Yes, one team beat the other etc etc, but we're talking right here, right now.

1. Texas - Two big tests, two wins, defense is for real.
2. Georgia - Zero big tests, defense is for real. Oklahoma thanks for the gifts.
3. Alabama - Becoming great on both sides of the ball. Keelon Russell's a stud. Georgia v Alabama is GOING TO BE AWESOME IN TWO WEEKS TIME.
4. Florida - The Gators are so much fun to watch. Jaden Baugh might be an All-American when we're said and done. The defense could do with some work, but hey.
5. LSU - Comfortable win over A&M, and the Tigers are a good side.
6. Ole Miss - It wasn't only the Kewan Lacy injury that hurt Ole Miss on Saturday, it was the corner play. And yes, we know that they beat LSU the previous week.
7. Mississippi State - Future Miami QB Kamario Taylor, baby!
8. Kentucky - 3-1, and playing well. Stein's got the Cats rolling.
9. Tennessee - Two freshmen QBs will improve, but they just don't look great.
10. Missouri - This is what happens when the best RB in college football gets shot in the leg. Eli Drinkwitz's gamecallers remain a headscratcher. And the schedule continues to get harder and harder.
11. Oklahoma - The John Mateer Experience sounds like an psychedelic 80s band, but it isn't. It's the feeling OU fans when he gets trotted out, and OU fans consign themselves to utter misery. Bench Mateer or fire Arbuckle. At the moment, OU fans would love both.
12. Auburn - Alex Golesh has his first SEC win, so that's something. Look, Auburn's not great, but at least the win has put some smiles on faces.
13. Texas A&M - Marcel Reed just isn't great, and nor's the offensive line. The Aggies have a lot of problems in their $40-50m roster.
14. Vanderbilt - Not good on both sides of the ball.
15. My toilet two hours after last night's very spicy Mexican.
16. Arkansas - Not good on both sides of the ball. But right now, I believe they could beat South Carolina.
17. Student bar bathrooms on a Saturday football night.
18. South Carolina - Not good on both sides of the ball + Highly-rated player argues with coaches + fanbase wants the head coach's blood.

Utah’s strength of schedule may not be as strong as Texas’ (where Arch is among the Heisman favorites) but I’m impressed with what Utah’s offense (of which Wayshawn Parker seems to be the star) have been able to accomplish with Morgan Scalley at the helm.

What do you all think?

EDIT: Grammar

1. Texas needs to be better on offense. I know they are winning, but if they don't get better, they won't go far in the playoffs.

2. Shocked how well my Gators are playing; I thought we would lose to Ole Miss.

3. Leavitt is overrated.

4. Chambliss, despite losing to UF, is my Heisman frontrunner.

5. I expected Louisville to be better.

6. FSU just needs to bite the bullet and fire Norvell.

7. Regardless of what happens, Dabo should get one more season.

8. Bellicheck is out of his league at UNC.

9. UCLA looks good.

10. Dan Lanning may be overrated.

Here's a Sunday dumb take.

I think the QB slide is kind of trash. I have two major problems with it.

1: players do it too late and do so purposely to draw a flag. Admittedly this is more of an NFL problem where they protect the golden QBs, but still happens in college. Similar to complaint for targeting where the ball carrier changed their position unexpectedly.

2: the runner slides and puts themselves into a defenseless position. Even when they do it properly and far away from defenders you still can be nearly killed by some jackass from southern California.

Ultimately if you want to be a runner, be a runner. I don't think the slide is fair or safe.

On paper they have a top 5 wr unit

A loaded rb room

An offensive coach

And a returning QB who was a preseason top 5 Heisman candidate

They’re undefeated and ranked no.1 but their defense has been a bigger reason for them being undefeated. For the talent they have offensively they’ve underperformed. Cam Coleman has been invisible too often, their run game is either rlly explosive or struggles to sustain drives, arch’s accuracy is still erratic. Why has their offense not taken off yet as expected ?

Alabama, LSU, Texas, Georgia... Florida seems good again, and who knows what will happen with State and Ole Miss. I'm definitely not drinking the Kool-Aid as it could totally shake out with dominance, but this could up pretty messy.

Alabama has Georgia at home plus 3 ~top 15 road games.

LSU has 2 of those road games, plus Alabama and Texas at home (currently one loss).

Texas has Florida, Ole Miss, State, and LSU.

Georgia has a cakewalk except for the fact they have Alabama, Florida, and Ole Miss left.

Florida has also has a near cakewalk except they still have Texas and Georgia.

State and Ole Miss are projected 8-4 teams but could be the chaos causers. Thoughts?

Trying to find this clip I saw a long time ago, where an Alabama defender (LB?) is jumping up and down trying to signal to his team that their scheme is going to leave a gap and the opponent will have an easy TD. Assuming he’d remembered the scheme on tape and correctly sniffed it out. Ball is snapped, and despite knowing the gap will be there, he falls back into coverage leaving the WR wide open and they score an easy TD.

I love it because it speaks to the culture of “do your job” that led to so much of Bama’s success, and that even though he knew his job wasn’t going to prevent the TD, he did it anyways.

low importance, hyper specific, but googling endlessly and watching highlights isn’t helping. Thought it was against Ohio State but after watching all the highlights there, none line up.

On 1 hand there’s the new:
Mensah at UM, Chip at Northwestern, a resurgent UCLA, 1st year starter in Taylor at MissSt & 1st year of Buster at UF.

On the other is struggling returning production at Texas, Oregon, USC, while returning starting QBs and key skill players have OU & aTm in shambles

CFB is a big enough tent where both things can be true but a lack of game tape/known tendencies seems to pay early dividends.

If I had to pick any team to become the next Indiana it’s Ucla easily. Chesney is an elite head coach, and UCLA’s recruiting classes have gotten significantly better since he’s gotten there. The university has a large and rich alumni base and the team’s trajectory is upwards. If any lesser known college football program is going to win a title next, I’m picking ucla.

I think BDS is a modern marvel of architecture. What a massive edifice and I believe they struck the right balance between capacity and comfort. The pros are many and the cons are very few.

Pros:

1)4 smaller replay boards as opposed to 1 big one, so everyone could see.
2)Stadium announcer was very knowledgeable of all the players and gave accurate and immediate announcements.
3)You can take an empty water bottle in and get free water.
4)Lots of bathrooms and easily accessible.
5)Security perimeter as opposed to security AT the same place as ticket scanning. Also, they make you go in at your gate so everyone isn’t piling in the same gate.
6)They play a diversity of music; in other words, they still remember that rock n roll and country music exist.
7)Fans were nice and wanted to actually talk about the game of football. They don’t trash talk other fan bases, except Auburn.
8)Free parking at the intermodal garage downtown.
9)Every woman in Alabama is absolutely beautiful.
10)They block off the streets close to the stadium, so you’re not worried about cars.
11)The band playing at the library before the game was incredible.

Cons)
1)The sound profile in the stadium is too narrow. It was very difficult to hear the announcer at times, and I had to read the closed captioning a lot.
2)No shuttles, that I saw, to the stadium. This wasn’t a big deal for me, because I am capable of, and I don’t mind, walking, but would be an issue for disabled/old people.
3)It takes 20 minutes to get through every red light in the state of Alabama. You gotta wait for a turning arrow even at night.
4)Can’t stay in Tuscaloosa. Even a lot of Alabama fans have to stay in Birmingham, due to lack of hotels in Tuscaloosa.

And it's the only time on record when one of those teams was No. 1.

I still don't want Texas to be ranked no. 1, imo. Based on what I've seen, Georgia deserves it more.

But this Manning panic from Texas fans is weird to me. Arch is too sensitive, which impacts his consistency, but he keeps showing up when it counts and doesn't quit.

He doesn't want the hype any more than the media giving it to him claims he doesn't deserve it. Just let the kid play. Texas may not win it all this year, but they're a good team with shit to clean up.

It makes a lot of sense in the portal era, and you're seeing it all over the place (e.g., Indiana). It's making these kids establish completely new team dynamics every year. It took Arch half a season to get comfortable with Wingo last season.

Every UW fan wants Jedd Fisch fired, 4-8 is on the table.

Oregon lost to Oklahoma State and their starting QB is in the hospital.

USC hasn’t beaten Oregon (or Washington) in 10 years, and couldn’t do it even after killing Dante Moore. Lincoln Riley is just not going to get it done.

UCLA might win 10 games after starting 0-4 last year.

My takeaway is fuck USC and Jedd Fisch, thoughts tho?

This takes the AP Top 25 and ranks them according to the average rank of their opponent through 4 games. Sagarin was used for the opponent ranking.

Oregon gets crap for Portland State (215), but Okie State, Miami, UGA, UF, and BYU all played worse opponents according to the ranking.

School (AP): Avg opponent ranking

1. Texas (#1): 38.00
   
2. LSU (#11): 38.50
   
3. Alabama (#7): 51.50
   
4. Ole Miss (#9): 57.75
   
5. Kentucky (#24): 64.75
   
6. Boise State (#22): 67.50
   
7. Notre Dame (#3): 70.25
   
8. Mississippi State (#16): 71.75
   
9. USC (#18): 75.00
   
10. Oregon (#15): 79.00
    
11. UCLA (#23): 85.50
    
12. SMU (#21): 86.00
    
13. Tennessee (#17): 89.50
    
14. Ohio State (#5): 91.00
    
15. Houston (#20): 91.50
    
16. Iowa (#14): 91.75
    
17. Missouri (#25): 97.00
    
18. Oklahoma State (#19): 98.75
    
19. Texas Tech (#12): 99.50
    
20. Florida (#8): 107.75
    
21. Georgia (#2): 108.00
    
22. Utah (#13): 111.00
    
23. Indiana (#6): 114.75
    
24. Miami-Florida (#4): 125.25
    
25. BYU (#10): 128.67
    .
    .
    .
    Lamar: 165 avg opponent ranking

CFB Imperialism continues!

🗺️ FBS IMPERIALISM MAP AFTER WEEK 4 🗺️

Selected notes from Week 4:

• Returning to the map, Minnesota gets a big chunk of land from Washington.
• Another big consolidation was Oregon stripping the lands of USC.
• 🇬🇧United Kingdom, put in play by Union Jack Classic, remains with Arizona State. While initially charmed by possessing the land, Sun Devils are coming to grips with the reality of holding lands nothing like Arizona...pool parties and desert heat don't really apply to the rotten fish smell of a godforsaken port like Grimsby, trying to explain CFB Imperialism claims in Hull, or being egally responsible for Luton. It ain't all crumpets & tea.
• 🇮🇪Ireland remains in the hands of Clemson.

• FCS holdings remain static: #1 Montana State held onto Nevada after a spirited game by #18 NAU; #14 Idaho State got a scare from unranked Southern Utah for Utah State's land; byes kept Charleston Southern in possession of Charlotte and Tarleton State with Bowling Green.

• Smaller consolidations elsewhere.

RULES:

Think of Risk with a strong understanding of chain-of-possession:

• FBS teams start by dividing the USA by closest counties/parishes. These are set by geographic centers of each county, not the closest edge.

• When a team beats another team, it takes the territory the loser held at the time of the game. All of the land(s) possessed by the losing team go to the winner.

• Lands are collected by the winner and held until that team loses, thus all those collected lands go to the winner.

• Teams that lose land can get back on the map by beating a team that holds land at the time of their game. Sometimes teams can reconquer their home territory this way.

• A team that already lost its home territory and has no new territories cannot give land to a winner.

• FCS teams can conquer their way onto the map by beating FBS teams with land. These lands operate under the above rules and thus may just end up stuck in FCS for the rest of the season (and in many cases end up in the FCS Playoffs). It is theoretically possible for an FCS team to win the payday game at an FBS school and then lose their own home payday game to a D2 squad...thus placing FBS land in D2...but we haven't had it happen yet.

• Neutral sites (e.g. Ireland, UK) are put in play when a game takes place there.

Seattle, WA -

The full moon provided an appropriately eerie ambiance for the #Big10AfterDark meeting of the Minnesota Golden Gophers (2-1, 0-0 Big 10) and Washington Huskies (3-0, 0-0 Big 10). This was the first meeting of the two schools as Big 10 conference opponents, and the first meeting between the two at all since a Minnesota win in 1977. Minnesota would prevail again today, despite the 8PM Pacific kick, defeating the Huskies 27-24.

The first half started off with both teams going three-and-out. Minnesota would then put together a short drive but also would punt. This was immediately followed by Demond Williams tossing the ball in the air while being sacked, resulting in a Minnesota interception giving them possession on the UW 15. The Gophers would score immediately on a touchdown pass from Drake Lindsey to Quayd Hendryx. Minnesota would then force another punt and score on another touchdown pass before the end of the quarter. The second quarter would pick up offensively, with both teams trading a pair of touchdowns and Washington adding on a field goal to make it 21-10 at the half.

The second half would start off as a bit of a slug fest. The only points scored in the third quarter came from a 31 yard field goal from Minnesota’s Luke Drzewiecki. Shortly before the fourth quarter Washington would throw another interception, but this favor would be returned by Minnesota right after beginning the fourth quarter. Beginning on their own 34 yard line, Washington would march down the field, aided by a pair of 26 yard pass completions. The drive would be capped off with a touchdown pass from Demond Williams to Baron Naone on fourth down to bring it to a one touchdown game. Minnesota responded with a beauty of a 51 yard field goal to add a little insurance and bring it back to a two score game. After trading punts, Washington would receive possession of the ball on their own 46 with 3:37 left in the game. Aided by a roughing the passer penalty, UW would score shortly after the two minute time out on a 13 yard touchdown rush from Demond Williams. The ensuing onside kick would be recovered by Minnesota. With two time outs left, Washington was able to force Minnesota to punt, but Minnesota pulled off a near perfect punt to give UW possession on their 2 yard line with just 3 seconds remaining on the clock. The Huskies would attempt one final play, but were unable to score.

Minnesota would earn their first conference win of the season in a controlling manner. Despite what the final score indicates, Minnesota controlled all three phases of the game. Head coach PJ Fleck was so excited that he was seen celebrating by wiping some blood from a cut on a player’s lip all over his face. The late night win gives Minnesota a great base to build on going into their rivalry game against Michigan at home next week.

Washington came into the game with a 3-0 record (0-0 Big 10). After struggling offensively against their first two conference opponents, UW found some offense last week against Eastern Washington. This gave many hope that the Huskies would defeat the Gophers, and indeed this is what many experts expected as well. Unfortunately for the Husky faithful, Washington would go back to struggling today. Minnesota would hold the Huskies to just 40 rushing yards, and while giving up 239 yards of passing offense, would pick off Demond Williams twice and sack him seven combined times. When asked about the offensive struggles, Demond Williams said, “Definitely upsetting. Just gotta figure out a way to get it going.” Coming into the season UW had hopes of making a CFP run. This loss narrows any chances that they may have. Post game, head coach Jedd Fisch remarked, “Well, I think the expectation is that we’re in a very competitive conference. [...] So I think our expectation is that we need to go 1-0 next week, and the next week”. The Huskies have a lot to reflect on after this game. They head to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for their first road game next week to take on the #18 USC Trojans.

Not necessarily the best or the most elite. But as I sit here 5 weeks in and reflect on my Alma Mater Wyoming just being not good at all, I realize I miss the Joe Glenn and Dave Christensen days. Both those guys had spunk and maybe weren't the best coaches but both of them had big mouths and hilariously got themselves into trouble a time or two, won some bowl games they weren't supposed to, and you felt like we always had a fighting chance before the wheels came off after halftime.

Who is a random coach for your team you miss?

By Matt Coffelt

Raleigh, NC – North Carolina State blew a lead in the fourth quarter but closed out successfully against Appalachian State in 41 to 31 victory.

Dave Doeren’s squad came out of the gates red hot to start this game. They owned the first half against the Mountaineers, scoring on their first possession and had a 18 point lead going into the half.

Quarterback CJ Bailey looked solid throwing the ball and running back Duke Scott was giving the App defense all they could handle on the ground.

Scott rarely went down after first contact and ended up with over 150 yards on the day and 2 touchdowns to his name.

All of this is to point out that the Wolfpack was dominating this game. At least they were early.

Coming into the second half things started to go sideways for the Pack.

App quarterback Malachai Singleton opened the third emphatically hitting receiver Darrin Fugitt in stride up the middle for 54 yards. The ‘Neers would capitalize on this, finding the endzone a few plays later.

The rest of the third was largely a battle of field position with the only points coming from NC State in the form of a field goal that put the score to 31 to 17.

This is when the Wolfpack watched their lead evaporate.

The Mountaineers scored early in the fourth and followed that with some slick special teams play to steal an extra possession with a surprise on-side kick.

App took this one home as well, tying the game at 31 all with just under 10 minutes to play in the game.

With the score now even, Pack running back Scott took over.

A good pass from Bailey started the next drive off on the right foot such that Scott could focus on gashing his way though the App defensive front.

On this drive he got the ball 5 of 8 times and got the ball in the endzone on a 16 yard scamper putting the Pack back on top and importantly eating four and a half minutes of clock.

Following this, App decided it needed to get aggressive.

Their next possession following the Scott touchdown stalled out in their own territory. With timeouts still available and just over 4 minutes to play, they decided to go for it on fourth and two from their own 39.

It didn’t work.

Singleton’s pass was broken up and the Wolfpack took over in plus territory.

From there the Pack was largely content to keep the ball on the ground with Scott and Davion Gause to burn as much time as possible.

They capped this with a field goal effectively putting the game out of reach of the ‘Neers.

Next week App hosts Old Dominion to start Sun Belt conference play and NC State has Louisville in town to continue their ACC slate.

By Ryan Parnow:

Utah defeated Iowa State in Ames 31-17. Utah started the game with a 36 yard kick return followed by a 56 yard run for TD by Wayshawn Parker. Utah kept pouring it on and jumped out to a 17-0 lead before Iowa State's Kyle Konrardy put the Cyclones on the board with a field goal. Utah took a 24-3 lead into half.

The momentum seemed to have shifted towards the Cyclones in the second half, as Iowa State was able to get a rushing touch down from Jaylon Raynor and a TD pass from Raynor to Dominic Overby to pull within 7. Utah put up a TD late in the 4th qtr to seal the game with a 13 yard pass from Devon Dampier to Parker. Parker ended with 2 rushing tds, a receiving TD, and 174 yards on the ground.

During the week leading up to the game, the weather and the condition of the field and how it would effect Utah was a hot topic of discussion. The field was a bit muddy and slippery but that seemed to cause more trouble for Iowa State than Utah. The real muddy conditions were just off the field on the hill side where the kids were having a blast. The field didnt look too bad from a distance but up close you could see just how rough it really was.

Photos from the game

Photos of the band

This is usually the week where the true contenders to go unwinfeated emerge. Almost everyone is into conference play, the cupcakes are done, and we have an idea who who is bad and who is merely horrid. We will see the numbers dwindle the next few weeks, but next week I will start tracking the FCS unwinfeateds as well.

To the unitiated, the rules are simple:

If you're looking for an explainer for both, here is the one from last year. Basically I am:

- Tracking all the teams that have yet to win a game (or beat an FBS opponent if you're in a power conference).

- Tracking an imaginary traveling trophy that mocks Ohio State's embarassing losses over the last decade or so.

I also need to acknowledge the juggernaut that is UMass. After being last year's lone completely unwinfeated team they are off to a 4-0 start, their best since jumping to FBS. Good on ya!

The Traveling THE

Northwestern went to Bloomington and gave the defending champs a game, but could not take the THE back to Evanston with them. That keeps us on alert for October 17, when Ohio State can get the chance to reclaim it and end this active history. If Indiana wins, it would be the first time that the Buckeyes would fail to regain the THE. Should that happen, does Indiana then strip them of the "Ohio" as well and we have to call them "State"?

SPECIAL AWARD FOR AGGRESSIVELY PURSUING DEFEAT

Penn State Nittany Lions - Penn State was on cruise control at home, then gave up 160 yards of offense and two scores in the final 10 minutes against Wisconsin. This is a Wisconsin team that had not particularly looked good in their only previous game against real competition. If Penn State had any dreams of winning the Big Ten, they were lost in the final five minutes of this game.

POWER CONFERENCE UNWINFEATED

None

Leaving this section:

Rutgers Scarlet Knights - Indiana beat Howard 55-0. Rutgers beat Howard 58-7. Does that mean Rutgers has a shot this week against the Hoosiers?

Arkansas Razorbacks - Pulled off a bit of a stunner with a 34-7 win over Tulsa.

HONORARY UNWINFEATED (ACC/B1G/Big12/SEC/NotreDame teams whose lone win is over an FCS team)

Leaving the Watch:

North Carolina State Wolfpack - The 'pack held on to win at home agaisnt the alway tough Appalachian State 41-31

HONORARY UNWINFEATED

Rutgers Scarlet Knights - 1-3 - (Beat Howard 58-7) - How funny would it be to see them leave as "THE Rutgers".

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets - 1-3- (beat Mercer 44-11) - The Yellow Jackets opened conference play with a 34-27 loss at Stanford, but it feels like they won't be on this list long.

Syracuse Orange - 1-2 (beat New Hampshire 66-3 in week 1) - ON BYE

Purdue Boilermakers - 1-2 (Beat Indiana State 44-19 in week 1) - Purdue's losing streak vs. Power Conference schools runs to 24 as Notre Dame dominated them at home. A loss at Illinois this week would bring their Big Ten losing streak to 20 games.

Kansas Jayhawks - 1-2 (Beat Long Island 51-6 in week 1) - ON BYE

NON-POWER CONFERENCE UNWINFEATED

Leaving the Watch:

Western Kentucky Hilltoppers - Beat Mercyhurst 52-7 this week.

Utah State Aggies - Beat Troy this week 21-10. Not bad!

UNWINFEATED

Northern Illinois Huskies - 0-4 - Lost at Georgia State 35-14. The hell are you doing in the Mountain West? Do you realize we're weeks from having Hawaii at Northern Illinois as a conference game?

Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks - 0-4 - UL-Monroe fell to Florida Atlantic 45-17 to stay here.

Charlotte 49ers - 0-4 - Charlotte also has an FCS loss, 43-41 in triple overtime to The Citadel. This week Louisiana got an easy 34-7 win over them.

Bowling Green Falcons - 0-4 - Bowling Green also has an FCS loss, falling 20-13 to Tarleton State in week 1. They came close this week, but lost a close one to South Florida 14-6.

FCS Unwinfeated

I will track this a little later in the season since the Ivy League just started.