Winners and Losers: College Football Week 4

Winner: Sam Pittman and the Hogs

WOOOOOOOOOOOOO. PIG. SOOIE.

Arkansas is indeed back. The Razorbacks stormed into AT&T Stadium and threw down Texas A&M in a 20-10 game that never seemed close. The Aggies have scored just 20 combined points against Power 5 competition this year, and they tumbled from No. 7 to No. 15 following the loss.

Despite leading the all-time series 44-33-1, Arkansas had lost the previous 9 meetings, all since the Aggies had joined the SEC.

Arkansas QB KJ Jefferson finished with 212 yards passing, the most of any quarterback the A&M defense has faced all season by nearly double.

Arkansas will move on to play Georgia (ugh) in Athens this upcoming weekend, and oh boy will this really determine a lot of takes considering UGA’s marquee win versus Clemson continues to diminish by the day.

Loser: Dabo Swinney (plus ACC CFP hopes)

...and speaking of Clemson, wow are they so, so sad.

The days of Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence are behind the Tigers, and it looks like the short-lived dynasty may be coming to a close.

Clemson’s 36-game winning streak against unranked opponents and their 97-straight weeks in the AP Top 10 both snapped as NC State gets a colossal home win.

The biggest loser of this isn’t the Tigers as a whole, but more on the shoulders of Dabo “BYOG: Bring Your Own Guts” Swinney, who relied once again heavily on the talents of DJ Uiagalelei to get the job done (and going 12-26, 111 yds, 2 TD and a pick is not).

The era of Clemson dominance is over, let’s see if the rest of the ACC is decent enough to get over them.

Sean Tucker rushes for his second touchdown of the day against UAlbany. Photo by Jack Wallace

Winner: The Legend of #44

Within Central New York, the Legend of 44 is timeless.

College football icons like Jim Brown, Ernie Davis and Floyd Little have had great success with the number worn, and it looks like the Orange may have their next in line.

But with the emergence of star running back Sean Tucker, the Orange may have found their next 44.

Tucker has amassed 536 yards and 7 touchdowns on 83 carries, giving him the second-most yards and the second-most touchdowns on only the 10th-most carries of all running backs in the country. He also has the highest yards-per-carry (6.5) of any running back over 80 carries.

With this success, the Orange have won three of their first four games for the first time since 2018.

Loser: Graham Mertz (oof)

Remember when Wisconsin and Graham Mertz had all the hype in the world to finally win the Big Ten?

Whelp.

Let’s walk through Mertz’s stats since his breakout performances against Illinois and Michigan last fall.

Three touchdowns, 11 interceptions, and an average of 178 passing yards per game. Oh, and a 3-5 record in his last eight starts. Don’t forget his 566 yards this season ranks 99th among all QBs, one touchdown is tied for 115th, and his six interceptions is tied for 117th.

Wisconsin still has to play Michigan and Iowa, though Illinois, Rutgers, Northwestern and Nebraska on the schedule still *should* get the Badgers to a bowl game. Sadly, expectations of a big-time season may already be gone.

The W logo for Wisconsin is indeed misleading.

Winner: 4th Quarter Ducks

The Oregon Ducks are rolling.

Four straight wins including their hardest game down, and Oregon looks like a playoff team.

The most impressive part: the Ducks have won or led in every fourth quarter, outsourcing opponents 55-17 in the final frame.

While the Pac-12 North is very weak outside of Euguene this season, at UCLA and at Utah will be tricky trap games for the Ducks.

Given Stanford’s big win against USC, we’ll see if they show up against Oregon. That game will be a great litmus test to see if USC is really as mediocre as they’ve shown to be.

*Photo via Harrison Barden-USA TODAY Sports*

Loser: Any chance of the Boat Rowing

Putting PJ Fleck as a loser here goes without saying, but it’s been a rollercoaster 2021 so far for the Golden Gophers.

Losing to Ohio State despite putting up 31 is not too shabby, and then a close win over Miami of Ohio and a 30-0 shutout over Colorado had Minnesota looking not the best, but certainly in the running for some success.

Then Bowling Green came to Minneapolis.

The Falcons of the MAC somehow, someway beat Minnesota 14-10 despite being 30.5 point underdogs, despite it being homecoming at Minnesota, despite Minnesota holding a 21-game winning streak against non-conference opponents, despite Minnesota not losing to a non-Power 5 opponent since 2011.

30.5 point favorites.

If you wanna talk about an agonizing loss, this will take the cake. Minnesota QB Tanner Morgan managed just 5-13, 59 yards and 2 picks in a horrific performance.

The boat will no longer row (at least until next week).