What We Learned in NCAA Football Week 5: Sooners Are Goners
Georgia Tech Stuns Reigning ACC Champs After Coaching Change
With five games on the Week 5 schedule between ranked teams, it was pretty clear that this was going to be quite the slate of games for teams with aspirations of being a part of the College Football Playoff field. The higher-ranked team won four of those five matchups. However, unranked squads upset five teams in The Associated Press Top 25.
Even SEC powers Georgia and Alabama were faced with the potential of an upset in a chaotic slate of games.
By the time Saturday’s action had concluded, previously undefeated Florida State, Kentucky, Minnesota, North Carolina State and Washington suffered their first losses of the season while Georgia State won for the first time.
According to the college football odds, Alabama and Georgia are priced at +200 followed by Ohio State +225 in the odds to win the national title.
Here’s a look at some of the noteworthy events that took place in Week 5.
Let’s check the latest NCAAF picks, stats, injury reports, and NCAAF predictions. We’ve plenty of NCAAF expert picks for you to consider.
Ailing Heisman winner, Champs Pushed to the Brink
There was a time when it looked like both Alabama and Georgia were on the verge of losing on the same day for the first time since Nov. 4, 2006.
Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young suffered a shoulder injury for Alabama and Arkansas only trailed the Crimson Tide by five points heading into the fourth quarter.
Jahmyr Gibbs had scoring runs of 72 and 76 yards as Alabama pulled away for the 49-26 win. Gibbs finished with 206 yards on 18 carries.
Georgia was down to lightly regarded Missouri for most of the game before taking its first lead with 4:03 left to play in a hard-earned 26-22 victory.
.@1_blueprint, HELLO!#GoDawgs pic.twitter.com/0TKNa7IcDG
— Georgia Football (@GeorgiaFootball) October 2, 2022
Two turnovers made the task of remaining undefeated all the more challenging for the top-ranked Bulldogs. Georgia has failed to cover in four of the last five games when the college football picks listed the Bulldogs as favorites by at least 30 points.
Tigers Win Matchup of ACC Heavyweights
The lead lasted all of 80 seconds for visiting North Carolina State.
The Wolfpack sought to defeat Clemson for the second season in a row and it was looking good when Devin Leary connected with Ced Seabrough on a short TD pass to put NC State up 10-6 with 1:51 left to play.
DJ Uiagalelei and Will Shipley had a hand in all 75 yards during a scoring drive right before the half to lead Clemson to the 30-20 victory in a showdown of top-10 ranked teams.
Uiagelelei ran for two scores and ran for another as he will continue to draw attention from those who bet online in the race for the Heisman Trophy.
Can’t Miss Duo
It isn’t often that Ole Miss and Mississippi take down ranked foes on the same day. However, that is exactly what transpired on an eventful Saturday in the SEC.
Mississippi State returned an interception and a blocked field goal for touchdowns and came away with four takeaways in a 42-24 over No. 17 Texas A&M.
Ole Miss came up with two turnovers in the final three minutes to hold off No. 7 Kentucky 22-19 in the Rebels’ SEC opener.
Both the Bulldogs and Rebels remained perfect at home with the victories.
Change in Good in Atlanta
Neither Nebraska nor Arizona State saw their fortunes change when their head coaches were let go. It was a different story in the first game following Georgia Tech’s firing of Geoff Collins.
The Yellow Jackets went on the road to face defending ACC champion Pittsburgh and came away with the 26-21 victory when listed by the college football betting lines as a 21½-point underdog.
The Yellow Jackets outgained Pittsburgh 232-106 on the ground in the victory. It was quite the reversal of fortune for a Georgia Tech team that was outscored 83-10 in the first two games this season against ranked teams. The win snapped a 13-game losing streak to ranked opponents with Georgia Tech allowing more than 40 points in 10 of those contests.
Big 12 Shakeup
Quick, a show of hands of everybody who had Kansas and Texas Christian as the teams joining Oklahoma State as the only undefeated squads in the Big 12 after Week 5 of the college football season?
The Cowboys went to Waco and took down defending conference champion Baylor 36-25 in a rematch of the 2021 Big 12 title game as Spencer Sanders threw one touchdown and ran for another while Jaden Nixon returned the second-half kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown.
Points were harder to come by when Kansas improved to 5-0 with a 14-11 win in a defensive slugfest that had a total of 516 yards of offense. Three missed field goals, including one in the final minute by Iowa State helped the Jayhawks remain undefeated.
TCU had four touchdowns of at least 62 yards in a 31-point win over visiting Oklahoma.
Max Duggan accounted for five touchdowns as he threw for 302 yards and ran five times for 116 yards to set up a showdown of undefeated teams in Week 6 when the Horned Frogs head to Kansas.
The Fall of the Sooners
Everything was proceeding according to plan for Oklahoma with routine wins against UTEP, Kent State and Nebraska. However, the Sooners have played themselves right out of the national championship conversation over the last week.
Oklahoma has lost back-to-back conference games just once over the last decade.
However, after a 31-24 loss to Kansas State, the Sooners not only got blown out by Texas Christian 55-24 but quarterback Dillon Gabriel was knocked out of the game in the second quarter after taking a blow to the head as he executed a give-up slide.
The 668 yards allowed by the Sooners were their most in a conference contest since giving up 704 in a 59-56 win over West Virginia in 2018.
Defensive back Damond Harmon left the game on a stretcher for Oklahoma to make a tough day at the office all the more difficult.
Bounce-Back Performance for Williams
When looking at the college football predictions, last week’s tough sledding for USC quarterback Caleb Williams caused his Heisman Trophy odds to take a bit of a hit.
Williams responded by throwing for 348 and three scores to go with a touchdown run as the Trojans pulled away with a 42-25 win over Arizona State.
While Washington fell to unranked and undervalued UCLA 40-32, the other Pac-12 title contenders had no such issues.
Not only did USC win again but Utah and Oregon won by 26 and 18 points. That leaves USC, UCLA, Oregon and defending champion Utah perfect in Pac-12 play. Thanks to Saturday’s Utah-UCLA showdown, that is about to change.
Quite the Warrior for Buckeyes
With Heisman Trophy candidate running back TreVeyon Henderson sidelined for Ohio State’s game against Rutgers, Miyan Williams was given a chance to break out. He did not disappoint with a career-high 189 yards and five touchdowns in the 49-10 win over the Scarlet Knights.
Heisman front-runner C.J. Stroud had a career-low 154 passing yards but with the way Williams was running the ball, handing the ball off to him worked just fine for the third-ranked Buckeyes.
Wildcat Duo Runs Wild
Having one player with at least 170 rushing yards is quite the accomplishment. Kansas State saw both running back Deuce Vaughn and quarterback Adrian Martinez hit the 170-yard mark in a 37-28 win over Texas Tech.
Speaking of impressive efforts by running backs, two of the four 200-yard rushing games at the Football Bowl Subdivision level came from players out of the Mid-American Conference.
Kent State’s Marquez Cooper ran 40 times for 240 yards in a 31-24 win over Ohio while Harrison Waylee’s 230 yards and three touchdowns came in Northern Illinois’ 44-38 loss to Ball State.
What A Weekend For The Dirty Dozen
There will not only be some movement at the top of the college football world with 10 ranked teams losing, but also at the bottom of the rankings
Along with Georgia Tech’s stunning win at Pittsburgh, four other teams in the most recent Dirty Dozen picked up victories.
Nebraska, which came in as the second-worst team in major college football, topped Indiana 35-21 as Trey Palmer had 157 receiving yards. He helped the Cornhuskers snap a nine-game losing streak against FBS competition.
UConn opened the 2021 season with a 45-0 loss at Fresno State as the Huskies were outgained 538-107. In the rematch, UConn held visiting Fresno to 187 yards of offense in the 19-14 victory as 23½-point underdogs at home . The Huskies had lost their last 18 games against FBS programs.
The list of winless FBS teams went from three to two thanks to Georgia State’s 31-14 win over Army in a game featuring 115 rushing attempts.
In the only Week 5 matchup between a pair of Dirty Dozen teams, Florida International came away with a 21-7 victory against New Mexico State thanks to three Grayson James scoring runs.
Finally, after debuting in the Dirty Dozen, Boston College used two Connor Lytton field goals in the fourth quarter to rally past Louisville 34-33.
The Cardinals lost quarterback Malik Cunningham during the game. Cunningham accounted for four touchdowns while Boston College’s Phil Jurkovec threw for three scores. The BC quarterback did have three turnovers and took a knee prematurely to give the Cardinals one last play.
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