In an incredibly lackluster week four game day, we witnessed several unnecessary mismatches (with winning teams scoring over 70 points in some instances), virtually no upsets, and a few key victories here and there. The schedule of games for week four were such a disappointment that the online sports journal publication entitled it’s primary headline, “College football, Week 4: At least it was a Saturday” The AP Top 25 was posted last night and to no surprise, the defending National Champions – the Alabama Crimson Tide once again clung to the number one spot.
The polls also went on to reveal that the top 14 spots on the poll remained completely unchanged from last week with teams like #4 Ohio State, #7 Louisville, #10 Texas A&M, all the way to #14 Oklahoma (the full AP [Associated Press] Top 25 list is provided at the end of this article). Saturday (9/21) held almost no surprises as far as the odds and predictions went, there were no upsets and the highlights of the day for many fans came in the form of mismatches and final scores that could only be described in words like slaughter, massacre, and devastation. Throughout the day sports fans sporadically saw scores like #7 Louisville’s 72 to nothing shut-out against Florida International or the near identical performance of the Ohio State Buckeyes, who won against Florida A&M (76-0). These two games were only a few among several that could have been stopped at the end of the first half. After the game Ohio State Coach Urban Meyer was quick to commend his second-string QB Kenny Guiton, who set a new school record for touchdown passes in a single game (6):
Congratulations to Kenny Guiton for being named the Walter Camp Player of the Week. I admire his leadership and resilience. Go Bucks!
— Urban Meyer (@OSUCoachMeyer) September 15, 2013
The Hurricanes of Miami (FL) advanced to #15 after their offensive tutorial against Savannah State (77-7). Washington moved up a spot to #16 after their 56-0 meeting with Idaho State. The primary changes this week were mainly teams moving up a single position in the rankings. These fluctuations correlated with wins from Northwestern (who moved up to #17), Baylor (who moved up to #19), Wisconsin (who moved up to #23), and Texas Tech (who moved up to #24). #23 Arizona State lost their place in the ‘top 25’ after losing to #5 Stanford in a heated Pac-12 conference game, which made way for Fresno State to move in as #25.
A few teams managed to lock in some key wins on this rather uneventful Saturday: #19 Florida Gators defeated the Volunteers of Tennessee 31 to 17; #22 Notre Dame took down one of their historically traditional rivals Michigan State in a close game (17-13); and #6 LSU beat Auburn in one of their first conference meetings 35 to 21. Wolverine fans were disappointed in the performance they had against an 0-2 UConn team of the terribly sub-par Big East conference. Michigan, who was ranked 15th at the time, only managed to beat Connecticut by a field goal in the last quarter (24-21). That substandard performance would cause them to drop three spots to #18 (the worst changed in rank of the week).
AP Top 25 Rankings:
1 Alabama
2 Oregon
3 Clemson
4 Ohio State
5 Stanford
6 LSU
7 Louisville
8 Florida State
9 Georgia
10 Texas A&M
11 Oklahoma State
12 South Carolina
13 UCLA
14 Oklahoma
15 Miami (FL)
16 Washington
17 Northwestern
18 Michigan
19 Baylor
20 Florida
21 Ole Miss
22 Notre Dame
23 Wisconsin
24 Texas Tech
25 Fresno State
Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons: Kick-Off at the Shoe
