College Football Cheat Sheet: Week 4

The college football sprint is off and running. After a fun opening three (or four if you count Week Zero) weekends, we have shifted to Week 4. Conference play now heats up as more games with legitimate stakes are on the slate. We’ve got rivalries, reunions, and trophy games set up for this weekend.

KSR’s College Football Cheat Sheet is back to set the table. Full schedule, top games, matchups to watch, and much more. Let’s football.

The Slate

Top Games

1. No. 12 Utah at No. 14 Oklahoma State
2. No. 6 Tennessee at No. 15 Oklahoma
3. No. 11 USC at No. 18 Michigan
4. No. 24 Illinois at No. 22 Nebraska
5. Georgia Tech at No. 19 Louisville
6. Iowa at Minnesota
7. TCU at SMU
8. No. 13 Kansas State at BYU
9. Arkansas at Auburn
10. Michigan State at Boston College

College Football Gambling Corner

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— Luckett’s Locks: Conference Time

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Homecoming for Josh Heupel

Josh Heupel won a national championship in 2000 as Oklahoma’s quarterback. The southpaw returned to Norman in 2004 as a graduate assistant. Two years later, Heupel was coaching quarterbacks for Bob Stoops at age 30. Five years after that, Heupel was calling plays for the Sooners. Then Stoops decided to make a move following the 2014 season.

After a highly disappointing 8-5 finish, Stoops fired his former quarterback and hired East Carolina offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley. Baker Mayfield stepped in as Oklahoma’s starting quarterback, and the rest is history.

Riley went on an epic run as an offensive coordinator and head coach in Norman but bounced after seven seasons for USC. Oklahoma brought former defensive coordinator Brent Venables back to run the program, but there still seems to be hard feelings for how the relationship between Heupel and Oklahoma ended.

The 46-year-old play-calling head coach has had an incredible decade and brought the veer-and-shoot offense to the SEC at Missouri and Tennessee. The results speak for themselves. Now Heupel appears to have his most well-rounded team on Rocky Top in time for this reunion game.

All eyes will be on the former Oklahoma quarterback and current Tennessee head coach on Saturday night in Norman under the lights. Oklahoma has had some offensive issues early in the season, but Memorial Stadium will be on fire for the program’s first SEC home game.

The matchup between these two programs in Week 4 is about as good as it gets. We’ve got tradition, conference realignment, alma maters, bad feelings, and two hungry fan bases. This one should be fun.

Big matchup in Stillwater

Oklahoma might have the biggest story of the weekend, but Oklahoma State will be playing in the biggest game. We could be getting a preview of the Big 12 Championship Game at Boone Pickens Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Utah and Oklahoma State are seen as two of the top teams in the Big 12. Each has old quarterbacks and an established head coach that have been on the doorstep of both the BCS National Championship Game and the four-team playoff. With the playoff expanded, each will likely get in at some point. The big Week 4 matchup could tell us who has the inside track.

Expect some fireworks in this one.

Will Michigan even try to pass?

USC’s first game in the Big Ten will occur in the Big House. This seems intentional. Lincoln Riley has found another future NFL quarterback in Miller Moss, and the defense surprised many in the Week 1 victory over LSU. But the Trojans are not the story here.

Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore made a big call this week when he decided to bench Davis Warren and give Alex Orji the keys to the offense. A glorified wildcat formation offense is coming to Ann Arbor. What does that look like?

The Wolverines have some element of surprise in this matchup. There is not much known about Orji as a passer, but the quarterback could give the Michigan offense an extra spark in the run game. That extra spark might be enough to beat most Big Ten teams on the schedule.

Is USC one of those teams? We will learn quickly if Riley’s new defensive group is ready for a smash-mouth football.

Important measuring stick for Louisville

Louisville has looked like a wagon through eight quarters of football, but the Cardinals did that against one of the worst teams in the FBS (Jacksonville State) and one of the worst teams in the FCS (Austin Peay) before a weird Week 3 bye arrived on the schedule. Now Jeff Brohm‘s team will host one of the top 5-7 teams in the ACC.

Georgia Tech has already played two power conference games away from home. The Yellow Jackets ran all over Florida State but saw their passing defense shredded by Syracuse quarterback Kyle McCord. Georgia Tech might have some defensive holes, but the offense kind of looks awesome, and quarterback Haynes King is having an outstanding season.

The Jackets can score points and had Louisville on the ropes last season in Atlanta before a sack fumble won the game for the Cards late. We will learn more about Louisville quarterback Tyler Shough and the rest of the new transfer pieces on Saturday afternoon.

Rivalry Matchups

Rivalries make college football great. The last week of the season is the big party, but throughout the season, we will get trophy games and yearly matchups with programs and fan bases that do not like each other. We’ve got a few on tap this weekend.

— Textile Bowl (NC State at Clemson): Dave Doeren‘s NC State team has been highly disappointing to start the season, and true freshman quarterback CJ Bailey will be making his first career start in Death Valley. That could be trouble, but we’re not sure who Clemson is yet. The Tigers looked awful against Georgia and like “The Greatest Show on Turf” against Appalachian State on offense.

— Iron Skillet (TCU at SMU): Former SMU head coach Sonny Dykes will face his former employer for the third time on Saturday as TCU’s head coach. That has added an extra layer of intrigue to this Metroplex rivalry where the winner brings home a skillet trophy. Add in that SMU is now in a power conference and that should give this rivalry some more juice now and moving forward in this series.

— Floyd of Rosedale (Iowa at Minnesota): These two schools will meet for the 118th time on Saturday night in a battle for the pig trophy. The Gophers upset the Hawkeyes in Iowa City last season, and now Iowa will be looking to return the favor. Can either team score points? Do not be surprised if field goals win this game on NBC in the prime-time window. It’s no surprise that this is our degenerate under of the week at 35.5 points. Punting is winning.

The rest of the college football card

— Will Billy Napier get fired this weekend? It probably depends on what happens in the early window against Mississippi State. Starkville might end a coaching tenure this weekend in a battle between what appears to be the two worst teams in the SEC currently.

— Scott Satterfield needs wins and let a big one slip away in Week 2 against Pittsburgh. Cincinnati responded nicely last weekend on the road and has another winnable opportunity at home against Houston to begin Big 12 play. A win gives the Bearcats a clear path to bowl eligibility. A loss could strike up some hot seat chatter.

— Kansas and West Virginia both dropped two games in the non-conference. That puts each in a hole before the nine-game slate begins in the Big 12. A huge swing game could take place in Morgantown. The loser could be looking at a long season if things do not get corrected.

— Speaking of hot seat meters, Arkansas plays Auburn in a game that will generate a narrative one way or the other. Sam Pittman has a chance to cool some of the hot seat talk surrounding his job with a 3-1 start. Two home losses in the first four weeks would turn up the heat on Hugh Freeze just after Auburn made a quarterback change. Life in the SEC is never easy. Expect both of these teams to score some points on Saturday afternoon.

— Undefeated California at winless Florida State. Who saw that coming? Cal fans have been talking smack all week online and could become a legitimate threat in the ACC race. A nightmare season could get worse if the Seminoles drop to 0-4 on Saturday night.

— South Florida gets Miami at their house on Saturday night and will get to take another swing after playing Alabama tough early this season. Head coach Alex Golesh is generating buzz and could become a big name in this upcoming coaching carousel if the Bulls continue to play well in these big spots.

— Colorado is playing in a prime-time matchup on FOX, and no one is talking about them. That’s a change. The Buffaloes host Baylor in a game where both teams could use a win to begin conference play.

— Ranked Kansas State travels to unranked BYU to play in Provo during the after dark window on Saturday. That one has shenanigans written all over it.