Winner: Cameron Ward and Washington State
A Top 25 matchup between Washington State and Oregon State saw the Cougars come out on top, 38-35, on Saturday.
A big reason for Washington State’s success this season is junior quarterback Cameron Ward. Ward threw for 404 yards and four touchdowns and added a rushing touchdown in the win over the Beavers. This brings his totals to 1,390 passing yards with 16 total touchdowns and zero interceptions this season.
Washington State improved to 4-0 but has a tough conference schedule ahead of it. The Cougars have away contests versus UCLA and Oregon, then close the season with a home matchup versus Colorado and an away game against Washington.
Ward’s development in his second year starting for the Cougars is really showing so far. If he can continue to take care of the ball, Washington State could make some noise in a competitive Pac-12.
Loser: Brian Ferentz
Other than Iowa fans, there can’t be a sane person who willingly watches the Hawkeyes’ offense.
Coming into this season, college football fans knew that Iowa’s offense was bad. Iowa even included a new clause in offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz’s contract, stipulating that Iowa would need to average 25 points per game for his contract to auto-renew.
The Hawkeyes scored zero points versus Penn State on Saturday. Iowa came into the matchup averaging 28 points per game, but the shutout loss dropped that average to 21.3.
The offense had a whopping 78 yards and the Hawkeyes didn’t even have 15 minutes of possession. Both of these aren’t even the most shocking stats, as Iowa had the same amount of first downs and turnovers at four.
For Ferentz to hit part of the clause in his contract, Iowa will need to score 27 points in each of its remaining eight games.
Winner: Jalen Milroe
After being benched for Alabama’s Week 3 matchup, redshirt sophomore quarterback Jalen Milroe led his team to a 24-10 victory over No. 15 Ole Miss on Saturday.
Throughout the early part of this season, many questions surrounded this Alabama quarterback room, especially after the poor performances from redshirt sophomore Tyler Buchner and redshirt freshman Ty Simpson against South Florida.
If there was anything that fans of the Crimson Tide needed to feel better about their situation, it was the performance from Milroe, only throwing four incompletions with one interception.
Not only did Milroe perform well against a top-15 team, he led his team to a much-needed SEC West victory, keeping Alabama’s hopes alive for a conference championship run.
Though all the nerves from Bama fans may not be calmed, they have to feel a little better about their chances the rest of the way if Milroe can perform like he did against the Rebels on a more consistent basis.
Loser: Coach Prime
Coach Deion Sanders led the Colorado Buffaloes up to No. 19 in the AP rankings after starting 3-0. However, after Week 4, Coach Prime and his boys have fully fallen out of the rankings after being demolished by Oregon, 42-6.
Due to the lopsided loss, it appears Colorado may have been overhyped early in the season and is not that close to being a Top 25 team.
Much talk from the media has arisen after the Buffaloes’ hot start, but also because of the coaching antics of Sanders. It has become apparent Oregon head coach Dan Lanning has not been a fan of the hype for the Colorado program.
“I don’t remember them winning anything,” Lanning said this summer.
Lanning didn’t stop there, as he continued to take shots at coach Prime and the Buffaloes in his pregame speech.
“They’re fighting for clicks, we’re fighting for wins,” Lanning said.
If there was anything good that came out of the day for Sanders, it was the way he handled the loss. Rather than ending his press conference when the Colorado sports information director said it was time, he let the media continue to ask questions.
“I ain’t got nowhere to go,” Sanders said.
Regardless, there is no doubt that Sanders took a big loss on the field this week.
Winner: Rutgers against the spread
The Rutgers Scarlet Knights, who have notably been Big Ten bottom feeders for the better part of a decade, not only find themselves 3-1 on the season but are also 3-0-1 against the spread.
While they were just mauled by the Michigan Wolverines, a push is still good for this group of medieval New Jerseyans.
Coach Greg Schiano and his New Jersey round table must have a roulette wheel and a bookie, because if you’ve been putting your money on his boys against the spread this season, you’re sitting real pretty on the pile of money you’ve made.
While the spread has yet to drop for their next game, the men in scarlet are most likely getting a ton of points versus the Wagner Seahawks. I’d still place a fiver on Schiano’s boys, since they covered the 48.5 points they received from the spread last year when they defeated Wagner 66-7.
Hopefully, Rutgers has a good season when it comes to pure wins and losses. But I’m sure bettors could care less as long as it continues its success against the spread for upcoming games.
Loser: Catholics
I know it’s a very strong statement to call Catholics losers, but the way in which Notre Dame fell to Ohio State this week was just pathetic.
On the final two plays of the game, while attempting to make a goal-line stand up 14-10, the Fighting Irish had just 10 men present on defense. One has to think maybe they were leaving a spot on defense for Jesus.
All jokes aside, in the two most crucial plays of the game, missing a player right there is possibly the difference between winning and losing. Which is exactly what happened, as Ohio State scored on the final play for a 17-14 victory.
I’m sure the Fighting Irish could have used the Holy Ghost on defense with just seconds left as it let the Buckeyes secure a Top 10 win, which now sees them ranked all the way at No. 4 on the AP poll.