College football players of the week: Week 4, 2026
Ohio State's Jeremiah Smith caught 12 passes for 217 yards and four touchdowns against Illinois, edging Mississippi State's Kamario Taylor by a very thin margin. Texas's Colin Simmons had five sacks at No. 14 Tennessee, and Iowa's Braeden Jackson returned a kickoff 99 yards in a one-point win at No. 18 Michigan.
Twelve catches for 217 yards and four touchdowns, which tied the Ohio State record for touchdown catches in a game. His first three scores, from 7, 72 and 9 yards, put Ohio State up 21-7 in the second quarter, and after Illinois got within 28-13 his 26-yard catch with 10:07 left made it 35-13. No one in FBS had more receiving yards this week, and no one else caught four touchdowns. He wins by a very thin margin over Kamario Taylor, who threw for 360 yards and led the fourth-quarter drives that beat No. 19 Missouri. Taylor did it against a ranked team in a one-score game; Smith's came at home against unranked Illinois in a 23-point win. Smith gets the edge on production.
Runner-up: Kamario Taylor, Mississippi State: 27 of 38, 360 yards, 3 TD, 1 INT, including the 24-yard go-ahead touchdown with 3:57 left in a 31-24 win over No. 19 Missouri
Five sacks on the road against a ranked team, tying the Texas single-game record. Two came on back-to-back snaps in the third quarter with Texas up 13-10, and the fifth, on third down early in the fourth, knocked Tennessee back to its own 16 and forced a punt. Texas took the ball and scored the touchdown that made it 20-10, and it needed all of that cushion after Tennessee scored with 1:22 left and recovered an onside kick. The next-best day against a ranked team was Missouri's Daeden Hopkins, with 3.5 sacks in a loss at Mississippi State.
Runner-up: Daeden Hopkins, Missouri: 3.5 sacks in a 31-24 loss at No. 24 Mississippi State
99-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the first quarter, tying the game 7-7
Michigan had just scored the game's first touchdown when Jackson took the kickoff 99 yards to tie it 7-7 late in the first quarter. Iowa won 20-19 at No. 18 Michigan on a touchdown pass on the final play, so his return accounted for seven points in a one-point road win over a ranked team. Wake Forest's win at No. 16 Louisville had the other two plays in the running: Connor Calvert's 32-yard field goal that broke a 27-27 tie with 6:20 left, and a blocked 57-yard try in the final 20 seconds that would only have tied it.
Runner-up: Connor Calvert, Wake Forest: 3 of 3 field goals (39, 35 and 32 yards), including the 32-yard go-ahead kick with 6:20 left in a 30-27 win at No. 16 Louisville
One player per slot, judged the way the power rankings judge teams: what happened on the field, against whom and where. Production counts, and so does the opponent. A big game against a good defense or on the road beats the same numbers at home against a bad one, and a play that decided the game beats one that padded a lead. A great game in a loss can still win if nothing else comes close.
NFL awards follow the league's format, AFC and NFC, and go up on Tuesday morning, a day before the league names its own. College awards are national and go up on Sunday morning. Where there's an official pick (the NFL's, or Walter Camp's for college offense and defense), it's listed under ours, agree or not.