Must-See Week 4 Games

September 25, 2020 by Rich Cirminiello, MaxwellFootballClub.org

The Maxwell Football Club honors the nation's top offensive player with the Maxwell Award, and the best defensive player with the Chuck Bednarik Award. Here's a look at some the games, and candidates, on the "must-see list" this week.

Kentucky (0-0) at Auburn (0-0) - Saturday, 12:00 p.m. ET (SEC Network) -
The SEC begins with a rare meeting between these schools. Auburn has dominated this series, going 17-1 dating back to 1966. But Kentucky is on the rise under Mark Stoops. The Wildcats have strung together four straight winning seasons, and this year's O-line and secondary rank among the league's best. QB Terry Wilson returns after missing most of 2019 to a knee injury. His Auburn counterpart, Bo Nix, will be looking to make a quantum leap as a sophomore. Points will come at a premium in a bare-knuckle battle between defenses that allowed 19 points per game last fall.

Florida (0-0) at Ole Miss (0-0) - Saturday, 12:00 p.m. ET (ESPN) -
Welcome back to the SEC, Lane. Now go out and excite the locals with an upset over one of the East Division favorites. Lane Kiffin gets a tough opener as the new Ole Miss head coach. Still, he inherits an interesting collection of offensive weapons, like two capable young quarterbacks, RB Jerrion Ealy and WR Elijah Moore. Florida hopes to continue for Dan Mullen, who's captained back-to-back 10-win seasons and top 10 finishes. The Gators have the superior D in this one and a quarterback, Kyle Trask, hoping to use his senior year to rise up draft boards.

Army (2-0) at Cincinnati (1-0) - Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET (ESPN) -
Nippert Stadium will host of one of the more compelling Week 4 games not involving the SEC. The Black Knights have already rolled through Middle Tennessee and Louisiana-Monroe by a combined score of 79-7. If Army survives this weekend, the schedule sets up for a run at a perfect season. However, Cincinnati's defense is every bit as salty and returns key parts from a unit that allowed just 20.6 points a game in 2019. QB Desmond Ridder must make the most of each drive versus an Army attack that controls the clock and leads the FBS in third-down conversions.

Mississippi State (0-0) at LSU (0-0) - Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET (CBS) -
Mike Leach in his Mississippi State debut vs. Ed Orgeron and defending national champ LSU. There won't be many more compelling head coach matchups all season long. The quarterback battle figures to be pretty interesting as well. Veteran Stanford transfer KJ Costello is Leach's new gunslinger, while junior Myles Brennan makes his debut as the successor to 2019 Maxwell Award winner Joe Burrow. The Tigers, while perennially talented, are facing wholesale changes on both sides of the ball.