It’s our week 5 college football primer and conference play is in full swing! That means some of the top contenders are going to go on the road and face a less-than-stellar conference opponent and lose. After that, we will question why we considered them a contender at all. In reality? College football is unpredictable and you never know when an overmatched team is going to play a game like it’s their Super Bowl. This is why we love college football. This should be a week of chaos, even if it doesn’t seem that way.
Alex’s Picks
#24 Kansas at #3 Texas
The only ranked matchup in the Big 12 this week sees the 4-0 Jayhawks traveling to Austin to take on the 4-0 Longhorns (for possibly the last time). All-time Texas leads this series 17-4, having won the last contest 55-14. However, the last time these teams faced off in Darrel K. Royal Stadium, the Jayhawks pulled off the massive upset with an OT 2pt conversion to win 57-56. This Kansas team is arguably more talented and will look to play spoiler against Texas’s national title hopes.
Kansas
QB Jalon Daniels has led Kansas to a 4-0 start and an impressive 37.8 points per game, ranking 27th in the country. Daniels has passing TDs but the real threat is in the run game. RBs Devin Neal and Daniel Hishaw Jr have combined for 629 yards and 8 TDs through 4 games, which is the 13th-best rushing attack in college football. They’ll look to rely on the run and control the clock keeping the ball away from Quinn Ewers and co. Kansas defense is middling, allowing 22.8 points per game.
Texas
The Longhorns enter Saturday’s game as 16.5-point favorites at home. Texas is ranked 3rd in the country, the highest they have been since 2010 when they competed for the national championship. HC Steve Sarkisian has the boys rolling with a well-balanced team that ranked 37th in ppg on offense and 13th in points allowed.
Second-year starter Quinn Ewers has improved his deep ball greatly and hasn’t thrown an INT yet, meanwhile, the WR duo of Xavier Worthy and Adonai Mitchell and TE Ja’Tavion Sanders has created a three-headed monster in the passing game that has left teams guessing.
Texas has Oklahoma next week, and they need to make sure they don’t look too far ahead to the Red River Shootout (yeah I said it) and drop the ball against a talented Kansas squad.
Texas to win but not cover
#13 LSU at #20 Ole Miss
Magnolia Bowl! This will be the 112th meeting between the two SEC West schools. Ole Miss is looking to rebound after their loss to Alabama last week and LSU looks to keep momentum going after being undefeated since their week 1 loss to Florida St.
LSU
The Tigers head to Oxford as 2.5 point favorites having won 6 of the last 8 contests against the Rebels. Under QB Jayden Daniels, LSU’s offense has been great. They are 10th in the country for ppg and the QB himself is 5th in passing yards. The defense still has left some questions on the field being ranked 72nd in ppg allowed and 67th in yards allowed. They’ll need to improve these numbers if they hope to improve to 4-1 and keep churning towards a possible SEC West title.
Ole Miss
The Rebels are looking to bounce back after a disappointing loss to rival Alabama. Ole Miss is 32nd in points allowed while being 12th in ppg on offense.
By this metric, they are more balanced than LSU and have their own stud QB in Jaxson Dart. Dart leads the Rebels in passing and rushing and has 10 total TDs to go along with it. Last week he was a dud against Bama having a 57% completion percentage with an INT and no passing TDs with a rushing score but only 6 rushing yards. He will need to step up if he wants Ole Miss to stay competitive in the SEC.
LSU wins and covers. (Coach O voice: Geaux Tigers)
#11 Notre Dame at #17 Duke
The Irish’s toughest test since…last week. Coming off a heartbreaker against OSU, the Irish will look to bounce back against a good Duke team. This ACC-adjacent game is only the 8th time these two teams have faced off and the first since 2020. Notre Dame leads 5-2 all-time.
Notre Dame
Last week Notre Dame lost on national television while only having 10 players on the field in a goal-to-go situation. That’s very hard to bounce back from, but Notre Dame still is a good team with a vet QB in Sam Hartman and the leading rusher in the country, RB Audric Estime. They boast the 18th-best offense in ppg even after only having 14 last week against Ohio State. They head to Duke as 5.5-point favorites.
Duke
College Gameday comes to Durham for the first time ever to see 4-0 Duke host 4-1 Notre Dame. The Blue Devils have the 29th-ranked offense by ppg with possible first-round QB Riley Leonard leading the way. They also have an elite run game with RB Jordan Waters having 7 TDs on the season already! The way Duke has been playing they may be legit contenders in the ACC and a win over Notre Dame would certainly put them squarely in that conversation. If they win this week keep an eye on October 21st when they travel to Tallahassee to take on FSU.
Duke to win cause it’s fun.
Jake’s Picks
#8 USC @ Colorado
Colorado
Coach Prime’s team got humbled last week. A 42-6 beatdown in Eugene, Oregon in which they never looked like a threat.
Obviously, not having Travis Hunter for a few weeks is an enormous loss, but not the reason they lost last week. They lost in the trenches.
Coming into the season, I think that would’ve been the biggest reason for skepticism of the Buffaloes and it came to fruition in their biggest game yet.
They remain without Hunter this week as they host USC on Big Noon kickoff. While USC won’t dominate them at the line of scrimmage like Oregon did, the Buffs defense is in for a hell of a challenge against Lincoln Riley and Caleb Williams. It’s hard to imagine Colorado getting many stops on Saturday.
USC
Caleb Williams is a name we’ll be hearing about for 20 years, and he takes center stage at Noon on Saturday.
While Coach Prime has made up a lot of the headlines in the early season, the headliner of the 2024 NFL Draft is Caleb Williams. He’s a dynamic, Mahomes-esque creator who has been nearly unstoppable in his college career.
Colorado’s defense will not have an answer. It’s going to be a big day for Caleb and the hype he’s rightfully earned will only keep growing.
USC covers (-21.5) and wins
#2 Michigan @ Nebraska
Michigan
Michigan has yet to be truly tested this year. Could Nebraska be that test?
All of Michigan’s games so far have gone about the same way. They score 30 points, control the line of scrimmage and play suffocating defense. But their toughest opponent so far is… Rutgers.
The Cornhuskers have only allowed more than 14 points in one game, their loss at Colorado.
So how good is Michigan’s offense? Will it be able to cruise to another victory?
Nebraska
Nebraska’s defense has been the story of their season. If they don’t turn the ball over 4 times at Minnesota in week 1, we could be talking about a sneaky Big Ten West contender.
But the good news for new coach Matt Rhule? This team has improved greatly from week 1. They got torched by Colorado and Travis Hunter in week 2 and since then have found their form and their identity, with double digit wins over Northern Illinois and Louisiana Tech.
Now comes the biggest test of the season for Coach Rhule and the early days of his run. It’s their game of the year, the #2 ranked, former Big Ten champions are coming into your house. Rhule is a master motivator and will have his team ready to play. Can they play spoiler on Saturday?
Nebraska covers +17.5, loses by 10