Week Four NATIONAL College Football Previews:
#1 Texas-#14 Tennessee, #4 Ole Miss-#21 Florida,
#20 Oregon-#12 Southern Cal Among Top Tilts
(DG’s Weekly CFB YouTube Show = Below)
By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network
(last updated Sept. 23, 2026)
The 2026 college football campaign continues Thursday through Saturday with a compelling Week Four schedule, highlighted by Texas visiting Tennessee in a huge game matching a pair high-profile quarterbacks in Longhorns veteran Arch Manning and Volunteers freshman Faizon Brandon (Greensboro Grimley High).
The three most prominent games nationally — each previewed below — include the #1 Longhorns (3-0) taking on the #14 Volunteers (3-0) in Knoxville on Saturday afternoon (noon, ABC), a showdown between first-year head coaches as #4 Ole Miss (3-0) visits #21 Florida (3-0) at The Swamp later Saturday (3:30 p.m., ABC), and then a fascinating prime-time Big Ten clash between #20 Oregon (2-1) and #12 Southern Cal (4-0) on Saturday night (7:30 p.m., NBC).
Meanwhile, six of North Carolina’s seven Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams are in action in the Bold North State’s loaded lineup this week, with Duke heavily favored to improve to 4-0, Wake Forest visiting #16 Louisville, and Appalachian State heading to Raleigh with hopes of posting its first-ever victory over NC State.
Here are more details on our “Three To See” selections from this week’s national schedule:
National “Three To See,” Game One
#1 Texas (3-0) at #14 Tennessee (3-0), Sat., noon (ABC)
If you made a list of college football programs that have captured at least one national championship within the past 30 years, both of these schools would be on it. However, if you made that same list but shortened the timetable to the past 20 years, neither school would be on it.
Actually, the only national title at Texas in the last 50 years came under coach Mack Brown, during the 2005 season, with Vince Young as the Longhorns’ star quarterback. Similarly, the only national championship at Tennessee in the past 50 years came under coach Phillip Fulmer, during the 1998 season, with Tee Martin as the Volunteers’ QB and our old friend David Cutcliffe as the team’s offensive coordinator.
The bottom line: Both of these programs view themselves as national championship contenders, both have huge football stadiums and top-10 football budgets, and — this year — both teams are 3-0 and ranked in the national top 15.
There will be a lot of NFL-caliber talent on the field on Saturday afternoon in Knoxville, where almost 102,000 people will be jammed into Neyland Stadium.
Unfortunately for Tennessee, a majority of those top prospects will be wearing Texas jerseys, starting with redshirt junior quarterback Arch Manning, who could end up as the #1 overall pick in the 2027 NFL draft. Manning has plenty of help around him, too, including NC State transfer Hollywood Smothers at running back, NFL prospects Cam Coleman and Ryan Wingo at wide receiver, and possible first-rounder Trevor Goosby at left tackle.
It’s actually the Texas defense, though, that has been even more spectacular this season, with edge rusher Colin Simmons and linebacker Rasheem Biles (a Pitt transfer) leading the way. The Longhorns are giving up only 12 points per game, a number that includes their 24-23 comeback victory over #1 Ohio State in Austin.
Tennessee has posted dominant victories in all three of its games, including 45-24 at Georgia Tech, but everyone realizes that this will be a huge step up in competition.
The Volunteers have run the ball extremely well with tailbacks DeSean Bishop and Daune Morris against lesser competition, but there’s no avoiding the reality that UT quarterback Faizon Brandon (pictured above) — a true freshman from Grimsley High in Greensboro — will have to showcase his passing skills if the Vols are going to beat the Longhorns.
Everyone knows that Brandon is a great athlete and a dangerous runner, but that Texas defense is going to try to keep him in the pocket and force him to make difficult downfield throws against the biggest and fastest defense he’s ever seen. Will Brandon, who just turned 18 years old this summer and is making just his fourth college start, be up to that task against the #1 team in the country, in front of 100,000-plus screaming fans?
It would help a lot if Brandon’s offensive line and star wide receiver Mike Matthews, another NFL prospect, make some big plays for him, but in the end Brandon likely will have to limit his mistakes and make some big plays if the Volunteers (a four-point underdog) are going to post their first victory over the Associated Press’ #1 team since way back in 1985.
National “Three To See,” Game Two
#4 Ole Miss (3-0) at #21 Florida (3-0), Sat., 3:30 p.m. (ABC)
Florida’s new head coach, Jon Sumrall, had one of the best lines of the week when he was told that his Gators were actually a slight favorite over #4-ranked Ole Miss, which remember already has defeated two good teams in Louisville and LSU, whereas the Gators’ best win was a 44-39 stress-fest last week at Auburn.
Clearly shocked when the media informed him that the early betting line favored Florida, Sumrall responded: “There’s a lot of good drugs out there.”
The coach then went on to say, accurately, that Ole Miss clearly has more proven commodities, led by four guys the SEC coaches voted first- or second-team all-conference in the preseason: 24-year-old, sixth-year senior quarterback Trinidad Chambliss (a Heisman candidate), running back Kewan Lacy (a game-time decision with a shoulder injury), defensive tackle Will Echoles and linebacker Suntarine Perkins.
So far this season, against strong competition, Chambliss is connecting on 70 percent of his throws, and he leads the SEC by a significant margin with 308 passing yards per game.
Sumrall did mention that he hopes Florida will have a significant home-field advantage in what everyone calls The Swamp. That seems a safe assumption, with nearly 90,000 spectators expected to be on hand, and it’s true that the Gators have won three of their last five home games against top-25 opponents.
This is the first SEC home game in Gainesville for Sumrall, a 44-year-old former Kentucky Wildcats linebacker who is coming off very successful two-year head coaching runs, first at Troy in the Sun Belt Conference and more recently at Tulane in the American Conference.
There is an important ACC angle in this game, too, because Sumrall hired up-and-coming guru Buster Faulkner away from Georgia Tech to be his offensive coordinator, and Faulkner brought Tech’s backup quarterback, Aaron Philo, with him to Gainesville and plugged him right into the starting lineup.
The Gators’ best player is 225-pound junior running back Jaden Baugh, who is #2 nationally with 153 rushing yards per game, behind only Duke star Nate Sheppard.
If Florida (a three-point favorite) is going to grab a victory against Ole Miss, it likely will require a combination of more powerful running by Baugh and more big plays from Philo, who has made a bunch of them against lesser competition this season.
The offenses appear to have the edge over the defenses in this one, so if you like big numbers and balanced attacks, this one is likely for you.
National “Three To See,” Game Three
#20 Oregon (2-1) at #12 USC (4-0), Sat., 7:30 p.m. (NBC)
The two head coaches in this game have been around for a while, but they’re still very young guys by Power Four head coaching standards.
Southern Cal’s Lincoln Riley just turned 43 years old, and Oregon’s Dan Lanning is only 40. Both rose to prominence here on the East Coast — many thought they’d end up becoming head coaches in the ACC or SEC — before ultimately ending up on the West Coast.
Riley worked from 2010-14 under our good friend Ruffin McNeil at East Carolina and made a name for himself as an offensive guru from the Mike Leach coaching tree. Lanning worked from 2018-21 under Kirby Smart as Georgia and made a name for himself as a defensive guru. Both Riley and Lanning also have the sorts of personalities and people skills that made it easy to envision them as head coaches one day.
Impressively, Lanning and Riley now have two of the eight best winning percentages among active FBS head coaches.
Now in his fifth season at Oregon, Lanning is 50-9 overall, and that 85 percent success rate ranks behind only Indiana’s Curt Cignetti, Ohio State’s Ryan Day and Georgia’s Smart. Lanning’s average record in his first four seasons with the Ducks was 12-2, he led them to the Big Ten championship in the school’s first year as a member of that league (2024), and he has three straight top-10 finishes to his credit.
Riley had a stunningly successful five-year run at Oklahoma, with four consecutive Big 12 championships, four straight top-10 finishes and an average record of 11-2. In his four-plus seasons at Southern Cal, Riley hasn’t fared quite as well, although he posted top-25 finishes in 2022 and 2025, and now he’s off to that sparkling 4-0 start this season. His career record of 94-28 (.770) puts him eighth in winning percentage.
Neither Lanning nor Riley appears to have one of his best teams this season, although their coaching track records leave room for the hope of week-by-week improvement.
The Ducks struggled against Boise State to begin the season, then suffered a shocking defeat at Oklahoma State, and star quarterback Dante Moore hasn’t played particularly well behind a shaky offensive line. The Trojans are 4-0 at the moment, but they’ve continued their trend under Riley of being vulnerable on defense, and that issue reared its ugly head again last week, when they had a hard time shaking lowly Rutgers in a 42-35 road victory.
USC’s fifth-year senior quarterback, Jayden Maiava, once again is completing more than 75 percent of his passes for almost 300 yards per game, and his 12 touchdown tosses lead the Big Ten, so this is definitely a QB matchup of potential first-round NFL draft picks.
Lanning is 2-0 head-to-head against Riley, but both of those games were in Eugene, this one is in Los Angeles, and this time both teams have been displaying at least some vulnerabilities, so perhaps USC (a three-point underdog) can get its first win in this rivalry since 2016.
NOTE: For the in-state edition of our Week Four college football preview, including analysis on the highest-profile games, plus schedules and TV/streaming options for all 32 teams (FBS, FCS, Division Two, Division Three) in the Bold North State, please click HERE.
