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For the first time in the history of the AP poll, the top three teams will play true road games against ranked foes. The some College Football Playoff contenders could fade and others could emerge. Theres a lot going on for mid-September.Five things to know for week three of the college football season.BEST GAMENo. 3 Florida State at No. 10 Louisville.ESPN GameDay makes it first trip to Louisville for what is the biggest regular-season home game the Cardinals have played since moving into the Atlantic Coast Conference.Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson has put up crazy numbers in two games, accounting for 13 touchdowns for the No. 1 offense in the country. The Seminoles present a very different challenge. Deondre Francois and Dalvin Cook showed against Mississippi in the opener that they can put up points in bunches, too.And Florida State is no Syracuse on defense. The Seminoles, though, are not without concerns on that side of the ball against Jackson and company. Florida State safety Derwin James (knee) is out. He is one of the best and most versatile players in the country. Against all that Jackson and Louisville coach Bobby Petrino can throw at a defense, James would have been used as counter-punch all over the field.HEISMAN WATCHA breakout game on the road, leading a relatively inexperienced offense at No. 14 Oklahoma could thrust Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett toward the front of the Heisman Trophy race. The junior has accounted for nine touchdowns against not-so-great competition so far for the third-ranked Buckeyes.Barrett tends to get mentioned after some of top headliners of the 2016 season, such as Deshaun Watson and Christian McCaffrey, when the Heisman is being discussed. He is not as flashy as Watson and Jackson, but he finished fourth in the Heisman voting in 2014 when he was the Big Ten player of the year.NUMBERS TO KNOW2 -- Consecutive wins by No. 19 Mississippi against No. 1 Alabama. The Rebels have never won three straight in the series. In fact, they had never won two straight before the last two seasons and have only 10 wins total in 63 meetings with the Crimson Tide.10-4 -- Nebraska coach Mike Rileys record against Oregon while he was Oregon State coach, including losses in the last seven Civil War rivalry games. The 22nd-ranked Ducks come to Lincoln, Nebraska, Saturday.9-3 -- Michigan States record in its last 12 games against ranked opponents, including wins in five of the last six. The 12th-ranked Spartans visit No. 18 Notre Dame.OFF THE RADARArmy visits UTEP trying to improve to 3-0 for the first time since 1996. The Cadets are playing under unusually difficult circumstances. Earlier this week, cornerback Brandon Jackson was killed in a car accident.The Black Knights decided to play to honor their late teammate. Services for Jackson will be held Monday in New York.COACH IN NEED OF A WINSouthern Californias Clay Helton against No. 7 Stanford. Helton is in his first season as Trojans coach after being promoted from interim head coach at the end of last season. Since getting the gig to lead the storied but adrift program, Helton is 1-3. This season started with a humiliating loss to Alabama, players getting ejected from each game and two players being suspended during a sexual assault investigation.A blowout of Utah State last week at the Los Angeles Coliseum, which was about one-third empty, provided temporary relief. Now a trip to the Farm to face a Stanford team that has won six of eight against the Trojans while replacing USC as the standard-bearer program of the Pac-12.Helton is probably not in danger of being fired after one season, but beating Stanford could help him hit the reset button on a dicey start to his tenure.----Follow Ralph D. Russo at www.Twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP Cory Joseph Jersey . 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On the eve of their first match during their previous visit to India, New Zealand coach Mike Hesson asked the curator in Nagpur what the pitch was expected to do. Hesson says he was told it was a hard and bouncy pitch. New Zealand went ahead and left out Tim Southee and Trent Boult, played three spinners, attacked the new ball because they knew the old ball would be impossible to go after, scored just 126, but their spinners delivered them a 47-run win. New Zealands reading of the conditions, and then adapting to them, were big reasons behind their unbeaten run in the league stages of the World T20.That was Twenty20. This is Test cricket. New Zealand will draw confidence from that showing, but they wont be deluding themselves based on the World T20. This three-Test series has all the makings of this groups biggest test. New Zealand have only ever won two Tests in India, and may need to double that tally to win this series. But there is anticipation around them, mostly because of what they did in the World T20, in particular their two spinners whose performances suggested they could translate their promise into longer forms. Now, Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi are joined by Mark Craig.Never in recent memory has more been expected of a New Zealand tour of India. Never in recent memory have India looked this dominant at home. India have three spinners with much more pedigree and experience of these conditions. Ever since India decided to play on pitches where the ball starts turning early and turns big, beating them in a home Test series has become arguably the biggest challenge in world cricket.With cricket being a game of conditions, it couldnt be more loaded against New Zealand. The only preparation they have had in the move from their tracks to this intense, relentless trial by spin is two training sessions in Delhi, a three-day game on a flat track against unthreatening spinners, and two more training sessions in Kanpur. The heat is stifling. There is high humidity and no breeze in Kanpur right now.The curator at Green Park has said the turn wont be as alarming as it was in Nagpur, but the pitch looks really dry and has cracks. In unusual scenes two days before the Test, the groundstaff asked some net bowlers to bowl on the match pitch. It is technically allowed - the pitch is handed over to the match referee on the morning of the Test - but this is hardly ever done. The poor rating for the Nagpur pitch after the Test against South Africa last year plays on the minds of groundsmen now. There were no puffs of dust, which relieved them. However, there was turn. Dont be surprised either if the spinners business area is drier and rougher than the rest of the pitch, negating Neil Wagners bounce, and accentuating the turn.He hasnt told us it is hard and bouncy as the Nagpur groundsman did, Hesson joked when asked about any conversations he might have had with the groundstaff here.Hesson is not surprised by what he has seen. Unless some grass grows over the next two days, there will be plenty of assistance for the spinners, he said. I think the pitch will deteriorate, as it should. Spin will play a massive part, as will reverse swing. So there are no surprises here.Hesson knows knowing what to expect is different from reacting to it. If one jumps at them, Ravindra Jadeja will keep firing in that general areaa all day with slight variation of angle, and let the pitch do the rest.dddddddddddd R Ashwin will add dip to it. He will swerve it with the new ball. Amit Mishra will add the legspinners X-factor. There will be catchers around, there will be deep fielders to choke easy runs, and there will be no relenting from the heat and humidity. Not in Kanpur and Kolkata at least.The ability to respond with a clear mind and quick feet when the ball starts jumping and staying low comes with solid defence and lots of practice playing on such tracks. Knowing the international schedules today, Hesson said this is possibly the best preparation his side could have had. He has now put it down to the ability to adapt.The conditions here are slightly different than they were in Delhi, Hesson said. Its up to today and tomorrow to make sure we adapt the best we can. And we know even during the game the pitch is going to change, so we have to keep adjusting.Hesson summed up the dual challenge of playing India in these conditions by saying that you have to prepare for the worst, but, at the same time, guard against jumping at shadows, by building it up too much and failing to recognise easier conditions when they come their way.We have watched the Test matches against South Africa, absolutely, Hesson said. We saw the conditions in that series, and they were challenging. There is no doubt about that. If you prepare, over-train in terms of preparing for those conditions and then you get something slightly better, then thats great. You have got to prepare for the harshest conditions and see how it goes from there.I think you can jump at shadows at times [if you prepare for the worst]. I think you need to adapt to what you are confronted with. We have got an idea how we think how the surface might play, but it might be quite different. We are capable of adapting.Adapting quickly won them games in the World T20, but there wont be any quick wins here. We have won two Test matches in our history here, Hesson said. So we know it is a tough place to come and win, as it is for any touring side. And India are playing good cricket at the moment, but we have got a group of cricketers who will be highly competitive. Thats our challenge - to be highly competitive and stay in the game for long periods of time. Then, anything can happen.There is no set formula to beat India in India in this mood, but England showed it can be done if you have four attributes: a solid defensive batsman in Alastair Cook, who showed to the rest that it was possible to bat, a maverick in Kevin Pietersen, who could drive the nail in, two spinners in Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann, who were accurate and quick, and reverse swing in James Anderson. Lower-order runs can be a big factor as South Africa learned in their defeat despite having reduced India to 120-odd for 6 on more than one occasion.New Zealand have a defensive batsman in Williamson, they have a potential maverick if Ross Taylor can have a big series, they have spinners and the variety of spinners, although unproven at this level, and they have the possibility of reverse swing. They bat deep. If all, or most these factors click, they can take games deep. Then, anything can happen. ' ' '