Notre Dame looks like a playoff team. Bobby Petrino didn’t want to run the football. Here are the winners and losers from Week 5 of the 2018 NCAA season.
We saw four top-10 teams duking it out in primetime during the Week 5 college football slate. No. 7 Notre Dame took care of business over the No. 8 Stanford Cardinal in South Bend. No. 4 Ohio State stole one on the road against the No. 9 Penn State Nittany Lions in State College.
Other blue-bloods of note like the Michigan Wolverines and the Texas Longhorns got victories they needed to continue to build off rough Week 1 losses. Of course, not everybody was so lucky this week.
Brilliant offensive minds like Chip Kelly and Bobby Petrino looked out of their element in defeat. Scott Frost may inevitably regret leaving sunny Orlando for being Big Ten football dreck in Lincoln.
Here are the winners and losers from the week that was in college football.
Notre Dame getting into that College Football Playoff picture – Winner
After improving to 5-0, Notre Dame just feels like one of the four-to-six best teams in the nation. Opting to go with Ian Book over Brandon Wimbush at quarterback has transformed a lackluster Notre Dame offense into a dynamic one.
The Fighting Irish certainly pushed around Stanford on Saturday night. Last year’s team in South Bend was pretty solid, but this looks to be the best team that head coach Brian Kelly has had at Notre Dame since playing for the national title in 2012. Maybe Notre Dame makes it to the College Football Playoff this year? It wouldn’t shock anybody at this point.
Bobby Petrino electing pass with Puma Pass late – Loser
Petrino got a little ahead of himself versus the Florida State Seminoles. Up three points deep in Florida State territory inside of two minutes, he opted to have his new starting quarterback Jawon “Puma” Pass throw it instead of pound the rock.
Well, Pass threw an interception that eventually resulted in the go-ahead score for Florida State. Instead of winning 24-21, Louisville lost in terrible fashion 28-21 to a division rival at home. Louisville falls to 2-3 on the year, while Willie Taggart’s Seminoles improve to 3-2. These two ACC powers aren’t good, and man, was that horrendous play calling by Petrino.
Ohio State’s ability to survive and advance – Winner
It was not pretty, but the Buckeyes got it done in Happy Valley. Frankly, Penn State outplayed Ohio State for most of the game, but quarterback Dwayne Haskins grew as the game went along. He completed 22 of 39 passes for 270 yards, three touchdowns and one interception.
Though he was largely out dueled by Penn State quarterback Trace McSorley, Haskins was the key in Ohio State’s impressive win on the road in Happy Valley in primetime. Through September, Ohio State is clearly the favorite to win the Big Ten. Beating a huge rival on the road without playing its best game is a testament to the amount of talent and football resilience that resides in Columbus for Urban Meyer’s bunch.
Clemson’s super awkward quarterback situation – Loser
So Dabo Swinney made a choice this past week. It led to his former starter Kelly Bryant wanting to transfer, as Swinney decided to go with true freshman Trevor Lawrence as his starting quarterback. That was great and all, until it wasn’t.
Lawrence had to exit Saturday’s game versus the Syracuse Orange with a neck injury. That led to Chase Brice coming in and leading the Tigers to a narrow come-from-behind victory over Syracuse. And now Swinney wants Bryant to come back. Will he? Should he? Clemson won, but kind of made us feel really uncomfortable in doing so.
Texas might be on its way back – Winner
This could all change by this time next week, but the Longhorns may have turned a corner as a program. Though it was only a narrow 19-14 win on the road against the lackluster Kansas State Wildcats, Texas is 4-1 ahead of its huge rivalry game versus the Oklahoma Sooners at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
Head coach Tom Herman has had to rectify a blue-blood program that hasn’t been great in a decade. For the first time since Mack Brown’s last season in Austin in 2013, the Longhorns are 4-1 through their first five games. Maybe they have enough firepower to thwart Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry next Saturday?
How sure are we that Chip Kelly isn’t washed? – Loser
Guess who is absolutely terrible in the Pac-12? UCLA. Yes, the same UCLA that is now led by football’s former guru of go in Kelly. After setting college on fire at Oregon and briefly in the NFL with the Philadelphia Eagles, Kelly’s Bruins look very similar to his 2016 San Francisco 49ers.
At least those 49ers won two games, two more than what the 2018 Bruins have garnered this season. Yes, we knew that UCLA was going to need to rebuild, but man, is it bad in Westwood. The Bruins haven’t scored more than 21 points in any of their four games thus far, all losses. If they don’t win a Pac-12 game, they won’t win a game this year.
Kyler Murray as a backup quarterback for the Sooners – Winner
We get it. Kyler Murray is good and good at multiple sports. The soon-to-be Oakland Athletics top baseball prospect was apparently too cool to show up for Friday’s practice on time in Norman. That led to Lincoln Riley benching him to start the game versus the Baylor Bears on Saturday.
Whatever. Murray threw for 432 yards and six touchdowns as a backup, as the Sooners thrashed the 66 to 33 in Norman to improve to 5-0. While he might need to show up to practice on time this week to beat Texas in Dallas, but Murray was cool enough to be the best backup college football quarterback this week that actually played.
Nebraska can’t punt and can’t play football – Loser
The worst team in the Big Ten is…the Nebraska Cornhuskers? Really? Yes, they are terrible. Even with Frost as their new head coach, they can’t do anything right, including punting. They fell at home to the typical bottom-feeding Purdue Boilermakers, 42-28.
We have to believe that Nebraska will win a game or two this year because the Cornhuskers play in the weaker of the two divisions in the Big Ten. However, the return to glory for Nebraska football seems light years away for Big Red. Outstanding football and no state income tax were part of that old UCF life for Frost. This dream job of his is now a full-blown nightmare.
Michigan getting really gritty in Evanston – Winner
It starting to feel like this will be a season-long trend for the Michigan Wolverines. Sure, they’ll win some games, but nothing will be easy for them. The offense still hasn’t arrived in Ann Arbor during the Jim Harbaugh era, yet they found a way to win on the road in Evanston versus the feisty Northwestern Wildcats.
Michigan was down 17-7 at half and looking largely listless. However, the Wolverines shut out the Wildcats in the second half to come from behind to win, 20-17. Michigan improves to 4-1 on the year and remains a top-25 team in the country. The Wolverines will beat some Big Ten rivals, as they are battle tested in what was Harbaugh’s grittiest win as the Michigan head coach.
Mississippi State being a contender in the SEC West – Loser
For as much praise as Joe Moorhead garnered coming out of Penn State as its offensive coordinator, he certainly has some work to do in Starkville. His Mississippi State Bulldogs couldn’t beat their former head coach Dan Mullen at home in his first year rebuilding the Florida Gators.
Florida has improved to 4-1 on the year, whose only loss is to an undefeated Kentucky Wildcats team. Mississippi State falls to 3-2 and can no longer be in the conversation of being an SEC West contender. The Bulldogs are 0-2 in SEC play. Though they can win a bunch of games this year, finishing above .500 in conference play looks to be in doubt.
Next: The 15 blue bloods of college football
We’ve officially made it through the first month of the 2018 college football season. With the weather beginning to change, we can only expect the unexpected in the final eight weeks of the regular season. Here’s to more great gridiron action next week.