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...
Mizzou Just Delivered The Bounce-Back Tigers Fans Desperately Needed
For a program looking to reset the mood in a hurry, Saturday gave Mizzou exactly the kind of response it had been searching for. The No. 25 Tigers knocked off No. 8 Florida 45-10, a result that stood out not just for the margin but for what it meant in the bigger picture, as Mizzous first regular-season win over a Top 10 opponent since 2013. It was the sort of complete performance that can change the temperature around a team in a single afternoon.
Mizzou did it by controlling the game at the line of scrimmage and making Floridas offense look out of sync from the start. The defense held star running back Jadan Baugh to 13 yards on 12 carries, while Jamal Roberts powered the offense with more than 200 rushing yards and three touchdowns. The passing game spread the ball around, Blake Craig added key field goals, and the Tigers left no doubt that this was the bounce-back performance their fans had been waiting for. [Read more 🡒]
Eli Drinkwitz Just Changed The Conversation Around Missouri
Saturdays rout of Florida did more than add another win to Missouris record. By taking down the No. 8 Gators 45-17, the Tigers delivered the kind of performance that can reset the tone around a program, and they did it by controlling the game in every phase. Missouri held Florida to just 42 rushing yards and finished with a 560 to 325 edge in total yardage, the sort of numbers that tell you this was no fluke.
For Eli Drinkwitz, it also marked another notable line on a rsum that is starting to look different than it did when he arrived in Columbia. He now has two top-10 wins during his tenure, and this one carried extra weight because of how thoroughly Missouri handled the moment. For a program trying to move from occasional spoiler to something more durable, a result like this changes the conversation in a hurry. [Read more 🡒]
Mizzou Defense Just Made A Huge Statement Against No. 8 Florida
Missouris defense delivered the kind of night that can change the way people talk about a team, smothering No. 8 Florida in a 45-17 win and making the Gators look uncomfortable from the opening stretches. The Tigers took away the run, kept Jadan Baugh to 13 yards on 12 carries, and made Florida chase the game while the Mizzou offense turned the stops into points and steadily pulled away.
Kensley Louidor-Faustin was part of a front that kept the pressure on Floridas quarterback and helped produce multiple sacks, a sign that Missouris pass rush and run defense were working in sync. For a team trying to build real momentum in SEC play, the larger takeaway was less about one big play than the way the Tigers controlled both lines and left a top-10 opponent with few answers. [Read more 🡒]