Upsets Dot the College Football Landscape in Week 4
The first month of the college football season has been tumultuous to say the least. We’ve seen the #1 team in the country go down once already and multiple teams ranked in the top six in the rankings lose in the same week. Week three saw five ranked teams, including a pair in the top 10, end up losing, churning the rankings up once again.
As it turned out, the first few weeks of the college football campaign was just a warmup for this past weekend. All told, eight ranked teams from the top 25 were knocked off Saturday. Six of them came from matchups of ranked opponents, including four of the top 16. That means there were only two teams that were beaten by unranked foes, however, a 32% loss rate means we’re going to see turnover in the rankings again.
Let’s take a look at what went down.
Head-to-Head Ranked Matchups
#1 Texas Holds Off #14 Tennessee
The Longhorns were less than inspiring offensively but managed to escape with a road victory. Texas finished with just 262 yards of offense and had 11 penalties for 115 yards in the game. In addition, they allowed a punt return for a score and averaged a paltry 1.7 yards per carry on 36 rushing attempts. Texas also turned the ball over twice without forcing a turnover in the contest. The Longhorns may be 4-0 but they have to be better with the gauntlet of foes they have coming up in conference play.
#21 Florida Sends a Message to #4 Ole Miss
Florida is back this season under first-year coach Jon Sumrall. The Gators put the boots to #4 Ole Miss in the Swamp. Florida led 10-0 after the opening quarter and 17-6 at the half. Ole Miss cut the margin to three points twice in the third quarter but the Gators outscored the Rebels 28-7 over the final 20 minutes of the contest to earn the victory. Ole Miss didn’t have star running back Kewan Lacy but with the way the Gators played, it likely wouldn’t have made a difference.
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We saw #10 LSU bounce back from the loss to Ole Miss as they clobbered #23 Texas A&M 35-6 at home. Elsewhere, #17 Iowa picked up a 20-19 win over #18 Michigan in the Big House. Reece Vander Zee caught a 16-yard touchdown pass on the game’s final play to give the Hawkeyes the win. It was a karmic comeuppance for Michigan after upending Western Michigan on a controversial final play in the opener.
Out west, #20 Oregon shook off Dante Moore getting knocked out of the game and dumped #12 USC 41-27 on the road. Dylan Raiola threw for 289 yards and two scores for the Ducks. He’s an experienced backup that can provide a spark for Oregon if Moore is out. Mississippi State, ranked #24 in the nation, upended #19 Missouri 31-24. Kamario Taylor threw for 360 yards and three scores, including the game-winning score with under four minutes to go.
The two teams to fall to unranked opponents were #13 Penn State and #16 Louisville. Both those teams fell at home. Penn State was upended 24-20 by Wisconsin while Louisville fell 30-27 against Wake Forest Saturday. The Nittany Lions were up 17-0 in the first half and 20-10 with four minutes remaining. However, Penn State gave two touchdowns in the final four minutes to lose. Louisville was even at 27 before getting stopped on downs.
After Wake Forest kicked a field goal to take the league, Louisville had two final drives. Carson Hilbert missed a 42-yard field goal attempt with 2:29 remaining. On the final drive, Nick Keller’s 57-yard field goal attempt with 15 seconds remaining was blocked.
We’ll see what week 5 brings us on the college gridiron but there was plenty of action this weekend.
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Upsets Dot the College Football Landscape in Week 4
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