Week 4 takeaways -- Coaches talking smack, Texas playing defense - ESPN

A loaded Week 4 slate, including six ranked-versus-ranked matchups figured to unveil a lot about the 2023 college football season.

Oregon and Washington State earned huge home wins, the ACC kept rolling thanks to some unlikely unbeatens, and Alabama bounced back in a big way against Ole Miss.

Our reporters break down what we learned in another wild week.

There have been many narratives surrounding the ACC over the course of the past few years: No playoff appearances, big-name football brand struggles and few marquee nonconference wins hurt the way football was viewed.

Add to that questions around conference realignment and whether league teams could compete facing a major revenue gap with the SEC and Big Ten, and well, it all served to create the perception that the league was just barely hanging on.

But look what has happened to start 2023: The ACC has six undefeated teams, tied with the 2012 SEC for the most teams in a Power 5 conference to start 4-0 in a single season in the AP Poll era (since 1936).

North Carolina is 4-0 for the first time since 1997, with two nonconference wins over Power 5 opponents. What may be most surprising of all, though, is who else is undefeated, too.

With Clemson off to a 2-2 start, the hot ACC teams have made the Tigers' seeming elimination from playoff contention almost feel like an afterthought. Duke, which handed the Tigers an opening weekend defeat, is also 4-0 and will host «College GameDay» for the first time in school history this Saturday for its big home game against Notre Dame.

In fact, Duke and North Carolina are 4-0 in football at the same time for the first time since… 1971. Syracuse is 4-0 in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1959-60. Louisville, at 4-0 for the