Indiana survives a scare, Texas remains #1 despite looking blah, Oklahoma and A&M hit the eject button, Florida has announced itself, a furious Badgers comeback, USC loses another big game, Michigan loses at the final whistle, and Louisville is foiled at home within the ACC. All this and more coming out of week 4 in college football.
18 Stripes Top 20 Ranking
| RANK | TEAM | RECORD | NEXT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas | 4-0 | BYE |
| 2 | Notre Dame (+1) | 4-0 | at North Carolina |
| 3 | Miami (+1) | 4-0 | at Clemson |
| 4 | Ohio State (+1) | 3-1 | at Iowa |
| 5 | Georgia (+1) | 4-0 | vs. Vanderbilt |
| 6 | Florida (+10) | 4-0 | at Missouri |
| 7 | Ole Miss (-5) | 3-1 | BYE |
| 8 | Indiana (-1) | 4-0 | at Rutgers |
| 9 | LSU (-1) | 3-1 | vs. McNeese |
| 10 | Texas Tech (-1) | 4-0 | at Colorado |
| 11 | Alabama (-1) | 4-0 | at Miss State |
| 12 | BYU (-1) | 4-0 | at TCU |
| 13 | Oregon (+2) | 3-1 | BYE |
| 14 | Iowa (+4) | 4-0 | vs. Ohio State |
| 15 | Utah (+4) | 4-0 | BYE |
| 16 | Miss State (NR) | 4-0 | vs. Alabama |
| 17 | Nebraska (NR) | 4-0 | vs. Maryland |
| 18 | Pittsburgh (+2) | 4-0 | at Virginia Tech |
| 19 | Houston (NR) | 3-1 | vs. UCF |
| 20 | USC (-6) | 3-1 | vs. Washington |
Dropped Out:
#12 Louisville
#13 Penn State
#16 Tennessee
I originally had USC dropping out of the rankings but had a hard time finding another worthy team for the top 20 right now. Maybe SMU? Heck, we might see a team like Duke, Virginia Tech, or Arizona moving up in all of the rankings this week because a ton of teams lost recently. By my count, exactly one third (14/42) of the teams in the AP Poll plus receiving votes category suffered losses this past weekend.
National Stories:
#1 Life Support
The worst thing about a 24-team playoff in the future is that Oklahoma and Texas A&M would still be fully in the mix for a post-season opportunity. Today, both programs are on life support following big losses. Several brutal turnovers doomed the Sooners as they were dispatched 41-13 at Georgia while the Aggies were entirely non-competitive (197 total yards) in a 35-6 loss at LSU. Both programs now sit 2-2 on the season.
#2 Karma
Iowa opted for a field goal attempt late in the game instead of attempting a 4th and short in Michigan territory, while trailing by 5 points. I didn’t love the decision and the field goal was then missed. However, a forced punt gave Iowa the ball at their 9-yard line with 1:37 remaining. I surely thought no way the Hawkeyes drive for a touchdown. Wrong! Iowa did just that to put Michigan in their place. It was my favorite moment from the weekend.
#3 A Bit of Yuck
The Texas visit to Tennessee was much anticipated but turned into a bit of a stinker. The teams didn’t combine for 500 yards of offense and the Vols just weren’t able to muster enough to take advantage of a +2 turnover differential. That’s the first loss for Tennessee this season as they drop this one 20-17 and Texas hangs on atop the rankings.
#4 Bad Timing
I was perusing YouTube in the middle of Saturday when ESPN uploaded a video praising the Louisville quarterback situation and their development Lincoln Kleinholz. About an hour later, Louisville lost at home to Wake Forest 30-27. ESPN were even broadcasting the game. Scheduled uploads strikes again.
#5 USC Gonna USC
A brutal targeting during a slide knocked quarterback Dante Moore out of the game, ugly stuff. It certainly wasn’t USC’s finest moment. Neither was the rest of the game as Dylan Raiola threw for nearly 300 yards in relief leading Oregon to take out the Trojans 41-27 in Los Angeles. You hate to see it.
#6 Hoosiers Hang On
Northwestern couldn’t run the ball (32 yards on 27 attempts) but a wild 4th quarter saw a combined 30 points in Bloomington. In the end, Indiana hung to win 29-23. This would’ve been quite the upset.
#7 Florida For Real?
The Gators running game looks for real as they rumbled for 302 yards and controlled Ole Miss all day long to win 52-28. As a result, I’ve shot Florida way up our rankings. Their schedule suddenly looks manageable now, too. I think a 10-2 playoff team is in the cards for the Gators.
Opponent Recap:
Wisconsin (3-1): Trailing 20-10 at Penn State with 7 minutes remaining, the Badgers scored 2 touchdowns and won 24-20.
Rice (1-3): A road trip to Fresno State resulted in another loss, 38-24.
Michigan State (2-2): A second straight loss for Sparty, they lost at home 31-13 to Nebraska.
Purdue (1-3): Three straight losses for Purdue after their defeat by Notre Dame.
North Carolina (2-1): The Heels had a bye ahead of the visit from the Irish this weekend.
Stanford (2-2): A decent win for the Trees, they beat visiting Georgia Tech 34-27.
BYU (3-0): A bye week for the Cougars.
Navy (1-2): A second straight loss for Navy, they lost 24-20 visiting UAB.
Miami (4-0): Darian Mensah’s hyper efficient season continued in a 52-3 win over Central Michigan.
Boston College (2-2): They played close with Virginia Tech but lost 21-14.
SMU (2-1): The Mustangs trailed early against Missouri State then came back to win 34-24.
Syracuse (1-2): Another team with a bye.
I have seen the targeting penalty a lot now. It is too bad it is in the extended highlights, but I guess it has to be. Clearly targeting. Clearly launched himself at a guy sliding. Some of those are not bad, but this is textbook. The worst part is he was celebrating it and fans were cheering. Class. It does seem like #6 is trying to get him to stop his little celebration and get him off the field though, so there is that.
Nothing has made me not want the 24 team playoff more than your point about Oklahoma and A&M still being in the playoff picture if we were using that system
🙁
Florida may be for real but their schedule is full of tough, capable foes. 10-2 would get them in but, that won’t be easy.
I always thought of Lincoln Riley as uninspiring and cowardly, but I never thought he had the “let his guys do whatever the hell he wants” gene like Miami or Barry Switzer. USC has always been like this but Lincoln came from the outside
Claimed he didn’t see his player’s grotesque celebration. I knew there had to be someone who hadn’t.
Every now and then my feed delivers a Josh Pate selection, so I just watched his reaction to all of this. I confess enjoying watching him vociferously proclaim at length how done he is with Lincoln Riley.
Between this fiasco and the scheduling controversy, he is becoming my least favorite coach.