

We’re through a fourth of college football’s regular season. So while there’s still plenty of time for everyone to change their fate, certain early-season trends have been more unexpected than others. This week in Rob’s Rankings, we have a look at said trends and rank the five most surprising developments of the year’s first three weeks.

MORE: Ask Farrell - Which team's start has been most disappointing?

Arizona quarterback Khalil Tate was seen as a Heisman Trophy frontrunner -- a dynamic box-score stuffer that could change games with his arm or legs. Tate was ready to take over college football under the tutelage of new Arizona head coach Kevin Sumlin, who molded Johnny Manziel’s Tate-like skill set into a Heisman season in 2012. It was an exciting time in Tucson.

Then the season started.

Three weeks later, the Wildcats are 1-2 with their lone victory coming at the expense of an FCS squad and a 50-28 loss to Houston on their record. What’s more surprising than the results, however, is the fact that Tate’s numbers have been less than stunning. Last year’s favorite surprise superstar has rushed for just two touchdowns. Five of the six touchdown passes he’s thrown came against an FCS school: Southern Utah.

With that, Tate has essentially existed the Heisman race before it got started. Adding to the mess is the fact that he suffered an ankle injury in the Wildcats’ week two loss to Houston, making the monster year some were predicting seem even less likely.

Saying people were skeptical of Ed Orgeron and LSU is putting it lightly. This year’s team was replacing a metric ton of offensive talent and was still locked in what seems like a perpetual search for a quarterback. Adding to the slightly under-the-surface pessimism was an offseason that featured a number of off-field problems. All of this made the Tigers’ roster appear to be held together by duct tape. Three games into the schedule, however, the doubters have reservations at a crow buffet in Baton Rouge.

Orgeron has blasted through one of the toughest non-conference schedule in America and has the Tigers undefeated with wins over Miami and Auburn, making LSU look like an SEC West contender. Quarterback Joe Burrow hasn’t been a world-beater, but he’s made plays when the Tigers needed them most and seems to be plenty good enough to provide an impressive defense with what it needs to win tough SEC games.

The Tigers are a ray of sunshine in what seems to be an otherwise somber list of early-season surprises that includes a number of players and teams falling well short of expectations.

A 1-2 start, while less than ideal, isn’t exactly foundation-shaking. But somehow Florida State’s situation feels more dire than its record. A look at any FSU fan message board provides plenty of context on how Seminoles fans feel about the start of the Willie Taggart Era. Then again, a quick glance at the box score from Saturday’s 30-7 loss to Syracuse makes checking out said message board unnecessary.

Still, thread titles such as “The Death of FSU football,” and “Our next head coach” populated Warchant.com on Tuesday afternoon, so that’s where we are with the Seminoles three weeks into the season.

FSU’s last four recruiting classes carry an average ranking of fifth nationally, so while there are obviously some problems along the offensive line, it’s not as though Tallahassee is a talent desert. In fact, it’s almost like losing one of just four active coaches to win a national title can adversely impact a program. Imagine that.

The post-Sam Darnold Era at USC has some Trojan fans uneasy, and what to make of Clay Helton is becoming a common debate among the fan base. On one hand, Helton captured the Pac-12 title last season and led the team to the Rose Bowl in the previous year. On the other hand, the Trojans have looked like a pedestrian team so far this season, making some wonder if Darnold, not Helton, was the reason for the program’s recent success. Helton is by no means on the hot seat as things stand, but that doesn’t mean the Trojans’ rocky start hasn’t shocked the system.

Not only are the Cougars 3-0 with East Carolina transfer Gardner Minshew II manning the quarterback spot, but they have outscored their three opponents 131-43. So while the schedule hasn’t exactly been challenging, things are good in Pullman.

Mike Leach’s squad, which was picked to finish fifth in the Pac-12 North in the preseason media poll, seems miles better than such expectations. Oddsmakers set the team’s win-total over-under at six before the season, and the Cougars are already halfway to a push. The fast start has injected some added optimism in fans, as well as anyone holding a ticket for the over. The defense has been better than expected, and Minshew has been an absolute force.

Is it everyone’s cup of tea? Probably not. Is it objectively good television? Rarely. But we here Rob’s Rankings continue to watch "American Horror Story," sometimes against our better judgment. So with the series’ most-recent season off and running, we try our hand at ranking the previous seven.

1. MURDER HOUSE

Season one packs a truly unexpected twist and a stellar cast of performers. "AHS" will have trouble ever topping Murder House, which stands as the series’ high point.

2. CULT

A season based on the presidential election, Cult managed to survive its eye roll-inducing premise to produce some actually interesting and scary plot points. Cult was unsettling because some moments didn’t feel like much of a stretch for real life.

3. HOTEL

Bonus points for an impressive performance from Lady Gaga, who shined in a role perfectly suited for her. The plot was choppy at times, but it kept me interested and didn’t force me to all-out hate watch.

4. ROANOKE

It gets credit for the way it was presented, but it dragged. I’m not sure it was particularly scary or always interesting, but at least it wasn’t paint-by-numbers horror.

5. COVEN

Characters die. Characters come back as undead. Rinse, repeat. There are no stakes here.

6. FREAK SHOW

An objectively terrible and confusing season with a creepy rich kid as the main antagonist, a murderous clown and some token deformities. It felt like a room of writers went down some sort of horror checklist and just plugged things into the show.

7. ASYLUM

A mental hospital with nuns but also an appearance by … Anne Frank? I’ll cop to quitting halfway through this season because it made almost no sense at times. I realize that probably makes me putting it last a bit unfair, but this is my column and I make the rules.