Week 4 of the college football season brought one of the best full-week slates we’ve had so far. Six games featured matchups between two ranked teams: four in the SEC and two in the Big Ten.
No. 1 Texas held on for a 20–17 win over No. 14 Tennessee to kick things off. Then in the late afternoon, No. 17 Iowa stunned No. 18 Michigan with a last-second touchdown for the win. No. 21 Florida pulled away from No. 4 Ole Miss, while No. 2 Georgia rolled over Oklahoma. No. 20 Oregon beat No. 12 USC, 41–27, behind backup QB Dylan Raiola’s two touchdowns after starter Dante Moore was injured and taken to a hospital.
Here are Week 4’s top moments and takeaways from an action-packed slate.
First-year coaches roll to emphatic victories
When Florida and UCLA hired Jon Sumrall and Bob Chesney, respectively, to be their new head coaches last winter, they landed two of the more exciting available candidates. Both Sumrall and Chesney exceeded expectations in the Group of 6, ushering their squads to historic College Football Playoff berths.
So while fans understood that it still takes a while to build a perennial winner, one lasting side effect of Indiana’s rapid rise in the portal-centric era is that other programs in need of a facelift equally expect quick results out of a new hire.
Through that lens, it’s impossible to look at Florida and UCLA’s hires as anything but slam dunks thus far. And both Sumrall and Chesney not only rattled home jams on Saturday, they hung on the rim in the process.
Chesney’s Bruins forced five turnovers and rumbled for 266 yards in a 54–3 dismantling of Maryland. Sumrall’s Gators chomped a fourth-ranked Ole Miss team fresh off of defeating LSU, running the ball down the Rebels’ throats and making explosive play after explosive play against an answer-less Pete Golding defense.
It’s not just the physical, moving-men-against-their-will brand of football their teams play. If program-changing vibes could be quantified, both Chesney and Sumrall have them in spades. Their sidelines are humming with energy during games. They exude confidence and their players feed off of it.
It’s still early in the season. But after 4–0 starts, both Florida and UCLA have to be feeling especially good about what the holiday season brought them last year. —Tim Capurso
Jeremiah Smith’s Heisman campaign remains as strong as ever
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Smith just broke the internet again. The Ohio State receiver has been no stranger to highlight-reel plays and performances worth writing home about in his career with the Buckeyes.
But he may have outdone himself with Saturday’s monster game in a 42–19 win over Illinois. Smith caught 12 passes for 217 yards and four receiving touchdowns, the latter of which tied a program record. It’s the first time an Ohio State player has had double-digit receptions and at least 200 yards and four scores in a game.
Each of Smith’s touchdown catches were prime examples of why NFL scouts’ salivary glands react the same to his game tape as they do to a juicy, T-bone steak. His first score came on a back-shoulder fade in which he perfectly leveraged his body against the Illinois defensive back to sky for the grab. His second touchdown saw him toast the Fighting Illini secondary downfield on his route, then juke Illinois defensive back Mac Resetich so badly after the catch that the poor Fighting Illini defender looked like he was attempting to tackle a ghost. Smith worked the back shoulder fade again for his third score, this time getting one foot down for a beautiful toe-tap touchdown. His fourth touchdown was his magnum opus of the game. Like a basketball player in iso mode on the wing, Smith crossed up Illinois’s Juice Clarke, creating a gulf of space for Julian Sayin to find him for an easy score.
Seriously, look at this route.
Sayin and Smith showing off their ELITE connection@OhioStateFB pic.twitter.com/zVgqFFDBRf
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 26, 2026
The Fighting Illini tried aiding their corners with safety help over the top against Smith at moments throughout the game. Nothing helped. Smith is an almost impossible cover for an opposing corner.
It’s almost as if Smith saw Trinidad Chambliss’s Heisman-esque performance last week, heard all the Jadan Baugh talk and said, Hey, don’t forget about me now. —T.C.
Texas has a championship defense
When Steve Sarkisian hired Will Muschamp as the team’s defensive coordinator this offseason, it raised eyebrows. Not because Muschamp’s reputation is doubted—he was the defensive coordinator for Nick Saban’s 2003 national championship team and he coordinated some of the best defenses in Texas history during his first stint with the Longhorns from 2008 to ’10.
No, the move raised some eyebrows because the defense had produced strong results under former coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski. But Sarkisian seemed to imply that he had to micromanage the Texas defense, taking some of his attention away from the offense.
“Having the opportunity to hire Will Muschamp provides us the leadership to take our defense to another level,” Sarkisian said at the time.
Boy, has it ever. Saturday’s 20–17 win over No. 14 Tennessee was a Muschamp master class in defense. The Longhorns lived in the Volunteers’ backfield, racking up 10 sacks, five of them from Colin Simmons, as the unit thrived off of Muschamp’s trademark aggressiveness.
It was thought that a more experienced Arch Manning, with a bevy of new weapons in tow, would be the reason why this Texas team took a step forward in 2026. Yet, it’s been the Muschamp defense that is the biggest reason why this program has leveled up.
The Longhorns have much to sort out offensively. But they have arguably the highest floor of any team in the nation right now, thanks to a defense that can completely dominate games and has turned the water off for some of the best teams in the country. —T.C.
College football Week 4 updates, highlights
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