College Football Playoff Rankings: Biggest Takeaways from Week 4
Like Week 2 before it, Week 4 looked like a down week on paper but then delivered an exciting weekend of football.
The fourth week of the 2015 season featured captivating finishes, wild comebacks, stunning results and major developments in the race to make the College Football Playoff.
Only one of the Top 15 teams in the Associated Press poll lost outright, but that loss was the most stunning result of the season and perhaps the most stunning of the past couple of years.
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Let's recap what we learned.
Pac-12 Draws the Line Between Contenders and Pretenders
Two Pac-12 teams will contend for a playoff spot: UCLA and Utah.
Three Pac-12 teams will not: Oregon, Arizona and Arizona State.
Week 4's results left little wiggle room for the five teams above while also shining a favorable light on one-loss USC and Stanford.
The craziest result was Utah beating Oregon 62-20 in Autzen Stadium. The Utes led 62-13 after 50 minutes and embarrassed the Ducks on their home field. It was a game that made Utah's Kyle Whittingham look like Urban Meyer and Oregon's Mark Helfrich look like Larry Coker or Dennis Franchione.
If not for what Utah did to Oregon, more people would be talking about what UCLA did to Arizona. Lee Corso picked the Wildcats for the first time in College GameDay history, but it didn't take long for the Bruins to erase a 7-0 deficit, race to a 42-14 halftime lead and then coast to a 56-30 win.
USC rebounded from last week's home loss to Stanford by drilling Arizona State 42-14. Combined with Stanford's thorough win at Oregon State and Cal's close win at Washington, the Trojans' victory capped a great week for the Pac-12's California teams and a horrific week for those from Oregon and Arizona.
The Ducks, Wildcats and Sun Devils are roasted. The Bruins and Utes look like favorites. USC and Stanford have what it takes to make a run. And Cal is quietly looming as the sleeper to end all sleepers.
That is where the Pac-12 stands after a manic Week 4.
Things have changed a lot in 24 hours.
The Big Ten's Top Two Might Actually Be a Top Three
What happened in the Pac-12 affected the whole college football landscape, reframing the first four weeks for opponents of West Coast teams.
No conference felt the shock waves more powerfully than the Big Ten, where Michigan State and Michigan now look considerably different than they did this time last week.
To recap:
- Utah beat Michigan by seven points at Utah.
- Michigan State beat Oregon by three points at Michigan State.
- Utah beat Oregon by 42 points at Oregon.
What does that say about the Spartans and Wolverines? The latter looks considerably stronger after seeing what Utah, a team it hung close with on the road, did to Oregon, whom Sparty barely beat at home.
Michigan also looks stronger after thumping BYU in Ann Arbor, 31-0. Jim Harbaugh's defense held the Cougars to 105 total yards, more than 325 below their season average. And it's not like BYU posted that average against FCS or even Mountain West teams: It posted that average against Nebraska, Boise State and UCLA.
Harbaugh has the Wolverines ahead of schedule, and Michigan State, which struggled for three quarters to pull away from Central Michigan and dropped to 0-4 against the spread for the season, does not look as good as advertised. Ditto for Ohio State, which one week after squeaking by Northern Illinois did not blow the doors off Western Michigan.
Perhaps the Big Ten is more open than everyone thought? Perhaps Michigan deserves our respect? Perhaps Ohio State running the table is not a foregone conclusion?
Those final two games on the Buckeyes schedule—vs. Michigan State, at Michigan—suddenly look like thorough competition.
TCU Is a Playoff Contender…For Now
TCU entered spring practice with a CFP-caliber defense, but the depleted unit that took the field in Saturday's win at Texas Tech, and will continue taking the field in the Horned Frogs' next eight games, will likely cost the team a spot in the final four.
Texas Tech gained 607 yards (562 excluding the wild hook-and-lateral on the last play of the game), scored 52 points and nearly pulled the upset in Lubbock. If not for a frantic tip drill by running back Aaron Green on 4th-and-goal in the final 30 seconds, TCU would have dropped to 3-1.
"People say, you're not playing as good [on] defense," head coach Gary Patterson said after the game, per Carlos A. Mendez of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "We're not. But next week, I got a chance to get better."
Technically, I guess that's true. But it's sort of beside the point. TCU has a chance to get better, but the prognosis does not look good.
It lost defensive coordinator Dick Bumpas and all five of its All-Big 12 defenders from last season, and this year it's already lost cornerback Ranthony Texada (knee, out for season), safety Kenny Iloka (knee, out indefinitely), linebackers Sammy Douglas (knee, out for season) and Mike Freeze (personal absence), and defensive ends Mike Tuaua (suspension, out indefinitely) and James McFarland (foot, out indefinitely).
Those losses added up against SMU last weekend, and they very nearly cost TCU a win at Texas Tech.
Against Baylor and Oklahoma, the Horned Frogs might not be as lucky.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
