Gut Reactions to upset-filled College Football Week 4

College Football Week 4 didn’t disappoint with overtime games, upsets, and much more. Here are some gut reactions to all the chaos.

Saturday was a wild day of college football and it’s not even over. Georgia even looked human for some extended stretches against Kent State, and two other teams — Michigan and Clemson — barely survived potential upset bids.

It wasn’t surprising to see Clemson nearly beaten by Wake Forest, but few expected Maryland to give Michigan a run for its money. Take away a fumble by the Terps on the opening kickoff that turned into a quick six points and it might have been a different story.

That would have upended the College Football Playoff race a little, just as a loss by Clemson could have. There were still some pretty big upsets, including one that we predicted leading in our College Football Week 4 upset alert: Texas Tech over Texas.

A Bijan Robinson fumble cost the Longhorns, but not as much as the injury to Quinn Ewers did. If the former five-star hadn’t been sidelined, Texas might be 4-0. Just saying. Middle Tennessee State also beat Miami after getting paid over a million to head to South Beach.

We’ll have much more analysis to come on College Football Week 4 but here are some gut reactions to the most important results of the day

Maybe it was Nebraska all along as Adrian Martinez, K-State beat OU

Adrian Martinez took much of the blame for some of the failures at Nebraska over the past few years and he was called out by his head coach at Kansas State last week after a loss to Tulane.

How did he respond? With a five-touchdown performance in the biggest win of his career as the Wildcats upset sixth-ranked Oklahoma 41-34 in Norman. He threw for 234 yards and didn’t have an interception, while also rushing for 148 yards and four scores.

After Oklahoma dominated Nebraska last week, many viewed the Sooners as a viable playoff contender, but now, the Big 12 looks like it will struggle again to field a top-4 team.

The door is now wide open for USC which barely escaped its own upset as former OU QB Caleb Williams threw a late TD to Jordan Addson to help the Trojans escape with a 17-14 win over Oregon State.

Jimbo Fisher’s hot seat cools…for a week or two

When Arkansas was leading 14-0, it started to feel like a repeat of the 2021 loss by Texas A&M football to Arkansas at Jerry’s World. Another loss would have been disastrous for the Aggies, but now, A&M is 1-0 in the SEC with some huge games looming.

Mississippi State is on the docket next week, followed by a trip to Alabama. The Aggies also play Ole Miss and Florida in the next month so Jimbo might be getting a slight reprieve but after the past two weeks, the Aggies have proven to be a top-20 team.

We don’t know much beyond that. The defense is stellar and the quarterback play is inconsistent. Texas A&M football is also a missed field goal from the season feeling like it’s falling apart.

Such is life in college football.

Jimbo’s old team (Florida State) might be back

Mike Norvell’s job is looking more secure by the week and that’s because the Seminoles are starting to look like the Seminoles.

After a 3-0 start which included close wins over LSU and Louisville, Florida State dominated Boston College 44-14. Jordan Travis completed 16-of-26 passes for 321 yards as the Noles racked up more than 500 yards of total offense.

Phil Jurkovec managed just 105 yards on 21 pass attempts. Florida State also notched two interceptions. As far as whether FSU is back? We’ll find out in the next three weeks as Wake Forest, North Carolina State, and Clemson are next.

Is Michigan overrated?

We saw Michigan struggle against a 3-0 Maryland team. The Wolverines led by 15 with under two minutes to go, however, few thought the Terps could be an onside kick away from tying the game, especially with three turnovers.

J.J. McCarthy showed that the hype train needs to slow down a little bit. He fumbled twice and nearly threw a red-zone interception. He’s going to improve and so will the Wolverines but the absence of Aidan Hutchinson and David Ojabo was felt against Maryland.

This is still one of the best teams in the Big Ten but No. 4 seems a little high. In the end, winning is all that matters and as long as any team in the top 10 keeps doing that, the rest will take care of itself.

Texas is the same old Texas

The season isn’t over for Texas but it’s going to be soon if Quinn Ewers isn’t able to get back on the field. Texas Tech isn’t expected to be a contender for the Big 12 title, so the loss shouldn’t hurt Texas in terms of potential tiebreakers, but with Oklahoma, Baylor, Oklahoma State, and Kansas all looking pretty solid, as well as the Red Raiders, Texas needs its star quarterback to get healthy and quickly.

Nothing against Hudson Card and the defense has some responsibility to bear too, but so far, not much has changed for Texas and that’s in part because their elite QB hasn’t been able to get on the field.

Tennessee looks like a contender

Hendon Hooker should start getting some Heisman buzz after totaling 461 yards of total offense in a 38-33 win for Tennessee over Florida. That’s the second-ranked win for the Vols this season, as they also beat Pittsburgh at home.

Yet, the Gators are now 2-2 and while Florida looked really good in a win over Utah, they have been up and down since then. Josh Heupel has turned Tennessee around really quickly and soon enough, the Vols can show what they can do against Alabama.

Tennessee will host Alabama and Kentucky down the road. A trip to Georgia awaits but this team needs to be taken seriously in the SEC East.

Oregon is legit

If Oregon hadn’t opened the season against Georgia, it would be ranked in the top 10. But the Ducks have recovered really well and despite trailing by double-digits in the fourth quarter against Washington State, Bo Nix and company rallied for a 44-41 win.

Nix threw a pick-six to put the Ducks down by 10. He also threw for 428 yards and three touchdowns as the Ducks rallied for a huge road win over Washington State. 15th-ranked Oregon may have lost 49-3 to Georgia in the season-opener, but since then, wins over BYU and now Wazzu has reinvigorated this team’s reputation.

Contending for a College Football Playoff berth might be an issue, but Oregon looks every bit as good as we all expected before the season.

Miami isn’t back

Tyler Van Dyke was getting hyped as a potential NFL draft prospect but two interceptions on Saturday might stop that train. He was just 16-of-32 passing (before being benched). On the opposite end of the spectrum, MTSU’s Chase Cunningham threw for 408 yards and three touchdowns.

That’s a bad look for Mario Cristobal and so far, fancy new hires like Mario, Billy Napier, and even Steve Sarkisian dating back to last season, haven’t yielded great results.

It’s year one but losing to Middle Tennessee State is a quick way to erase any sort of grace period.

Notre Dame was never as bad as it looked

Marcus Freeman didn’t forget how to coach defense and on Saturday, Notre Dame continued to find its winning formula for the 2022 season.

The Irish ran the ball 51 times for 287 yards.  Audric Estime had 17 carries for 129 yards, while Drew Pyne completed 24-of-34 passes for 289 yards and three touchdowns. North Carolina might be not anything to write home about, but winning on the road is big for the Irish and it looks as though their projected demise was a little premature.