College football's Week 4 winners and losers
One can make the case that it's all downhill from here for Brigham Young.
BYU moved to 4-0 with its 41-33 win against Virginia, the Cougars' second win against a major-conference opponent. With an idle week ahead, BYU will enter October undefeated, with its College Football Playoff hopes very much alive.
On an individual level, quarterback Taysom Hill's 187 yards passing, 72 yards rushing and three total touchdowns — all achieved against an underrated Virginia defense — maintains the junior's place in the Heisman Trophy race.
But for the team as a whole, BYU can begin to picture an undefeated regular season. Texas and Virginia are in the past; the only other major-conference opponent left on the Cougars' schedule is California, which has opened 2-0 after a one-win finish last fall.
The Cougars' biggest tests come on the road in October. After hosting Utah State to open the month, BYU travels to Central Florida on Oct. 9 and Boise State on Oct. 24. If unbeaten after October, it's time for this team to start thinking big: BYU's final month pits the Cougars against Middle Tennessee State, UNLV, Savannah State and Cal.
Other winners from college football's Week 4:
Wisconsin. And running back Melvin Gordon in particular. The preseason Heisman Trophy contender saw his stock drop during the Badgers' season-opening loss to LSU, but Saturday served as a nice reminder: Gordon ran for 253 yards and five touchdowns on just 13 carries, helping lead Wisconsin to 644 yards rushing — the most by a Big Ten team in nearly a century — in a 68-17 win against Bowling Green.
Old Dominion. The Monarchs kicked off life in Conference USA by beating the reigning conference champion, Rice, in a 45-42 shootout. Old Dominion isn't merely new to Conference USA, it's new to the Football Bowl Subdivision. Quarterback Taylor Heinicke threw for 430 yards and five touchdowns in the Monarchs' win.
Michigan State. The Spartans get one vote for a dominating victory — a 73-14 destruction of Eastern Michigan — and another for pure sportsmanship: Michigan State led 49-0 at halftime and could have picked the final score yet attempted just two passes in the fourth quarter. And still scored 14 points.
Duke. It wasn't the most impressive run through nonconference play — Kansas, Troy, Tulane and Elon — but Duke will head into Atlantic Coast Conference play unblemished. The Blue Devils' 4-0 start is the program's first since 1994.
The Big Ten Conference. This much-maligned of major conferences was 7-0 in the early games, with three of those wins coming against fellow Power Five competition: Iowa topped Pittsburgh, Maryland beat Syracuse and Indiana upset No. 19 Missouri — all on the road, by the way.
LOSERS
Virginia Tech. In the span of 14 days, Virginia Tech has gone from an undefeated dark horse — particularly after topping Ohio State on Sept. 6 — to 2-2, facing another round of questions about inconsistent quarterback play and a troublingly unproductive offense. The Hokies' inability to put away Georgia Tech in the second half led to the latest loss, a 27-24 defeat clinched with the Yellow Jackets' game-winning field goal as time expired. What is Virginia Tech? Once again, likely more a pretender than a contender.
Michigan. This program continues to find new lows under Brady Hoke. First came Notre Dame, a 31-0 disaster that seemed to encompass all of the Wolverines' clear and obvious weaknesses heading into the regular season. Then came Saturday's 26-10 loss to Utah, a listless and drab affair that had fans raining down boos for much of three quarters before evacuating the stadium less than a minute into the final quarter for a weather delay. Hardly any of them came back, and neither did the Wolverines.
Missouri. The 19th-ranked Tigers struggled all game against a team that fell to Bowling Green last week. MIssouri kicked a field goal to go up by 3 with 2:20 left. Then Indiana, trailing for the first time since late in the first half, put together a 75-yard drive in less than two minutes and scored the winning TD. A four-point loss in its final nonconference game was not what Missouri envisioned.
North Carolina. Saturday's loss was coming for UNC, which scuffled in its opener against Liberty and eked out a four-point win against San Diego State on Sept. 6. The loss was coming; the margin of defeat, on the other hand, was unexpected. Despite having two weeks to prepare for East Carolina and its pass-happy, high-octane offense, the Tar Heels allowed nearly 450 yards of offense in the first half and 70 points altogether, revealing itself to be little more than an Atlantic Coast Conference also-ran.