College Football: 25 Bold Predictions for Top 25 in Week 5

We’ve made it through four weeks of college football so far. As we head into Week 5 it’s time to make one bold prediction for every top 25 team.

See Also: How did the Week 4 bold predictions turn out?

Last week was tricky. Much of the elite of the college football world were playing lower tiered opponents. Someone was going to get upset, it was figuring out who that was going to be that was the challenge. Kentucky, Mississippi State and Oklahoma State were some of our picks, and some of our most egregious misses.

Beyond those, we called for South Florida to win but fall out of the polls (they climbed four spots), Washington State to be pushed to overtime (they won by 35 points) and Penn State to never trail Iowa (they did not lead for a second before the final play of regulation).

While those were some major goofs, some of the correct predictions helped salvage the weekend. Florida State losing to NC State? Called it. Danny Etling being benched for a freshman? That was in last week’s column too. So was the benching of Wilton Speight and we predicted a bad day from Jake Browning too, although he did get the one touchdown.

There are quite a few teams off this week, but we’re not giving up on making some bold calls. Here’s one bold prediction for every top 25 team in action this week.

Bold prediction: DJ Chark catches eight passes. The senior leader of the Tiger wide receiving corps has been barely involved in the offense so far this season. He caught a season high four passes in their Week 1 victory over BYU but hasn’t reached that number since. He doubles that in Week 5.

Bold prediction: Nick Fitzgerald has more touchdowns than Jarrett Stidham. The Bulldog offense was nonexistent in their loss to Georgia. The Auburn defense isn’t going to be any easier to score on, but the Bulldog defense will contain Stidham with relative ease. Fitzgerald wins the battle of the rushers and finds the endzone a few times.