What It All Means: Week 4
This was the week college football world went wacky.
It’s become a cliché, but when you least expect it, expect it.
Every season there’s one week that doesn’t seem like it should be much, but all of sudden it turns into something amazing.
Whether it was a case of teams looking ahead to the coming conference seasons, of if there was simply a lack of focus overall, or maybe it’s because there’s more parity, this week was insane – just ask anyone you know who enjoyed investing.
We should’ve known something was coming after Friday night.
Syracuse pulled off a shocker over Liberty to make up for last year’s loss – how some enterprising Orange student didn’t create an Own The Libs t-shirt for the attempted white out is a miss.
Wake Forest destroyed a normally sound Virginia, and a UNLV program that’s done absolutely nothing for years almost got the Fresno State team that shocked UCLA the week before.
And then came Saturday. If you wanted weird, it was for you.
Minnesota had never lost a non-conference game under PJ Fleck – including bowls, and including a dominant performance over Colorado a week after the Buffs almost beat Texas A&M. Bowling Green hadn’t beaten an FBS team since early November of 2019, and that was against a horrendous Akron squad.
The Falcons 14, Gophers 10. It was the first non-conference win over an FBS team for Bowling Green since a trip to Purdue in 2015.
That helped start the day, and for about three quarters late Saturday night, Arizona – who lost to Northern Arizona from the FCS last week – pushed Oregon way too hard before hitting a wall in a 41-19 Duck win.
Week 4 Roundup
CFN 1-130 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Week 4 scoreboard, all the predictions
Week 5 opening lines | AP | Coaches
Wisconsin went from about to take over to an all-time meltdown in a 41-13 loss to Notre Dame.
Arkansas proved it’s for real by beating Texas A&M, Clemson lost to NC State in an overtime thriller, Baylor overcame the 2020 disaster with a win over Iowa State to stay unbeaten, and it didn’t stop there.
Georgia Tech pushed Clemson two weeks ago – but that was supposedly fluky. On Saturday, the Yellow Jackets rolled by North Carolina.
Georgia State had Auburn dead-to-rights, but lost in brutal fashion in the final moments. Colorado State hung around with Iowa, Old Dominion almost got a good Buffalo team, and UConn – possibly the worst team in college football – almost beat Wyoming in a 24-22 fight.
ULM went winless last year – it beat Troy.
Oregon State beat USC. UTEP went to 3-1 with a win over New Mexico. UTSA is 4-0, and Florida State is 0-4. Defending MAC champion Ball State is 1-3, defending Mountain West champ San Jose State is 2-2.
Texas A&M is in trouble, Clemson is done, Wisconsin is gone, USC is a disaster, and in all, nine teams in the preseason top 25 Coaches Poll are no longer ranked.
That’s how you end a September after all but missing the month in 2020.
You’re up, October. Good luck following that.
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