College Football Week 4 Awards September 29, 2015

Tennessee lost a heartbreaker to Florida this past Saturday. They shall continue to lost more close games until they learn how to close, so to speak. Photo by John Raoux of the AP.

(Note:  All rankings are current AP [week 4] unless otherwise noted.)

COACHES

Wish I were him: Jim Mora, UCLA

Glad I’m not him: Bret Bielema, Arkansas

Lucky guy: Jim McElwain, Florida

Poor guy: Butch Jones, Tennessee

Desperately seeking a wake-up call: Gary Patterson, TCU

Desperately seeking a P.R. man: Sonny Dykes, Cal

Desperately seeking sunglasses and a fake beard: Mark Helfrich, Oregon

Desperately seeking … anything:  Darrell Hazell, Purdue

TEAMS

Thought you’d kick butt, you did: Baylor (defeated Rice 70-17)

Thought you’d kick butt, you didn’t: Oklahoma State (defeated Texas 30-27)

Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you did: UMass (lost to No. 6 Notre Dame 62-27(

Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you didn’t:  Texas (lost to No. 24 Oklahoma State 30-27)

Thought you wouldn’t kick butt, you did:  Iowa (defeated North Texas 62-16)

Dang, they’re good: UCLA

Dang, they’re bad:  Purdue

Can’t Stand Prosperity:  BYU

Did the season start? Auburn

Can the season end?  Arkansas State

Can the season never end?  Utah

GAMES

Play this again:  No. 3 TCU 55, Texas Tech 52

Play this again, too:  Florida 28, Tennessee 27

Never play this again: No. 4 Baylor 70, Rice 17

What? East Carolina 35, Virginia Tech 28

Huh?  Kentucky 21, No. 25 Missouri 13

Are you kidding me?  Michigan 31, No. 22 BYU 0

Oh – my – God:  No. 18 Utah 62, No. 13 Oregon 20

Told you so:  Memphis 53, Cincinnati 46

NEXT WEEK

(rankings are current AP (post-week 4, pre-week 5)

Ticket to die for:  No. 6 Notre Dame @ No. 12 Clemson

Also:  No. 13 Alabama @ No. 8 Georgia

Best non-Power Five vs. Power Five matchup: Miami (Fla.) @ Cincinnati

Best non-Power Five matchup: Air Force @ Navy

Upset alert: No. 24 Oklahoma State @ Texas

Must win: Arkansas @ Tennessee

Offensive explosion: Texas Tech @ No. 5 Baylor

Defensive struggle: South Carolina @ Missouri

Great game no one is talking about:  Louisville @ N.C. State

Intriguing coaching matchup:  Kliff Kingsbury of Texas Tech vs. Art Briles of Baylor

Also:  Dabo Swinney of Clemson vs. Brian Kelly of Notre Dame

Who’s bringing the body bags? Purdue @ No. 2 Michigan State

Why are they playing? Eastern Michigan @ No. 9 LSU

Plenty of good seats remaining: FIU @ UMass

They shoot horses, don’t they?  San Jose State @ Auburn

Week 4 Take-aways:

Tennessee lost a heartbreaker on the road to Florida, thus continuing a losing streak to the Gators that started in 2005.  Earlier in the season, they lost another heartbreaker at home to Oklahoma.  What is so heartbreaking about both of these losses is that the Volunteers were in the lead for most of the game, until blowing the lead late in both games.  Butch Jones is continuing to improve the program, gradually bringing it back to its blueblood status in the conference.  But they’re clearly not there yet, and shall not be “there” until they learn to “close the deal,” which is to say, they must learn to finish the games strongly.  It is still early in the season, so still time to salvage things.

Speaking of salvaging, Steve Spurrier seemed to have salvaged things reasonably well when his team beat a deceptively good Central Florida squad.  Next week, though, they travel to a Columbia, Mo., to take on a similarly-ailing Missouri Tigers team, in what one can easily surmise is a must-win game for both.

Why are both aforementioned teams ailing?  They both lost to Kentucky, for goodness sake!

Speaking of UK, given that the Wildcats have W’s over both the Gamecocks and the (Mizzou) Tigers, and they face a relative cupcake in the EKU Colonels this Saturday at home (a quasi-body bag game), the possibility that they could become bowl-eligible in the brutal SEC is not a remote one.  Granted, they face a brutal stretch after the EKU game, facing, in order, Auburn, Mississippi State, Tennessee, then Georgia, but then have a two-week respite with Vanderbilt and then a gimme with Charlotte before concluding the season against improving Louisville.  It could be a 6-6 year, which, for UK, is an improvement.

Utah and Michigan started the season playing each other.  Though the former beat the latter convincingly, both teams are rolling right now.  Funny how that works out.

TCU beat Texas Tech in a high-scoring game that went down to the wire.  The Horned Frogs are supposed to be a top-five team, so how does one account for this narrow victory in a shootout?  Let us not forget that this TCU team also squeaked by Minnesota at the beginning of the season.  Are the Frogs overrated?  The upcoming home game against a gradually-improving Texas team could be a referendum.

The only regretful thing about this delightfully intriguing matchup between Notre Dame and Clemson is that Brent Musburger will not be calling the game!