The last week of September is when college football truly starts to go off the rails. Every team is in the midst of conference play and the first marquee games of the league slate show up on our radars.
Luckily, No. 2 Georgia and No. 4 Alabama gave us one of the most entertaining regular season contests the last several years as the Tide shocked the ‘Dawgs 41-34. In fact, six ranked teams fell in Week 5.
With all the chaos, here are some of the biggest winners and losers of college football’s Week 5, including a coach elevating himself to the elite level, a receiver entering the Biletnikoff race and a staff once again pulling defeat from the jaws of victory in truly unprecedented fashion.
Winner: Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer
SEC fans are skeptical of outsiders, and for good reason. There were a few questions for Kalen DeBoer, a man who had never coached closer to the Southeast than Carbondale, Illinois. Consider all of those questions answered after the Tide raced out to a 28-0 lead and hung on to beat the mighty Georgia Bulldogs 41-34 in the game of the year so far.
DeBoer is an elite quarterback coach, but Jalen Milroe exceeded has expectations. He’s the first quarterback in AP poll history to post 300 yards passing, 100 yards rushing and two rushing scores against a top-5 opponent. While Georgia managed to get back on track in the second half, Kane Wommack’s defense held the Bulldogs to 3.1 yards per carry and forced three interceptions on Carson Beck, including a game-clincher in the end zone by freshman Zabien Brown.
Granted, DeBoer will have to take some lessons from this game. He has a tendency to let off the gas early and let teams back into games. In the SEC, that won’t fly. It nearly cost them on Saturday. But now, DeBoer is a cool 30-3 as a power conference coach and 6-0 against Kirby Smart, Steve Sarkisian and Dan Lanning. Welcome to the elite coaches tier, Kalen.
After losing to Arkansas last week, Auburn coach Hugh Freeze claimed that if the game was played nine more times, he believes they would win every time. Maybe he’ll feel the same after an astonishing 27-21 loss to Oklahoma that saw the Tigers blow a 21-10 lead in the fourth quarter at home. Auburn outgained Oklahoma by nearly 200 yards, but squandered the game thanks to a pick six by Payton Thorne in the fourth quarter.
Under Freeze, Auburn has put together a masterclass in dropping winnable games over the past two years. So far this year, the Tigers have arguably outplayed California, Arkansas and Oklahoma only to lose. A year prior, the Tigers blew fourth-and-31 against Alabama and suffered a three-touchdown loss against New Mexico State. Auburn is already a bad team. The last thing they need is to lose games in which they actually play well. Finding Even two more wins on the schedule is awfully difficult. Fielding the worst season since Gene Chizik was fired is on the table.
Oh, and by the way, it doesn’t help that Alabama replaced the best coach of all time with another legend in the making. Freeze is on track to become the first Auburn coach to post three straight losing seasons since Earl Brown from 1948-50.
The Running Rebels were the talk of college football for all the strangest reasons after starting quarterback Matthew Sluka opted out of the rest of the season days before a big game against Fresno State. It turns out UNLV backup Hajj-Malik Williams was more than ready for his close up.
UNLV took out all its frustrations against the Bulldogs, obliterating FSU 59-14 behind 300 total yards and four touchdowns from a nearly perfect Williams. The Rebels led 21-0 at the half and never looked back to once again establish itself as the top contender to Boise State in the Mountain West. More importantly, they relieved any question of whether the program is ready to stay in the College Football Playoff race after a quarterback switch.
The Rebels put a tremendous investment into their 2024 roster and were rewarded with a No. 6 national ranking as a result. It took one game against a capable opponent for everything to come crashing down. The Rebels choked away a lead in the fourth quarter and whiffed on a makeable field goal that would have forced overtime to snap a 10-game home winning streak dating back to Nov. 24, 2022.
While the team performance was disappointing, the path it sets up is far worse. Suddenly, road trips to South Carolina and No. 14 LSU feel far more difficult. A home game against No. 2 Georgia will be no cakewalk. The Rebels have very little margin of error to stay in the conversation of elite teams.
Expectations for Smith were off the charts coming into his first season at Ohio State. In his first Big Ten game, a 38-7 win over Michigan State, Smith exceeded those hopes. The freshman and former No. 1 recruit had his way with the Spartans, pulling down a pair of highlight-reel one-handed catches and adding a 19-yard rush for a touchdown as well. Ohio State came into the season with a hole next to Emeka Egbuka at receiver and Smith has already stepped into it. His next game against Iowa will be a real test to see if he can get into the Biletnikoff or Heisman race.
Loser: Baylor coach Dave Aranda
The Bears lost a true heartbreaker in overtime against Colorado in Week 4. Unfortunately, the emotional hangover cost them a must-win game against No. 22 BYU. The Cougars went up 21-0 in the first quarter, which ultimately proved to be too big a deficit in a 34-28 home loss. The Bears had two go-ahead drive opportunities in the waning minutes, but they ended with a turnover on downs and interception. While the Bears are certainly improved from last season, the same bad trends continue to show up in big moments for Aranda teams. With a 2-3 start, the Bears are well behind the eight ball when it comes to reaching a bowl game. A road trip to No. 18 Iowa State next week could be a rock-bottom moment for Aranda’s tenure.
Indiana coach Curt Cignetti talked a big game whenever he took the job, but results have come faster than anyone could have dreamed. The Hoosiers shocked Maryland 42-28 to reach 5-0 for the first time since 1967. While the list of opponents doesn’t jump off the page, Indiana’s dominance does. With a two-touchdown win against the Terrapins, Indiana is outscoring FBS competition by 26.3 points per game. With games against Northwestern, Nebraska, Washington and Michigan State coming up, the Hoosiers have a chance to add to the win column before marquee matchups against No. 12 Michigan and No. 3 Ohio State late in the year. Calling this effort the best-case scenario is underselling it. Indiana is breaking the scale.
Winner: SMU
The Mustangs’ first ever ACC conference game at Gerald Ford Stadium against league power Florida State went swimmingly. SMU tight end RJ Maryland caught a pair of second-half touchdowns from Kevin Jennings as the Mustangs pulled away for a 42-16 victory to start their power conference tenure 1-0. Since Brashard Smith took over at running back, the Mustangs have run the ball with far more consistency. Smith cleared 129 yards and a touchdown in the win as part of a 200-plus-yard rushing effort against a solid FSU front. Perhaps just as encouraging, BYU’s 2-0 start in Big 12 play helps SMU’s lone nonconference loss look a little bit more palatable. If Louisville falls out of the rankings, the Mustangs will not have a single ranked opponent remaining on the schedule and a clean shot to contend with Miami and Clemson for a spot in the ACC Championship Game.
Winner: The Troops
Don’t look now but Army and Navy have taken well to playing in the same conference for the first time in history. The last time that both programs started 4-0 was in 1945, the waning years of World War II. Navy crushed UAB to move to 3-0 in AAC play, while Army reached the mark with a 42-14 victory over Temple on Friday. Both have very manageable schedules ahead. Could we get two unexpected iterations of Army-Navy in back-to-back weeks?
