Week 4 Recap

Good morning and welcome to 4th & Forever, Rand & Tate’s College Football Newsletter. For the second time in the short history of this newsletter, we’re kicking things off by giving a huge shoutout to Washington State, who pulled off the upset against #14 Oregon State on Saturday. The Cougars are 4-0, ranked #16 in the country, and led by quarterback Cam Ward who is one of the most fun players to watch in the sport, and this team plays with tremendous passion and effort every play. Shoutout to you, Wazzu. We’re pulling for you to beat everybody in the PAC-12 before they all leave you behind for new conferences next year. Go Cougs! The rest of Saturday’s slate was filled with big time games between some of the sport’s biggest teams, so without further ado, let’s get to it!

Game of the Day

What a freaking game. As much as I (Rand) have traveled for college football, that was by far the biggest game I have ever been to and my first ever in-person Top 10 matchup and boy did it deliver. Before I even mention the game itself, that atmosphere was incredible. There were so many people in South Bend I didn’t have cell phone reception for almost all of Saturday. I don’t know how it looked on TV but there wasn’t a single Irish fan not wearing green and the student section was electric, unlike Notre Dame’s passing attack.

Notre Dame (4-1) coached and played not to lose which let Ohio State (4-0) come back and win. Notre Dame fans were literally pushing towards the field with about 2 mins left in anticipation of rushing the field which was an ill-advised move to say the least. Irish QB Sam Hartman only threw for 175 yards on 17 completions but didn’t turn the ball over and wasn’t sacked. Notre Dame’s rushing attack was fairly effective at 176 yards, but Notre Dame refused to push the ball down the field with Hartman and his receivers. On the final two Ohio State plays at the end of the game, Notre Dame only had 10 men on the field and head coach Marcus Freeman who is still looking for his signature coaching victory at ND admitted he knew they were a man down but didn’t want to run someone on the field and take the substitution penalty. Freeman did not put his team the best possible position to win, and the loss might cost them a playoff spot at the end of the year even if they win out.

Ohio State on the other hand did not play its best game, WR Marvin Harrison Jr was fairly ineffective with an ankle injury, but their stockpile of 5-star wide receivers proved to be the difference. All credit in the world to QB Kyle McCord who led a 15 play, 65-yard drive to win the game for the Buckeyes at the last second. McCord converted a 4th & 7 and 3rd & 19 (after a brutal intentional grounding penalty) on the final drive before RB Chip Trayanum punched it in from the 1-yard line with one second to go. Ohio State once again put on a defensive masterclass and is only giving up 8.5 points per game behind DC Jim Knowles.

Florida State is the team to beat in the ACC

Florida State fans are booking hotel rooms in Charlotte for the ACC Championship game, the only question now is who they will be playing because it won’t be Clemson. Clemson dropped to 0-2 in ACC play for the first time since 2010 and the noise around Dabo and his refusal to use the transfer portal will be a topic of conversation the rest of the season. It was certainly irrational and misguided to write the obituaries on Clemson following the Duke loss, because Clemson looked pretty good in this game. Their defense gave hobbled QB Jordan Travis fits all day and held the Noles to 22 yards rushing. The problem was Florida State had TRANSFER wideout Keon Coleman and Clemson didn’t. Coming off a 0-catch game against Boston College, Coleman responded with 5 catches for 86 yards and 2 TDs, including the game winner in overtime. Florida State now has two of the most impressive victories in the country and both have come away from Doak S. Campbell Stadium. However, there is still certainly stuff to cleanup if they want to be taken seriously as a national championship contender and not just a playoff participant.

As mentioned, Clemson is in uncharted waters as their shot at making the ACC Championship is slim to none and it’s not even October. QB Cade Klubnik played pretty well against a tough FSU defense and his receivers actually got separation and made plays, but it was a low bar to clear. Remember the kicker who Dabo pulled off his couch and entrusted to kick in this game? Unfortunately for him, he went 1-2 on field goals and missed a go ahead 29-yard attempt with less than 2 minutes to go. It just wasn’t Clemson’s day and it’s just not Clemson’s season. It’s going to be long, sad march to the Cheez-It Bowl for Dabo and the Tigers.

Prime Time Blowouts

The two games we touched on above certainly delivered some thrilling and entertaining moments, but that was certainly not the case everywhere on Saturday. Colorado (3-1) turned back into a big ole pumpkin against Oregon (4-0), who was playing for wins and not for clicks. At one point, Oregon had 28 points while Colorado had 23 total yards. It legitimately looked like the Buffs did not even belong on the same field as Oregon, and it got unwatchable pretty quickly. Pretty tough break for ESPN there, who spent all week hyping this game (and Colorado) up, to put it in their primary 3:30pm slot, just for the Buffs to get absolutely demolished right out of the gate.

But CBS may have gotten an even tougher break when they slotted Penn State (4-0) vs Iowa (3-1) in their primetime slot on Saturday night. If you didn’t get eyes on this game, here is a quick breakdown: Iowa ran 33 total plays on offense. Thirty-three. 33 total plays. The entire game. They ran 33 plays. At one point in the game, Iowa had 2 first downs on offense while their punter had racked up 336 punting yards. Iowa finished with 4 total first downs on offense, by the way. Hawkeye quarterback Cade McNamara completed 5 passes for a total of 42 yards, while Iowa’s leading rusher was Kamari Moulton, who had 18 yards on 6 attempts. The fact that Iowa offensive coordinator and head coach’s son Brian Ferentz still has a job as you’re reading this on Monday is truly the most egregious display of nepotism in sports history. It is an absolute joke and is extremely disrespectful to Iowa fans who spend their hard-earned money and show up to the games every single week. Penn State drubbed the Hawkeyes 31-0 in what was another unwatchable game in a prime TV spot.

Saturday was certainly a banger all around, but even as the biggest college football fans you know, we can admit when this sport has some stinky games. And boy oh boy did Colorado and Iowa stink it up on Saturday.

Bama Back in Business?

Alabama (3-1) looked sluggish offensively out of the gate against Ole Miss (3-1), but got things rolling in the 2nd half and seemed to answer the question of why the hell don’t you just run Jalen Milroe like 20 times every game that we here at 4th and Forever have been asking for weeks. Milroe only had 28 yards rushing due to a few sacks, but I thought it was very encouraging for Alabama that designing runs for him seems to be a bigger part of the offense than it was the first couple of weeks. Solid game from Milroe and the Tide offense. On the other side of the ball, I’ve had my doubts about how good this Alabama defense really is, but I’m starting to think they might actually be very, very good. The defensive line dominated Ole Miss’ offensive line and stymied the Rebels’ run game with ease, while Kool-Aid McKinstry and Malachi Moore looked phenomenal in the secondary. Even with Saturday’s offensive improvement, Alabama’s success this year will likely still come down to their defense being able to lift up their offense on a consistent basis, and so far, this Tide defense is passing the test. Alabama has big games against Tennessee and Texas A&M coming up soon, and we think Crimson Tide fans should be encouraged by what they saw on Saturday.

Quick Hitters

We said last week N.C. State (3-1) is good for one inexcusable loss per season and dammit if they didn’t try their best to get that loss out of the way on Friday night. Lucky for the Pack, Virginia (0-4) tried just a little harder to lose. After UVA scored a touchdown late in the 4th quarter to make it 21-19, an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty backed up the Hoos 2-point try to the 18-yard line where of course they converted tying the game up, then another unsportsmanlike conduct penalty backed the ensuing kickoff back 15 yards and State returned it to the UVA 48. After a couple of runs, N.C. State had their 48-yard field goal blocked which was waved off after a 15-yard leaping penalty on the Hoos and State drilled the next attempt to win the game. Wa-Hoo-Wahhhhhhhhh.

Elsewhere in the ACC, Syracuse, Duke, UNC, Miami, and Louisville are all 4-0 after handling their opponents… handily. Virginia Tech (1-3) lost @ Marshall (3-0) 24-17 which is not a good sign for second-year coach Brent Pry and the Hokies who might only win 2 more games the entire year.

Once again, it looks like the Big 12 will run through the Cotton Bowl at the Red River Shootout in two weeks as Texas (4-0) mauled Baylor (1-3) 38-6 in Waco while Oklahoma (4-0) beat Cincy (2-2) in the Bearcats Big 12 opener. Watch out for Kansas though who is 4-0 after beating BYU (3-1) as they head to Austin next week. Good win for hot-seat head coach Neal Brown and West Virginia (3-1) who beat Texas Tech (1-3) while Red Raiders QB Tyler Shough fractured his fibula which is his 3rd season-ending injury in his career.

In the SEC, Georgia rolled over UAB (more below) and Texas A&M got back on track with a win over Auburn, whose offense might be approaching Iowa levels of horridness. LSU didn’t look very good but pulled out a victory over Arkansas, Kentucky beat what has turned out to be a bad Vanderbilt team, and Tate’s Spencer Rattler Supremacy prediction continued to look good as South Carolina beat Mississippi State in Columbia, SC. Florida, Tennessee, and Missouri all beat Group of 5 teams.

In the Group of 5, Wyoming (3-1) beat App State (2-2) 22-19 after returning a blocked field goal 62 yards with less than 2 minutes left. Wyoming’s offense is absolutely anemic as QB Andrew Peasley threw for 31 (!!) yards on 5/15 passing and one interception. However, after giving Texas fits for three quarters last week, Wyoming’s defense proved they are one of the best units in college football this year after they held App State to four field goals and their only touchdown came from a pick-six. Georgia State (4-0) beat Coastal Carolina (2-2) 30-17 on Thursday night and both programs are trending in opposite directions. New Coastal head coach Tim Beck brought his inability to run the ball over from N.C. State where he was OC and is wasting star QB Grayson McCall’s last year in Conway. Georgia State head coach Shawn Elliott is coaching his way off the hot seat while putting together an impressive season with a bunch of transfers from…Coastal Carolina. James Madison moved to 4-0 after beating Utah State (1-3) in Logan, UT, and might be the team to beat in the Sun Belt but thanks to ridiculous and arbitrary NCAA FCS to FBS transition rules, they are not eligible for a bowl game and likely the conference championship game this year. Out west, Fresno State (4-0) looks like the leader in the clubhouse for the Group of 5 New Year’s Six Game behind QB Mikey Keene but defending Cotton Bowl champs Tulane (3-1) and QB Michael Pratt would like a word.

Holding Ourselves Accountable

OnlyRans: Last week: 4-3 - Season Record: 14-14

L - USC -35: beat Arizona State 42-28

W - Washington -21: beat Cal 59-32

W - Maryland -7.5: beat Michigan State 31-9

L - SMU @ TCU O 64: TCU won 34-17

W - South Carolina -6.5: beat Mississippi State 37-30

L - Notre Dame ML: lost to Ohio State 17-14

W - Washington State ML: beat Oregon State 38-35

Decent weekend to get back to .500 on the season but USC, stop playing down to your opponents. You had a bye week, playing Arizona State’s backup QB, and decided to revert back to your old habits of not tackling. Arizona State did throw the kitchen sink at the Trojans with trick plays and confusing looks so I give credit there, but USC should not be sweating games like these in the 4th quarter given with the worst team in the PAC-12. SMU & TCU combined for 46 first downs and 873 total yards but two costly SMU interceptions kept the total under 64. Notre Dame…womp womp. Other than those three picks I am a genius and very likely getting invited to join Mensa, but I might not join just out of spite.

Tate’s Great Picks: Last Week: 2-2 - Season Record: 8-15

W - Washington -21: beat California 59-32

W - UNC -7.5: beat Pitt 41-24

L - Texas State -17: beat Nevada 35-24

L - Oklahoma -14.5: beat Cincinnati 20-6

I’m trying to get my season record back to a respectable number and going .500 on the week did not help. As usual, Washington was an absolute wagon and blew the doors off of Cal the moment the game kicked off. North Carolina -7.5 was about as close to free money as you could possibly get, good lord is Pitt bad. Texas State’s high-flying offense didn’t kick into gear until the 2nd half, and Nevada scored a meaningless touchdown with 57 seconds left in the game to pull off a brutal backdoor cover for me. Oklahoma was tough - we sent our picks out on Thursday and the line was -14.5 at the time, but it ended up dropping down to -13 before kickoff. I hammered that and Oklahoma actually won me some money, but it was pretty tough that they ended up winning by exactly 14.

I also mentioned in our Thursday newsletter an underdog ML parlay of Ole Miss, Notre Dame, and UCLA. That, uh, did not hit. We all saw Notre Dame lose to Ohio State at the last second, Ole Miss completely fell apart down the stretch against Alabama, and UCLA looked like hot garbage at Utah. Yeesh. The Underdog ML Sprinkle Parlay is now 1-1 on the year.

Wake Forest & Georgia

Georgia (4-0) - UGA 49 - UAB 21: The Dawgs moved to 4-0 after beating Trent Dilfer’s Blazers on Saturday. I’ve talked a lot about the offense needing to get off to quicker starts, and while it was great to see the Dawgs go down the field and score a touchdown on their first possession, things got shaky for the rest of the 1st quarter before exploding in the 2nd quarter. That issue does seem to be getting better with time, and Carson Beck continues to look more and more comfortable each game. I thought this was the best and most complete game the offensive line has played so far, but this team is really struggling with perimeter blocking at the moment. Oscar Delp continues to miss multiple blocks per game, and these receivers have not been consistent enough as blockers out wide which is really hampering the run game at the moment. That needs to get better, and I’d imagine it’s making Kirby stress-eat an insane amount of food.

Defensively, meh, whatever. Not great, not terrible. We were without arguably are two best defensive players in Javon Bullard and Mykel Williams, and their absences were definitely apparent, especially on the backend where the Dawgs do not currently have a solid replacement for Bullard at safety. Warren Brinson looks to be breaking out in a big way on the defensive line, which would be massive for this defense if he keeps it up. I certainly don’t like giving up 21 points, but the run defense looks to be rounding into shape and UAB has an experienced quarterback who threw it around all game and found some success.

Overall, this was an okay performance by the Dawgs who clearly were focused on getting healthier above all things on Saturday. We have our first road test next week at Auburn who looked absolutely putrid offensively on Saturday against Texas A&M, but the Tigers’ defense is very solid and will definitely make things hard on Beck and the offense. I’m just happy I can finally start writing about our SEC matchups, trying to find interesting things about games against UT Martin, Ball State, and UAB hasn’t been the easiest task. Here’s to 7 straight SEC games!

Wake Forest (3-1) - Georgia Tech 30 - Wake Forest 16: Caveat before I begin: I was not able to watch a single snap of this game given it was at the same time as the Notre Dame game. Let’s all collectively breathe real quick. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Repeat. Three interceptions, 4 fumbles (2 lost), for 5 total turnovers for the Deacs. QB Mitch Griffis was 16-30 for 162 total yards and a QBR of 16.2 which is abysmal. He was sacked 8 times and Georgia Tech deflected 5 passes. The Yellow Jackets came into the game with one of the worst defenses in the FBS and racked up 10 tackles for loss. After Wake’s 10 sack performance last week we didn’t sack QB Haynes King (16-27 for 222 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT) and only had 5 tackles for loss, but Georgia Tech has a solid offensive line. All of that being said, the Deacs still had the ball down a touchdown with 5 mins to go and a chance to tie the game before an interception and ensuing touchdown sealed the game. Wake rushed for 224 yards, outgained Georgia Tech 386-380, ran more plays, had more time of possession and was only flagged twice. Wake shot themselves in the foot over and over yet could’ve won this game. It was almost a repeat of the Old Dominion game, but we left the field with an L. Georgia Tech is an improved team, but this is a game we should’ve won.

Like I mentioned above that it’s irrational to write obituaries after one game like the national media did for Clemson after the Duke game, let’s not overreact. Did you write off the Deacs after the Louisville game last year when we had eight turnovers and Hartman was responsible for six of them? QB John Wolford threw three interceptions against Gardner Webb as a freshman back in 2014. Hat tip to Cam Lemons Debro for that one. Remember in the 2020 Duke’s Mayo Bowl when Hartman threw for 4 interceptions against Wisconsin. Georgia legend Jamie Newman had his fair share of rough outings as well, notably 2019 @ Virginia Tech where he went 16-35 with 2 INTs. Point is these games happen. Clawson and OC Warren Ruggiero have raised the expectations at Wake Forest where performances like these are fewer and farther between. I’ve seen some rough Wake football in my day, and we are nowhere near as bad as it can be. The sky isn’t falling (yet) and we all knew coming into the year transitioning away from Hartman was going to have its rough patches. I don’t know if anyone expected it to be this bad, but Clawson is 3/3 on developing QBs so I will trust him until proven otherwise. The main problem is the offensive line, which needs to get healthy in order to give Griffis a chance. Let’s head into the bye week and make sure this performance was an aberration and not a pattern.

Since I’m headed for Mensa, I’ll take my victory lap yet again when I said on Thursday you need to watch out for LB Dylan Hazen as he led the team with 9 tackles. On to the next one. Go Deacs.

Texts of the Week

“College football halftime is a threat to human existence.” - Robbie Eisenman

“Dabo has zero balls. Negative balls.” - Jason Levenstiem

“They really gave us the scout team announcers.” - Alec Nathan

“That’s what we call a quality loss.” - Adam David re: Clemson

“3rd and 11 draw in the redzone got me bricked.” - Robbie Eisenman

Hope you have a great Monday, and we will talk to you again on Thursday.

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Rand Fisher & Tate Smillie met a few years ago through our good buddy Dave Peljovich who went to college with Rand and high school with Tate. Tate went to Georgia and has spent the last two years collecting championship rings while traveling to watch the Dawgs. Rand went to known CFB powerhouse Wake Forest and currently pays rent in Atlanta but is rarely found there with all the work & CFB travel he does.