3 worst losses of Week 5: The fall of the Rebels and Deion's dominance

Week 5 of the 2024 season turned out to be more impactful than I originally anticipated looking at the slate earlier in the week. Some teams seized the moment and furthered their case for contention, and others started to show that perhaps they weren’t all that. Let’s take a look at some of the worst losses from Saturday.

This was a gut punch for fans of then-No. 12 Ole Miss. Expectations were quite high for this team coming into the season, and you had to figure with how stacked the SEC is that the Rebels could afford to lose a game or two and still have a solid case to make to sneak into the CFP, but probably not if one of those is to Kentucky.

Hope is certainly not entirely lost for Ole Miss, but they do have Oklahoma and Georgia remaining on the schedule along with some other games they will need to play well to win. The margin for error is smaller, and this loss really stings.

Utah was sitting pretty going into week 5. They had cracked the top 10 (then ranked No. 10) after taking care of Oklahoma State and were seemingly in the driver's seat in the Big 12. However, continued injury struggles for Cam Rising have forced Utah to send true freshman Isaac Wilson out there, which may not fly against a few tougher opponents on the schedule.

Not that the Big 12 is a gauntlet, but they do have an important game coming in a month or so against their rival BYU, who is now in the driver's seat in the Big 12 after exceeding expectations so far this year. I suspect they will need their veteran QB to come away with a win in that one. The loss to Arizona is not completely detrimental, but it does hurt.

UCF entered the week as the favorite to beat Colorado. They proceeded to get absolutely boat raced. Is this a result of Colorado exceeding expectations or UCF underperforming? Probably a bit of both. The Big 12 is a conference of major opportunity as it is still a part of the Power 4 despite not having an elite team, at least from what we can tell so far.

Every game matters as the conference champion will secure a top-four seed in the CFP and a first-round bye. The champion is likely the only spot the Big 12 will secure in the CFP considering the strength of the SEC and the Big Ten. This was an opportunity missed for UCF.

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