Week 4 in college football had no shortage of swings, but a few teams and a few people stood out above the rest.
Mississippi State was one of the biggest winners of the weekend, and not just because the cowbells were booming. The Bulldogs set a world record for the most cowbells rung in unison Saturday night against Missouri, then followed it up by beating the Tigers to move to 4-0. That sets up a huge Week 5 home date with Alabama, and Mississippi State will try to end a 16-game losing streak against the Tide in front of those cowbells in Starkville.
The early-season numbers are starting to look real. Kamario Taylor is putting together one of the best quarterback starts in the country, and even what might have been his least impressive game of the year still produced 360 passing yards and 3 touchdowns.
Through 4 weeks, Taylor has 14 touchdown passes, tied with USC’s Jayden Maiava for the national lead. Anthony Evans III is also climbing into the conversation as one of the SEC’s top receivers, while Fluff Bothwell is inside the top 15 nationally in rushing yards behind an offensive line that looks much better than last year’s version.
Mississippi State opened 4-0 a year ago and finished 5-8, but this team doesn’t feel like a repeat waiting to happen.
At the other end of the ledger, Tennessee and Josh Heupel landed in the loser column after a 20-17 loss to No. 1 Texas.
The Vols’ offense looked stuck in the mud for long stretches, and true freshman quarterback Faizon Brandon never looked as comfortable as he had in his first 3 starts. Tennessee’s offensive line had a rough day, too, as Texas kept getting pressure with just 4 rushers.
That forced Brandon into tighter windows when he did throw and led to far too many snaps where he simply didn’t let it go. Texas finished with 10 sacks, a number more than 5 SEC teams have managed all season.
The strange part is that Tennessee’s defense did its job. In what may have been its best showing of the Heupel era, the Vols’ defensive front and linebackers made life difficult for Arch Manning and the Longhorns.
Xavier Gilliam, Tyree Weathersby and a strong group of linebackers led by Arion Carter helped hold Texas to 262 total yards, its lowest output of the season, while the Longhorns punted 7 times. Jim Knowles’ defense gave Tennessee a real chance to win.
That’s what made the offensive collapse sting even more.
It’s part of a pattern Tennessee fans know too well. Last year, Tim Banks’ defense was the problem.
Before that, offensive inconsistency showed up with Nico Iamaleava and Joe Milton. Now the Vols are back to fighting the same battle from the other side of the ball, and it’s wearing thin in Year 6.
Since the start of the 2023 season, Tennessee is 4-10 against ranked opponents and has dropped 7 straight in those games.
Boise State, meanwhile, kept building its case as the front-runner for the Group of 6 Playoff spot. After beating Memphis in Week 2, the Broncos rolled Western Michigan 32-7 on Saturday evening.
Their only loss came at Oregon in the opener, a 34-27 game that looked even better in hindsight when Oregon handled USC 41-27 in Week 4. Dylan Riley is not Ashton Jeanty, but he’s been excellent in his own right.
He ran 28 times for 138 yards and a touchdown against Western Michigan and now sits third nationally with 592 rushing yards through 4 weeks. Maddux Madsen has also been steady, with a top 15 QBR, per ESPN.
Fresno State in Week 6 looks like one of the toughest games left.
Louisville took a hit that could change the entire shape of its season. A loss to Ole Miss to open the year could be lived with.
A home loss to Wake Forest is another story. The Cardinals got very little from their offensive line and run game, finishing with just 75 rushing yards at 2 yards per carry.
That was enough to knock Louisville out of the CFP contender conversation for now, even if there’s still a path through the ACC Championship Game. But the margin for error is tiny, and performances like Saturday’s won’t keep that path open for long.
Florida fans had a very different kind of Saturday. The Gators may have the best offense in college football right now, and that’s not a small claim this early in the season.
Jon Sumrall and Buster Faulkner have Florida rolling, and Faulkner figures to draw plenty of attention from teams with head coaching openings before long. Ole Miss is a legitimate Playoff contender, but Florida handled the Rebels with authority and, as good as the Gators looked, it felt like they left points on the field.
Aaron Philo missed an open receiver on 4th-and-2 early, but the bigger picture was even louder: Aaron Philo is a top 5 quarterback in the SEC, Jadan Baugh is the best running back in the country, and Vernell Brown III and the rest of the receivers are a nightmare to defend. Florida has the pieces to keep pushing.
And then there was the ugliest moment of the weekend. Desman Stephens drew heavy criticism for his cheap shot on Dante Moore during USC’s game Saturday evening, and the reaction only got worse because of what came after.
Stephens taunted and celebrated after the hit, then remained on the sideline for the rest of the game even after being ejected. A weak apology from USC did nothing to settle it, and the outrage centered on the lack of remorse as much as the hit itself.
The suspension was one game, but the fallout clearly isn’t going away anytime soon.
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What stands out most is how quickly she has bought into the bigger picture around Kim Caldwells team. Theuerkauf talked about chemistry, the gains made over the summer, and the trust she has in Caldwell as Tennessee starts to put its pieces together. For a program that expects newcomers to fit into a demanding standard fast, that matters, and it suggests Theuerkauf may be more than just another veteran guard in the rotation. She already sounds like someone who understands the assignment, even if the real proof will come once the games begin. [Read more 🡒]