Week Five of the 2021 college football season is now in the bag and there were no real surprises at the top, other than just how easily Georgia dealt with the No 8 ranked Arkansas. Even at this early stage, it looks like the SEC will have two representatives in the playoffs as Alabama also had a statement win against the No 12 rankled Ole Miss. The Rebels were 42-7 down in the fourth quarter!

With a number of all ranked games, there has understandably been a few changes in the top 10, however, the potential playoff field has already shrunk quite a bit. Oregon who was the PAC 12’s only real hope somehow managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory to severely dent their hopes. The probability of them winning was around 98.5% with less than two minutes left!

In the night’s most intriguing game the Cinncinati Bearcats made a statement – well their defense did as they took down Notre Dame. It will still be an uphill struggle but they could become the first Group of Five team to reach the playoffs if they go undefeated.

Overall nine of the top 25 teams lost with Oregon’s debacle ranking as the worst, although UCLA’s beat down ran it a close second. Not a good night for the PAC 12!

 

AP Top 25 Results

No 1 Alabama 42, No 12 Ole Miss 21

The tide was 35-0 up before they took their foot off the pedal. Ole Miss had no answer for the Tides running game giving up 210 yards rushing.

No 2 Georgia 37, No 8 Arkansas 0

Another mismatch of a game, this time between two ranked in the top 10. The Razorbacks didn’t have any success on offense but shouldn’t fall too far after this loss given Georgia probably have the best defense in the FBS.

No 3 Oregon 24, Stanford 31 (OT)

What were Oregon’s coaches playing at! When you have the lead and have had great success on the ground run the ball and kill the clock would seem like a plan. However an incomplete pass on a second and long ended up giving Stanford that vital couple of seconds they needed to force overtime with a last gasp TD. This defeat will severely dent their playoff hopes.

No 4 Penn State 24, Indiana 0

A routine win thanks to a great defensive performance which included forcing eight punts and a couple of turnovers. They even blocked a field goal to keep Indiana off the scoreboard.

No 5 Iowa 51, Maryland 14

Friday Night road trips are not supposed to be easy, however, this one was all but over by half time. The Hawkeyes looked good on both sides of the ball.

No 6 Oklahoma 37, Kansas State 31

Another one-score game goes the Sooners way. To be fair they didn’t look like losing at any stage but did have a couple of close calls go their way. One has to wonder how long before the ball bounces the other way.

No 7 Cincinnati 24, No 9 Notre Dame 13

The Bearcats are for real, and although Notre Dame will point to their QB carousel (they used three in this one) no one can argue about the potency of the Cinncinati defense. They forced 5 punts and had two interceptions in the first half and never looked back after turning this into a 17-0 lead at the interval.

No 10 Florida 13, Kentucky 20

Kentucky had been flying below the radar but this win will catapult them well into the top 25.  Florida will fall a bit but both their losses will be to ranked teams and both by a score or less. so all is not lost.

Buckeyes Still In It?

No 11 Ohio State 52, Rutgers 13

The Buckeyes have bounced back from that Oregon loss and although a thrashing Rutgers is not something to crow about, it does put their destiny back in their own hands. They have Penn State and Michigan to play and potentially Iowa in the Big Ten championship if they both in out. A 12-1 Ohio State will be in the final four.

No 13 BYU 34, Utah State 20

A routine win for BYU, who was never really threatened. They held USU to 31 yards rushing and the defense also had a couple of interceptions.

No 14 Michigan 38, Wisconsin 17

Ok beating Wisconsin is not the marquis win that it looked like pre-season, however, it was done with some style. Jim Harbaugh has had some flak of late but here they are at 5-0. They also have never been behind at any stage in those five wins.

No 15 Texas A&M 22, Mississippi State 26

A second consecutive divisional loss all but puts pay to the Aggie’s hopes of reaching the playoffs. The Bulldogs may be 3-2 but those losses were by a combined 5 points.

The Chanticleers Still Undefeated

No 16 Coastal Carolina 59, UL Monroe 6

An easy win will keep the Chanticleers on course for a tilt at the “At Large$” slot should Cinncinati slip up. They are averaging just over 48 points a game!

No 17 Michigan State 48, Western Kentucky 31

The Spartans are 5-0 for the first time since 2015. The Hilltoppers are actually quite good despite their 1-3 record as their previous losses had been by a total of 5 points.

No 18 Fresno State 24, Hawai’i 27

Fresno should have won this one despite giving up six (yes 6) turnovers. They were 24-10 up in the third before they pressed the self destruct button. Three losses of possession all ended up as Hawai’i points and then they threw another pick in the red zone to end the game. Clock Management 101 is the reading matter for next week.

No 19 Oklahoma State 24, No 21 Baylor 14

The Cowboys took the honours in the all ranked Big 12 clash. Spencer Saunders had a poor game for them at QB throwing three interceptions, however their defense was just too much for Baylor who only managed 10 first downs in the whole game.

No 20 UCLA 23, Arizona State 42

Arizona State are back on track thanks in no small part to UCLA’s disastrous second half. You know it’s not your day when you go for it on 4th down three drives running and fail them all.  UCLA  put up 435 yards of offense and on another night things could have been different. A good game to watch if you can find the highlights.

No 22 Auburn 24 LSU 19

Aburn gave Penn State’s resume a bit of a boost with a hard fought win in Death Valley. They came out best in the battle of the Tigers thanks largely to QB Bo Nix who avoided the pressure well enough to engineer the comeback. He even ran in a TD as Auburn left LSU’s stadium with a win for the first time since 1999!

No 23 NC State 34, Louisiana Tech 27

NC State looked like they had a post Clemson hangover as they made hard work of beating Louisiana Tech. It took a last gasp end zone interception to avoit OT.

No 24 Wake Forest 37, Louisville 34

Hands up who predicted Wake Forest would be the highest ranked ACC team by week 5? It took a late field goal to keep them unbeaten but here they are 5-0 and 3-0 in conference play! This was a great game to watch with over 1000 yards of offense and 8 TDs. Wake QB Sam Hartman is having a great senior year with 1285 yards passing and 11 TDs so far. A few NFL scouts will be watching him if he keeps this up.

No 25 Clemson 19, Boston College 13

Clemson managed a win but looked far from impressive against an error-prone Boston College who couldn’t get their run game goiung and turned the ball over three times. This does leave Clemson with their ACC destiny in their own hands pretty much, but it wonk move them much in the rankings and they could end up falling out completely.

Racking them up

There was no shortage of points this week as can be seen above, however, the honour for the most combined points goes to…

Georgia Southern Eagles 59 Arkansas State Redwolves 33

The Eagles snapped their 3 game losing streak in some style running all over the Red Wolves. They had 503 yards rushing and ran in 7 TDs. Their defense also forced 4 turnovers. Arkansas State by comparison threw the ball well but made too many mistakes. They are capable of scoring points (averaging 32 a game) but their defense can’t stop anything. They have given up an average of 563.8 yards per game so far!

When it comes to scoring though the nights award goes to Tennessee who routed Missouri 62- 24. Junior Running back Tiyon Evans had a night to remember with a 92 yard TD run. He had three in total and 156 yards total. This was only his 4th start so he might be worth watching.

Entertaining Game of the Week

Plenty of contenders in the games above however outside of these the game we could watch again, armed with Beer & Pizza, of course, would be…

Florida State 33 Syracuse 30

A nice rushing duel this one punctuated with the odd pass, three of which were intercepted. The main thing for us was the fact it was close all the way to the end with Syracuse always having a reply to an FSU score. They tied it up late and it looked set for OT. However, a clutch last-minute drive led by Jordan Travis saw the Seminoles snatch it with a Field Goal as time expired. He had a pretty poor game right up until those final 47 seconds so perhaps we will see him take a step forward now.

Performance of the Week

Again plenty of candidates in the Power Five, however, we have plumped for Nevada who got their first win in Boise since 1997!

Nevada Wolf Pack 41 Boise State Broncos 31

This was quite close in the first half but Nevada pulled away in the third quarter and only a late Brionco’s TD made the score look a little more respectable. There is a good chance these two will meet again in the Mountain West Title game and Nevada will be pushing for a top 10 place if they keep playing like this.

One you might have missed

UTSA 24 UNLV 17

A 4-0 team beating an 0-4 team doesn’t usually merit much attention, however, Texas San Antonio has now won 8 consecutive regular-season games going back to last season. Their 5 wins this season includes one over Illinois the programmes first-ever against a Power Five side and a road win in Memphis. Not bad for a programme which is only 10 years old.  UNLV are also better than their record would suggest as three of their losses were to Ranked teams. If they keep this up the Roadrunners might get ranked for the first time pretty soon.

Looking Good

Penn State& Iowa currently look the most likely teams to threaten the big two. Are we seeing a change in the balance of power in the Big Ten?

Honourable mention goes to Pittsburgh who has bounced back nicely from their shock 3 point loss to Western Michigan. They are averaging 52.4 points a game so far and have a good chance of winning the ACC Coastal. Shame the Orange Bowl is a CFP semi this year as they might have had a chance at it otherwise. They have Clemson in two weeks which is one for the diary.

Still Unbeaten

Only five games in and the ranks of unbeaten teams have thinned dramatically. Here is who is left…

 AAC – Cinncinati & SMU

ACC – Wake Forest

Big 12 – Oklahoma & Oklahoma State

Big Ten – Penn State, Iowa, Michigan & Michigan State

C-USA – UTSA 

FBS Independents – BYU

Mountain West – San Diego State & Wyoming

In The SEC –  Georgia, Alabama & Kentucky

In The Sun Belt – Coastal Carolina

Only 17 left and this will shrink further next week with Penn State & Iowa facing off for bragging rights in the Big Ten.

Looking for a win

A much shorter list with only four members. UMass & UConn meet next week so one will get off the naughty step. 

FBS Independent – UMass & UConn are 0-5 & 0-6 respectively.

Mountain West – UNLV Rebels 0-5

PAC-12 Arizona 0-4

You can check out last weeks results here.