The Highest-Stakes College Football Games of Week 5

Jacksonville State pulled off a stunning final drive to force overtime (where it won) against Sam Houston State on Thursday night, but there’s still a ton of intrigue left on the Week 5 college football schedule, including two games of note on Friday evening. Here’s what’s on the line in some of the most interesting matchups:

Utah at Oregon State (Friday, 9:00 PM Eastern, Fox Sports 1): Last week was the first Oregon State-Washington State matchup where both teams ranked in the top 25, and this will be the first ranked-on-ranked game between the Utes and Beavers (albeit with far fewer previous opportunities). A win can keep Oregon State ranked for a sixth-straight week in one season, which hasn’t happened since 2012. Utah is trying to escape September without taking a loss for the first time since 2017. Bonus: this series is tied 12-12-1 all-time, and with the Utes heading to the Big 12, this might decide who’s leading it for a while to come.

Cincinnati at BYU (Friday, 10:15 PM Eastern, ESPN): Both these teams lost their first conference games as Big 12 members and I’m pretty confident they’d rather not start Season One in an 0-2 hole. The urgency’s potentially higher for the Bearcats, as a loss would be their third in a row. That hasn’t happened since 2017 — which was also their first year under a new head coach. If Cincinnati wants to avoid that third loss, the ground game might be the key on both sides of the ball. Kansas and Arkansas ran for a combined average of 5.24 yards per carry the last two weeks against the Cougars, while BYU’s rushing attack only averaged 1.6.

USC at Colorado (Saturday, 12:00 PM Eastern, Fox): The problem with playing Colorado after Oregon is you’ve now got the standard the Ducks set to live up to. If USC wins but doesn’t do so in dominating fashion, the murmurs about the Trojans not being a real playoff threat will start up. That’s especially true if the Buffaloes have a better outing on offense and the Internet eye of judgment focuses on USC defensive coordinator Alex Grinch.  (The Trojans actually rank quite a bit higher in defensive F+ than they did in 2022, but they’re still nowhere near the territory of the most smothering defenses.)

For Deion Sanders, this is the opportunity to show that the Oregon loss was an outlier and that Colorado belongs in the top half of the Pac-12. Regrouping after a loss is also a situation that’s not recently familiar to Sanders; in his last two years at Jackson State, the only losses to an FCS opponent came at the end of the season.

Florida at Kentucky (Saturday, 12:00 PM Eastern, ESPN): No Florida coach has lost to Kentucky in back-to-back seasons since (scrolling…still scrolling…) Doug Dickey in 1976 and 1977. Florida hasn’t lost three in a row to the Wildcats since (more scrolling) 1949 through 1951. That Kentucky’s undefeated won’t really matter to Gator fans, at least emotionally; losing to the Cats would undo a lot of the goodwill Billy Napier gained from beating Tennessee. For the Wildcats, this is the beginning of a stretch that will determine whether this is a historic season or a fight for bowl eligibility. The Gators are one of five currently-ranked teams Kentucky faces in their next six games. 

Clemson at Syracuse (Saturday, 12:00 PM Eastern, ABC): If I told you before the season that one of these teams would enter undefeated while the other would be at .500, you wouldn’t have put Syracuse in the first slot and Clemson in the second. Stop it, don’t lie. The Orange got off to a hot start last season as well, winning their first six before seeing the streak end against … Clemson. Syracuse has been a pesky opponent for the Tigers; the Orange dealt the 2017 team their first loss of the year and Clemson’s wins in 2018, 2021, and 2022 were all by less than a touchdown. And the Tigers haven’t been saddled with three losses before the end of September since 2010 — the only losing season of Dabo Swinney’s tenure.

Eastern Michigan at Central Michigan (Saturday, 1:30 PM Eastern, ESPN+): In the 100-game history of this rivalry, the Eagles and Chippewas have both contributed some outstanding highlights. In 1996, Central came back from a 27-10 deficit in the last 22 minutes and won 41-36; that game featured a total of 175 plays. Central Michigan running back Robbie Mixon ran for a MAC-record 377 yards in the 2002 game. Two years later, the Eagles needed four overtimes to beat the Chips, and the first half of that game featured a blocked extra point run back for two points by Central. And in 2008, CMU coach Butch Jones rumoredly came over during pregame warmups to talk some smack to the lame-duck Eastern staff (the Eagles had announced their head coach, Jeff Genyk, would be out after the game). Check out what Genyk says at 0:53 below:

Eastern Michigan responded with a 56-52 win where quarterback Andy Schmitt threw the ball eighty times and set the FBS record for completions in a game with 58. 

Kansas at Texas (Saturday, 3:30 PM Eastern, ABC): No coach in the history of Texas football has lost to Kansas twice during his tenure; no Jayhawk coach has beaten the Longhorns two times. Kansas hasn’t won a game while ranked since 2009. Texas hasn’t lost at home as a top-5 team since 2006. The last time Texas started 5-0, the Longhorns played for the 2009 national championship. The last time Kansas started 5-0 was last year. Ah, well, they can’t all be historical marvels. 

Illinois at Purdue (Saturday, 3:30 PM Eastern, Peacock): Purdue’s won 14 of the last 18 games in this series, including a 31-24 win last November that wound up sending the Boilermakers to the Big Ten Championship instead of Illinois. Year 3 of the Bret Bielema Experience in Champaign is not proving to be quite as magical as Year 2. The Illini are 2-2, and the highlights are a last-second field goal to beat Toledo by two and a six-point win over Florida Atlantic. Illinois will also see a familiar face across the field this time around, as the Boilermakers hired Ryan Walters, who’d been defensive coordinator under Bielema, last December. It hasn’t been an easy start for Walters, as Purdue’s struggled to a 1-3 start, with the losses coming against teams that are a combined 11-1.

Houston at Texas Tech (Saturday, 3:30 PM Eastern, Fox Sports 2): Texas Tech nearly blew a 14-point lead last year when these teams met, getting bailed out by a 47-yard field goal at the end of regulation to force overtime. That’s where the winning touchdown was run in by Red Raider quarterback Donovan Smith, who just happens to be the starting QB for Houston in 2023. After a very promising first year under Joey McGuire in 2022 where the Red Raiders finished with eight wins, they’re yet to beat an FBS opponents so far this season. The Cougars are trying to avoid another slow start during the Dana Holgorsen era; Houston’s gone 2-3 through five games in three of Holgorsen’s four years, and a loss here would make it four out of five.

Troy at Georgia State (Saturday, 7:00 PM Eastern, ESPN+): Last year’s surprising Sun Belt champion — Troy improved from 5-7 in 2021 to 12-2 — faces the team hoping to claim that role this season. 4-0 Georgia State’s already won as many games this year as they did in 2022, and a win would keep them tied atop the Sun Belt East for another week. Because the two didn’t meet last year, the Panthers still have an active three-game winning streak over the Trojans. The real question for Georgia State is whether that 4-0 record reflects an improved team ready to make a run or an early schedule that included one FCS team and three FBS opponents that, so far, have a combined record of 3-9. Troy’s just the opposite, hoping to prove they’re 2-2 thanks to facing three FBS teams that are a combined 9-3.

Notre Dame at Duke (Saturday, 7:30 PM Eastern, ABC): Duke’s won three straight since climbing into the AP Top 25, but the Blue Devils haven’t beaten a ranked opponent while being ranked themselves since 1994. That was also the last year, incidentally, that Duke started a season 5-0. In a fun quirk of ACC scheduling, Duke has beaten Notre Dame more recently (2016, winning 38-35 in South Bend) than Florida State (last beat the Irish in 2014), Pitt (2013) or UNC (2008). Notre Dame’s last road loss to an ACC team was a 2017 defeat to Miami, and the Irish haven’t fallen to an ACC team period in September (or October!) since their disastrous 4-8 season in 2016. 

San Diego State at Air Force (Saturday, 8:00 PM Eastern, CBS Sports Network): Air Force broke a nine-game Aztec winning streak in this series last season, and it did it with some eye-popping defensive numbers. San Diego State went 0-for-10 on third down, finished with -1 rushing yards on 15 attempts, turned the ball over three times and lost 13-3. The Falcons are 4-0 and trying to get into the AP Poll for the first time since 2019. The Aztecs have lost three straight games; excluding bowl appearances, they haven’t lost four in a row in one season since 2009, when current head coach Brady Hoke was in his first season of his first tour with the Aztecs. (He went to Michigan afterward and it went totally fine; ask any Wolverines fan and they’ll tell you the same, I promise.)