Big days by Alabama, Clemson lead five biggest overreactions from Week 4 in college football
With just about a third of the college football season in the books, there are a few things we’ve learned over the past month. There’s also a whole lot we have yet to discover about a lot of teams.
Of course, that doesn’t stop game watchers from trying to extrapolate from the results we do have. Some conclusions might prove correct, while others won’t hold up so well as the temperature drops.
Here are the top five overreactions from Week 4, in which we look in on a couple of perennial College Football Playoff participants and take the pulse of a few more programs hoping to crash the postseason’s biggest party.
Alabama’s offense is totally fixed
The recent versions of the Crimson Tide set a standard that will be hard to match in any year. Bryce Young and Co., did pretty much whatever they wanted in Alabama’s SEC opener against Vanderbilt, but even so this season’s group doesn’t have that kind of talent across the board. That was shown in the grind-it out win at Texas in Week 2.
Alabama is likely going to have to find different ways to win over the next three weeks when the schedule gets much more difficult. The next two dates with Arkansas and Texas AM figure to be low-scoring affairs, while the Oct. 15 tilt with resurgent Tennessee has track meet potential. In all those games, the offense is going to be stressed to put up points. We’ll see how it works out.
MISERY INDEX:Miami still mediocre despite massive investment in Cristobal
HIGHS AND LOWS:Week 4 winners and losers led by Clemson, Tennessee
WHAT YOU MISSED:Texas AM, Kansas State top the five biggest things
LETTER GRADES:This week’s report card hits Aaron Judge, announcer calls
Clemson’s offense is totally fixed
QB DJ Uiagalelei turned in his best performance since becoming Clemson’s full-time starter, outdueling Wake Forest’s Sam Hartman in Saturday’s shootout victory as the Tigers put up offensive numbers that resembled those of the elite units that won national championships. But it might be too early to know if that success can be replicated when Clemson encounters some more accomplished defenses, starting Saturday against North Carolina State. Even as Wake was setting a program record winning 11 games and playing for the ACC title a year ago, the defense was not exactly the team’s strong suit. This year’s group compensated a bit forcing eight turnovers through the Deacons’ first three games, but the Tigers committed no miscues and went 16-for-23 on third-down conversions, enabling Clemson to dominate possession time by more than 15 minutes. Uiagalelei was terrific, and he needed to be once Wake’s offense got going, but Clemson almost certainly be tested again