College Football Awards Week 4 (2017) September 24, 2017

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

COACHES
Wish I were him: Gary Patterson, TCU

Glad I’m not him: Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State

Lucky guy: James Franklin, Penn State

Poor guy: Kirk Ferentz, Iowa

Desperately seeking a wake-up call: Will Muschamp, South Carolina

Desperately seeking a P.R. man: Bronco Mendenhall, Virginia

Desperately seeking sunglasses and a fake beard: Jimbo Fisher, Florida State

Desperately seeking … anything:  Barry Odom, Missouri

TEAMS
Thought you’d kick butt, you did: Ohio State (defeated UNLV 54-21)

Thought you’d kick butt, you didn’t: Tennessee (defeated UMass 17-13)

Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you did: Kent State (lost to No. 9 Louisville 42-3)

Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you didn’t:  Louisiana Tech (lost to South Carolina 17-16)

Thought you wouldn’t kick butt, you did:  Utah State (defeated San Jose State 61-10)

Dang, they’re good: Michigan

Dang, they’re bad:  San Jose State

Can’t Stand Prosperity:  Michigan State

Did the season start?  Florida State

Can the season end?  UTEP

Can the season never end?  Georgia

GAMES
Play this again:  Texas A&M 50, Arkansas 43, OT

Play this again, too:  No. 4 Penn State 21, Iowa 19

Never play this again: Utah State 61, San Jose State 10

What? Miami (OH) 31, Central Michigan 14

Huh?  Arizona State 37, No. 24 Oregon 35

Are you kidding me??  No. 16 TCU 44, No. 6 Oklahoma State 31

Oh – my – God:  NC State 27, No. 12 Florida State 21

NEXT WEEK

(rankings are current AP (post-week 4, pre-week 5)
Ticket to die for:  No. 2 Clemson @ No. 13 Virginia Tech

Best non-Power Five vs. Power Five  matchup: Eastern Michigan @ Kentucky

Best non-Power Five matchup: Memphis @ UCF

Upset alert: Vanderbilt @ No. 21 Florida

Must win: No. 11 Georgia @ Tennessee

Offensive explosion: No 5 USC @ No. 16 Washington State

Defensive struggle: No. 24 Mississippi State @ No. 13 Auburn

Great game no one is talking about: No. 14 Miami @ Duke

Intriguing coaching matchup:  Todd Graham of Arizona State vs David Shaw of Stanford

Who’s bringing the body bags? No. 11 Ohio State @ Rutgers

Why are they playing? Troy @ No. 25 LSU

Plenty of good seats remaining: San Jose State @ UNLV

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?  New Mexico State @ Arkansas

Week 4 Take-aways:

One conclusion after today:  Michigan is good, and while Purdue is both exciting and improving, they are still not strong or far along enough in Coach Jeff Brohm’s turnaround campaign for the Boilermakers to be able to effectively take down the heavyweights of the conference.  Purdue was continually outmanned on both sides of the line of scrimmage due to the Wolverines’ obviously superior talent.  That said, at this rate, Purdue will eventually get to the point where they can upset if not defeat Michigan and the like.  Just not today.

This week has been characterized not so much by surprises or upsets as it has by narrow escapes.  That is to say, teams that were favored almost getting upset by underdogs, only to narrowly escape in the end.  To wit:  Tennessee only managed to eke out a 17-13 win over lowly UMass, at home.  South Carolina defeated struggling Louisiana Tech by only one point, 17-16.  After a dismal start to the season, under-performing Baylor briefly led No. 3 Oklahoma in the second half before eventually losing by only eight points, 49-41.

Oh, but it gets better.  No. 4 Penn State had to score a touchdown in literally the last second of the game to triumph over Iowa, 21-19.  Then, unranked Kentucky was leading No. 20 Florida throughout a good chunk of the game, but gradually gave up the lead to the Gators in the 4^th quarter, allowing the Gators to win, 28-27.  Let’s face it:  if you’re Kentucky, you blow 4^th quarter leads to Florida.  It’s what you do.

Last note:  how on Earth did Stanford lose to San Diego State last week?  Yes, SDSU is currently ranked No. 22, but Stanford would have been ranked higher than that had they not allowed that notch in the “L” column.  Did losing to USC take that much out of the Cardinal?  Speaking of SDSU and narrow escapes, the Aztecs did beat unranked Air Force today, but only by four points.  But that might be more of a commentary on the Falcon’s ball-control, option-oriented offense and less on possible consistencies on the part of the former team.