College Football Week 5 Recap

1. NC State shocks Florida State

The Wolfpack looked not only capable of pulling off the upset, but for much of the game seemed like the better team. They jumped out to a 24 - 7 lead in the first quarter and held the lead until late in the third quarter. But they were not able to maintain the momentum and eventually just couldn't stop the Florida State offense. Seminoles won, but did not look like the number one team in the country. It's only a matter of time before someone knocks off the defending champs. Keep an eye on the October 17 match-up with Notre Dame.

2. Washington takes down Stanford

As anticipated, this was a tight defensive struggle, but Stanford came out on top.  The Cardinal offense continues to stall, especially in the red zone, but their defense is among the best in the nation and helped get the win in Seattle.  The Huskies' unsuccessful, gutsy fake punt in the fourth quarter, with the game tied, ultimately led to their demise.  Kevin Hogan's touchdown run on the ensuing drive gave them the 20 - 13 win.

3. Ohio State scores twice on defense/special teams vs Cincinnati

The Buckeyes recorded a safety, but that was it for defensive scoring. The offense didn't need the help though, as the Bearcats were powerless to slow down Barrett and Elliot in a 50 - 28 victory (pretty close to my 42 - 24 prediction.)  Ohio State had a school-record 45 first downs and racked up 710 yards of offense. But the same points of concern still remain. The secondary gave up several big plays, receivers dropped easy passes, and while the offensive line seems to have improved drastically, it's not clear whether that is real improvement or just lack of quality competition.  The upcoming game against Maryland should be a bigger test for the Buckeyes.

4. Michigan's six-figure attendance streak comes to an end

The battle for the Little Brown Jug was enough to keep the record going, with 102,926 in attendance for Saturday's game.  But there are bigger concerns in Ann Arbor, after losing 30 - 14 to Minnesota.  The Wolverines' offense now averages a measly 5.67 points per game against other Power-5 teams.  The loss to the Golden Gophers was a school-record third loss by October for Michigan.  If this wasn't bad enough, a sideline communication led to a mishandling of a head injury sustained by quarterback Shane Morris.  Mixed messages this week from Brady Hoke and athletic director Dave Brandon only aggravated the situation.  After a protest against the Michigan AD, he and the head coach both sit firmly on the hot seat.  At this point, barring a complete 180 by the football team, I think Hoke will be lucky to even keep his job for the remainder of the season.

5. Wisconsin racks up 100-billion rushing yards against South Florida

The Badgers were a bit short of the 100-billion mark, and even the slightly-more-attainable 400 rushing yards I predicted.  The offense started slow, scoring only 3 points in the first half.  A strong second half by running back Melvin Gordon boosted Wisconsin to a 27 - 10 win, but the team only recorded 294 rushing yards, making this prediction horribly inaccurate.

Week 5 record: 0 - 5
Overall record: 8 - 17
Eek.

Other headlines from week 5:

Scarlet Knights and Terrapins surprise

Few people expected Maryland or Rutgers to make much noise in their first season in a new conference.  But both have had fairly strong starts to the season and could prove very capable of competing in a weak-looking Big Ten.  Both have only one loss, but Maryland definitely looks like the better of the two, after knocking off Indiana.  Rutgers' loss to Penn State looks worse after the Nittany Lions were beaten badly at home by a suspect Northwestern team.  We are just starting to get into conference play, though, so we will soon see what these two B1G newcomers are really made of.

Hundley storms into Heisman race

UCLA's Brett Hundley was on many people's short lists for pre-season Heisman favorites, but had been fairly quiet in the first few weeks.  An arm injury kept him out of most of the game against Texas, missing valuable time to impress voters.  But in a match-up against ranked and unbeaten Arizona State, Hundley and the Bruins made a statement with big play after big play.  There are tough challenges on the schedule ahead, including games against Oregon, USC, and Stanford, but if UCLA can somehow navigate the schedule unbeaten (or even with one loss) and Hundley continues to put up video-game stats, expect to see him among the finalists in New York.

It's not a good idea to run onto the field at Ohio State

I think the video pretty much speaks for itself, if you haven't seen it.  Ouch.  On top of probably feeling pretty sore, Ohio State student Anthony Wunder now stands to lose his scholarship.  Double ouch.