College Football's Week 4 Winners and Losers

Not every fan was cheering like the faithful at Arizona State late Saturday, but it was still another great week of college football.

West Virginia's fans were vocal and stoked for big things, but LSU had other plans.

Listening to Les Miles after the game, you could just tell he knows his Tigers are special, and there are more big things to come out of Baton Rouge.

The other big game—Oklahoma State at Texas A&M—turned out to be a nail-biter and delivered another winner (or was it loser?) this week.

Keep reading for the biggest winners and losers of Week 4.

Winner: Tyrann Mathieu, LSU

Tyrann Mathieu may be a small player, but he has been one of the bigger stories this fall.

The sophomore came up big again as LSU rolled to a 47-21 victory at West Virginia.

Mathieu had a forced fumble, fumble recovery and interception along with six tackles. His most impressive play was an interception where he leaped in front of WVU quarterback Geno Smith (while blitzing) and returned it to the 1-yard line just before half.

Mathieu may be the most exciting player this season.

Loser: North Carolina State Wolfpack

North Carolina State started off the weekend (Thursday night), but it looked like the Wolfpack forgot to show up at Cincinnati's Nippert Stadium.

The Bearcats pushed Tom O'Brien's team around to the tune of 44-14.

While the ACC was raiding the Big East for two more teams (making it five now), the Big East reminded the ACC that there are still plenty of good teams left.

Do you think O'Brien misses Russell Wilson right now?

Winner: Brandon Weeden, Oklahoma State

Seventh-ranked Oklahoma State’s 27-year-old quarterback showed off some nice form Saturday as Brandon Weeden threw for a school-record 438 yards and two touchdowns in a 30-29 victory over No. 8 Texas A&M.

Weeden doesn’t seem to miss former offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen, who is now at West Virginia.

Weeden has to be on more Heisman-watch lists following this big win at Kyle Field—one of the toughest venues in college football.

Loser: Indiana Hoosiers

Let's see if we have this right.

The big conferences like the SEC, ACC, Big 12, Pac-12 and Big Ten (sorry Big East) don't want to add TCU, Boise State or West Virginia, but Indiana gets a nice cozy spot in one?

Saturday's 24-21 loss at North Texas should be grounds for automatic removal from a BCS conference.

The Hoosiers are seriously battling for the worst team in all of college football this fall.

Winner: Bernard Pierce, Temple

That’s right, a running back from the MAC.

Give it up for Temple’s Bernard Pierce, who set a school record with five rushing touchdowns in a surprising 38-7 victory over Maryland.

Thanks to a veteran offensive line, Pierce shredded the Terps for 149 yards on 32 carries.

Loser: Randy Edsall, Maryland

Randy Edsall took over a Maryland program that went 9-4 last year under Ralph Friedgen and returned some good talent.

After a big win over Miami in the opener, the Terps are reeling.

A close loss to West Virginia, followed by the 38-7 loss to Temple.

Ouch!

Winner: Tajh Boyd, Clemson

After opening the season with back-to-back average weeks, Tajh Boyd has come up big the past two weeks.

This time he led Clemson to a 35-30 victory over No. 11 Florida State, and now the Tigers are in the driver’s seat in the ACC Atlantic—a division FSU was supposed to dominate.

Boyd threw three touchdown passes and ran for another for the 21st-ranked Tigers. He finished with 344 yards through the air.

Loser: Big East Referees

Thanks to a blown call by the refs at the Syracuse-Toledo game, the Orange were able to win in overtime.

However, Toledo should have won in regulation.

Syracuse took a 30-27 lead with 2:07 to play after Ross Krautman’s PAT. However, it was clear he missed it and even after reviewing it, the officials still called it good.

Toledo hit a field goal on the final play that should have given the Rockets the win.

Here’s part of the Big East’s statement following the game:

"After studying the videos of the Syracuse extra point attempt at 2:07 of the fourth quarter, we have concluded that the ruling on the field that the kick passed between the uprights was incorrect, and that the replay official made an error in failing to reverse that ruling. In reviewing the video, we have determined that the angle from behind the kicking team shows conclusively that the ball passes outside the right upright.”

I'm sure that doesn't make Toledo feel any better.

Winner: Matt McGloin, Penn State

Penn State may have finally settled on a quarterback following Matt McGloin’s big day against Eastern Michigan.

McGloin completed 14-of-17 passes for 220 yards and three TDs in a 34-6 victory.

OK, it’s just Eastern Michigan, but Penn State really needs to pick a quarterback and stick with him.

Loser: Memphis Tigers

It’s not like anyone expected much of Memphis this year, but the Tigers seem to get worse with each passing week.

Memphis managed just 139 total yards in a 42-0 loss to SMU.

It doesn’t get much better on the other side of the ball.

The Tigers gave up 519 total yards to SMU.

Enjoy watching that video.

Winner: A.J. McCarron, Alabama

All week, pundits kept talking about how A.J. McCarron was the glaring weakness for Alabama, and if the Tide lost to Arkansas, it would be his fault.

McCarron responded big time by going 15-for-20 passing with 200 yards and two touchdowns as No. 2 Alabama rolled No. 14 Arkansas 38-14 in Tuscaloosa.

Not bad for a team’s biggest weakness.

Loser: West Virginia Mountaineers

WVU wanted to prove it belonged in the SEC with a good showing against LSU in Morgantown.

Instead, the Mountaineers were pushed around and outclassed by the Tigers in a 47-21 loss.

Give West Virginia credit for fighting back to within six, but special teams killed the Mountaineers.

Turnovers and bad field position hurt WVU early, but Dana Holgorsen’s team was clearly not up to the task.

Winner: Mohamed Sanu, Rutgers

The Rutgers receiver was a beast against Ohio Saturday.

Mohamed Sanu caught 16 passes for 176 yards and two touchdowns as the Bobcats didn’t have an answer for the talented Sanu.

If Rutgers gets this type of production out of Sanu the rest of the season, the Scarlet Knights could be a player in the Big East.

Loser: Lane Kiffin, USC

Does Lane Kiffin ever win a big game?

Let me know when he does, because USC didn't even show up to play at Arizona State Saturday.

Kiffin seems to be everyone's punching bag, but we expect the Trojans to win these games.

The Sun Devils are improved, but they aren't 43-22 better.

Kiffin is also the coach of record to end an 11-game winning streak against ASU.

Winner: Ron Zook, Illinois

Ron Zook has been on the hot seat for about three seasons now.

There’s no way he can be on it right now.

Illinois has started the season 4-0 for the first time since 1960.

A lot of credit should also go to Zook for hiring Paul Petrino (offensive coordinator) and Vic Koenning (defensive coordinator) in 2009. Those moves are paying off now.

The Illini might get to 6-0 with back-to-back games with Northwestern and Indiana.

Loser: Miami Hurricanes

One week after pulling off a huge win over Ohio State, Al Golden's team lost to Kansas State 28-24.

The Hurricanes had a shot to get the win at home, but Jacory Harris was stopped at the goal line on fourth down with less than a minute to play.

Miami had a chance to build some momentum, instead there's a malaise that remains in Coral Gables that has been around since Butch Davis left.

There's no excuse losing to the Wildcats at home.