Week Five College Football Final Word

The craziness in College Football continues! We had huge upsets, close games, big wins, and basically just a lot of mess to set us up for a potentially crazy rest of this year.

Here are my final words on College Football week five.

Stanford Stuns the Ducks

Stanford pulled one of the biggest upsets of the 2021 regular season as the Cardinal topped No. 3 Oregon 31-24 in overtime to hand the Ducks their first loss and take out the Pac-12’s final undefeated team.

Oregon had a 24-17 lead heading into the final drive of regulation, but Cardinal quarterback Tanner McKee completed a pass to Elijah Higgins as time expired in regulation to unexpectedly send the game to overtime. He then completed a huge pass to John Humphries in overtime to score the game-winning touchdown. Stanford forced a turnover on downs to end the game. 

The loss is a major hit to Oregon’s chances at the College Football Playoff, not to mention those of the Pac-12 as a whole. The Ducks took center stage in the discussion after traveling on the road and beating Ohio State in The Horseshoe, but a loss makes their path to the CFP more difficult. Oregon cannot afford to lose another game. 

I think the injuries finally caught up to Oregon here. I also think this offense is not as good as it looked against Ohio State. I’ll be interested to see if they can run the table from here to make the playoff or are they in serious trouble?

As for Stanford, I did call this upset, but that just shows that you never know what you are going to get week to week with this team. I do think Tanner McKee could be the real deal, especially with more experience.

21 Observations From College Football Week Five

Notre Dame Has a QB Problem

• Jack Coan continues to struggle behind that offensive line and it finally caught up with the team this week. I think it’s time to go with a combination of Drew Pyne and Tyler Buchner. Sort of like Everett Golson and Tommy Rees from the past.

Pittsburgh The Scoring Machine?

• Pitt improved to 4-1 Saturday with a rout of Georgia Tech and enters Week 6 atop the nation in scoring (52.4 ppg) and No. 6 in yards (554.4 ypg).  Kenny Pickett has thrown 15 touchdown passes in three games, breaking Dan Marino’s school record for a three-game stretch.

Clemson Continues To Be on Life Support

• Clemson, which has won the ACC every season since 2015, held on for dear life Saturday against previously unbeaten Boston College in a six-point win. But even that win, against an Eagles team down their starting quarterback was underwhelming. They will struggle to be 8-4 this year I think.

Texas A&M Has Issues Up Front

• This season, Texas A&M has seen their production swoon. So much for the honeymoon with head coach Jimbo Fisher. Considering what goals were on the table for this team, this season has not went to plan. Someone had to finish last in a cutthroat SEC West, but it’s wild to see Texas A&M sitting there after the first month of the season and without facing Ole Miss, Alabama, Auburn or LSU yet.

Auburn’s QB Carousel

• Auburn head coach Bryan Harsin went back to Bo Nix and stayed there, outside of a pre-planned drive early in Saturday’s win over LSU, Auburn’s first in Death Valley since Tommy Tuberville helped a 5-6 Auburn team beat a 3-8 LSU team. Saturday was a lot bigger, but it was also the full Nix experience. He seemingly flipped his switch between maddening and incredible at random, but he produced the day’s best play to put Auburn on the board early and somehow convert a fourth down.

Kentucky Is Good

• The trio of newcomers in offensive coordinator Liam Coen, quarterback Will Levis and wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson continues to pay off. And now, finally, Kentucky is ranked. The Wildcats win over Florida vaulted them to No. 16 in the media poll, knocking off a Florida team that nearly beat Alabama last month. The Wildcats haven’t done that since 1986, but that opens up some major possibilities for the Wildcats.

Tennessee Ran Over Missouri

• If you’re not ready for the “Baylor” offense or don’t have the athletes to compete, it will get ugly. And Saturday, Missouri was the former. The Tigers gave up 62 points to a Tennessee offense that hasn’t scored 60 points in a game since 2016. It was an impressive performance from Tennessee as its offense scored on its first nine drives and never punted.

34 Top 25 Teams Have Now Lost

• Add nine more to the list of ranked losses. If this doesn’t show you the chaos ahead, I’m not sure what will.

Alabama Has No Chaos

• Alabama has scored at least 30 points in 31 consecutive games, tying UCF’s FBS record. IN what was expected to be a close game, they ran away against Ole Miss.

Georgia May Be The Best Team

• The Bulldogs shut out No. 8 Arkansas 37-0 on Saturday, the program’s largest margin of victory against a top-10 team. It was Georgia’s third shutout of a top-10 team and first since 1976, and it also gave the Bulldogs consecutive SEC shutouts for the first time since 1980.

Iowa destroyed Maryland

• Iowa’s defense has forced at least three turnovers in a half three times this year. The rest of the Big Ten has done that once. It was actually the second consecutive week a team had four turnovers in a quarter, as Wisconsin did the same against Notre Dame last week.

Michigan Looks Ok

• Michigan handled their business and beat a gritty Wisconsin team. But I’m still not impressed, I have to see them against Penn State, Michigan State, Iowa, and Ohio State.

Max Johnson (LSU) Passed For 122 Yards On A Single Drive!

• Johnson completed all six passes on the drive, which technically went 91 yards, but included a 10-yard holding penalty and a 22-yard loss on a botched snap. Hence 122 passing yards for Johnson on the drive. He finished 26-of-46 for 325 yards with one touchdown and one interception, though Auburn won in Baton Rouge for the first time since 1999.

Penn State Gets Revenge

• Indiana’s storybook year from last year is way past over, losing 24-0 to Penn State.

Oklahoma State’s Defense Is Legit!

• The Cowboy’s held Baylor to 99 first half yards in a 24-14 win. Oklahoma State’s defense has allowed fewer than 50 percent of third-down conversions in 16 consecutive games, and it has held 14 of its past 16 Big 12 opponents below their scoring average.

Boise State’s Defense Is Shaky!

• The last time Boise State had given up 40 points in a home conference game was 2007, also against Nevada, but that was when both were members of the WAC. Saturday’s loss ended Boise State’s 20-game Mountain West regular-season winning streak (the Broncos lost two conference championship games in that span). The Broncos are 2-3 for the first time since 2001. It was also Nevada’s first win at Boise State since 1997.

Georgia Southern Exploded For 59 Points!

• The Eagles fired head coach Chad Lunsford earlier this week after a 1-3 start. Of those 66 points over four games, 30 came against FCS Gardner-Webb. On Saturday, the Eagles had 540 yards and 8.6 yards per play, including 503 rushing yards and 10.1 yards per carry. They averaged 4.7 yards per carry entering the game.

Three Winless Teams Won Their First Game

• Navy beat UCF, Florida State beat Syracuse and Ohio beat Akron. There are four winless teams remaining: Arizona, UConn, UMass and UNLV.

One Point Safety?

• Lindsey Wilson College had an extra point blocked, but it was picked up by a Cumberland player outside the end zone, and he was then tackled in the end zone. As of 2013, such a play had only happened four times in college football history, including the 2013 Fiesta Bowl.

Cincinnati Can Break the CFP Ceiling

• No Group of 5 team has finished higher than No. 8 in the final CFP rankings. UCF went 12-0 in 2017 and 2018 and couldn’t peak any higher than 8th. When the 2017 team finished 12th — and then beat No. 7 Auburn in the Peach Bowl — Scott Frost alleged the committee intentionally held them back. “It looked like a conscious effort to me to make sure that they didn’t have a problem if they put us too high and a couple teams ahead of us lost,” he said. Last year, Cincinnati moved as high as No. 7 during its 9-0 start before finishing in that same No. 8 spot.

Bijan Robinson Goes Off

• It’s time to fire up the Heisman hype for Robinson. Texas’ sophomore phenom ran for a career-high 216 yards and two touchdowns on 35 carries to power Texas to a 32-27 victory.

My Prediction Record After College Football Week Five

• Last week: 14-7
• Overall: 72-26
• Upset Picks Overall: 2-4

So after a great week of picks in week four, I feel apart in week five. I did call one upset with Stanford over Oregon, but my upset of the week was wrong with Notre Dame over Cincinnati. But I just missed on some of these predictions, but overall, just not a great week. I blame the chaos!

My Personal College Football Top 10 (And Playoff Predictions)

After the fifth week, here is who I have in my College Football top 10:

1. Georgia
2. Alabama
3. Iowa
4. Cincinnati
5. Penn State
6. Oklahoma
7. Ohio State
8. Michigan
9. Wake Forest
10. Oklahoma State

Here are my predictions for the College Football playoffs:

1. Georgia
2. Cincinnati
3. Alabama
4. Ohio State

My Heisman Predictions After Week Five

1. Bryce Young
2. Bijan Robinson
3. CJ Stroud
4. Desmond Ridder
5. Blake Corum

Looking Ahead To College Football Week Six

Here are your biggest games for week Six.

• Stanford at Arizona State
• Oklahoma at Texas
• Arkansas at Ole Miss
• Georgia at Auburn
• Penn State at Iowa

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