Our 7 best bets for Week 4 of the college football season

Tennessee's season got off to a nightmarish start, losing their opener to Georgia State and then falling in their home opener to BYU in overtime.

In Week 3 against Chattanooga, the Volunteers finally stepped up a bit, playing to a 45-0 shut out to get their first win of the season.

This trip down to Florida is a big one. With a game against Georgia looming, expect Tennessee to be eager to prove that they're not the pushovers they appeared to be at the start of the year.

Last week, we backed UCF as 9-point favorites against Stanford believing that the Knights only have so many opportunities to prove how good they are. UCF rewarded us by rolling through the Cardinal, winning 45-27.

This week, the Knights are in a similar spot, taking on a Pittsburgh team that just played Penn State close for four quarters. With another authoritative win, the Knights could have two solid games to point to when the ranking committee begins to meet.

Temple is hot off an upset win over Maryland last weekend and looking to get off to a 3-0 start to the season. Buffalo is coming off of a tough 35-17 loss to lowly Liberty.

The Bulls are far better than the effort they put forth last week. However, it feels like the Owls are on a streak that could take them to their showdown with UCF in late October.

Washington has some work to do if it wants to win what is a surprisingly crowded Pac-12 conference. This trip to BYU will serve as a solid test for the rest of their season.

BYU opened the season with a tough loss to Utah before taking down Tennessee and USC on subsequent weeks. The Huskies are closer to Utah in terms of talent, so we'll back them to travel into Provo and take the win by a touchdown.

Typically, we have to wait for Notre Dame to play a season's worth of football before we watch them get run over by one of the true powerhouses.

This year, we'll have the pleasure of knowing whether or not the Irish are for real much earlier.

Georgia might be the best team in the country, and if they are, they'll roll in this game in Athens.

I like Michigan State to win this game. However, this feels like too many points to give up to a Northwestern team that has proven time and time again to be able to play up to the level of almost any opponent.

The Spartans lost to Northwestern last year and will certainly be out for revenge this week. But after losing at home to Arizona State last weekend, it's tough to back this team to take it in a blowout.