Week 4 Recap

Good morning and welcome to 4th & Forever, Rand & Tate’s College Football Newsletter. We knew heading into the weekend that Week 4 had the potential to be the most boring week of the year in college football, and we’re sorry to say that we ended up being correct. There were no shocking upsets; the only top ten team that played a ranked team lost by 53 points, both Georgia and Wake were on bye, and no coaches pulled out their phone on the sideline to start taking pictures. Wait, check that, I’m being told by my producers that UAB head coach Trent Dilfer did, in fact, pull out his phone to start taking pictures for some reason. I guess Sandra Bullock was onto something? Anyway, Week 5 begins a run of banger weekend after banger weekend in the sport, so let’s take a quick look back at the week that was and take a moment to evaluate where a few of the sport’s biggest programs stand after early-season struggles.

You’re Fired

Back in the early 2000s, NBC aired a show called The Apprentice that turned the phrase “You’re fired!” into an iconic saying in American culture. I can’t remember what the host’s name was, but if he happens to be reading this, we’d like him to know that 4th & Forever’s official stance is that we remember him being incredibly smart, handsome, and right about everything. That host’s influence has spread all the way into college football, where schools are nowadays seemingly ready to tell their coaches “you’re fired” at any given moment. Sad! UCLA and Virginia Tech both lost their first two games before getting blown out by Group of Five teams in Week 3, and both subsequently fired Deshaun Foster and Brent Pry, respectively, to put themselves first in line on the coaching market here in mid-September. But there may be a few new bidders in the market here in the near future, starting with Florida, where it seems to be a matter of when and not if when it comes to Billy Napier getting the boot. The Gators lost 26-7 to Miami on Saturday, and frankly that score doesn’t even tell the story of how lopsided this was as Miami head coach Mario Cristobal elected to punt in Florida territory three times in the first half (because of course he did). Florida turned in an offensive performance that was an affront to God himself - 141 total yards of offense, and only 61 yards from QB DJ Lagway, who again looked genuinely horrid a week after throwing five INTs against LSU. UF is now 1-3 and has to play #10 Texas, #9 Texas A&M, and #5 Georgia in three of its next four games. This team is solidly on quit watch now, and it’s only a matter of time before the Kiffin-to-Gainesville rumors start popping up on your social media feeds.

Trent Dilfer may have been the only head coach to pull out his phone on the sideline on Saturday, but he’s certainly not the only goofball to be feeling his seat getting warmer this Monday. We talked about Dabo Swinney’s press conference from a week ago, where he said that Clemson should just fire him if they’re tired of winning. How did Dabo follow that up? Why, by losing at home to Syracuse and crying on the field afterward, of course. We’re not here to say that Dabo is at risk of being fired in the near future - his astronomical $60M buyout is going to prevent that - but the vibes are absolutely horrid in Clemson right now, with many pointing to Dabo’s support staff being littered with his former players as a cause of this severe decline in the program. This may be the wake up call that Dabo needs to get over his stubbornness and change his approach to this new world of college football, but we’ll believe that when we see it.

Two other P4 teams - Arkansas and Oklahoma State - will almost certainly have new coaches in 2026 after both lost to G5 teams themselves on Saturday. Oklahoma State lost to Tulsa for the first time since 1951 or 17 years before we faked the moon landing while Arkansas fumbled on the goaline to Memphis in the final minute going in for the winning score. We do think that both Sam Pittman and Mike Gundy may be given the grace of finishing the season out (or close to it), though, due to Pittman’s great relationship with the school and Gundy’s multi-decade-long tenure as a very successful coach in Stillwater. But both of these situations are just very clearly coming to an end, and it’s time for both of these schools to pump some new energy into their football program. We’ll see how long it takes both of these schools to make it official.

Lastly, we think things may come to an unexpected and rapid end for Luke Fickell at Wisconsin. Fickell had an incredibly disappointing start to his tenure in Madison in 2024, and the Badgers now look like a shell of their former selves after getting spanked by Maryland at home on Saturday to fall to 2-2. The Badgers are staring down the barrel of a 2-6 record with their next four games coming against #19 Michigan, Iowa, #1 Ohio State, and #6 Oregon. Mediocrity might be somewhat acceptable in Madison, but haplessness is not. We’ve got our eyes on Wisconsin as an opening that hardly anybody expected just a few weeks ago.

Alright, Actual Week 4 Recap

Outside of the happenings outlined above, it was a pretty run-of-the-mill Saturday across the rest of the country. While a lot of eyes were on the Dabo humiliation ritual during the noon slate, it was #17 Texas Tech who claimed the frontrunner spot in the Big 12 by traveling up to #16 Utah and smacking them around in the second half to win 34-10 despite losing QB Behren Morton to injury. Will Hammond came in to replace Morton and provided such a spark to the Red Raiders’ offense that many are starting to wonder if they should just roll with him moving forward. It’s a good problem to have, because Tech now looks to have a defense that’s actually worth a damn to combine with an offense that is always a threat to score 40+. The season is certainly not over for Utah, but for as much hype as we’ve given QB Devon Dampier, he leaves a lot to be desired as a pocket passer.

The real madness of the day took place in Norman, where #11 Oklahoma survived #22 Auburn in a game that was pretty ugly until the end. As much as it pains me (Tate) to say this, Auburn got hosed out of this game by the refs. The first egregious call happened early, where an Oklahoma receiver pretty clearly caught a ball on a drag route, turned up field and took two steps, then had it knocked out by Auburn who took it back for a touchdown. It was called a fumble + TD on the field, but after review the refs overturned it and called it an incompletion - Oklahoma went down and kicked a field goal afterward. I understand that the play happened very fast, but I still don’t understand why that has anything to do with whether something is a catch or not. Did he have possession of the ball? He pretty clearly did, and had fully turned his head to run upfield before getting it knocked out. I’d have even understood if the refs called it incomplete initially and then said that there wasn’t indisputable evidence to change it after review, but I genuinely have no idea how this got overturned, and it was a massive swing in the game. Next, Oklahoma faked a substitution with a player appearing to run off the field before stopping short of the sideline, streaking upfield for a wide-open touchdown that Auburn never saw coming. It was a pretty neat trick, but the one problem is this is explicitly against the rules. “Well damn the rules”, the officials said, by letting the play stand and giving Oklahoma 7 points instead of moving them back 15 yards like they were supposed to. The last infuriating moment for Auburn fans came on Oklahoma’s game-winning drive where an OU receiver caught a ball, stepped out of bounds and immediately had it ripped from his hands. While I agree that this one was a catch, I also heavily sympathize with Auburn fans who had to have been pulling their hair out watching this unfold after everything that had already happened to that point. We really need to tone down the rhetoric in this rivalry, so I’m here as a Georgia fan to stand with you Auburn fans against these radical refs. But you’re all still evil terrorists.

Anyway, we’ll at least give Oklahoma some credit on a big win as it wasn’t just the refs that got it done for them. The Sooner defense had ten sacks of their former teammate Jackson Arnold, and Moneyline Mateer continued to live up to his name by leading a touchdown drive when his team needed him to put them on his back. We’re still not sold on Mateer as a pocket passer who moves the chains on schedule - he’s more of a chaos merchant - but he may be able to do that just enough to make OU a real contender in the SEC because of how damn good that defense is.

#19 Indiana beat #9 Illinois 63-10 in a game I am only going to spend one more sentence on. A lot of people were asking “who will be this year’s Indiana” over the offseason, and it looks like it’s just going to be Indiana again. Bryce Underwood outplayed Dylan “Cinnamon Roll Mahomes” Raiola as #21 Michigan held off Nebraska 30-27, while #23 Missouri continues to be 4th & Forever’s most underrated team thus far by beating South Carolina 29-20. QB Beau Pribula and RB Ahmad Hardy might be the best duo in the country at the moment. #25 USC handled Michigan State in a game that started just after 11:00pm EST., and yes, I watched all of it. TCU beat SMU in a very entertaining game, and we’ve got our eyes on the Frogs as a Big 12 sleeper. Pretty much every other ranked team cruised to victory against clearly lesser opponents to varying degrees.

Five-ish Studs

Virginia WR Trell Harris: 4 receptions for 145 yards and 3 TDs. In a 48-20 romp over Stanford, Virginia moved to 3-1 on the season, with their only loss coming in Raleigh. Journeyman QB Chandler Morris (Oklahoma, TCU, North Texas) is leading the #11 scoring offense at 45 points per game. They host #8 Florida State on Friday night in what reminds us of the 1995 monumental upset of #2 FSU by Tiki Barber and the Hoos. The Noles were 29-0 in the ACC up to that point, and after the game, the Jefferson-Eppes Trophy was created to honor the indomitable, historic rivalry that has been played a grand total of 18 times. Leave it to the people of Charlottesville to commemorate inane historical events with fake monuments. 

Ole Miss QB Trinidad Chambliss (17/27 for 307 yards and 2 TDs plus 112 rushing yards) in a 45-10 win over Tulane & Texas Tech QB Will Hammond (13/16 for 169 yards and 2 TDs plus 61 rushing yards) in a 34-10 win over #16 Utah. Both of these guys are backup QBs who have balled out in relief of Austin Simmons (Ole Miss) and Behren Morton (Texas Tech) due to injuries. Chambliss is a transfer from DII Ferris State and led the Bulldogs from Big Rapids, Michigan, to a natty last year. Hammond came in for Morton in the 3rd quarter and immediately sparked the Red Raiders' offense in their blowout win over Utah. We won’t say there’s a QB controversy upon Morton’s and Simmons’ return, but that won’t stop the message boards from running wild. Fun fact: Texas Tech’s 3rd string QB is former Wake QB Mitch Griffis, who was retired and working at a construction company this time last year, and there will be no further comment on him from our Wake writer. 

Mizzou RB Ahmad Hardy: 22 carries for 138 yards and 1 TD in a 29-20 win over South Carolina. Hardy outrushed the entire South Carolina team by 147 yards, and I’ll leave the math to you on that one. Hardy is the second leading rusher in America behind UTSA’s Robert Henry Jr. Mizzou’s backfield is dynamite with backup RB Jamal Roberts (13 carries for 76 yards) and QB Beau Pribula (9 carries for 72 yards), and hosts Alabama on October 11th with a bye and UMass until then. 

TCU WR Eric McAlister: 8 receptions for 254 yards and 3 TDs in a 35-24 win over SMU. Usually, we’d give UNC a break for getting smoked by TCU in Week 1 because the Frogs are damn good, but the Heels were embarrassed by UCF 34-9. The Heels threw 2 picks, lost QB Gio Lopez to injury, and barely eclipsed 200 yards. Who were we talking about again? Oh yeah, this McAlister dude balled in the last Iron Skillet meeting between SMU and TCU for the foreseeable future. The Frogs might be the best team in the Big 12. 

USC QB Jayden Maiava: 20/26 for 234 and 3 TDs in a 41-35 win over Michigan State. Indiana is going to get all the press for their annihilation of Illinois but are we sure USC isn’t the 4th best team in the Big 10? They’re averaging 52 points/game, and Maiava has yet to throw an interception. He’s not being asked to be Superman like Caleb Williams, given USC actually has a defense and RB Waymond Jordan is keeping defenses honest, but turns out this Lincoln Riley feller might know a thing or two about coaching QBs.

Five Duds

Clemson QB Cade Klubnik: If Cade Klubnik is attempting 60 passes in a game as he did against Syracuse, it’s a good indicator that Clemson is down by a lot and they can’t run the ball for shit. RB Adam Randall actually had a good day with 130 yards, but most of the yards were when Syracuse was up by 2+ scores and was happy to let Clemson run. 5-star freshman Gideon Davidson has three attempts on the year and teams know Klubnik cannot beat them with his arm. Clemson is cooked but we’re also done with the “when WR Antonio Williams comes back from injury they’ll be fine” excuse because Bryant the combined recruiting stars between WRs Bryant Wesco Jr, Tyler Brown, and TJ Moore is 13. Throw in Klubnik and you’re at 18 out of a maximum of 20. 

Auburn’s OL: Was Auburn hosed by the officials on two separate occasions - one leading to an Oklahoma TD and another negating a likely Auburn TD - yes. Did Auburn’s OL also allow 10 sacks? Also, hell yes. Oklahoma likely has the best front seven in college football but such is life in the SEC. Auburn can’t expect QB Jackson Arnold to bail them out with his legs because uh…he can’t. Life doesn’t get much easier with TAMU and UGA on the docket next and spending all that money on WRs in the portal doesn’t matter if you can’t get them the ball. 

Miami (OH) in the 2nd half: Pour one out for the poor RedHawks who fell to 0-3 on the year with losses to Wisconsin (aging like a port-a-john in a Florida parking lot), Rutgers, and now to UNLV. After squandering a 24-10 halftime lead, they returned a kickoff and had a pick-six one minute later to go back up two scores. Then UNLV scored two 4th quarter TDs to tie it, but the RedHawks fumbled with 2 minutes left at the UNLV 17 yard line going in for a winning score. UNLV kicked a game-winning field goal with 23 seconds left but thanks to a botched snap field goal with seconds to go and an interception on the last play of the game, UNLV escaped with a 41-38 win to move to 4-0 on the year. 

Nebraska’s Rushing Attack: 31 attempts for 43 yards, which is less than the number of sack yards Dylan Raoila took in this game (49). Yes, the NCAA counts sack yards as rushing yards, but that doesn’t fit my narrative or what I saw with my own eyes. I get that it’s Michigan, but Nebraska got bullied on both sides of the ball. Every single snap Nebraska’s DL was getting pushed into Kansas while their OL had mini-Mahomes running for his life. Nebraska’s October schedule is a cakewalk but they’re not going to have fun in November against Penn State, Iowa, and USC. 

NC State: Death, taxes, your hotel room’s AC not working, and NC State flopping when expectations are the highest. The previously undefeated Pack rolled into Wallace-Wade Stadium with a star RB in Hollywood Smothers, a decent defense, but a breakout star QB in CJ Bailey. Three interceptions and a blown 2 TD lead later and this NC State team is the exact same as the previous 12 under Dave Doeren. Just good enough to be a spunky dark horse but not get enough to get out of their own way. They get Campbell and Virginia Tech next, but still have to play #16 Georgia Tech, #22 Notre Dame, #8 Florida State, and #2 Miami. They really needed this one. 

Texts of the Week

“Put DJ (Lagway) down like the sick sad old dog that he is.” - Eli S.

“Oh wow, a receiver just dropped a pass from Carson.” - Eli S. again

“Don’t worry their home fans are handling the situation with complete maturity and grace.” - Adam D. updating me on the Clemson first half as I was momentarily in the car

“Clemson is bad! It’s because all their players have cell phones!!!” - Adam D. again

“Iowa vs Rutgers is the most Week 4 Friday night matchup I’ve ever heard of.” - Adam D. with the trifecta

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Rand & Tate met a few years ago through a mutual friend who went to college with Rand and high school with Tate. Tate went to Georgia and has spent the last few years collecting championship rings while traveling to watch the Dawgs. Rand went to known CFB powerhouse Wake Forest, and currently pays rent in Charlotte, but is rarely found there with all the work & CFB travel he does.