College Football Roundup Week 5: Overrated, Underrated, What It All Means
College football Week 5 roundup with the 5 things that matter, winners and losers, overrated and underrated aspects to the weekend, and what it all means
College Football Week 5 Roundup
College Football Week 5 Roundup
CFN 1-131 Rankings | Rankings by Conference
Bowl Projections | Week 5 Scoreboard
Week 6 Early Lines | AP Rankings | Coaches Poll
Chryst, Dorrell Fired: Hot Seat Coach Rankings
What 12-Team Playoff Would Look Like
Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak
– Bryce’s shoulder One Really Big Thing
– Michigan-Iowa final score Most Overrated Thing
– Utah is going to matter Most Underrated Thing
– Optics don’t matter What It All Means, Week 5
Winners & Losers From Week 5
Winner: Illinois head coach Bret Bielema
The former Badger head coach rolled into Camp Randall Stadium, saw Chase Brown – the nation’s second leading rusher – rip into the Badgers for 129 yards and a score, wouldn’t let his team do the Jump Around, and out-Wisconsined Wisconsin before leaving with a 34-10 win.
Bielema is now 4-1 this year at Illinois. Wisconsin head coach Paul Chryst was fired.
Loser: Wisconsin’s running game
The Badgers finished the game with a grand total of two rushing yards. The team has now failed to hit the 200-yard rushing mark in three of the last four games, losing all three to Washington State, Ohio State, and Illinois.
It’s 1-17 since 2009 – the lone win was 24-7 over Purdue – when failing to hit the 100-yard mark. By the way, this wasn’t even close to the biggest clunker in the last decade. 2015 Northwestern held Wisconsin to -26 net rushing yards.
Winner: UConn
UConn was 1-40 since the middle of 2017 against FBS teams – the lone exception was a 56-35 win over UMass in 2019 – and 2-56 since 2016 against them.
The last home win over an FBS team? 20-14 over Tulsa in 2017.
With a slew of banged up parts, the Huskies still managed to get by Fresno State 19-14 by allowing just 50 rushing yards on the day and pulling ahead on a 17-yard Devontae Houston run in the final few minutes.
Loser: Wagner
Wagner lost to Syracuse 59-0 on Saturday because Syracuse didn’t want it to be 100-0.
The Orange got up 49-0 at halftime and cruised from there, but not defensively. Wagner finished with 50 yards of total offense, four first downs, and completed two of six passes for 19 yards.
Winner: Boise State running game
Down 13-0 against a San Diego State that was third in the nation in rushing last season, Boise State under new offensive coordinator and former head coach Dirk Koetter ripped off big run after big run on the way to 316 yards and five scores in the 35-13 win. QB Taylor Green and RB George Holani each ran for over 100 yards.
And on the other side …
Loser: San Diego State passing attack
Against the Broncos, QB Braxton Burmeister ran well but only completed 2-of-8 passes for 33 yards and an interception before getting knocked out for the game. Backups Liu Aumavae and Kyle Crum combined to hit a grand total of none of their eight passes as Boise State rolled through the second half.
San Diego State now has the nation’s worst passing attack. averaging just under 63 yards per game.
Winner: QB Bo Nix, Oregon
It wasn’t a perfect performance, but Nix was solid in the 45-27 win over Stanford. He threw for 161 yards and two touchdowns without an interception, and led the team with 141 rushing yards and two touchdowns highlighted by an 80-yard scoring dash.
In the last five games since the blowout loss to Georgia, Nix has thrown for close to 1,100 yards with 12 touchdowns and just one pick. And then there’s his former team …
Loser: Auburn scoring offense
The Tigers are trying. They have a good-looking QB prospect in freshman Robby Ashford who threw for 337 yards and two touchdowns in the 21-17 loss to LSU. Even so, the O can’t get the points up on the board.
Over the last three games against Penn State, Missouri, and LSU, Auburn has scored a total of 46 points without more than 17 in any of the three.
The team is 1-14 in its last 15 games – the overtime survival against Missouri two weeks ago being the lone exception – when scoring fewer than 24 points.
– Bryce’s shoulder One Really Big Thing
– Michigan-Iowa final score Most Overrated Thing
– Utah is going to matter Most Underrated Thing
– Optics don’t matter What It All Means, Week 5
NEXT: The really big Week 5 thing was …
The Really Big Week 5 Thing Was …
Bryce Young got hurt …
And everything turned out fine for Alabama.
It was one of the biggest questions coming into the season – what happens if one of the top teams has to rely on the No. 2 quarterback? In a transfer portal era, that’s a problem.
Alabama doesn’t have a Tua Tagovailoa or Mac Jones waiting in the wings. but it found out what it does have behind it’s superstar. It has the rest of the team.
Young suffered a sprained shoulder against Arkansas on Saturday, tried to give it a go, and couldn’t. Freshman Jalen Milroe came in and kept it all going until the fourth quarter, and that’s when the season might have changed.
Bama went from up 28-0 in the first half to a 28-23 fight as the Hogs roared back late.
And then Alabama realized it was Alabama.
Jahmyr Gibbs ripped off two huge touchdown runs, and Milroe – to go along with a breathtaking 77-yard run earlier in the game – did his job in an amazing 21-point fourth quarter for the 49-26 win.
Young’s injury apparently isn’t a huge deal and he should be back soon, but he’ll be questionable at best for Texas A&M and the date with Tennessee.
On the plus side, this was a confidence builder. Alabama had become a bit too reliant on 9 to not just save the day, but to run everything. That’s what he’s there for, and the team doesn’t beat Texas without the reigning Heisman winner doing Heisman things.
However, it got the job done without him.
It can keep winning with what it has in place, but if it wants the SEC Championship and the national title, that’s a different story. It will need Young to get healthy fast and be okay – there’s a difference between getting there and winning it.
How Nick Saban and the coaching staff manage this is no big deal. It’s only the 2022 season.
– Winners & Losers Bo, Bielema, Badgers
– Michigan-Iowa final score Most Overrated Thing
– Utah is going to matter Most Underrated Thing
– Optics don’t matter What It All Means, Week 5
NEXT: The most overrated thing was …
The Most Overrated Thing Was …
Iowa scored 14 points in the fourth quarter against Michigan.
At what point do we start believing that Michigan might be a real, live factor in the College Football Playoff chase?
The blowout loss to Georgia in last year’s Orange Bowl didn’t ruin the 2021 Wolverine season, but it ended it all on a sour note. Because of it, almost no one believes anything big is coming from this bunch.
It appears to be a given that Ohio State will roll on through to the playoff, and Georgia and Alabama will be there, too, but …
Between the Texas game, the concerns against Arkansas, the Bryce Young injury, and the schedule ahead, 2022 isn’t going to be smooth for the Tide.
Was the Missouri game an indication that Georgia is vulnerable, or was that just a bad day? Throw in the win over Kent State – which was more fine than everyone made it out to be – and this might be interesting.
Meanwhile, Michigan had three preseason-like tuneup games to get everything back in place, it held off a solid Maryland team that just dropkicked Michigan State, and then it traveled to Iowa where “top five teams go to die.”
Against a loaded D in front of a jacked up crowd, Michigan methodically got up 20-0 going into the fourth quarter. It wasn’t smooth, and it wasn’t pretty, but it was effective.
Iowa came up with a decent touchdown drive, but the Wolverine defense held firm, the offense got one more score in the final minutes, and the game was effectively over.
But the Hawkeyes managed to get in the end zone again in the final few seconds to make it 27-14. No, the game really wasn’t that close. It was competitive, but at no time did it seem like Michigan didn’t have control.
Up next is a trip to Indiana, and then the Penn State showdown, and then the emotional date with Michigan State.
In a year with so many things going crazy, don’t be shocked if under-the-radar methodical ends up being what works.
– Winners & Losers Bo, Bielema, Badgers
– Bryce’s shoulder One Really Big Thing
– Utah is going to matter Most Underrated Thing
– Optics don’t matter What It All Means, Week 5
NEXT: The most underrated thing was …
The Most Underrated Thing Was …
Utah keeps on rolling right along.
Play this out. Cameron Rising doesn’t make that awful throw in Gainesville, the Utes kick the field goal to get into overtime, and they eventually win the game.
Right now they would be in everyone’s College Football Playoff projections and ranked no worse than fourth in the country.
Since that loss to Florida they ripped through Southern Utah, San Diego State, and Arizona State before hosting Oregon State.
Yeah, whatever, but the Beavers are solid – they came this close to knocking off USC – but Utah bent and rarely broke in the 42-16 win.
Now they’re on to bigger and better things. At UCLA, USC, at Washington State. That’s what’s up for the defending Pac-12 champs.
The Florida loss was a killer because it took away the buffer. Utah might just be the best team in the Pac-12, but lose once more and it’s effectively out of the College Football Playoff chase. On the plus side, win against what’s coming next, and look out.
Considering the Trojans don’t have to face Washington or Oregon, and the unbeaten Bruins have this week’s game and then a date at Oregon before enjoying smooth sailing until the USC showdown, Utah needs to stay hot.
If it can win the next three games and stay at one loss before the November 19th trip to Oregon, it might really be back in the hunt.
That won’t be a problem if it forces takeaways and runs like it did on Saturday.
– Winners & Losers Bo, Bielema, Badgers
– Bryce’s shoulder One Really Big Thing
– Michigan-Iowa final score Most Overrated Thing
– Optics don’t matter What It All Means, Week 5
NEXT: What It All Means: Week 5
What It All Means: Week 5
It doesn’t matter how it all looks. Just keep the wins coming.
There are 14 unbeaten Power Five programs left, and Coastal Carolina and James Madison are the only remaining perfect teams from the Group of Five.
JMU isn’t eligible for anything this year – long, dumb story about transitioning divisions – and the Chanticleers haven’t been good enough to get through unscathed. For everyone else, just keep going forward.
Duh, what other choice is there, but last weekend once again proved that it’s just about getting that win and moving on.
Any landing you can walk away from is a good one, Georgia.
It might not have been great, the Dawgs left Columbia, Missouri with a 26-22 win. No, the Tigers aren’t supposed to be great, but that’s a night road game in the SEC, it’s not supposed to be easy.
But Georgia won.
And so did Alabama, problems and all.
Ohio State and Michigan winning wasn’t a shock, but TCU blowing past Oklahoma was.
College Football Week 5 Roundup
CFN 1-131 Rankings | Rankings by Conference
Bowl Projections | Week 5 Scoreboard
Week 6 Early Lines | AP Rankings | Coaches Poll
Chryst, Dorrell Fired: Hot Seat Coach Rankings
What 12-Team Playoff Would Look Like
Oklahoma State was terrific against Baylor, Clemson flexed a little muscle against NC State, Penn State survived Northwestern in the rain, Ole Miss survived Kentucky, and USC did what it needed against Arizona State.
But this last week was about those that fell from the unbeaten.
Just when it seemed like Minnesota was going to be America’s darling, it couldn’t do anything right in the loss to Purdue.
Florida State isn’t the Florida State of old, but it was unbeaten before losing to Wake Forest.
And then there was Washington. It looked so great leading up to the trip to Los Angeles, and then it ran into a buzzsaw as UCLA played – arguably – its best game in the Chip Kelly era to be one of those unbeaten teams to keep an eye on.
Yeah, the playoff system is based on the whims of a panel of judges, but style points don’t mean anything this year. Optics don’t mean what they should.
What have we learned so far through this mess?
That 0 in the loss column doesn’t care how it got there.
– Winners & Losers Bo, Bielema, Badgers
– Bryce’s shoulder One Really Big Thing
– Michigan-Iowa final score Most Overrated Thing
– Utah is going to matter Most Underrated Thing
– Optics don’t matter What It All Means, Week 5
