Good morning New York Giants fans! Happy Saturday and welcome to Week 4 of the 2026 College Football season!
The Giants had their season turned upside down on Tuesday when it was revealed that quarterback Jaxson Dart would be lost for the season. That doesn’t change our focus for the Giants as we use the upcoming draft as a lens to evaluate the team -- the Giants’ most pressing needs are still at “offensive weapon” (wide receiver, running back, or tight end), cornerback, and defensive tackle.
However, it might adjust our frame of reference and force us to consider higher rated prospects who the Giants might not have been in position to draft with a healthy Dart.
We’re not closing the door on a playoff push yet, but we’re aslo expanding the Giants’ potential draft window to more highly rated prospects.
(14) Tennessee vs. (1) Texas
ABC - noon
Player highlight: Cam Coleman (WR, Texas)
Arch Manning remains the player to watch on Texas’ roster. He’s vaulted back into the Top 5 conversation after leading a come-from-behind win over Ohio State back in Week 2. There’s no evidence that the Giants aren’t looking for a quarterback despite the injury to Jaxson Dart. The Giants might be interested in Texas’ offensive tackles, Trevor Goosby and Melvin Siani if Jermaine Eluemunor stumbles over the remainder of the season.
That said, the Giants’ long-term need at wide receiver remains, and Cam Coleman could be a truly elite one. While Jeremiah Smith (WR, Ohio State) has been compared to Calvin Johnson or Julio Jones, Cam Coleman is much more in the “A.J. Green” mold as a receiver. He’s long, lean, and has elite body control and ball skills. He isn’t a burner down the field and will likely time in the 4.45-4.50 neighborhood. That said, his ability was obvious at Auburn (despite the state of their passing offense) prior to transferring to Texas, and he has the ability to emerge as a truly elite prospect.
Texas’ roster is absolutely stacked with talent, but Coleman might be the best player regardless of position. Ideally, the Giants would have no chance at Coleman. However, the injury to Dart the the glut of talent in the 2027 draft could put him on the board for the Giants, so we should pay attention to him.
(21) Florida vs. (4) Ole Miss
ABC - 3:30 p.m.
Player highlight: Jaden Baugh (RB, Forida)
This is one of those games in which I’m cheating just a bit. This game actually features two excellent running backs in Florida’s Jaden Baugh and Kewan Lacy out of Ole Miss. The Giants could use more “juice” out of their backfield, and either one of these players would be an upgrade for the Giants’ backfield. The Giants love Cam Skattebo, with elite contact balance and the ability to consistently churn out 4 to 6 yards. However, Skattebo doesn’t have the long speed to pair with his explosiveness.
Baugh has great size at 6-foot-1, 230 pounds with great vision, contact balance, and the speed to take advantage of glimmers of daylight. If there’s a whole in Baugh’s game and draft profile, it’s that he needs to show more in the passing game. That might be tough in a very limited Florida offense that runs through Baugh… On the ground.
Lacy is a smaller back at 5-foot-9, 205 pounds, but runs with great toughness as well as agility and burst. He was running like a man possessed against Lane Kiffin’s LSU before suffering a painful shoulder injury. He led the SEC with 306 carries (1,567 yards, 5.1 per attempt) and 24 rushing touchdowns last year. Lacy has shown receiving upside with 29 receptions a year ago, but he’s also listed as questionable for this game.
This promises to be an excellent game, and it’ll be fascinating to see if Trinidad Chambliss and Ole Miss can build on the momentum generated by their win over LSU.
(8) Alabama vs. South Carolina
ESPN - 7 p.m.
Player highlight: Nyck Harbor, WR, South Carolina
There are a number of ways we could go in this game. Alabama is once again talented, and South Carolina has a nice collection of future NFL players as well. Most scouts will be at the game for South Carolina quarterback LaNoriss Sellers and edge defender Dylan Stewart. Gamecocks’ cornerback Vicari Swain is another very intriguing name in light of the Giants’ thin secondary as well.
However, we need to talk about SC receiver Nyck Harbor. There has never been a doubt about Harbor’s unreal athleticism, and the Olympic hopeful has headlined Bruce Feldman’s “Freaks List” three of the last four years. His absurd blend of size and speed can only be compared to that of Calvin Johnson… Except that Feldman himself opined on the McShay Show that Harbor is not only an inch and 10 pounds bigger than Johnson, he could be faster too. Feldman stated that where Megatron ran in the 4.3’s, Harbor could run in the 4.2’s despite being the size of many NFL tight ends.
The problem is that Harbor has spent much of his college career aspiring to represent the USA as an Olympic track athlete, and has only recently fully committed himself to football. There are absolutely absurd flashes from Harbor, but he is still raw as a receiver and it shows.
Going up against Alabama is Harbor’s best chance to make scouts around the NFL stand up and take notice of him as a football player, and not just an athlete. If he can have a good game against a sophisticated defense that’s stocked with future NFL players, he could see his draft stock rocket up and become a realistic option for the Giants if they’re looking to reinforce their receiving corps.
Looking at the game as a whole, can South Carolina get back into the SEC race with a win over ‘Bama?
(12) USC vs (20) Oregon
NBC - 7:30 p.m.
Player highlight: Bear Alexander (iDL, Oregon)
As mentioned above, this is a great slate of games today, and I had to mention a second primetime game.
This game has a bunch of context and subtext around it, largely related to the two quarterbacks. Oregon’s Dante Moore is still generally considered the top quarterback in the upcoming draft, however he hasn’t exactly taken the step expected of him after returning to school for the 2026 season. Conversely, USC QB Jayden Maiava is climbing draft boards as more people get a look at him.
But that’s what national scouts will be interested in.
We’re here for the Oregon defensive line, and their match-up against the USC offensive line and running game. USC is running the ball well with each of their top three running backs averaging over 5 yards per carry, while freshman Riley Wormley is averaging 7.3 yards per attempt (and 2 touchdowns) on 9 carries so far this year.
They’ll be opposed by Bear Alexander and A’Mauri Washington.
Alexander is a former top defensive line recruit who started his college career at Georgia, then transferred to USC before finally transferring to Oregon. He has a near prototypical frame at 6-foot-3, 310 pounds, and reportedly has 34-inch arms giving him great length to go with his mass. He’s a powerful defensive tackle who can attack and clog gaps as well as control blockers. Alexander is a pure power player who’s able to command double teams, overpower individual blockers and collapse the pocket. He’s much more of a run defender than a pass rusher, though he does have 5 passes defensed and 44 pressures coming into this year.
I’ve previously talked about A’Mauri Washington, and he remains one of my favorite defensive tackles in the class. He strikes me as a classic “Giants” DT with a rare blend of size and athleticism, and both of these tackles have the potential to emerge as Top 50 talents.