On Saturday, September 21, college football saw a couple of truly great games worth watching between teams in the Associated Press (AP) Top 25, such as the University of Illinois vs. the University of Nebraska, the University of Southern California (USC) vs. the University of Michigan, the University of Tennessee (UT) vs. the University of Oklahoma and the University of Utah vs. Oklahoma State University.
Illinois and Nebraska had a rather hard fought game, ultimately ending in a close Illinois victory after a short toss by Luke Almyer to Pat Bryant in overtime. The final score was 31-24. The game was close with Nebraska having a 7-point lead over Illinois by the end of the first half, only to fail to score anything while Illinois got another touchdown in the third quarter and tied the game in the fourth. When it really counted, Nebraska failed possession in the overtime. Ultimately this game put Illinois at #19 in the AP polls while Nebraska’s time in the Top 25 has come to an end.
USC vs. Michigan was a close game ending in a Michigan victory with a 2-yard sprint into a touchdown made by Kalel Mullings, bringing the final score to Michigan 27-24 USC. The score at the end of the first half was 3 points to USC and 14 points to Michigan, but in the third quarter, USC won 14 additional points while Michigan scored only 6, and in the fourth and final quarter, each team scored 7 points. This victory bumped Michigan from #18 to #12 in the Top 25 and left USC down two spots at #13.
The UT Volunteers vs. the Oklahoma Sooners game ended with a Vols victory, 25-15. At the end of the first half, the Vols got 19 points while Oklahoma had just 3, and the game ended with Tennessee scoring an additional 6 while Oklahoma managed to get 12 in the final quarter. In the Top 25, this defeat ultimately dropped the Sooners from #18 down to #21 and the Tennessee Volunteers were brought up to #5, putting them in the Top 5 for the first time since 2022.
The Utah vs. Oklahoma State game ended with a final score of 22-19 to Utah. The first half ended with Utah at 10 points and Oklahoma State with 3. Utah scored further 3 points in the third quarter and 9 in the fourth while Oklahoma State had a very brief comeback in the fourth quarter gaining a further 16 points. In spite of their comeback, Oklahoma failed to keep up offensively with Utah resulting in this defeat. In the AP Polls, this game left Oklahoma down to #20 and Utah in the #10 spots.
Games to look out for are the University of Georgia vs. the University of Alabama, Illinois vs. the Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), Oklahoma State vs. Kansas State University and the University of Louisville vs. the University of Notre Dame all on Saturday, September the 28th. Keep a particularly close eye on Georgia vs. Alabama as both teams are in the Top 5 with Georgia being ranked #2, and Alabama #4, making it the first Top 5 ranked game of the season.
Aside from the big games that occurred over the weekend of September 21st, there were two large events regarding the seasons of three specific players: Arch Manning, Mathew Sulka and Michael Allen.
Manning is the quarterback for the Texas Longhorns, he had his career start. Manning comes from college football royalty as thus far three members of the Manning family have had successful collegiate careers including his grandfather, who was the great Ole Miss quarterback Archie Manning. Although very early on, it appears as though Manning is already starting to live up to the family legacy, as in this game he managed to make some impressive plays including a 40-yard pass to Johntay Cook and his first collegiate touchdown pass to Silas Bolden. That being said, this game was against an unranked team, and there will be stiffer competition in the future, especially the upcoming game against Georgia on Saturday, October 19.
Meanwhile Sulka, quarterback for the University of Nevada, Los Vegas (UNLV) Rebels, has officially decided to sit out for this season because, allegedly, after hiring an agent, he was convinced that his market value has increased and his contract no longer reflects his change. Allen, running back of the same team, is also joining Sulka amid these controversies and has announced he is going to redshirt. This controversy is deeply steeped in the progression of Name Image License deals, which allow players to make brand deals, effectively capitalizing on their images since their inception after they were unbanned in 2021, which is deserving of an article in itself.
That's all the big news and recaps for Week 4 going into Week 5. This season is already shaping up to be very interesting.