We’re just a quarter of the way through this college football season and things are already starting to heat up.
Temperatures reached a boiling point in Oxford last week with Lane Kiffin’s return to Ole Miss, and though we don’t have any matchups quite as intense as that in Week 4, we’ll see another dialled-up security scene at Tennessee. U.S. President Donald Trump has decided to grace the Vols with his presence for their meeting with top-ranked Texas – an added layer to Arch Manning’s first game in the stadium where his uncle Peyton Manning became famous.
Watch Texas battle Tennessee live on TSN 4 Saturday at noon ET, 9 a.m. PT.
Texas and Tennessee might be the most high-profile game this weekend, but it’s not the only significant one – in fact, for the first time since the final week of the 2023 season, we’re getting six matchups between ranked teams, with potential power shifts and major implications in both the SEC and Big Ten.
In Baton Rouge, LSU and Texas A&M both try to avoid having their seasons put on life support, while Oregon faces similar circumstances on the road against USC, which still has plenty to prove in its own right if it wants to be taken seriously.
Meanwhile, Mississippi State has a chance to continue its ascent behind Kamario Taylor, and Trinidad Chambliss is out to continue proving he’s the best quarterback in that state – and perhaps in the entire sport.
As always, we’ll get some answers this Saturday, but will still be left with loads of questions – and we’ll be gearing up for plenty more chaos over the final two months of the regular season.
A look at five storylines for Week 4:
Can Arch Manning win a meaningful road game?
If you’re a Vols fan, you might think you’re in the Twilight Zone – a Manning, wearing number 16, stepping between the lines at Neyland Stadium, albeit in a different shade of orange.
It’s been nearly 29 years since Peyton’s last game at Tennessee, and now his nephew gets to play in the shadow of his legacy, which includes a program-record 89 touchdown passes and 39 total wins – the second-most in SEC history. It’s just the fourth time these teams have ever gotten together, and the first since the Cotton Bowl on New Year’s Day in 1969.
Arch will be looking to accomplish something he’s yet to do in his college career: win a game as a starter in a hostile environment. He was 2-3 on the road last season, with narrow wins against Kentucky and Mississippi State – a pair of teams that went a combined 3-13 in the SEC – and losses at Ohio State, Florida and Georgia. In those five meetings, he completed a shade under 58 per cent of his passing attempts and absorbed 18 sacks, and had a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 7-5, compared to 19-2 in home and neutral-site games.
What Manning does have under his belt is a signature win, after orchestrating that 20-point second-half turnaround against the Buckeyes in Austin two weeks ago. But it didn’t exactly carry over to last Saturday’s meeting with UTSA, which should’ve been a stat-padding exhibition. Instead, Manning finished with just 161 passing yards on 32 attempts, though he did manage to hook up with standout receiver Cam Coleman for a pair of touchdowns in the Longhorns’ 30-6 win.
Manning’s counterpart in Knoxville is five-star true freshman Faizon Brandon, who won the starting job in fall camp and has nine total touchdowns (six passing, three rushing) with just one turnover in three games this season, though he did labour as a passer (10-of-21, 148 yards) against Georgia Tech in his lone matchup against a Power Four opponent.
He’ll get his first major challenge against Texas, and would enter select company with a win – over the past decade, freshman quarterbacks are 1-16 against teams ranked No. 1 in the AP Poll, with the lone win coming courtesy of Trevor Lawrence and Clemson in the 2018 National Championship against Alabama. A win by Tennessee on Saturday would also be its first against a top-ranked opponent since 1985.
One of Texas A&M or LSU is going to be in trouble after Saturday
This isn’t quite an elimination game, but it’s about as close as you can for an SEC game in September. Texas A&M and LSU are both coming off conference losses, and whichever comes up short Saturday night at Death Valley likely has to win out if it has any intent of playing a meaningful game in December.
Marcel Reed came off the bench to lead a comeback from two scores down in 2024 against LSU at College Station, then ran Brian Kelly out of town in a 49-25 road win last October that ended the Tigers’ playoff hopes. At the time, Reed was in the Heisman conversation, but it’s been a downhill slide ever since.
Dating back to Week 14 of last season, he’s thrown four touchdown passes with seven interceptions in four games against Power Four opponents, with Texas A&M losing three times. Last Saturday, Reed threw two picks and had 249 passing yards on 49 attempts in a defeat to Kentucky — the Aggies’ first loss against an unranked team at home in their last 20 tries, and their first against the Wildcats altogether since 1952.
Kiffin’s team had a more honourable loss in a hostile environment last weekend, but it does little to lessen the implications against Texas A&M, especially with a schedule that includes a three-game stretch against Alabama, Texas and Tennessee in November.
Sam Leavitt has had his own share of issues running LSU’s offence, having thrown five interceptions in his first three games, including the one that sealed Ole Miss’ win on fourth-and-goal in the final minute. The Tigers will also be without star tight end Trey’Dez Green indefinitely after he left last week’s game in the fourth quarter with a lower-body injury – and though Green’s mom claimed in a Facebook post that it won’t be season-ending, Kiffin admitted on Monday he’s expected to miss games.
LSU faces a similar challenge in Reed as it did last week against Chambliss, in that Reed can escape the pocket and create – something he did effectively last season against the Tigers, when he rushed for 108 yards and two touchdowns in that blowout win. Reed might be tempted to pick on a reeling secondary that allowed Chambliss to pass for 363 yards and just lost safety Dashawn Spears for the season, and has a pair of targets in Mario Craver and Isaiah Horton that are capable of doing significant damage.
Oregon and USC both have something to prove
The highest stakes might be in Baton Rouge, but the ramifications between Oregon and USC aren’t far off when they get together at The Coliseum on Saturday night. There’s still plenty of unknown surrounding both programs, with the Ducks still needing to prove their debacle at Oklahoma State two Saturdays ago was an aberration and the Trojans desperate to give any sort of sign that they’re remotely competent on defence.
Oregon trounced Portland State 84-0 in Week 3, but a blowout win over a non-competitive FCS opponent won’t cure the ills of the 554 yards and 39 points it allowed to Drew Mestemaker and the Cowboys seven days prior.
It doesn’t figure to get much easier against Jayden Maiava, who’s thrown for 260-plus yards in each of USC’s four wins this year, along with 12 touchdown passes – leading an offence that’s scored an FBS-high 172 points thus far. It’s a bit of a revenge game as well, after Oregon squashed the Trojans’ playoff hopes last November in Eugene, picking off Maiava twice in a 42-27 win.
Dante Moore has thrown nine touchdowns without an interception in three games this season, but was dreadful in that loss against Oklahoma State, completing just 5-of-15 attempts in the first half.
He bounced back in with 283 yards in two quarters against Portland State, and could have a field day against USC, which has given up 26 or more points in three of its four games this season, including 35 in a shootout win over Rutgers last Saturday, which was pushed around by UMass and Boston College in its first two games. The Trojans allowed 460 total yards in that game, and likely would’ve suffered a different fate had it not been for Prophet Brown’s 99-yard pick six early in the third quarter.
USC is undefeated, but another loss to its former Pac-12 rival – particularly, one where it gives up a ton of points – won’t do much to bolster the public opinion surrounding Lincoln Riley, who’s dropped 15 games over the past three seasons, including 10 of 14 against ranked opponents.
An Oregon loss will leave Dan Lanning’s team likely needing to win out if it hopes to make the playoffs for the third straight season – a tall order, considering it visits Ohio State in November.
Florida can make a major statement against Ole Miss
Beware of the infamous letdown game after a program-defining win.
Ole Miss will be on trap watch this Saturday when it ventures to The Swamp for a meeting with Florida, which is undefeated and looks reborn under new head coach Jon Sumrall and new offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner – even if Sumrall thinks you’d be crazy or at least a little hopped-up to think it can hang with Pete Golding’s team.
Even with the nine-month buildup and the circus surrounding Kiffin’s presence, it was the Rebels who threw three first-half punches against LSU, jumping to a 24-7 halftime lead and holding off a frantic push to secure their second significant win of the season in Week 3. Ole Miss jumped to fourth in the AP Poll, but can make a genuine claim to being the best team in the nation, having also beaten Louisville in a neutral-site game in Nashville 13 days prior.
Chambliss has been as good as he was last season, with an SEC-best 924 passing yards, but might not have the luxury of leaning on running back Kewan Lacy, who’s questionable this weekend after leaving the win over LSU in the third quarter with a shoulder injury.
Florida’s offence has been a revelation under Sumrall and Faulkner and behind Jadan Baugh, who’s creeping into the Heisman conversation, hoping to become the first running back to win the trophy since Derrick Henry in 2015.
Baugh’s numbers over his past four games, including last year’s finale against Florida State, are staggering – 724 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns, including 162 yards and three scores in the Gators’ SEC opener at Auburn last Saturday. Faulkner has a home-grown quarterback that can move as well in Aaron Philo, who followed him from Georgia Tech via the portal in January and has excelled in his first opportunity as a starter, completing over 73 per cent of his passes with eight total touchdowns (six passing, two rushing) through three games.
We’ll learn a lot more about Florida this weekend in what might just be a perfect storm for it to keep rolling. To this point, Ole Miss has relied on Chambliss a little more than it would have liked to, having surrendered 62 points and 799 total yards in its wins over Louisville and LSU – a trend it’ll need to halt against what’s looking like one of the SEC’s most-potent offences.
The legend of Kamario Taylor keeps growing
Didn’t think the hype surrounding Taylor could get any higher than after his demolition of Minnesota in Week 2? Well, he went and put a stamp on the SEC in his first conference start of the season last Saturday, shredding South Carolina and leading Mississippi State back from two scores down in a 41-34 win that wasn’t exactly as close as the final score suggests. Taylor passed for 251 yards and four touchdowns, and in what’s becoming a weekly occurrence, went viral with another jaw-dropping physical display.
Through three games, Taylor has thrown 11 touchdown passes and has 1,1010 total yards (832 passing, 178 rushing), invigorating a program that had won just two conference games over the previous three seasons combined and vaulting it into the AP Top 25 for the first time since 2022.
His performance has also created an online stir, and a back-and-forth over social media about the odds of him bolting as a transfer next January – something that might be uncomfortable for the folks in Starkville, even if the chances of it actually happening are slimmer than the average X user might think. Taylor is a homegrown product – born and raised in nearby Macon, Miss. – that committed in 2023 and was adamant of honouring that pact even after Jeff Lebby took over as head coach for Zach Arnett later that year.
This weekend, Taylor gets a shot at adding to his growing legend against Missouri, in an SEC matchup between a pair of ranked teams – each eager to keep forging ahead into the conference’s upper tier. The stakes only get bigger moving forward, with a matchup against Alabama and fellow standout quarterback Keelon Russell in Week 5, followed by a trip to Death Valley and a road game against Texas before the end of October.
And of course, Chambliss and Ole Miss await in the Egg Bowl in the final week of the regular season – the same stage where Taylor announced his presence at the end of last year, when he rushed for 173 yards and two touchdowns in his first career start.
