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USA Today Sports Media Group
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Pete Fiutak

College Football Roundup Week 4: Overrated, Underrated, What It All Means

College football Week 4 roundup with the 5 things that matter, winners and losers, overrated and underrated aspects to the weekend, and what it all means


College Football Week 4 Roundup

College Football Week 4 Roundup
CFN 1-131 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Week 4 Scoreboard | Week 5 Early Lines
What 12-Team Playoff Would Look Like
Hot Seat Coach Rankings
AP Rankings | Coaches Poll

Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak
– Beating Sparty One Really Big Thing
– Georgia-Kent State Most Overrated Thing
– Cincinnati is good? Most Underrated Thing
– Who’s the 4th CFP team? What It All Means, Week 4

Winners & Losers From Week 4

Winner: James Madison

Who leads the nation in run defense? By a mile it’s the newbie to the FBS world.

James Madison is allowing just 28 yards per game. Appalachian State ran over Texas A&M for 181 yards in its 17-14 win a few weeks ago. It ran for just 63 in its 32-28 home loss to the Dukes.

By the way, JMU – who also destroyed the Middle Tennessee team that just beat Miami – is still unbeaten. Texas A&M isn’t.

Loser: Tulane

We were right there with you, Tulane.

The Green Wave started the season 3-0 with a great win at Kansas State. We would’ve loved to have ranked them over K-State, and then Oklahoma – who lost to the Wildcats this weekend – and make them a national thing, but …

Southern Miss 27, Tulane 24.

Winner: Clemson QB DJ Uiagalelei & Wake Forest QB Sam Hartman

Everyone wants to bench DJ Uiagalelei for super-recruit Cade Klubnik, and everyone want to blame him – at least partially – for Clemson’s offensive woes.

All he did against Wake Forest was potentially save the season, throwing for 371 yards and five touchdowns with no picks. He also ran for 52 yards in the 51-45 double overtime win.

Sam Hartman came back a few weeks ago from his blood clotting issue, and he almost pulled it off against the Tigers. He threw for 337 yards and six touchdowns without an interception.

Loser: UMass passing game

Without getting too deep into it, you have to be awful at throwing the football to have a passer rating lower than 90. UConn threw 17 picks and didn’t go down the field last year, and it was the nation’s least efficient attack with a 92.32 rating. 2020 Bowling Green and 2019 Northwestern finished in the 80s.

After four games, UMass has completed 47% of its passes for 240 yards with one touchdown and six interceptions for a rating of 62.5.

Winner: Air Force running game

Air Force led the nation with 328 rushing yards per game last season. That’s what it does. It led the nation in 2020, was second behind Navy in 2019, was third in 2018, fourth in 2017, and it keeps going from there.

Minnesota is second in the nation averaging 295 rushing yards per game. Air Force? After hitting Nevada for 461 yards and the third five-touchdown game of the four so far, it’s averaging 412 rushing yards per game.

Loser: Colorado run defense

It’s no fun to keep hammering on Colorado. It’s one of the nation’s most beautiful schools, everyone around the football program is great, and this team is really, really struggling against the run.

Hawaii is having problems. It’s giving up 261 rushing yards per game – the second-most in the nation.

Colorado has allowed 1,293 rushing yards in four games. It’s giving up 323 yards an outing, allowing seven yards per carry, and gave up 16 touchdowns. That’s more yards than eight teams allowed in 13 or more games in all of 2021.

Winner: Michigan RB Blake Corum

He’s not the best back in college football right now – shhhhhh, it’s not popular to go here in a Bijan world, but Chase Brown of Illinois has been wonderful. However, Corum is on the hottest run with a nation-leading nine touchdowns.

He got one in each of the first two games and came up with five in the win over UConn – but that’s UConn. Against Maryland, with the team needing a steady force, he carried it 30 times for 243 yards and two scores in the win.

Loser: Houston penalties

Penalties aren’t the whole reason why Houston has been one of the stranger disappointments of the young 2022 season, but they’re not a plus.

It managed to slip past Rice, but it gave away 110 yards on ten penalties in the process. That way hardly an outsider with ten or more sins committed in each of the first four games.

Next up: Tulane. It’s been flagged just 15 times in four game for 120 yards. Houston gave up 121 yards in penalties a few weeks ago in the loss to Texas Tech.

– Beating Sparty One Really Big Thing
– Georgia-Kent State Most Overrated Thing
– Cincinnati is good? Most Underrated Thing
– Who’s the 4th CFP team? What It All Means, Week 4

NEXT: The really big Week 4 thing was …

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