One quarter of the college football season is in the books! Texas has risen to the top, Georgia isn’t far behind, and many Southeastern Conference teams have found their way into the Week 4 AP Poll.
Week 4 is significant around the college football landscape.
Most of the Power 4 teams have started conference play, we’ve usually gotten fun, ranked matchups by this point, and teams have started separating themselves as College Football Playoff contenders.
As you can tell by the title, this week’s focus will be on the SEC ranked matchups that have taken place this past weekend. We got upsets, blowouts, and everything in between.
Today, let’s look at the most talented conference’s biggest week of conference play so far, and how those games impacted the draft stock of some of the country’s best players.
Florida stuns Ole Miss
One of the most anticipated matchups of the week brought Ole Miss, hot off of their victory against LSU, down to The Swamp to face a feisty Florida offense.
Unfortunately, with Kewan Lacy absent, we weren’t able to get RB1 vs. RB2. Still, RB1 Jadan Baugh showed out, putting up another ridiculous stat line of 142 yards and 3 touchdowns on 29 carries.
Baugh’s backup Duke Clark also had a day, rushing for 126 yards and his own touchdown. Clark isn’t eligible for the 2027 NFL Draft, but is someone to keep an eye on.
In total, Florida mustered 6 rushing touchdowns and 52 points against an Ole Miss defense that doesn’t lack for talent. Defensive lineman Will Echoles held his own against the dominant Florida rush attack.
Echoles has been one of, if not the best interior defensive lineman in the country this season. With matchups against Texas, Georgia, and the Egg Bowl against Mississippi State later in the season, he will become a household name quickly.
Ole Miss’s offensive stars did their part as well. Trinidad Chambliss had three total touchdowns on the day. His lone passing score was to speedster Deuce Alexander, who was really the only player to get going against the Gator defense.
Alexander will be a name to watch more as draft season starts to heat up. His strong route-running, combined with near game-breaking speed have drawn comparisons to former Alabama star Jameson Williams.
While I’m not quite there yet on Alexander, his tantalizing traits will certainly have his name pushed up when the evaluation process starts in earnest during early 2027.
Mississippi State defeats Missouri
The 2028 QB-off did not disappoint. Both Austin Simmons and Kamario Taylor were able to light up each other’s defenses, leading to a pretty fun game.
Taylor began and ended the game with 14 point quarters, showing off his arm and the unstoppable moon ball it produces. Taylor ended up with 360 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Bulldogs to a win.
Taylor’s main recipient of these passes was Anthony Evans III. The former Georgia Bulldog, Evans is already off to a hot start this season, leading the entire SEC in receptions at 28.
While not the biggest or strongest, Evans is a reliable target that is able to churn yards after the catch. Should he continue his pace, he would likely end up around 1200 yards and 12+ touchdowns, numbers that are hard to ignore in the preliminary draft process.
On the other side of the ball, Simmons diced up the Bulldogs’ defense, throwing for his own 295 yards and three scores. The main target for Simmons is this game was Cayden Lee, a transfer from Ole Miss.
Lee, just like Evans, is another 4th-year intraconference transfer that is making waves on his new team. Lee is a bit smaller, but has the speed and ball skills to burn defenders deep.
Both teams and their quarterbacks are rewarded after this matchup with more ranked games. Mississippi State will host (7) Alabama this weekend, and Missouri gets to host (8) Florida.
Texas barely holds off Tennessee
In the battle of the oranges, Texas ultimately held off a Tennessee team that didn’t want to play until the second half. While the previously-mentioned games were hallmarked by strong offensive play, this match was all about the defense.
For starters, Longhorns edge rusher Colin Simmons had himself a day. The future Top 10 pick ended the day with 8 tackles, 1 forced fumble, and FIVE (5) sacks on true freshman quarterback Faizon Brandon.
Five other players registered a sack for the Longhorns, as the defensive front just shut the Volunteers down. Pitt transfer Rasheem Biles had 11 tackles and a sack to himself.
Tennessee’s defense got after the quarterback as well, producing six sacks on Arch Manning. Senior linebacker Arion Carter led the way with 11 tackles.
As good as the defenses were, the quarterback play was equally as poor. This was Brandon’s first test as a highly-recruited true freshman, and he did not pass.
For Arch Manning, a strong performance against a ranked team in his senior season would’ve been nice, but the Tennessee defense turned it from his usual up-and-down play into a pretty poor performance.
Both teams will have the opportunity to bounce back soon. Tennessee faces off against Auburn this week, and Texas gets a bye before the Red River Showdown on October 10.
LSU gets back on track against Texas A&M
There isn’t much to say about this game other than LSU avenging their horrible loss from last season to the Aggies. The Tigers dominated A&M in this match, finishing the day with a 35-6 victory.
LSU’s offense had a field day, with Sam Leavitt throwing for 312 yards and two scores, and multiple skill players scoring two touchdowns a piece. Leavitt has had a disappointing start relative to the expectations he garnered transferring from Arizona State, so a stable performance was good for him.
Where the focus needs to lie in this game is on Texas A&M quarterbacks Marcel Reed.
Reed helped lead the Aggies to a near-undefeated season in 2025, relying on pushing the ball deep to star receiver Mario Craver. Ultimately, Reed was good enough to help send A&M to a playoff game.
With expectations that Reed would improve this season, he has done nothing but disappoint. Too often are the red flags from last season - slow processing, bad decision-making, lack of field vision, etc. - showing up this year.
A&M has added weapons on offense as well, but it just isn’t materializing for Reed. There are still eight games to go, and plenty of time to turn the season around, but Reed and the Aggies offense has been one of the major disappointments to start the 2026 season.
Alabama embarrasses South Carolina
If what LSU did to A&M was a strong win, than this was an embarrassment for South Carolina. In a matchup that has been surprisingly difficult for the Crimson Tide over the past few seasons, Alabama handled the Gamecocks, 49-18.
During last week’s column, I placed Alabama quarterback Keelon Russell in the “standby” section, as someone who could potentially be a first rounder in 2028’s NFL Draft. It’s safe to say we don’t have to be on standby anymore.
In his fourth game as a starter, Russell put on a show, going 21/27 for 365 yards and four touchdowns. Russell also ran for one score.
Four different Alabama players carried the ball multiple times, star receiver (with his gloves back on) Ryan Coleman-Williams had a two touchdown performance, and blocking tight end Josh Ford had an early entry for catch of the year.
On defense, Red Morgan added another touchdown (pick six), linebacker duo Caleb Woodson and Luke Metz combined for 24 tackles, and star edge rusher Yhonzae Pierre registered another half-sack.
Outside of the first drive on both sides of the ball, there wasn’t much Alabama did that wasn’t a positive.
For South Carolina, this was a strong opportunity for LaNorris Sellers and the offense to get back on track following a collapse against Mississippi State. While running back Matt Fuller was able to make a few good plays, the offense mostly didn’t work for the Gamecocks.
Sellers continued his slower, indecisive play in this contest, ultimately only ending up with one touchdown and one interception against a Tide defense that was missing multiple rotation players.
The opportunities aren’t going to get much easier for the Gamecocks offense throughout the rest of the season. SC has dates with Kentucky (24), Florida (8), and Tennessee (17) all in a row, and faces Georgia (2) and Clemson in consecutive weeks to end the season.
If Sellers doesn’t revert back to his redshirt freshman form, his draft stock may continue to plummet.
Despite the Gamecocks offensive woes, the story of this match was the meltdown of star edge rusher Dylan Stewart. Stewart, who nursed a back injury entering the season, did not have a strong performance.
He ended the game without a tackle or sack (albeit on limited snaps), and picked up an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. To be frank, Stewart is lucky he wasn’t penalized more, as he got away with punching Alabama players throughout the game.
This is not the first time Stewart has accumulated penalties of this nature. Ever since starting as a true freshman Stewart has drawn superfluous penalties that have hurt the team’s chances at winning.
Ultimately, Head Coach Shane Beamer has decided to suspend Stewart following his conduct in the loss to Alabama.
It’s unclear when, or if Stewart will play again this season. What is clear is that Stewart’s own conduct has likely hurt his draft stock, should he choose to enter in 2027.
Someone who was once thought of as a lock to be drafted within the Top 5-7 picks, may see his stock drop due to concerns not related to his immense talent.
Georgia dominates Oklahoma
Probably the most boring of last week’s SEC matchups was Georgia’s rout of the Sooners. In what became a 41-13 victory, the Bulldogs led from the start and never looked back.
Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton had a pretty pedestrian day, by his standards, only throwing for 171 yards and a score (plus an interception), while rushing for a net of 0 yards.
The Bulldogs defense did most of the heavy lifting - linebacker Chris Cole ended the day with 8 tackles and a sack. Sure, Georgia is a stout defense, but Oklahoma made it easy for them.
Continuing with the theme of once-hyped quarterbacks that have let down expectations, Oklahoma QB John Mateer has had a rough start to the season.
Mateer, the former Washington State transfer, got off to a strong start to the 2025 season before suffering an injury to his throwing hand, forcing him to miss time. Since then, Mateer has been average at best and destructive to his team’s chances at worst.
It’s hard to envision Mateer returning to form given his recent play, but the Sooners may need to see it quickly if they want to get the season back on track.
Oregon overcomes USC
This one clearly isn’t an SEC matchup, but the game between the Trojans and the Ducks was one of the more significant contests over the weekend.
Early in the game, Oregon quarterback Dante Moore suffered a horrible hit to the upper body, which removed him from the game and ultimately resulted in a concussion. Thankfully, Moore seems to have avoided major complications, but is in the concussion protocol.
When Moore went out of the game, backup and former 5 star quarterback Dylan Raiola was tasked with stepping in, and boy did he deliver.
In Raiola’s first real action of the season, he posted 19/25 passing, for 289 yards and two touchdowns on the way to leading Oregon to the win. In total, Oregon finished the game with over 500 yards and with 41 points against a previously-unbeaten USC team.
While the circumstances are the opposite from ideal, Raiola’s willingness to test defenses downfield and operating quicker in the pocket may be just what the Ducks needed to get their season back on track.
Earlier in the year, the offense would stagnate and seemed lifeless, but with Raiola under center in this game, the talent that Oregon has at its disposal seemed to come to life.
If Raiola is forced into starting multiple games, Oregon’s playoff chances could be back on track, given Raiola is able to operate at a similar level compared to what he did against USC.
For Dante Moore, the most important thing is coming away healthy and ready to play whenever the team needs him again.
Player of the Month
There have been many impressive players across the first month of the college football season. Some of them have been expected, guys like Colin Simmons and Jadan Baugh were already on the radar.
Someone who was not on my personal draft shortlist to start the season is Cal safety Kingston Lopa.
Lopa spent his first two seasons at Oregon, redshirting his first year and getting into the rotation with Dillon Thieneman in year two. Now, as a starter for Cal, Lopa has lit the college football landscape on fire.
Through four games, Kingston Lopa has 20 tackles, one tackle for loss, and FIVE (5) interceptions, with 104 interception return yards and one pick six.
Lopa has been an absolute revelation for the Golden Bears, who, despite being 2-2 to start the year, can get into shootouts with anyone behind the arm of Jaron Keawe-Sagapolutele.
If Lopa even keeps up half the pace of his first four games, he will be in strong consideration of going in Round 1 of a stacked 2027 NFL Draft.
Player of the Week
I couldn’t go an entire month without mentioning a performance from who many consider to be the best player in the 2027 NFL Draft.
Through four games, Jeremiah Smith leads all of FBS with 617 yards and seven receiving touchdowns. Last week’s performance may have been the most impressive of that total.
Against Illinois, Smith amassed 217 yards and four touchdowns on 12 receptions. Unreal numbers for the majority of receivers to have ever played college football, but just another Saturday at the office for Smith.
Smith has already set the Ohio State record for most receiving yards from a Buckeyes player, and will likely break both the receptions and receiving touchdowns school records as well.
It’s hard to see Smith slowing down, and if he doesn’t we’ll be discussing him in rare air among the likes of DeVonta Smith, Randy Moss, and Larry Fitzgerald.
Don’t think that the ranked SEC matchups are over just yet. Despite some teams sliding down the rankings, there are still plenty of fun games to watch this weekend.
Keep your eyes on these particular matchups, including College Gameday’s first trip to Iowa City in twenty years!
Pitt vs. Virginia Tech (Friday)
Notre Dame (3) vs. North Carolina
Vanderbilt vs. Georgia (2)
Florida (8) vs. Missouri (25)
Clemson vs. Miami (4)
Alabama (7) vs. Mississippi State (16)
Ohio State (3) vs. Iowa (14)