The Path to the 12-team College Football Playoff Week 5: Alabama is still Alabama

There were those that said an expanded College Football Playoff would ruin the regular season. They believed it would devalue the big-time matchups with the stakes no longer the loser’s entire hopes for the season. Well, Week 5 of the 2024 college football season proved that they were wrong. 

Conference play is fully here and it brought with it a top-20 Big Ten opener with “White Out energy” at Beaver Stadium, a 12-team CFP elimination game in the Big 12, but most importantly, it delivered us a top-5 matchup in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and a game that absolutely lived up to expectations in the fourth quarter. So, we’ll start with the most important thing that happened in college football this week, Kalen DeBoer’s first-ever SEC victory. 

The Statements

The biggest wins of Week 5

1. The bad man is gone, but Alabama is still Alabama

When Nick Saban announced his retirement just a few weeks after beating Georgia in the SEC Championship to steal a spot in the final four-team College Football Playoff, it seemed obvious that Kirby Smart was heir-apparent to Saban’s SEC supremacy. Since taking over as the head coach of his alma mater in 2017, leaving Saban’s staff in Tuscaloosa, Smart went 1-5 against his former boss despite dominating everyone else. 

Then, on Saturday night in Tuscaloosa, Georgia’s worst nightmares were realized. Even with Kalen DeBoer on the other sideline, not the seven-time national champion and college football grim reaper, Smart fell to 1-6 against the Crimson Tide with a 41-34 loss. Maybe it wasn’t just Saban, maybe Alabama is and always will be Alabama. 

For Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe, the coaching change may have even been an upgrade. The offensive-minded DeBoer and offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan devised a perfect plan that Smart had no answers for and led to touchdowns on the Crimson Tide’s first four drives. Georgia’s offense wasn’t much better than its helpless defense. 

Even after the disastrous first half that saw his team behind 30-9, quarterback Carson Beck led the Bulldogs all the way back, even taking the lead 34-33 with a 67-yard one-play touchdown drive that saw wide receiver Dillon Bell reach the end zone with 3:31 remaining. Which of course was far too much time for Milroe, who responded immediately, connecting with his 17-year-old phenom Ryan Williams for a 75-yard touchdown strike on the very next play. 

Georgia threatened again, but Beck’s night ended with his third interception and fourth turnover, sealing it for Alabama. One of the reasons he returned for his fifth year in Athens and second as Georgia’s starting quarterback was for another shot at Bama, but he didn’t look ready for it. 

Milroe outplayed Beck in their first matchup, but that win was more a testament to Bama’s size and physicality in the trenches than anything. This time, around DeBoer, put it on Milroe’s shoulders and to Georgia offensive coordinator Mike Bobo’s credit, he put it on Beck’s. Perhaps surprisingly, the one almost universally considered to be the superior NFL prospect, was thoroughly overmatched. 

The great news is, Beck could get another shot. The 12-team playoff detractors spent all offseason bemoaning the decreased importance of the regular season, but Saturday night in Tuscaloosa, felt as big as ever, and who the hell wouldn’t want to do it two, or even three more times? 

These are two of the best teams in the country, Georgia’s comeback confirmed it, and now that Smart felt DeBoer’s first-half haymaker and Kalen saw Kirby’s counterpunch, the rematch could be even better. Georgia isn’t out of the playoff race, not by a long shot. 

2. The Cam Ward rollercoaster ride

Cam Ward routinely makes plays that few quarterbacks can, but the Miami quarterback also makes a few that no quarterback ever should. Through No. 7 Miami’s 5-0 start, there’s been a lot more brilliance from the fifth-year transfer from Washington State, but on Friday night in his Hurricanes 38-34 win over Virginia Tech, we saw the mistakes that kept Ward in college football diving in after testing the NFL waters this offseason. 

On the third play of the game, Ward refused to take a sack on third-and-5 and unnecessarily attempted to get the ball out while going to the ground. He fumbled and Virginia Tech turned the short field into a 7-0 lead. Then, Ward led back-to-back touchdown drives to take a 14-7 lead. That’s the reason Mario Cristobal is willing to ride the Cam Ward roller coaster, but those peaks were followed by another valley. 

On the fourth drive of the game, Miami was threatening to take a commanding two-touchdown lead, but after a holding call on backup left tackle Markel Bell wiped away a Ward touchdown toss, Virginia Tech defensive back Mose Phillips III baited Ward into his second turnover. 

That turnover turned the tide, the Hokies took a 24-17 lead into the break and added a field goal on their first drive of the second half. Again, Ward marched Miami onto the cusp of the red zone, and again Ward made a mistake, this time forcing a throw into Xavier Restrepo that was tipped and nearly returned for a score. 

Miami tight end Elijah Arroyo saved a pick-six with a remarkable effort. It turned out to be a seven-point tackle because Miami got a stop, and Virginia Tech head coach Brent Pry, a Frank Beamer disciple, tried his hand at "Beamer ball" with a fake field goal that the Hurricanes sniffed out. 

From that point, Ward was lights out, leading three straight touchdown drives and going 10/14 for 141 yards and two touchdowns through the air with 45 yards and another score on the ground. He finished 24/38 for 343 yards and four touchdowns with two interceptions, a rushing touchdown, and a fumble. A roller coaster win that ended with a replay controversy on Virginia Tech’s hail-mary attempt on the final play (which I refused to relitigate), and the type of game that Cristobal’s team wouldn’t have won without trusting his quarterback to decide his fate. That’s something Cristobal never did at Oregon, even with Justin Herbert running his offense. 

This Miami team is bought into Cristobal and bought into his quarterback. You don’t get plays like Arroyo’s touchdown-saving tackle if a team doesn’t believe it can be special. And if this team needs another reason to believe, just watch this Xavier Restrepo fourth-down grab on the game-winning touchdown drive. 

That’s magic. Games like that one, with all eyes on it, are why Frank Beamer’s Hokies pioneered weeknight matchups. Beamer’s teams, however, usually won those games and Brent Pry hasn’t. So, his Beamer-ball revival in Blacksburg may be over soon. The third-year head coach is now 1-10 in one-score games and if you saw his clock management on the final drive, you can see why. 

3. Penn State’s dominant defense

All of the talk surrounding Penn State this season has been about how new offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki has revitalized former five-star quarterback Drew Allar and the Nittany Lion offense. But that wasn’t the only change made to the coaching staff in Happy Valley this offseason. When Manny Diaz left to replace Mike Elko as the head coach at Duke, James Franklin turned to Tom Allen, who had been recently relieved of his duties as Indiana’s head coach. 

Allen arguably had the tougher task of the two new play-callers. Any creativity and explosiveness out the offense would have been an improvement, but Penn State’s defense was an elite unit under Diaz and finished No. 2 in the country in 2023. There was a standard to uphold.

The Nittany Lions held West Virginia to 12 points in their Week 1 win, but in Week 2, Bowling Green and Allen’s former quarterback Connor Bazelak carved up his defense in the first half before Penn State finally slammed the door. 

So, once Illinois marched its way right down the field on an 11-play touchdown drive to open Week 5, concerns resurfaced, but once again, and much earlier than in Week 2, Allen’s unit slammed the door. The No. 9 Nittany Lions gave up just 219 total yards in their 21-7 win over the No. 19 team in the country and only 39 in the second half. They’ve yet to allow more than 100 second-half yards in any of their four games. 

Illinois’s 4-0 start was largely due to a retooled offensive line protecting quarterback Luke Altmyer, but Penn State got relentless pressure on the Illini's second-year starter. In 2023, Penn State forced Altmyer into four interceptions, this time, cornerback AJ Harris was the only Nittany Lion on the receiving end of one of Altmyer’s passes, but the entire defense still wreaked constant havoc. 

Everyone knows about Abdul Carter, Penn State’s newest member of St1x C1ty who moved from linebacker to defensive end this offseason. The Micah Parsons clone finished with two sacks and a forced fumble, but with Dani Dennis-Sutton rushing off the other edge and Zane Durant on the interior, the Nittany Lions have a fearsome group of pass rushers that racked up six sacks, 12 tackles for loss, and held Illinois to 1.1 yards per carry. 

After the first drive on Saturday night, Allen’s defense was flying around, playing just as confidently as it was a year ago, and besides a missed field goal to end the first half, the Fighting Illini never threatened again. Oh, and the Nittany Lions did it without star safety Kevin Winston Jr.

Penn State is giving up just 226.5 yards of offense per game, and they have a pretty solid excuse for their only poor performance of the year. Allen’s voice was too raspy for Kobe King, his defense’s green dot player with the in-helmet communication, to understand. So, for Week 3, instead of a steady diet of cough drops, tea with honey, and hope, Allen moved up to the booth to start making his play calls to Dan Connor, Penn State’s all-time leading tackler and current defensive analyst, for Connor to relay to King. Bowling Green caught a break, that the rest of the Nittany Lion’s opponents won’t, which is bad news for the Big Ten. 

The death penalty

They may not be mathematically eliminated, but with a loss this week, these teams are no longer CFP contenders. 

4. Mike Gundy’s mother knows best

Following Oklahoma State’s Week 4 loss to Utah, Mike Gundy favored his mother’s play-calling philosophies over his offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn, who has been on Gundy’s staff since 2011. 

“What we should have done was use my mom's philosophy: if those seven or eight plays worked on that drive, why don't you just run 'em again the next drive?'" Gundy told reporters after the 22-19 loss to the Utes. "Why do you change? Why do you go to something else? Because they haven't stopped any of those plays, and in most of those cases, they don't have time on the sideline to fix 'em, and that's exactly what we should have done."

Well, on Saturday, No. 20 Oklahoma State was blown out by No. 23 Kansas State 42-20 in a CFP elimination game, and after this performance, maybe Gundy should just hire Judy to run the offense. 

Oklahoma State was expected to lean on Ollie Gordon II this season after returning 21 starters from last year, but he came into the matchup with just 258 rushing yards through four games and only one 100-yard performance. Then, in the first quarter in Manhattan, Gordon finally found some rhythm, running for 72 yards on nine carries before, inexplicably, Dunn went away from his offense’s best player. 

The rest of the way, Gordon carried it only six more times and gained just four more yards. He spent some time on the sideline and may have been banged up, but no injury was reported. Leaning on seventh-year quarterback Alan Bowman, everything unraveled for Oklahoma State with two interceptions.

There was an obvious top-3 in the Big 12 with Utah, Kansas State, and Oklahoma State, but with losses to both in back-to-back weeks, the Cowboys are finished in the race for the Big 12 and the CFP. 

"I promise you one thing…

With a 12-team CFP, one loss doesn’t end your season anymore

5. The Oxford Fourth-and-Fumble

Two weeks ago, Kentucky had Georgia on the ropes in Lexington, and trailing 13-12 with 2:58 left in the game Mark Stoops faced a fourth-and-8 from the Georgia 47-yard line. Stoops punted and Georgia won. On Saturday in Week 5, Kentucky was giving No. 6 Ole Miss all it could handle in Oxford and with 3:51 left down 17-13, faced a fourth-and-7 from its own 20-yard line. Stoops went for it, his quarterback Brock Vandagriff hit a deep shot to Barion Brown for 63 yards, and Kentucky won 20-17. 

Kentucky still needed a bit of luck and some help from its defense to pull off the upset. Two plays after the 63-yard connection, the Wildcats wildcat quarterback Gavin Wimsatt came into the game but fumbled on the goalline, only it popped right into the hands of tight end Josh Kattus for the game-winning touchdown. 

Ole Miss had a chance to answer and converted a fourth-and-11 of its own, but with 48 seconds left, Ole Miss kicker Caden Davis missed a 48-yard attempt to tie it and now the Rebels will be on the outside of the CFP picture looking in, for the time being.

Lane Kiffin’s team had a long runway to start the season, going 4-0 with wins over Furman, Middle Tennessee State, Wake Forest, and Georgia Southern, but that failed to prepare the Rebels for SEC play. 

This past offseason, Kiffin loaded up on the line of scrimmage in the transfer portal to make a CFP run. The defensive line additions of Walter Nolen and Princely Umanmielen have paid off, but his retooled offensive line hasn’t. 

Kiffin brought two key pieces of Washington’s Joe Moore Award-winning unit, left guard Nate Kalepo and right guard Julius Buelow, to Oxford, along with left tackle Diego Pounds from North Carolina, but that group struggled to protect Dart against Kentucky’s impressive defensive line. 

Dart was under constant pressure from Deone Walker & Co. and Ole Miss only averaged 3.2 yards per carry. Ole Miss still has a favorable draw in the SEC and a clear path to the playoff, but the margin for error has disappeared. 

6. Can Zach Wilson’s little brother really win the Big 12?

Oklahoma State may have been eliminated, but late at night in Salt Lake City, a new Big 12 contender emerged. The Arizona Wildcats, though they’ve already suffered a loss at the hands of Kansas State this season, played their first official conference game in Week 5 and upset No. 10 Utah on the road. 

Utah quarterback Cam Rising was again out with an injury, though his head coach would never tell you that, and the Utes fell 23-10. Rising’s backup, true freshman Isaac Wilson rode his running back Micah Bernard and a slew of playmakers to a win over Mike Gundy’s Cowboys last week in Stillwater. Then, even with nine catches for 155 yards from Dorian Singer and 17 carries for 93 yards from Micah Bernard, Wilson struggled to put points on the board at home, threw two interceptions and the Big 12 is wide open once again. 

Kyle Whittingham is one of my favorite coaches in the country, aside from his ceaseless desire to deceive the media about the health of his quarterback, but I’m not sure there’s any way that even he can be completely trusted to win the conference if Rising can’t come back at all. He built up a team that can protect a young quarterback, but only to a point, and that point seems to have been reached a bit sooner than I expected. Arizona is back in the CFP conversation along with the Utes and the Wildcats in the one-bid Big 12. 

Back on track

7. USC is big enough for the Big Ten

Last week, Lincoln Riley and the USC Trojans got an unpleasant welcome to the Big Ten. Alex Orji and Michigan handed them a 27-24 at the Big House loss despite throwing for a mere 32 yards. USC defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn’s rebuilt defense couldn’t handle Michigan’s souped-up service academy offense and in Week 5, it looked like Wisconsin, with backup quarterback Braedyn Locke starting for the injured Tyler Van Dyke, was about to do the same. 

The Badgers jumped out to a 21-10 second-quarter lead courtesy of a 63-yard touchdown throw from Locke to Vinny Anthony II, an interception by USC quarterback Miller Moss, and two Tawee Walker rushing scores. From that point on, however, Lynn’s defense showed some teeth, but more importantly, Riley realized that while it may take a few years to build a Big Ten team on the lines of scrimmage, it’ll take the rest of the Big Ten a few years to match his athletes on the outside. 

Riley’s offenses are known for getting playmakers into space, but on Saturday, he and Moss trusted their receivers to win without any. Luke Fickell’s defensive coaching staff, which includes safeties coach Alex Grinch, had no answers for 6-foot-4 195-pound sophomore Ja’Kobi Lane who caught 10 passes for 105 yards and two touchdowns. 

Moss gave his monstrous receivers opportunities to make contested catches and they dominated Wisconsin at the catch point. It wasn’t just Lane, 6-foot-1 Kyron Hudson made four grabs for 42 yards and 6-foot-6 Duce Robinson added two catches for 40 yards and a score. 

USC is going to struggle up front on both sides of the ball, especially after defensive tackle Bear Alexander decided to redshirt and leave the program, but there are maybe four Big Ten secondaries that can match the Trojans on the outside, and they’ve already played one of them. 

8. Notre Dame adjusting to the Riley Leonard reality

When Notre Dame added Riley Leonard in the transfer portal this offseason, the former Duke quarterback was considered one of the top players at the position and a potential NFL prospect. However, there wasn’t much of a sample size for the oft-injured Leonard, and now that we have one it’s not particularly pretty. 

Leonard has struggled as a passer through No. 16 Notre Dame’s 4-1 start but had his best game of the season in the Fighting Irish’s 31-24 win over No. 15 Louisville on Saturday afternoon in South Bend. The biggest reason was that Mike Denbrock, who designed the most dynamic offensive in college football around Jayden Daniels at LSU last season, finally recognized he doesn’t have that caliber of player, or anywhere near it, in Leonard. 

The senior entered Week 5 completing 64.6% of his passes, but ranked 107th in yards per dropback at 5.22, and was producing -0.05 EPA/play. His best ability was a runner, so Denbrock ran Leonard on a season-high 11 designed runs for 53 yards and a touchdown and gave his quarterback a significant dose of well-timed screens and only the occasional deep shot.

Leonard finished 163 yards on 17/23 passing, but his performance came with just a 5.7 yard average depth of target and 103 yards after the catch. Leonard played quarterback on easy mode, yet the Notre Dame offense still only managed -0.17 EPA/play and just a 35% success rate against a good, but not great, Louisville defense. 

The Fighting Irish benefitted from three Louisville turnovers, only gained 280 total yards, and managed just 31 points with a 100% touchdown rate on red zone trips. Right now, Denbrock is holding Leonard’s hand and on Saturday it was successful, I’m just not sure anything about it is sustainable. 

And the Week 5 Heisman goes to…

9. Colorado WR/DB: Travis Hunter

The entire conceit of this column is to highlight the 12 most important things that will affect the College Football Playoff landscape. My assumption coming into the season is that every serious Heisman Trophy contender would have his team in the mix for the CFP, but I forgot to account for Travis Hunter. 

In Week 5, Colorado got to 4-1 with a 48-21 road win over a UCF team that was the second favorite to win the conference after its 3-0 start. Coach Prime’s team made a statement, they aren’t a walkover anymore. The Buffaloes already have more conference wins than they had all of last season, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This isn’t one of the 12 best teams in the country, but it does have the best player in college football. 

Travis Hunter was again Sheduer Sanders’ favorite target, making nine catches for 89 yards and a touchdown, but this week, his most impressive play was on the defensive side of the football. 

Then, Hunter made a touchdown-saving tackle on fourth-and-goal with his team up 41-21, stopping RJ Harvey just short of the goal line. This effort comes one week after Hunter made 7 grabs for 130 yards and forced the game-winning fumble in overtime against Baylor. 

His team isn’t a national title contender, but he’s the best player in college football and that’s who the Heisman Trophy is supposed to be for. Even Jalen Milroe’s dominant performance against Georgia isn’t as impressive as what Hunter is doing. 

The Matthew Sluka Player of the Week 

10. Michigan RB: Kalel Mullings

This week, UNLV’s starting quarterback Matthew Sluka left the team after a 3-0 start to preserve his final season of collegiate eligibility after he claimed that UNLV did not uphold “certain representations” that led him to commit to the Rebels after leaving Holy Cross. 

The story is murky, as everything surrounding NIL is, but Sluka, justified or not, is chasing that bag. With the way that Michigan’s Kalel Mullings is playing, maybe he should too. Donovan Edwards was supposed to be the star in this backfield. He was the one who ran for 104 yards and two touchdowns on six carries in the national championship game last year, and he was the one on the cover of College Football 25, but Mullings is the one carrying this team right now. 

Last week, Mullings ran for 159 yards and two touchdowns on 17 carries, including a 63-yarder that set up his game-winning score. Then, in Week 5, No. 12 Michigan and Minnesota played for the Little Brown Jug in the Big House and with Alex Orji back at quarterback, leaned on Mullings for 111 yards and two more touchdowns on his 24 attempts. Edwards is the household name, but Mullings is the better back. 

Play the fight song!

Whether by a great play-call or just a great play, the week’s most exciting and important touchdowns

11. Blondie’s Big 12 Bounce Back

When Kansas State quarterback Avery Johnson went 15/28 for 130 yards and two interceptions in a 38-9 loss out in Provo last week, many began to question head coach Chris Klieman’s decision to show Will Howard the door this offseason. Well, in a Week 5 CFP elimination game against Oklahoma State, we saw why Klieman handed his 19-year-old sophomore the keys to the offense. 

Johnson completed 19 of his 31 throws for 259 yards and three touchdowns with just one interception in the 42-20 win. However, Johnson is most dynamic with his legs. He only carried it five times and finished with 60 yards and two touchdowns. Kansas State’s offense was dynamic on Saturday and for a dual-threat quarterback who prefers designed runs, Johnson showed Big 12 defenses that if you let him get out of the pocket, you’re gonna hear the K-State fight song shortly after. 

UCF 2017 National Championship Memorial Group of Five Team of the Week

12. UNLV’s stingy NIL collective

This week, UNLV starting quarterback Matthew Sluka announced that he was leaving the team after “certain representations” were not upheld. Well, maybe there’s a reason that Barry Odom was being a bit stingy with the Holy Cross transfer. Sluka beat out Campbell transfer Hajj-Malik Williams for the starting job in fall camp after last year’s starter Jayden Maiava left to be the backup at USC, but after Williams's performance in the Rebels’ Week 5 win over Fresno State, it’s not clear why. 

Sluka was a 43.8% passer through the first three games, which included wins over Kansas and Houston. In Williams's UNLV debut, he went 13/16 passing for 182 yards and three touchdowns. Sluka’s best attribute was as a runner, but Williams wasn’t bad on the ground either, rushing for 119 yards and a touchdown. The Rebels have their quarterback and at 4-0, they’re one of the favorites to win the Mountain West and claim the G5’s spot in the CFP.