College football’s Week 5 had a little bit of everything: a Miami team that keeps stacking wins without really getting tested, an Alabama offense that is humming like a machine, and a Missouri breakthrough that finally matched the noise around it.
The Hurricanes are the toughest team to place right now. Miami keeps looking the part, but the schedule has not forced any real stress test yet.
Wake Forest? Not much of one.
Clemson? Some offense to Clemson.
Even Darian Mensah having all day to throw doesn’t tell us a lot about the Hurricanes as a whole. Miami’s slate is weaker than Notre Dame’s, and that’s the comparison being used to judge contenders.
The truth is, the Hurricanes may not face a real ACC challenge the rest of the way. Maybe Pitt.
Maybe Duke. But the clearest measuring stick still appears to be Notre Dame in South Bend, and that’s where we’ll learn the most about how elite Miami actually is.
Alabama, though, looks easy to trust on offense. This is what a Kalen DeBoer team is supposed to feel like.
The comparison to Michael Penix Jr. and those loaded Washington groups makes sense: creative, dangerous, and built to spread the ball around to receivers who can change a game in a snap. This version of the Crimson Tide has that same kind of energy, with Keelon Russell steering the attack.
Alabama has scored at least 45 points in each of its first five games, the first time the program has opened a season that way since 2018.
Saturday also brought a wide range of results for coaches carrying heat. Mike Norvell got a big one, with Florida State rolling past Virginia, 38-7, after starting the year on the hottest seat in the country and then losing his athletic director in mid-September.
Luke Fickell had a much-needed bounce as Wisconsin beat Michigan State, 31-3, to move to 4-1. That seat has cooled a lot, and this Badgers team looks better than it has in a while.
On the other side, Shane Beamer and Mike Locksley watched leads slip away in painful losses, South Carolina in overtime and Maryland in an eventual blowout. And if you’re building a new hot-seat list, Cal first-year coach Tosh Lupoi deserves a look. It’s only his first season, but after a loss to UNLV, the Bears are 2-3, and their offensive coordinator had never been an OC or play-caller at the college or pro level before.
Missouri’s win over Florida was the one that changed the conversation most. All week, the debate centered on whether the Tigers belonged in the rankings.
I didn’t have them ranked. I do now.
Missouri completely shut down a Florida offense that had been explosive and prolific, while Austin Simmons carved up a Florida defense that looked shaky all day, throwing for 340 yards and two touchdowns. It was also Eli Drinkwitz’s first regular-season win over a top-10 team in 11 tries.
“It’s a good win against a really good team today. That’s all it was,” Drinkwitz said.
“Nobody in our locker room could care less about that. I couldn’t care less about that.
I really couldn’t care less. The SEC is a hard league, and yeah, I’m done with that.”
Friday night belonged to Northwestern, and to Chip Kelly. The coordinator hire has changed the look of the offense, and the results were impossible to ignore in the Wildcats’ 34-13 win over Penn State in the new Ryan Field opener.
Northwestern ran for 413 yards and held Penn State to 48 on the ground, a flat-out beating that showed this team can win in more than one way. The Wildcats also went toe-to-toe with the defending national champs a couple of weeks ago, and they’ve now shown they can be a real problem in Big Ten play.
“I tried to tell everybody Northwestern was a good football team, but nobody was buying that,” Curt Cignetti said after Indiana beat the Wildcats by six points. “Two years ago, if people said Indiana was a good football team people weren’t buying that stock either.”
That compliment landed because it fit. And after Week 5, it looks earned.
In Other News...
Miami Looked Like A Title Contender But One Concern Is Growing
Miamis win over Clemson did a lot more than add another quality result to the rsum. The Hurricanes backed it up with a defense that held Clemson to 13 points and just one touchdown, while the offense found enough explosive plays to keep control of the game. Cooper Barkate delivered the kind of breakout performance that can change the feel of a season, highlighted by a 61-yard touchdown catch, and Darian Mensah added scoring through both the air and on the ground.
The problem for Miami was everything that happened around the win. The Hurricanes were dealing with multiple injuries by the end of the game, including to key offensive linemen and cornerbacks, and while some players were able to return after leaving, the list of in-game issues kept growing. For a team that just looked every bit like a title contender, the concern now is less about whether Miami can beat top competition and more about how long it can keep doing it with so many bodies being asked to hold up. [Read more 🡒]
Miamis Biggest Worry After Clemson Has Nothing To Do With The Score
Miami left Clemson with a convincing 40-13 win in a primetime matchup, and the performance had the feel of a complete road statement even with several key players banged up along the way. The Hurricanes absorbed injuries on both lines and in the secondary, yet the defense still smothered Clemsons rushing attack and finished with six sacks while the ground game produced 192 yards and three touchdowns.
The bigger concern now is less about the scoreboard and more about how Miami comes out of it physically as the calendar turns to Florida State. A rivalry game of that size demands depth and health, and the Hurricanes have already seen how quickly their margin can shrink when the injuries start to pile up. [Read more 🡒]
Miami Just Gave The ACC No Real Case Against No. 1
Miamis win over Clemson did more than add another eye-catching result to the ledger. It gave the Hurricanes a weekend built on both style and substance, the kind of showing that tends to linger in the ACC pecking order. With Miami stacking up as the leagues benchmark in scoring and defense, the argument around the top spot is starting to look less like a debate and more like an acknowledgment of what has already happened on the field.
Around the conference, a few teams flashed enough to keep the race interesting, from Pitt and Duke to SMU and Louisville, while others like Florida State, Virginia Tech and Clemson continue sorting out where they really fit. But Miamis combination of a statement win and season-long consistency leaves the ACC with a familiar problem: if the No. 1 team keeps handling its biggest tests, there may not be much left to argue about. The next stretch will show whether anyone can make that case anyway. [Read more 🡒]