College Football Week 4 Winners and Losers: Michigan not done yet, a wake-up call for Oklahoma

Week 4 of the 2024 college football season gave us our first real taste of the wackiness the latest round of conference realignment has brought to the sport.

The Saturday slate was headlined by a trio of games featuring new conference rivals. In Norman, Tennessee won an emotional return to Oklahoma for coach and former Sooners national title-winning quarterback Josh Heupel. Meanwhile, USC came up short against the defending champs in the Big House, while Utah brute-forced its way to a win over Oklahoma State in Stillwater.

That’s just the beginning of the action we saw over the weekend. Teams around the country are starting to get into the meat of conference play, and we’re getting a clearer picture of who is a contender (and who isn’t).

Here are the winners and losers from Week 4 of the college football season.

Winner: Michigan is still a Big Ten contender

Folks, it’s possible that reports of the Wolverines’ demise were greatly exaggerated.

After Michigan was eviscerated at home by now-No. 1 Texas, many wrote off this team as rebuilding in Year 1 under Sherrone Moore. And while that’s still undeniably the case, the ceiling may be just a bit higher than we expected, even with this team’s clear and well-documented flaws.

Davis Warren struggled under center in the first three games, prompting Moore to start Alex Orji against the Trojans on Saturday, instead. The staff clearly doesn’t trust Orji throwing the ball, as he attempted just 12 passes in total for 32 yards through the air compared to his 43 on the ground.

The difference here proved to be the fact that, unlike in the Texas loss, Michigan won the battle in the trenches. It ran for 290 yards on the Trojans, and while Donovan Edwards averaged more than five yards a carry, it was Kalel Mullings who stole the show, racking up 159 yards and two touchdowns on 17 carries, including a 63-yard run that set up the game-winning touchdown.

Defensively, Michigan gave up some big plays but came up with a pair of turnovers and held the Trojans to just 7 of 19 on third down attempts.

I’m not saying I suddenly think the Wolverines are going to beat Ohio State, but with the Buckeyes being entirely untested to this point and teams like Oregon and Penn State still working through some early season jank, I don’t see any reason to rule Michigan out of the Big Ten race just yet.

Loser: USC can’t stop losing like this

Lincoln Riley’s tenure in Los Angeles has been undeniably successful — it’s very easy to forget how far the program slid under late-stage Clay Helton — but man, have the Trojans lost some games that are hard to swallow.

Though it was more competitive, this game felt similar in some ways to last season’s loss to Notre Dame and the way USC has fared against Kyle Whittingham’s Utah teams. At this stage, Riley’s program just does not fare well against teams that are built the way Michigan is.

That would be less concerning if it weren’t for the fact that the Trojans are in the Big Ten now, and Saturday’s result wasn’t the most encouraging early return for how a program built on an air raid identity with a shoddy defense can fare in a much more physical league.

Speaking of the defense, the positive impressions from the first few weeks were all but thrown out the window here. This unit isn’t good enough under first-year coordinator D’Anton Lynn despite a litany of personnel changes, and it’s going to continue to be a limiting factor when it plays teams that can bully its defensive line and win at the point of attack — even if that team has no passing game to speak of, as was the case on Saturday.

USC avoids Ohio State and Oregon on the schedule this season, so it still certainly has a chance to compete in the conference. But this team continues to be plagued by many of the same problems in Year 3 under Riley, and that’s a concern for a team that still has a top-40 remaining strength of schedule, per ESPN’s Football Power Index.

Winner: Tennessee doesn’t flinch under the lights in Norman

Tennessee entered Saturday’s game at Oklahoma as a decent betting favorite, but a night game — with College GameDay in town — in front of a raucous crowd in the Sooners’ highly anticipated SEC opener looked like a prime letdown spot.

Instead, the Volunteers earned their first road win against a top-15 program since 2006 in a 25-15 game that didn’t feel as close as the final score showed.

Nico Iamaleava played well in this game, but once again, it wasn’t exactly a banner day for the passing offense outside of a handful of explosive plays. Instead, Tennessee once again relied on its devastating run game to the tune of more than 150 yards on the ground, including 92 from lead back Dylan Sampson.

What really makes this team look like not just a playoff contender but also a national title contender, however, is the defense. Through four weeks, it looks like it could be one of the best units in the entire country.

It held the Sooners to 222 yards of offense, forcing three turnovers and ultimately a quarterback change as Jackson Arnold was sent to the bench following a rough outing.

Oklahoma may have some issues, and games later in the year against Alabama and Georgia will tell us much more about this team’s postseason aptitude. For now, though, there are few teams in the country that have impressed me more through the first month.

Loser: A rude awakening for Oklahoma

On the other sideline, the vibes were not nearly as good on Saturday night. The Sooners looked sluggish on their way to a 3-0 start, and in their toughest test of the season to this point, they certainly failed.

While the defense struggled to get penetration up front, it ultimately allowed fewer than three yards per carry and played pretty well all things considered. The offense is a complete mess, unfortunately.

Arnold has struggled behind an offensive line that looks like just as much of an issue as we thought it might be entering the season, and considering backup Michael Hawkins Jr. at the very least sparked the offense when he entered the game, one would imagine that coach Brent Venables will continue to roll with the true freshman for the foreseeable future.

There were questions about how well Oklahoma would compete in the SEC in Year 1, and it’s fair to be concerned about that at this point given it still has games against Texas, Ole Miss, Alabama and LSU.

Venables orchestrated one of the most impressive turnarounds in the nation last season, going from 6-7 in Year 1 to 10-3 in Year 2. Winning 10 games this fall seems unlikely, however, and I’m not sure what a four or five-loss debut SEC campaign would do for Venables’ standing in Norman.

Quick Hitters – Winners

• Stanford: In a strange Friday night cross-country matchup against Syracuse, the Cardinal won a thriller in their ACC debut against a hot team.

• Illinois: Bret Bielema may have another high-quality Illinois team this fall. It’s ranked and continues to climb after surviving in overtime against Nebraska on Friday.

• South Alabama: Don’t look now, but the Jaguars head to LSU next weekend after scoring 135 COMBINED POINTS in the last two weeks. Running back Fluff Bothwell already sits at 359 rushing yards with six touchdowns on the year, fueling the offensive attack.

• Clemson: Since an ugly Week 1 loss to Georgia, all the Tigers have done is drop 66 points and 59 points in their last two games. Appalachian State and NC State may be worse than expected, but in the ACC, this is enough for me to say that Clemson is the league’s top contender along with Miami.

• Temple: The Owls were on legitimate 0-12 watch this season, but luckily, they found an opponent dealing with even bigger issues than they are in a 45-29 win over Utah State and interim coach Nate Dreiling.

• Penn State: I don’t care about Penn State dismantling Kent State. I care slightly more about the fact that the Nittany Lions outgained the Golden Flashes 718-67 in this game.

• Rutgers: There’s a lot of optimism at Rutgers this fall, but this team was untested through three weeks. Virginia Tech isn’t nearly as good as we thought it could be, but this was a promising road win, regardless.

• Utah: Kyle Whittingham, you mad lad. You’ve done it again. Despite the expectation being that Cam Rising would play against Oklahoma State on Saturday, Isaac Wilson — brother of Zach Wilson — made the start instead. He wasn’t great, but the Cowboys were even worse as Utah did Utah things en route to earning a huge win for the Big 12 conference picture.

• Monmouth: Put another FCS upset on the board as the Hawks outlasted Florida International 45-42, drilling a game-winning kick in the final minutes.

• Florida State: Well, it’s not going to be a winless season in Tallahassee. A 14-9 win over a Cal team that didn’t score a touchdown is far from encouraging considering this offense still looks pre-modern, but FSU not only avoided an 0-4 start but also notched an ACC win.

• Iowa: The Hawkeyes still have no passing game whatsoever, but they ran for 272 yards on Minnesota in a 31-14 win to recapture the Floyd of Rosedale after a loss last fall ended an eight-year winning streak in the rivalry.

• BYU: No one paid much attention to the Cougars coming into the season, but after BYU issued an absolute beatdown against one of the Big 12 favorites in Kansas State, they certainly are now.

• Colorado: The Buffaloes secured a much-needed win in improbable fashion on Saturday night, scoring a game-tying touchdown on a Hail Mary as time expired before beating Baylor in overtime when the Bears fumbled on the way to the end zone for a potential tying touchdown.

Quick Hitters – Losers

• Nebraska: The Cornhuskers still have what is probably their best team in years, but Friday night felt like one they let get away. Nebraska has now been shut out in eight consecutive overtime games, a streak that dates back to 2014.

• Mississippi State: What may have been the Bulldogs’ only chance to win an SEC game in 2024 went by the wayside as they lost 45-28 to Florida and a lame-duck Billy Napier. To make matters worse, quarterback Blake Shapen — a rare bright spot through four weeks — suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in this game.

• North Carolina: Losing to James Madison would have certainly been forgivable. Losing to James Madison 70-50 in one of the biggest defensive collapses in program history is straight-up inexcusable. Coach Mack Brown apparently felt the same way, reportedly offering to walk away from the job during a bizarre postgame speech. The players allegedly urged him to stay and took the blame, but a “retirement” announcement at some point this season would be far from a surprise.

• Kansas: Entering the year, I thought the Jayhawks were a Big 12 title sleeper if Jalon Daniels could stay healthy. Daniels is fully healthy (as far as we know), and this team is 1-3 after squandering an 11-point fourth-quarter lead to West Virginia following a rain delay. It’s been a very disappointing season in Lawrence so far.

• Northern Illinois: Our hopes and dreams of a MAC playoff contender were quickly dashed. Northern Illinois’ status as a ranked team was terminated following an overtime loss to a Buffalo team that is better than expected.

• Auburn: Hugh Freeze’s inability to find a quarterback could prove to be his downfall at Auburn. Hank Brown is clearly not the answer after throwing three picks in a loss to Arkansas, and the Tigers went back to Payton Thorne in the second half. This is maybe the most disappointing team in the SEC so far.

• Memphis: So much for those CFP auto-bid hopes. After earning a nice resume win at Florida State, the Tigers forgot to play defense in a 56-44 loss at Navy in which it allowed over 400 all-purpose yards and six touchdowns to quarterback Blake Horvath.

• Oklahoma State: The Cowboys just don’t have it on offense, which is hard to believe after the way they ended the season last year. Ollie Gordon II has been nowhere near as productive, totaling just 42 yards on 11 carries in the loss to Utah, and veteran quarterback Alan Bowman was benched.

• TCU: As if losing on the road to his former team in the last iron skillet game for the foreseeable future by three scores wasn’t bad enough, Sonny Dykes was ejected from the game for unsportsmanlike conduct.

• Cal: The tweets are fun, but do you know what’s even more fun? Finding the end zone a single time when you outgain an opponent 410-284. The Golden Bears wouldn’t know much about that.

• Baylor: The loss to Colorado does not feel like one Dave Aranda could afford if he wants to stick around in Waco in 2025. At least he didn’t make matters worse after the game by revealing that the defensive play call on the busted Hail Mary coverage was given the name “Victory Cigar.”

• Kansas State: Is everyone really going to let Utah waltz into this conference and win it in Year 1 with a backup quarterback? After the Wildcats were absolutely bodied by BYU in what was the worst start of Avery Johnson’s young career, it feels fair to ask.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: College Football Week 4 Winners and Losers: Michigan not done yet, a wake-up call for Oklahoma