FBS College Football Roundup Week 5

How did we already get to week 5?? This season is flying by but with most teams in conference play things are ramping up on the field.

American

The headliner in the conference was Tulane’s blowout of South Florida. The Wave rolled the Bulls from start to finish in a truly dominant effort. Outside of the Oklahoma game, Tulane has looked like one of the best teams in this conference and they made a statement that they are a favorite to win it after they blew out the Bulls the way they did. Fortunately for South Florida they get a bye this week to regroup.

Vegas appears to be skeptical that Army and Navy can keep rolling. Both were narrowly favored against Temple and UAB respectively. Instead both teams continued being the Wagons they are and won in blowout fashion. The offense in particular for Navy has been impressive. The Midshipmen have scored at least 38 points in every game, something the program has never done.

Two under the radar results from the weekend… East Carolina finally had a strong 2nd half to lead them past UTSA. I’m worried UTSA may have entered this season with too much transition which is leading to a down year for the Roadrunners, but for East Carolina this was a huge statement win. The Pirates led a couple games slip away in recent weeks but opening conference play 1-0 was big to at least indicate they can return to a bowl. The other results was North Texas blowing out Tulsa. The Mean Green are 4-1 and outside of a rough half against Texas Tech (who admittedly looks solid) they have been rolling. North Texas will have a good winning season if they keep this up.

ACC

Virginia Tech battled hard with the Miami Hurricanes and came up heartbreakingly close to winning it, but this game also made it clear what the Hokies team is. We were right to get excited about them this offseason, Drones can make plays, they can run the ball and their defense can make things happen as well. So why haven’t the Hokies lived up to the hype? Execution plain and simple has taken them down all year. From seemingly not studying any New Mexico State tape in prep for Vanderbilt, to the ugly start at Rutgers and terrible game management against Miami the Hokies seem to find a different way to lose each time they’re in a competitive game. They could flip a switch at any time, but its also possible this might just be what they are at this point.

Duke is 5-0 in football. This is extremely rare for this program and honestly it’s even more amazing when you see how their games go. The Blue Devils absolutely stole games against Northwestern and North Carolina, along with coming back to beat UConn after losing a big lead to the Huskies. The Blue Devils don’t run a clean operation, but they win and that’s what’s most important.

Before the season no one could have imagined SMU would blast Florida State 42-16, it’s even more surprising that no one was truly surprised by it. It was surprising but switching to Jennings was the best move for the Mustangs offense and now they’re racking up lots of points against good defenses as a result. The ugly BYU loss in week 2 doesn’t look so ugly anymore either. Things are looking pretty good for SMU.

Big Ten

Rutgers vs Washington on Friday night was a bizarre matchup, and a fun one to see. Rutgers gritted out a win exactly how they needed to, by bending, not breaking on defense and a strong dose of Kyle Monangai. The Scarlet Knights are undefeated but they’ll need to produce a little more on offense at some point, they were fortunate Washington couldn’t make a field goal.

Indiana continues to roll, Curt Cignetti has changed this program overnight. The Hoosiers faced September Maryland and beat them by 2 TDs despite being a little messier on offense than they’ve been in recent weeks.

Big 12

Here we go, the Big 12 is possibly the deepest conference in College Football and also might lack a truly dominant team. The end result is cannibalization and we’re already seeing that. For the 2nd week in a row one of the Big 12 favorites has fallen to an upset. This time Utah’s offense minus Cam Rising has come to a head. The offense isn’t the same without him, and unfortunately injuries continue to be a challenge. There is another side to this game, however and that’s the Arizona Wildcats. Arizona was forgotten about after the Kansas State loss but the Wildcats are figuring things out. Their offense was able to run the ball effectively and Keyon Burnett a receiver who entered the game with only 3 receptions on the season emerged to have a strong performance and take the pressure off Tetairoa McMillan. Arizona might still have something to say in this race.

Don’t look now, but Texas Tech is now 4-1 the best start of the Joey McGuire era. The Red Raiders were left for dead after surviving Abilene Christian in a wild opener and losing in a blowout to Washington State but all of a sudden something clicked and they’re playing significantly better. OC Zach Kittley loves to run a pass happy offense but he’s adjusted because the best path to success for Tech is to pound the rock with RB Tahj Brooks.

Statements were made throughout the league as well. Iowa State is perfectly comfortable in a rock fight and shut out Houston to remain undefeated, BYU meanwhile showed last week was no fluke in their early domination of Baylor, although the Cougars had to hold on late. Finally, how about Colorado? Putting aside the noise this is a thrilling team that is getting better each week. Travis Hunter continues to make insane plays routine and he’s part of a defense that plays better as the game goes on.

CUSA

It’s past time to talk about Sam Houston as a favorite to win the conference. The Bearkats have completely flipped the script from their first 8 games as a FBS member. They used to find ways to snatch defeat from victory but now they’re doing the opposite. Their win over Texas State was their most resilient effort yet, they came back from down 22 against their old rivals who were also Playoff darlings in the preseason. Huge statement by Sam Houston.

Western Kentucky was so close to picking up yet another big win. The Tops led 20-7 in the 4th quarter against an almost ranked Boston College squad, but they just couldn’t finish. Two turnovers in the 4th quarter is the opposite of the recipe to win a game like this, but they are a clear contender for the conference.

MAC

I hate to say it, but I believe the MAC might be the first conference completely eliminated from the College Football Playoff. It wasn’t a completely bad non-conference, there were strong efforts but a lack of consistency has coated a lot of teams. Northern Illinois picked up the most notable win, but the Huskies have since been far too sloppy in losses to Buffalo and NC State. The Huskies controlled the ball in both games but turnovers kept them from scoring and helped their opponents score, they’ll need to straighten that out or this season could slip away. It’s a similar story for Bowling Green who suffered a mistake filled loss to Old Dominion to fall to 1-3. The Falcons still have the pieces to win this conference but need to clean a lot up in a hurry.

It was generally a rough day for the MAC, but it wasn’t all bad. Central Michigan was in a tight battle with San Diego State all game and pulled off a massive victory with a last second FG to win it. The Chips are now 3-2 after back to back tight wins. Winning close games like this can be the difference between a solid 8 win season or another season without a bowl, this is huge. Also a shout-out to Eastern Michigan who is now 4-1 on the season, Chris Creighton continues to work wonders.

Mountain West

We have clear separation. Boise State and UNLV are the top 2 teams in the conference and they might be the favorites for the 5th seed in the College Football Playoff. Boise State grabbed an impressive victory over Washington State. Ashton Jeanty continues to wow every weekend. He’s the engine that makes this thing run, and unlike a lot of Boise teams in recent seasons he makes the plays that helps the Broncos close out games. Washington State scored to bring it to a one score game and try to rally like last week when Jeanty had a ridiculous run to put the Broncos back up 2 scores, the next drive he bowled through 3 Cougs defenders to put the game away.

UNLV meanwhile was faced with a tough test against Fresno State after a very distracting week following Sluka’s departure. All the Rebels did was blast Fresno State off the field in every way possible in a landslide 59-14 victory. Hajj-Malik Williams clearly had the belief of the locker room and it showed, he led the offense like as if he had been the starter all season, truly a great effort.

Pac-12/Independents

As mentioned above, Washington State took their first defeat in a tough loss to a good Boise State team. There’s no shame in that loss, and the Cougars still have the opportunity for a special season ahead. The biggest thing for Washington State is going to be the response, last year they lost on the road to a good UCLA team after a strong start and collapsed after, they need to respond well this time.

UConn has officially turned into a wagon. The Huskies faced a Buffalo team coming off a big win and blasted them in every category on their way to a 47-3 win. It’s been a very long time since UConn football has looked this good and it could keep getting better. Some analytics have the Huskies favored the rest of the year.

SEC

If this Alabama/Georgia game is an indication of what Kalen DeBoer is going to bring to the SEC I’m all for it, although for Alabama’s sake that wasn’t the best. The Tide opened the game absolutely running Georgia off the field in a way we’ve never seen as Alabama rolled off to a 28-0 lead. The Tide didn’t step on Georgia’s throats after that, and what was Nick Saban’s biggest enemy, complacency snuck in. Next thing you know Georgia is back in it and eventually taking the lead. DeBoer’s teams at Washington did this in the past, often dominating but not stepping on the throats of opposing teams allowing them to come back. However, they did exactly what DeBoer teams do and still won the game. This pattern isn’t likely to cost Alabama any games, but it will certainly make them more interesting to watch. On the other side, I had a championship ticket on Georgia and I don’t feel too good about it, there wasn’t a lot I saw to feel like they’re going to win the championship. It’s early but this feels like Kirby’s worst team since 2020 (although the standard since then is pretty high)

Lane Kiffin teams are fun to talk about, they run a fun offense, bring in a lot of exciting transfers and when things go well they run up the points. The problem? When the opponent is up for the fight, Ole Miss tends to lose. This year’s team received a ton of offseason hype, but if they can’t beat Kentucky at home, they are likely going to see more losses down the road.

Sun Belt

James Madison came off an impressive win over North Carolina, and hosted Ball State. This was a great letdown opportunity, but was there one? Nope the Dukes just kept rolling to a 63-7 win. James Madison has activated scary mode and they don’t seem to be slowing down any time soon. You have to credit the administration, hitting a hire like Curt Cignetti is already impressive but they seem to have found another fantastic coach in Bob Chesney.

That might not even be the most impressive first year coaching job in the Sun Belt. That belongs to Bryant Vincent. The Warhawks went on the road to face Troy, a game they usually lose, mostly uncompetively and even if they do compete they historically found ways to lose. Not these Warhawks, they saved their best ball for the 4th quarter of this slugfest and took the game over late to pull off the win and move to 3-1, already hitting the over on what Vegas had as their win total this year. Vincent cut an awesome promo after the game too, it’s worth looking up the clip. The Warhawks probably won’t turn into contenders overnight but the 2nd bowl appearance in program history is in reach if they keep playing this way.

Louisiana grabbed the biggest win of any Sun Belt team on Saturday. They commanded a lot of the game against Wake Forest but constant penalties and other issues allowed Wake Forest to be right there and steal the game from the Ragin’ Cajuns. Faced with a scenario they’ve seen often under Michael Desormeaux the Cajuns stood up and held on for the win. This was a massive win not only because they beat an ACC opponent but also because they finally got off the close game hump. Louisiana enters conference play as perhaps the biggest threat to JMU for the Sun Belt crown.