College Football: Winners and Losers from Week 5
In a loaded Week 5 slate, this weekend's college football games did not disappoint. On Friday night, UCLA moved to 5-0 and upset No. 15 Washington 40-32 at home.
That Pac-12 showdown served as the perfect appetizer to Saturday's noon ET slate. No. 14 Ole Miss defeated No. 7 Kentucky at home 22-19. Undefeated TCU beat up on No. 18 Oklahoma 55-24. Purdue upset No. 21 Minnesota 20-10 in the Big Ten.
In the 3:30 slate, No. 2 Alabama survived a scare against No. 20 Arkansas, as quarterback Bryce Young left the game with an injury, but the Crimson Tide still won 49-26. No. 9 Oklahoma State remained unbeaten, as it took care of No. 16 Baylor 36-25, and No. 22 Wake Forest beat No. 23 Florida State in Tallahassee 31-21.
Let's run through Week 5's winners and losers so far.
It's taken five seasons, but it looks like Chip Kelly has finally figured things out at UCLA. The Bruins moved to 5-0 with a 40-32 win over No. 15 Washington at the Rose Bowl. With the victory, there are now just two undefeated teams remaining in the Pac-12: UCLA and Lincoln Riley's USC team.
The biggest performance of the night came from senior Bruins quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson, who completed 72.7 percent of his passes while throwing for 315 yards and three touchdowns. He added 53 yards on the ground, including this jaw-dropping hurdle of a Washington defender:
Running back Zach Charbonnet added 124 yards and a touchdown.
Perhaps the patience from UCLA regarding Kelly's tenure in Los Angeles has paid off. The Bruins' 8-4 record in 2021 marked the first time UCLA finished above .500 under Kelly. Even during last season's wild coaching carousel, the Bruins stuck firm with their head coach.
Dating back to last season, this win marks the eighth straight victory for the Bruins, their longest undefeated stretch since 2005. They've put up at least 40 points seven times during this streak.
Next week, UCLA will host No. 12 Utah. It's still early in the season, but it looks like the program might be a sleeping contender in the conference. It still has to face Oregon, USC and Cal before the season's over, but if Kelly can defeat Lincoln Riley's USC team as the Pac-12 champion, that would be a huge statement for Kelly and the Bruins.
It's a long season, but keep your eye on UCLA this year, folks.
Boomer Sooner has fallen mightily.
The preseason No. 9 Oklahoma Sooners looked like the Big 12's best chance to make it into the College Football Playoff, but it has already dropped to 0-2 in Big 12 play. Coming off of a 41-34 loss to Kansas State last week, the Sooners fell 55-24 to TCU on the road on Saturday despite entering as a four-point favorite.
This game was pretty over with from the start. TCU led 27-10 at the end of the first quarter and went to the locker room with a 41-17 lead. The Horned Frogs never really let off the gas in the last two quarters and won by 31 points.
What's worse? Oklahoma may have lost its star quarterback, Dillon Gabriel, but it's unclear for how long. While he was trying to slide in the second quarter, the QB took a big shot to the head and did not return.
Horned Frogs linebacker Jamoi Hodge was flagged for unnecessary roughness and ejected from the game for the hit. Gabriel was replaced by backup Davis Beville, who went 7-of-16 passing for 50 yards.
Oklahoma fell to 3-2 on the season, and the Sooners' toughest stretch of the season hasn't even arrived yet. They get Texas in the Red River Showdown next week before facing undefeated Kansas on Oct. 15.
The Sooners then go on the road to face Iowa State, a home game against Baylor on Nov. 5 before a road game against West Virginia. Oklahoma finishes out the season with Oklahoma State at home followed by a road game against Texas Tech.
Before the season started, it looked like new head coach Brent Venables was primed to pick up where Lincoln Riley left off in Norman, but Oklahoma fans might have to practice some patience. For a team that hasn't lost more than two games since 2014, that might be easier said than done.
Ole Miss and Kentucky met in Oxford in a clash of unbeaten SEC teams on Saturday afternoon. While the outcome was expected to be defined by two juggernaut offenses, it was actually Ole Miss' defense that won the game. The Rebels' defense forced two turnovers off of Kentucky quarterback Will Levis, both of which came late in the game.
This game was tied at 19 before Ole Miss kicker Jonathan Cruz made a 26-yard field goal to give his team a 22-19 lead with 2:19 left in the third quarter.
With 10:05 remaining in the fourth quarter, Kentucky started what looked like it could be either a game-tying or game-leading drive. Levis and the Wildcats offense drove down to Ole Miss' 19-yard line, but on 3rd-and-2, Levis fumbled while trying to run for the first down and was recovered by Ole Miss' AJ Finley.
Kentucky's defense forced an Ole Miss three-and-out to give the Wildcats one last shot to win the game. Levis drove down his offense once again deep into Rebels' territory with less than a minute left.
With 1st-and-goal from the 8-yard line, Levis threw what was initially a game-winning touchdown, but the play was blown dead due to an illegal motion penalty. On the very next play, Ole Miss sacked Levis and forced another fumble to give the Rebels the victory.
If Kentucky wants to be a threat to Georgia in the SEC East, taking care of the football will be key moving forward.
I'm not sure why ESPN thought it was going to be a good idea to do live look-ins of Aaron Judge at-bats during college football games. But this is absolutely infuriating. Across all ESPN networks Saturday afternoon, it chose to hijack live college football games to broadcast Aaron Judge at-bats for the New York Yankees.
Yes, I am aware that Judge was attempting to break the American League home run record (62), but if I wanted to watch baseball, I would be!
ESPN first did this last weekend, before Judge had tied Maris' record Wednesday night against the Blue Jays. Naturally, college football Twitter reacted very calmly to Judge once again interrupting games Saturday afternoon:
And The Athletic's Chris Vannini with a very important takeaway on the Judge at-bats during college football games:
I mean, he's not wrong!
This, by far, was the best Judge college football joke, from TCU:
Unfortunately, TCU did not get to 62 before Judge did, even though it looked like it might.
Hopefully these Judge look-ins don't continue the rest of the season. Unfortunately, the Yankees have the No. 2 seed in the American League East, so there's a chance they might in October.
We'll get through this together, college football fans. At the very least, we can tweet through it.
Man, Alabama survived a potential worst-case-scenario game Saturday against Arkansas. In the second quarter as the Tide led the Razorbacks 14-0, starting quarterback Bryce Young left the game with a shoulder sprain and has since been ruled day to day.
Alabama's backup quarterback, true freshman Jalen Milroe, came in for Young in the second quarter. He finished with 65 yards passing and a touchdown, to go with 91 yards on the ground and another score.
In the second half of this game, Arkansas came dangerously close to tying this one up. AJ Green scored a 13-yard touchdown to make it a 28-14 game with 7:47 left in the third quarter. The Hogs then recovered an onside kick, and kicked a 22-yard field goal to make it 28-17. On Alabama's attempted punt on its ensuing possession, a botched snap gave Arkansas the ball back on Alabama's 3-yard line. Arkansas scored a touchdown to make it 28-23 heading into the fourth.
Luckily, Bama being Bama meant it relied on playmakers outside of Young to put this game away. The Tide scored 21 points in the fourth quarter, including two touchdowns from running back Jahmyr Gibbs.
Alabama won by a final score of 49-26.
It's unclear how bad Young's shoulder injury is, but the fact that he wasn't seen in a sling on the sideline might be a good sign. It's also entirely possible that Young could have gone back in, if absolutely necessary, but Alabama kept Arkansas out of reach long enough so that he didn't have to.
Next week, Alabama plays Texas A&M at home, followed by a road game against Tennessee before closing out October with Mississippi State at home. To open November, Alabama has back-to-back road trips to LSU and Ole Miss. The Tide will need Young fully healthy if they want to win the SEC West again.
We're still less than a year removed from Texas A&M's shocking upset of Alabama last season. And Texas A&M's 2022 season has gone quite differently through five weeks.
The Aggies were upset 17-14 at home against App State in Week 2. Texas A&M rebounded with a 17-9 win over Miami in Week 3 before beating Arkansas last week, thanks to a Razorbacks' doinked game-winning field-goal attempt.
But in Week 5, Texas A&M lost 42-24 to Mississippi State in Starkville in a game that wasn't even truly close. The Bulldogs led 14-0 after the second quarter, and they were up 21-10 heading into the fourth. MSU scored another three touchdowns in the fourth quarter, while its defense held TAMU to 14 points.
This now marks the second time in two seasons that Texas A&M has lost to Mississippi State. A week before the Alabama game last year, the Aggies fell 26-22 to Mississippi State at home.
With the loss to the Bulldogs this season, it marks the first time since the 2016-18 stretch that Mississippi State has defeated Texas A&M in consecutive years. Another fun fact: Texas A&M has paid Jimbo Fisher $18 million over the last two seasons to lose twice to Mississippi State. Numbers are fun!
