After the games Week 4 / 2026
College football. An NFL Draft lens.What Saturday settled
Jeremiah Smith went 12 for 217 and four touchdowns against Illinois, every score Ohio State threw. Dante Moore was done before halftime at USC. Trevor Goosby, Brandon Baker and Leonard Moore started in wins, and the snaps to pull on each are below.
Smith did to Illinois what he has done to nearly everyone for two years: 12 catches, 217 yards, four touchdowns, a 72-yarder, and every touchdown pass Ohio State threw in a 42–19 win. Texas went into Neyland Stadium and won 20–17, and its fourth-quarter touchdown drive opened with Arch Manning sacked and closed with four straight runs. That one possession is Goosby’s week and Baker’s. Leonard Moore started in a 49–10 rout at Purdue and made two tackles against an offense that came in throwing for 366.7 yards a game. Dante Moore took a hit on a slide in the second quarter at USC and did not come back, and Dylan Raiola finished a 41–27 win. The questions we carried in are below, with the snaps that answer them.
| Prospect | Result | Line | Where it stands |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trevor GoosbyOT · Texas | Texas 20, Tennessee 17 | Started | Start with the sack that opened the 10:25 drive, then every pass set after it. |
| Brandon BakerG · Texas | Texas 20, Tennessee 17 | Started at guard | Same drive. Pass sets first, then the four runs that finished it. |
| Jeremiah SmithWR · Ohio State | Ohio State 42, Illinois 19 | 12 catches, 217 yards, 4 TD | Production was never the question. Pull the 72-yarder and the boundary routes for where they ended. |
| Leonard MooreCB · Notre Dame | Notre Dame 49, Purdue 10 | Started; 2 solo tackles | Two tackles, no targets logged. Pull every off-coverage snap with an inside release. |
| Dante MooreQB · Oregon | Oregon 41, USC 27 | Left in the second quarter | Less than a half of film. The question moves to his next start. |
OT Texas
Trevor Goosby
Texas 20, Tennessee 17 · Started
The question we took inWhen his first punch misses, can he refit his hands without grabbing?
Texas’s fourth-quarter touchdown drive opened with a sack, and that drive is Goosby’s week.
Goosby made his fourth start of the season at left tackle in a 20–17 win at Neyland Stadium, and the possession that matters began with 10:25 left in the fourth quarter. Tennessee sacked Arch Manning on the first snap. Texas answered by handing it off four straight times, nine yards, three, 10 and four, the last one for the score.
The question on Goosby has not changed: what happens to his hands when the first punch does not land. At his best he strikes first and controls the chest. When the first plan misses he catches and grabs, and his length bails him out often enough that a clean afternoon can hide a lost rep. Placement and replacement are the unsettled items on his report, and a jab-to-inside counter is the sequence that gets his weight leaning toward the first threat.
Pull the sack first and find out whose man got home. Then stay on him through the rest of the drive and every pass set after it. The tell is his feet when the hands come back. Under him, he wins the rep. Chasing the rusher, it is a hold waiting for a flag.
Game record ↗Original preview ↗
Read Goosby’s full scouting reportG Texas
Brandon Baker
Texas 20, Tennessee 17 · Started at guard
The question we took inWhen power hits his chest at the snap, does he hold the quarterback’s step-up space?
Baker’s week is the same drive, a yard closer to the quarterback.
Baker started at guard in the same game, a year removed from 13 starts at right tackle and listed at 315 pounds. The same drive is his film: the sack to open it, then nine, three, 10 and four yards on the ground to finish it.
The scouting split on Baker is the anchor. One camp sees patient, square sets and a blocker who knows where the stunt is coming from. The other sees an exposed chest, a pocket that compresses and an anchor that does not match the frame. At tackle that argument played out on the edge of the pocket. At guard it plays out in Arch Manning’s lap, and the move inside does not settle it so much as move it closer.
Pull his pass sets on that drive first, the sack included, and mark his feet at the snap against where they are when the defender lands. That distance is the grade. Then the four runs. The knock on his run blocking is that he reaches the landmark and the defender slips off before the back arrives. The question on each carry is whether he was still attached when the crease opened.
Game record ↗Original preview ↗
Read Baker’s full scouting reportWR Ohio State
Jeremiah Smith
Ohio State 42, Illinois 19 · 12 catches, 217 yards, 4 TD
The question we took inCan he beat the corner without running out of sideline?
Illinois could not cover him, and that was never the question.
Smith went 12 for 217 and four touchdowns on Illinois, with a 72-yarder, and nobody else in scarlet caught a touchdown pass. In one afternoon he matched a third of last year’s touchdown total and about a sixth of its 1,243 yards. Nobody in orange had an answer.
Getting open was never the question. Smith beats a corner over the top, inside in traffic or by outmuscling him for the ball, and he has done it for two years. What is left on his report is the sideline. He crowds it, and a route that wins by three yards is worth nothing if the quarterback has no grass to put the ball on. A 217-yard day hides that as easily as a 40-yard one, because the throws that never got made do not show up anywhere.
Pull the 72-yarder and the four scores first, then the boundary routes that drew no target, and mark where each one ended against the sideline. The day his quarterback has a yard to work with on every one of them, this is the finished product.
Game record ↗Original preview ↗
Read Smith’s full scouting reportCB Notre Dame
Leonard Moore
Notre Dame 49, Purdue 10 · Started; 2 solo tackles
The question we took inFrom off coverage, does his first step keep the inside he lined up to take away?
Purdue scored 10, Moore made two tackles, and a corner’s stat line is the quarterback’s to write.
Moore started at corner in Notre Dame’s 49–10 win at Purdue and made two solo tackles, with no breakups and no interceptions. Purdue came in throwing for 366.7 yards a game and left with 10 points, and no target count is listed.
The case for Moore starts with patience. He stays square while the receiver declares, reads the stem and stays calm at the top of the route, and last year that turned into five interceptions in 10 starts. The knock is a few yards off the line, in near-line off coverage, where his weight settles onto his heels and an inside release gets the first free step. His burst and reach usually get him back, and a recovery should not get credit for the leverage he gave away at the snap.
Pull every snap where he lined up off and the receiver released inside, whether the ball came or not, and watch his weight on the receiver’s first step. The two tackles say he finished twice. How he got there is the grade.
Game record ↗Original preview ↗
Read L. Moore’s full scouting reportQB Oregon
Dante Moore
Oregon 41, USC 27 · Left in the second quarter
The question we took inWhen the coverage rotates after the snap, how fast does he leave the first read?
Moore’s night ended on a slide in the second quarter, and Dylan Raiola got the win.
Moore took a hit on a slide in the second quarter at USC and did not return. Dylan Raiola finished a 41–27 win, and Rob Moseley’s official recap gives no diagnosis and no timetable. Saturday left less than a half of Dante Moore and a second half that belongs to somebody else’s evaluation.
The first-pick case rests on one thing: how fast he gets off a covered first read when the coverage rotates after the snap. He threw for 3,565 yards and 30 touchdowns last season with a release and touch that make an on-time throw look easy. Then Indiana sacked him six times in the regular-season meeting and opened the semifinal with a pick-six, with two fumbles to follow. Both times the pressure got into his timing, and the semifinal added ball security to the processing question.
His first-half possessions against USC are all there is this week. Pull them for the rotation: a safety dropping into the first window after the snap, and how long the ball stays in his hand once he does. The question moves to his next start with the same clock on it.
Game record ↗Original preview ↗
Read D. Moore’s full scouting reportSources & reporting 13 references
Scores, starters and stat lines come from the schools’ official box scores, gamebooks and recaps, checked September 28, 2026. No film was reviewed for this follow-up. The Public Draft Board did not move. The September 25 preview and the master reports it credits are unchanged; the report statements behind each section, and the roster and report figures added on October 2, are listed here. Revised October 2 for the prose; no game fact changed.
- Texas at Tennessee · official box score and play-by-play ↗
Texas 20, Tennessee 17. Goosby and Baker started. The drive that began with 10:25 left in the fourth quarter: a sack of Arch Manning on the first snap, then runs of nine, three, 10 and four yards, the last for the touchdown. No blocking assignments.
Checked September 28, 2026 - Texas · official 2026 football schedule ↗
Texas at Tennessee, September 26, Neyland Stadium, Knoxville.
Checked September 25, 2026 - Texas · Trevor Goosby current biography ↗
Goosby started the first three 2026 games at left tackle before the Tennessee game; with Saturday’s start, four this season.
Checked September 25, 2026 - Illinois at Ohio State · official box score ↗
Ohio State 42, Illinois 19. Smith: 12 receptions, 217 yards, four touchdowns, long of 72; Ohio State’s only passing touchdowns.
Checked September 28, 2026 - Notre Dame at Purdue · official gamebook ↗
Notre Dame 49, Purdue 10. Participation report: Moore started at cornerback. Two solo tackles, no pass breakups, no interceptions. No target data.
Checked September 28, 2026 - Oregon · Ducks Experience Range of Emotions In Win at USC ↗
Oregon 41, USC 27. Rob Moseley’s official recap: Moore left after a hit while sliding in the second quarter; Dylan Raiola replaced him. A game account, not a diagnosis or a timetable.
Checked September 28, 2026 - Purdue · Notre Dame game preparation ↗
366.7 team passing yards per game through three games, as Purdue published it before the game.
Checked September 25, 2026 - Draft Week 4 · the original five questions ↗
The September 25 preview, its five questions and the credited master-report statements behind them. This follow-up changes none of it.
Checked September 28, 2026 - Draftanomics · Trevor Goosby master report ↗
Strike-first hands against catch-and-grab recovery; length that bails out a late recovery; the jab-to-inside counter; placement and replacement still unsettled.
Checked September 28, 2026 - Draftanomics · Brandon Baker master report ↗
13 starts at right tackle in 2025 and a listed 315 pounds. The split between the patient-set evaluation and the anchor critique: the exposed chest and the step-up space. A position change improves the fit without correcting the execution. Falling off blocks, and sustain through the runner’s path.
Checked September 28, 2026 - Draftanomics · Jeremiah Smith master report ↗
87 catches, 1,243 yards and 12 touchdowns in 2025 after 76, 1,315 and 15 in 2024. The three ways he beats a corner. Sideline spacing as the unfinished item and the space to complete the catch in bounds.
Checked September 28, 2026 - Draftanomics · Leonard Moore master report ↗
Five interceptions in 10 starts in 2025. Composure, the square stance and the read of the stem. Heel-heavy near-line off coverage, the conceded inside release and the recovery that should not erase it. Contact and tackling as the next step.
Checked September 28, 2026 - Draftanomics · Dante Moore master report ↗
The 2025 line and the first-pick case tied to quicker post-snap decisions; late rotations and covered first reads; the six Indiana sacks, the first-snap pick-six and the two semifinal fumbles as the counterargument.
Checked September 28, 2026
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