Red Flags: 5 college football teams on upset alert in Week 6

College football upsets that almost were emerged as a big storyline coming out of last week. Sure, Kentucky blasted Florida as a then-unranked team and Ole Miss clipped LSU, but there were upset alerts throughout the country and throughout most of Saturday that ultimately ended without any calamity.

Whether it was Georgia getting put on the ropes by Auburn, USC's porous defense almost allowing Colorado to make things way too interesting, and Notre Dame needed a last-minute score to win (and cover) against Duke. Again, they got the job done, but the upsets were almost of the cataclysmic variety for college football.

Are teams on upset alert going to be as lucky in college footbal Week 6 with a huge slate on deck?

We can't guarantee anything. Thank you to John Buhler, our hero, for filling in for me last week, but I'll take it from here. The red flags are waving, and these are the college football upset picks for Week 6.

2023 Upset Picks Record: 7-18

Note: All lines are courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook. For more college football odds, picks and predictions, visit BetSided.

5. Ohio State Buckeyes

Opponent: Maryland | Time: Saturday, Oct. 7, Noon ET (FOX) | Spread: OSU -19.5

You're probably thinking that we've seen this story before. Maryland is not unfamiliar with getting off to good starts, even in the still-ongoing Taulia Tagovailoa era, only to end up facing Ohio State or another power in the Big Ten and then getting their brains beat in by a wholly superior team.

Let's caveat everything that I'm about to say with the fact that this may indeed be the case for the Terps again in Week 6 as they go on the road to Columbus... but it also might not be.

It hasn't been a blemishless start for Mike Locksley's team, most notably struggling early against a bad Charlotte team in Week 2. However, this team has been taking care of business overall, winning every game by double-digits and all but one (that aforementioned Charlotte game) by 20+ points.

The way they're doing it could cause Ohio State some issues, too. The Buckeyes defense has been nails for Jim Knowles this season, but the secondary also hasn't been tested by a passing offense like Maryland's. The Terrapins have four pass-catchers with at least 200 yards and 18 receptions already this season. It's a multi-faceted attack that could test the depth of the OSU defensive backs.

In turn, that could set up a bit of a shootout in this game, not dissimilar to what we saw last season when Maryland pushed Ohio State for three quarters. For as good as Kyle McCord was late in the Notre Dame win, we still haven't seen the young QB keep pace in the type of game this cold be. Up against an experienced Tagovailoa, that creates more than enough upset potential.

And at the very least, a 19.5-point spread is just far too much.