The expectations for Week 4 of the college football season were understandably high, considering the matchups that were on the schedule. And for the most part, they lived up to the hype.
On Saturday, the Oregon Ducks cruised to a 42-6 victory over Colorado to hand Deion Sanders his first loss since becoming head coach of the Buffaloes. The Florida State Seminoles pulled off an overtime victory over the Clemson Tigers in a tightly-contested bout. The Ohio State Buckeyes beat the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 17-14 on a walk-off touchdown run at the buzzer. Again, a lot of big moments on Sept. 23 in the college football world.
While the results are in the books, how is the Heisman Trophy picture looking? Well, there's unfortunately one new player that will be on the list, as Colorado cornerback and wide receiver Travis Hunter is out for multiple games due to a lacerated liver. With the games he's set to miss, that could effectively remove him from the Heisman sweepstakes.
Let's take a look at the Heisman Trophy power rankings after Week 4.
Heisman Trophy Power Rankings 2023, Week 4 edition
There was a vacancy on this power rankings list that needed to be filled, and it was hard to overlook what Florida State Seminoles quarterback Jordan Travis did on Saturday against the Clemson Tigers.
This was far from an easy game for the Seminoles, as the Tigers were looking to avoid falling to .500 on the season. Davis accounted for Florida State's first two touchdowns of the game -- a seven-yard pass to star wide receiver Keon Coleman and a two-yard run. But, Clemson was seemingly on the verge of victory in the closing minutes of regulation. However, Jonathan Weitz missed a 29-yard field goal attempt that would have given Clemson a late lead.
Once overtime began, Travis wasted no time, connecting with Coleman for their second touchdown of the game, a 24-yarder. The Seminoles defense would take advantage of some questionable play-calling by Clemson and secure the 31-24 victory.
Coleman completed 21-of-37 pass attempts for 289 yards and two touchdowns.
Travis and the Seminoles now have week off for their bye, and face the Virginia Tech Hokies on Oct. 7.
It was yet another huge week for LSU Tigers quarterback Jayden Daniels. Last week, the senior torched the Mississippi State Bulldogs defense for 361 passing yards, two passing touchdowns, 64 rushing yards, and two rushing touchdowns in the 41-14 blowout victory. It was a true bounce-back couple of weeks for Daniels, who struggled in the season-opener against the Florida State Seminoles.
This Saturday, LSU faced an Arkansas Razorbacks defense that allowed just 257.3 yards of offense per game, ranking 11th best in the nation. Daniels did struggle a bit, completing just seven of his first 14 pass attempts for 70 yards, while throwing an interception. But after that, Daniels settled in and helped lead the Tigers to a 34-31 victory.
Daniels threw 20 completions for 320 yards, four touchdowns, and one interception on 29 pass attempts. Additionally, Daniels ran for 36 yards on 10 carries.
Last week, J.J. McCarthy had a rough outing against the Bowling Green Falcons, throwing three interceptions in the 31-6 win for the Michigan Wolverines. Michigan's schedule hasn't been the toughest through the first three weeks of the season. In Week 4, they took on a 3-0 Rutgers Scarlet Knights team.
Despite a scare early on with a 69-yard opening drive touchdown and a narrow score for the first half, Michigan pulled away for the 31-7 victory.
McCarthy completed 15-of-21 pass attempts for 214 yards and a touchdown while picking up 51 yards on seven carries.
Next week, McCarthy faces a Nebraska team that is on a two-game winning streak after going winless through their first two weeks of the season.
This past offseason, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish got a new quarterback from the transfer portal in Sam Hartman, with the belief that he could help lead them to a National Championship. Through their first four games this season, Hartman was everything the team could have asked for. But his first big test came against the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Ohio State's defense gave Hartman some issues on Saturday night in South Bend, with the team trailing 3-0 at halftime. But midway through the fourth quarter, Hartman gave the Fighting Irish a 14-10 lead after a two-yard touchdown pass to Rico Flores Jr.
However, Notre Dame would lose 17-14 in a heartbreaking, walk-off loss, highlighted by Notre Dame's defense having just 10 players on the field on the last play.
Hartman completed 17-of-25 pass attempts for 175 yards and a touchdown.
Next week, Hartman and Notre Dame take on the undefeated Duke Blue Devils, led by quarterback Riley Leonard.
Last week, Quinn Ewers didn't have the type of performance he had against Alabama. Facing Wyoming, Ewers completed just over half of his passes for 131 yards and two touchdowns in the 31-10 victory. This week, Ewers and the Longhorns attempted to maintain their No. 3 ranking in the nation with a win over Baylor.
The game was all Texas, and Ewers played a big role in that. With the team up 7-3 in the second quarter, Ewers showed off his speed on a 29-yard touchdown run along the left sidelines.
As for plays through the air, Ewers had just five incompletions on 23 attempts, picking up 293 yards and throwing a touchdown in the 38-6 victory.
Next week, Ewers takes on the undefeated Kansas Jayhawks.
Shedeur Sanders' transition to a Power 5 conference has been seamless. He put up strong numbers against the TCU Horned Frogs and Nebraska Cornhuskers, and late in a double overtime win over the Colorado State Rams. But Sanders and Colorado faced their first big test of the season -- the Oregon Ducks.
It wasn't a close game, as the Ducks cruised to a 35-0 halftime lead. Sanders and the Buffaloes offense could only put up 21 yards of offense through the first two quarters, which is less than the amount of first downs the Ducks had in that span (22). The one upside is Colorado didn't get shut out, as Sanders threw a late touchdown pass to Michael Harrison. But, Oregon got the 42-6 victory.
Sanders completed 23-of-33 pass attempts for 159 yards and one touchdown while taking 10 carries for a loss of 34 yards.
The Buffaloes and Sanders will have another tough game ahead of them, as they take on Caleb Williams and the USC Trojans next Saturday at noon.
What a leap by North Carolina's Drake Maye, who was eighth-overall in last week's power rankings. This week, he is now fourth.
This season, Maye hadn't been lighting up the scoreboards like many had expected, considering he is the QB2 of the 2024 NFL Draft class. Even so, Maye was still making incredible throws and extending plays with his legs. But in Week 4, the sophomore quarterback put up some very good numbers.
Maye helped lead the Tar Heels to a 41-24 win over the ACC rival Pittsburgh Panthers. In the game, he had a highlight reel play that would make Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes proud. In the closing minutes of the second quarter, Maye rolled to the outside, stiff-armed an incoming defender and then used his left hand to throw a touchdown pass to Kobe Paysour, who was standing alone in the end zone. That extended North Carolina's lead to 28-17.
For the record, Maye is a right-handed quarterback, just to show you how impressive this play was.
Maye finished the night throwing 22 completions for 296 yards and a touchdown on 30 attempts, while also scoring two rushing touchdowns.
The Tar Heels and Maye now enter their bye week, still undefeated on the year. They next play on Oct. 7 against the Syracuse Orange.
Another big riser on this list is none other than Oregon quarterback Bo Nix, who stepped into the national spotlight and didn't falter. The No. 10 Ducks hosted the No. 19 Colorado Buffaloes in a monstrous Pac-12 matchup. The game was all Oregon, and it wasn't even close.
Oregon's offense ran all over Colorado's defense. Yes, this was a Buffaloes team missing Travis Hunter, but even so, it wouldn't have made a difference. The Ducks rushing attack put up 240 yards on the ground. As for Nix, he made plays with his arm and his legs to lead Oregon to six touchdown drives.
Nix completed 28-of-33 pass attempts for 276 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception. Nix ran the ball five times, gaining nine yards and picking up a touchdown.
Next week, Nix takes on a Stanford defense that carved by USC's Caleb Williams earlier this season.
Washington Huskies games are must-watch this season, and quarterback Michael Penix Jr. is a main reason as to why that's the case. Penix has solidified his case to be one of the two favorites to win the Heisman Trophy with numerous 400 passing yard performances through the first three games of the season. In Week 4, Penix made easy work of another opponent -- the California Golden Bears.
Penix just casually picked apart Cal's defense for big gains on numerous occasions. Just take a look at his 35-yard touchdown pass to Rome Odunze to help extend Washington's lead to 45-12.
For the first time this season, Penix didn't eclipse the 400 passing yards mark in a game. Even so, Penix threw for 304 yards, four touchdowns and one interception, while completing 19-of-25 pass attempts.
Penix is a legitimate threat to Caleb Williams for the Heisman. If both can keep up their play heading into their Nov. 4 game and Penix gets the better of Williams, that may very well be enough to get the Heisman.
Caleb Williams returned from the bye week to take on an Arizona State Sun Devils team that was shutout 29-0 to the Fresno State Bulldogs in Week 3. In a matchup that appeared to be an easy one for Williams and the Trojans turned out to be a long night. This isn't because of Williams. Rather, it's due to the defense's inability to stop Arizona State's offense.
When it looked as though USC was in trouble, Williams would bail them out with huge plays. Take, for example, his 29-yard touchdown pass to Brendan Rice, while evading defensive pressure in the pocket to extend the Trojans' lead to 35-21. Seriously, it's a play out of a video game.
In the 42-28 victory, Williams threw for 322 yards and three touchdowns while completing 20-of-31 pass attempts. Additionally, Williams ran for 10 yards and two touchdowns on nine carries.
Williams has yet to turn over the ball this season, and continues to make pick apart opposing defenses. Next week, he looks to continue his strong start to the campaign when he takes on the Colorado Buffaloes.
