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Florida coach Jon Sumrall reset the culture, woke up The Swamp, and suddenly has the Gators in the SEC contender tier after a ginormous 52-28 win over fourth-ranked Ole Miss.

The Gators blew the doors off an Ole Miss defense that squashed Lane Kiffin’s offense a week ago. Let’s start there. 

Florida has one of the best one-two running back combos in college football with Jadan Baugh and Duke Clark. The pair ran wild Saturday afternoon for 268 yards and four combined touchdowns. Quarterback Aaron Philo looked like a quality SEC quarterback. The Gators tallied 498 yards and put up a 50 Burger. Well done! 

In the mother of all letdown spots, Ole Miss came out flat-footed and got thoroughly beaten. Trinidad Chambliss did some great things individually, but the Rebels sorely missed star running back Kewan Lacy. 

All of a sudden, Florida looks like a team that can hang with and beat any program in the SEC. If the Gators can keep the wheels from falling off in their tricky upcoming stretch, this team should be well-positioned to compete for something serious this season.

It’s never happening for USC and Lincoln Riley.

At home, against a backup quarterback most of the night, USC came up short in a big spot again, dropping perhaps its biggest game of the season 41-27 to No. 20 Oregon. 

All offseason, USC touted new defensive coordinator Gary Patterson. This year would be different, they shouted. It was not. The Trojans’ defense got gouged for 41 points and 504 yards in a primetime game. 

Two things can be true: USC should face some tough questions for falling short for the umpteenth time in a big spot while Oregon earned a ton of credit for a gutsy road victory in a had-to-have-it situation. 

The first half of this game understandably got overshadowed by Dante Moore’s injury. The Ducks’ star quarterback got leveled on a dirty hit and exited the field to a nearby hospital. Thoughts and prayers go out to Moore. That was a scary situation. 

In Moore’s absence, former Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola was sensational. He finished 19-of-25 for 289 yards and two touchdowns, and looked unflappable. It sucks his redemption arc had to happen because Moore went down, but he did an excellent job when his number was called.

Outside of Raiola, a big hat tip goes out to the Oregon offensive line, which didn’t allow a sack all night. 

Oregon suddenly looks like a team that might’ve saved its season. USC failed to beat its own stigma and now has a difficult road the rest of the way.

Iowa got outgained by 144 yards and needed some late heroics, but by offensive genius or karmic intervention, walked off Michigan with a game-winning touchdown pass to escape The Big House with a 20-19 win. 

Down 19-14 with less than two minutes remaining, the Hawkeyes marched down the field on an 11-play, 91-yard drive capped by a delicious back shoulder touchdown pass to Reece Vander Zee as time expired. It felt oddly fitting that Michigan lost like that considering the highway robbery that went down in Week 1 against Western Michigan. 

Lost in the chaos of the ending, Bryce Underwood had what was probably his best game in a Michigan uniform. The Wolverines outplayed Iowa in many facets, but failed to put the Hawkeyes away.

Don’t look now, but the Big Ten suddenly feels wide open, and Iowa possesses what might be the most workable schedule in the conference. 

Top-ranked Texas leaned on its defense and shook off an uneven offensive performance to beat Tennessee 20-17 to remain undefeated. 

Despite the win, things got weird late. 

Up 10 points with little time remaining, Texas gave up a late touchdown that cut the lead to three. Then Tennessee recovered a sidewinder onside kick that gave the Vols one last chance to cause chaos. Faizon Brandon heaved a hopeful Hail Mary into the autumn air… but Texas swatted it down in the end zone to survive a hairy last few minutes.

The Texas defense set the tone, making life hell on Tennessee’s offense. Longhorns’ star Colin Simmons tallied FIVE sacks and was a human wrecking ball. Defensive coordinator Will Muschamp did an excellent job of making Brandon look every bit like a freshman in his first huge game. The Longhorns gave up only 221 yards. Seriously impressive stuff. 

Brandon likely has a big career ahead of him, but Saturday was a tough showing. He struggled to navigate the pocket, only averaged five yards per completion, and was running for his life every time he dropped back to pass.

For all the offseason hubbub about the Texas offense, there are still plenty of kinks that need working out. Arch Manning still hasn’t put together a cohesive game. The run game struggled without Hollywood Smothers. The offensive line also had a tough day. 

Texas is good, but far from the most convincing SEC team we’ve watched this season.

Wake Forest pulled off a major road upset, beating No. 16 Louisville 30-27. 

The Demon Deacons’ offense went word for word, bar for bar, with a high-flying Cardinals’ offense, and blocked the potential game-tying field goal attempt to wrap up the win. 

After a disastrous season a year ago at North Carolina, quarterback Gio Lopez carved up the Cardinals through the air. Wide receiver Carlos Hernandez put the team on his back with a nine-catch, 194-yard, one-touchdown game. The defense came to play too, holding Louisville to six points in the second half. 

Does any team want to be the second-best team in the ACC?

Did Luke Fickell just save his job? 

After falling behind early, Wisconsin scored twice in the final four minutes and staved off a potential game-winning drive to deliver a program-altering 24-20 upset over No. 13 Penn State. 

Badgers’ quarterback Colton Joseph tossed three interceptions, but came up clutch late. The defense got gashed early, but limited the Penn State offense to just three second-half points. Fickell, who entering the season was on one of the hottest seats in America, can sleep a little easier tonight after notching the biggest win of his tenure. 

Meanwhile, Penn State looked a lot like the Iowa State team we watched last year. I’m not sure I could feel any less confident about Matt Campbell and the Nittany Lions the rest of the way. 

It’s so over for John Mateer and Oklahoma.

Georgia thrashed Oklahoma 41-13 in a game that didn’t even feel that close. It’s late September, and the Sooners are probably out of College Football Playoff contention. Wild times.

Mateer was an unmitigated disaster and committed one of the most hilariously bad fumbles you’ll ever see. The Sooners still can’t block anyone or run the football. It’s grim out here.

Georgia played like Georgia. The defense was excellent, and the offense was effective, even if it felt like that unit never needed to get out of first gear. 

Oklahoma has a brutal schedule the rest of the way. This season could get ugly very quickly.

It’s time to have a very uncomfortable conversation about Marcel Reed.

A week removed from getting pantsed by Kentucky, the Aggies got throttled 35-6 by LSU in a game that all but knocks Texas A&M out of CFP contention. 

LSU responded to last week’s gut-punch loss to Ole Miss by throttling Texas A&M. But the story of this game was about how bad the A&M offense looked with Reed pulling the strings. 

Reed had a disastrous night, finishing 10-of-26 for 106 yards and one interception. He played so poorly he got hooked in the fourth quarter, sparking short- and long-term questions about his position as the team’s starting quarterback.

Kamario Taylor has the goods, man.

In what felt like the biggest home game in years, Mississippi State rallied with 14 fourth-quarter points to pull away late in a 31-24 win over No. 19 Missouri. It was Mississippi State’s first top-25 matchup at home since 2014.

After falling behind early, Missouri did an excellent job of grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck in the second and third quarters. Quarterback Austin Simmons was dealin’. The Tigers’ defense cut out Mississippi State’s big plays. Entering the fourth quarter, it felt like Missouri had solved the Bulldogs’ offense.

But special players make special plays, and that’s exactly what Taylor did down the stretch. 

With the game hanging in the balance, Taylor laced a 24-yard rocket to Sanfrisco Magee to put the Bulldogs up seven. Then the defense finished the job by getting a game-sealing stop to close out the game. 

Don’t look now, but the soon-to-be ranked Bulldogs are 4-0 and have a monster matchup with Alabama next week. 

Oklahoma State can’t stop scoring.

Two weeks after stunning Oregon, the Cowboys’ offense delivered once again in a big 41-24 win over West Virginia in Morgantown.

Quarterback Drew Mestemaker was predictably excellent, finishing 20-of-27 for 389 yards and three touchdowns, good for 14.4 yards per completion. Running back Caleb Hawkins had a stellar night too, tallying 180 yards and one score. After a subpar first game against Tulsa, these two have picked up right where they left off last season.

For parts of this game, West Virginia looked incredible. Michael Hawkins Jr. and Cam Cook remain one of the most rowdy backfields in college football, and the Mountaineers have emerged as the biggest pain-in-the-ass team in the country.

The Big 12 is going to have a heck of a title race. I have a sneaky suspicion these two teams will play a role in deciding how that shakes out one way or the other.

College Football Week 4 gave us the kind of Saturday that starts changing how the season looks.

We start with Florida’s emphatic win over Ole Miss and what it means for a Gators team that suddenly has to be taken seriously in the SEC race. Then we turn to Oregon’s wild road win at USC, where an early injury changed the entire shape of the game and forced the Ducks to find a very different way to win. Iowa stunned Michigan at the gun, Texas stymied Tennessee in Knoxville, and several teams that entered the weekend with real expectations now have much harder questions to answer.

From there, we run through the scores that made us ask, “Am I hearing correctly that…?” Wisconsin erased a 17-point deficit at Penn State, Mississippi State moved to 4-0, Wake Forest pulled off a road upset at Louisville, Cincinnati kept pounding people on the ground, and Northwestern pushed Indiana far harder than expected.

Finally, we sort through a major reshuffling of our AP Top 25 ballot. Six teams drop out, six new teams move in, and the middle of the rankings gets messy fast as we try to separate résumé, projection and what we actually believe after four weeks of football.

Plus, Week 4 Reverbs, listener reactions and all the usual late-night chaos.

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