Week 5 of college football kicked off a little earlier than usual as we got our first AP Top 25 matchup on Friday night.
Utah traveled to Corvallis for a huge showdown between Pac-12 contenders. Oregon State was coming off a tough loss to Washington State while the Utes were unscathed on the year even without Cam Rising. That changed in a hurry as Oregon State cruised to a 21-7 win.
Probably the most anticipated game in the noon slot was USC going to Colorado to face Deion Sanders and the Buffaloes. It didn’t take long for this one to get out of hand as the Trojans ran up the score in the first half and cruised to a big win in Boulder despite a second-half comeback attempt. Caleb Williams really helped solidify himself atop the Heisman Trophy standings.
Penn State struggled for a half against Northwestern, Kentucky upset No. 22 Florida, and Texas A&M made a bid for the AP Top 25 after beating Arkansas handily.
The afternoon slate was headlined by Georgia going on the road to take on Auburn and the Tigers made things very interesting, losing by just seven. A late drive by Carson Beck to Brock Bowers was the difference. If tight ends were serious Heisman candidates, Bowers would be in that race.
Notre Dame and Duke played a classic down in Durham in a massive bounce-back game and Ole Miss snuck by LSU in a thrilled down in Oxford.
What could the AP Top 25 look like this week?
Fresno State was the biggest surprise in the AP Top 25 last week, in my opinion, but the Bulldogs deserved it after a 4-0 start to the season which will become 5-0 on Saturday night in the late game against a winless Nevada squad.
Louisville had one of the earliest games of Week 5, going on the road to beat NC State on Friday night. For a while, it looked like the Cardinals would fall victim to upset due to the offense not showing up, but they scored all 13 second-half points in the game to win 13-10. Jeff Brohm is off to a heck of a start at his alma mater.
Duke just couldn’t get the job done at home against Notre Dame, but the Blue Devils put up a nice fight and should remain in the AP Top 25 this week. They have to get that offense back on track moving forward after Riley Leonard went down with an injury and may be done for the year.
It’s time to put some stock in the Ray Davis Heisman hype train as the talented Kentucky running back ran all over Florida to steal the Gators’ spot in the AP Top 25 this week. Davis rushed for 280 yards and had four total touchdowns in the win over the Gators, marking Kentucky’s third straight in this rivalry. The Wildcats may be for real.
A game that I would consider a “trap” didn’t turn out to be just that for Missouri as the Tigers went on the road and took care of Vanderbilt comfortably. The Tigers continue to impress as Eli Drinkwitz has a team that might just contend this season if things continue like this. The SEC is not going to be as friendly as it was for Missouri on Saturday, though.
Tennessee took a two-touchdown lead into halftime and the Volunteers didn’t look back against a pesky South Carolina team led by Spencer Rattler. This was a nice bounce-back after losing to Florida last week and the Vols should jump right back into the top 20.
LSU suffered that devastating second loss of the season on Saturday night in Oxford, falling in a shootout to Ole Miss. The Tigers will likely drop to the 20-range after their second loss and their hunt for a playoff this season is all but over unless they can win out. A nice game from the offense, but the defense got zero stops.
Just after sneaking into the top 10 last week, Utah will drop back into the 15-20 range this week after losing at Oregon State. No Cam Rising was finally a problem for this offense as Nate Johnson and Co. struggled to get things going. The Utes are still very much alive in the Pac-12 title and playoff races, but they’ll need Rising back as soon as possible.
Miami had a bye in Week 5 and the unbeaten Hurricanes will return to action against Georgia Tech at home next week. That should be an easy win considering the Yellow Jackets were just handled at home by Bowling Green. Mario Cristobal’s team is trying to prove that this hot start to the year is not a fluke.
What a massive win it was for Ole Miss on Saturday night, taking LSU down on a furious late comeback after surrendering a big touchdown after a blown call to make it 49-40 LSU in the fourth quarter. The Rebels scored the next 15 points and won the shootout. Lane Kiffin’s offense is explosive yet again.
A week after dropping a tough road game to Washington State, the Beavers returned home to take down the back-to-back Pac-12 champs. The Utes were without Cam Rising again and the Oregon State defense stifled Nate Johnson and that offense. DJ Uiagalelei did just enough offensively to eke out the win over the defensive-minded Utes.
The Fighting Cam Wards were on a bye this past week after pulling off a massive win over Oregon State in Week 4. The Cougars, led by Jake Dickert, have been shocking just about everyone this season and they’ll return to action next week at UCLA in another huge Pac-12 test.
Following their first road win of the season in Week 4 over Pitt, Mack Brown and North Carolina got a bye in Week 5. The Tar Heels will get some rest before coming back to three straight home games in October. This team will be tested much more heavily in November, but right now, the Tar Heels look like legit contenders.
Oklahoma’s defense got off to a hot start with a pick-six on the first play, but then it gave up 20 points to an anemic Iowa State offense in the first half. That side of the ball needs to continue improving and this team will be scary-good. Dillon Gabriel is just a magician at quarterback and this offense is explosive.
Alabama had to go to Mississippi State on Saturday night and that’s not an easy place to win but the Tide raced out to a 14-0 lead and looked dominant. The Tide should be right outside the top 10 if they hold on to win, which I expect them to do.
Notre Dame had the game of the week, going to Duke to face the red-hot Blue Devils who were searching for their second improbable upset of the season. Duke beat Clemson at home earlier in the season and then played Notre Dame down to the wire.
The Irish led for the entire game, building a 13-0 lead before Duke finally got on the board in the third quarter. This Notre Dame defense deserves a ton of credit and it’s no surprise that it’s so stifling with the pieces it has and a head coach like Marcus Freeman leading the way.
This, however, was not the best game for Sam Hartman and yet he was still really solid. He out-dueled his counterpart for Duke.
Audric Estime also had a tough game.
This was one of those ugly games that Notre Dame should be grateful to escape with a ‘W’ in, but fans won’t want to watch the replay.
Slow starts seemed to be the theme of teams ranked in the top 10 this week as Oregon was also a victim of the slow start at Stanford on Saturday evening.
The Ducks found themselves down 6-0 through part of the second quarter before finally getting on the scoreboard. The Ducks to a 14-6 lead into the locker room before extending that early in the second half and never looking back.
This wasn’t the best performance that we’re going to see from Dan Lanning’s Ducks this season as they probably had a little bit of a hangover following the blowout win over Colorado last week. Either way, the Ducks still took care of business.
Bo Nix had a nice rebound half after a slow first 30 minutes and he and Bucky Irving starred in the road win over Stanford.
Are you a believer in Caleb Williams as a two-time Heisman Trophy winner? The reigning Heisman winner had himself a day against the Colorado Buffaloes on Saturday and made up for his defense’s lack of, well, production.
USC’s defense gave up 41 points and over 550 total yards which just isn’t good enough for a playoff contender. It may be time to have a serious conversation about Alex Grinch’s job because the Trojans just aren’t getting it done on that side of the ball.
Williams, on the other hand, was magical. He did throw his first interception of the year but he had six touchdown passes and 403 yards on 30-of-40 completions, leading the Trojans to a 48-41 road win over the Buffaloes. Not too bad.
Unless the defense figures things out soon, though, USC’s playoff hopes may be in serious jeopardy this year.
Washington had one of the later games on Saturday night as the Huskies went to Tucson to take on the rebuilding Arizona Wildcats.
Arizona is much better this season and they’re going to give Washington a nice Week 5 test, but I expect the Huskies to take care of business and avoid the road upset.
This Washington offense, led by Michael Penix Jr. is one of the most explosive in the nation. He’s been Heisman-worthy through the first half of the season and I expect him to continue dominating lesser opponents.
Washington will still be in the top 10 next week.
The first half of Penn State’s matchup with Northwestern did not go as expected. The Nittany Lions found themselves in a 10-10 tussle at the half against one of the worst teams in the Big Ten, but they stormed out of the locker room angrily and marched to a 41-13 road win.
The Nittany Lions probably aren’t all that happy with the performance since the game was so close for 30 minutes, but they asserted their dominance after being taught a lesson by James Franklin at halftime.
Nick Singleton had 80 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries and Drew Allar passed for just 189 yards and a score. It was the defense that stole the show again, holding Northwestern under 200 total yards on 63 offensive plays.
Penn State needs to shake this weird game off and get back on track in October because this team has playoff potential.
Florida State was one of the other teams with a bye in Week 5 and they, too, earned it as the Seminoles are coming off a big road win over rival Clemson in Week 4, beating the Tigers in overtime.
Jordan Travis remains squarely in the Heisman race after a hot start to the season with just over 1,000 yards and 10 touchdowns.
The duo of Johnny Wilson and Keon Coleman at receiver have made Travis’ job so much easier and everyone is kind of waiting for Trey Benson to heat up after an extremely slow start to the season. Maybe he’ll get that confidence back after a bye week and once he gets going, no one is going to be able to stop this offense.
Florida State will get three straight home games after the bye week, kicking it off with Virginia Tech in Week 6. I can’t see this team losing for a while.
Ohio State was one of the teams on bye this week after picking up its biggest win of the season in Week 4, taking down Notre Dame in South Bend. It was one of the most impressive wins that any team has recorded this season and the Buckeyes earned the week off.
Kyle McCord is starting to look like a quality starting quarterback and while he’s no CJ Stroud, he’s really impressing through four games.
The run game is also solid, as expected, and the defense has stepped up in recent weeks. It feels like the Buckeyes have figured some things out this offseason and seeing them back in the top five just feels right.
Ryan Day felt his team was being disrespected before last week, so we’ll see if they come out with a chip on their shoulder moving forward.
Texas had a tough test with Kansas coming to town and seeing this as a Top 25 matchup never happens. The Jayhawks have exceeded expectations this season but without Jalon Daniels, they would be facing a massive uphill battle in Austin.
The game was tight through the first half as Texas took a 13-7 lead into the locker room but they went on to cruise to a 40-14 victory, outscoring the Jayhawks 27-7 in the second half.
Quinn Ewers kept his Heisman campaign alive with 325 yards and a touchdown but it was Texas running back Jonathon Brooks who stole the show, carrying the ball 21 times for 218 yards and two touchdowns. Kansas just could not take him down.
The offense finally woke up in the second half and Kansas had no answers.
Texas is looking more like a top-three team every single week and Steve Sarkisian may just have a legit national title threat on his hands.
The first “tough” test of the season for Michigan came in Week 5 as the Wolverines had to travel to Lincoln to face Matt Rhule and Nebraska and, well, the game wasn’t even close.
Michigan raced out to a 21-0 lead and never looked back. The Wolverines finished with a 54-7 win over the Cornhuskers on the road and that showed us two things: one, Michigan is pretty good and two, Nebraska has a long way to go under Rhule.
Nebraska didn’t score until late in the fourth quarter as Michigan squandered a rare shutout opportunity on the road and you know Jim Harbaugh is going to be upset about that.
This Michigan defense is stifling and the offense is solid despite not having too much explosiveness on Saturday. JJ McCarthy threw the ball fewer than 20 times and Michigan didn’t have a single rusher go for over 100 yards.
This is just a balanced team.
Man, what a dogfight Georgia found itself in on Saturday afternoon with the No. 1 ranking on the line. A loss for the Bulldogs would have knocked them down a few pegs while the Wolverines were waiting to rise up into that top spot after a 5-0 start.
Georgia found itself down 10-0 early on and then the Bulldogs stormed back to tie things up at 10-10 before halftime. A fumble early in the third gave Auburn the ball in scoring position and it capitalized, taking a 17-10 lead but Georgia scored the next 10 points before Auburn tied it up again.
The 20-20 tie game went deep into the fourth, but Carson Beck’s connection with Brock Bowers was the difference. Those two led the Bulldogs down the field in the clutch and really made Auburn’s defense look silly when it mattered most.
This was a really good win for Georgia. I believe the Bulldogs will stay in that top spot.
And relax about the offense, Georgia fans.