With another week that did not feature any true marquee matchups, fans will likely be asking themselves how they should react to any eyebrow raising game results. In this article, I will be telling those fans of teams who did poorly if they should calm down are really be in a panic. For fans of teams who had great performances, I will tell them if they should truly be excited, or lower their expectations.

Excited

Ohio State

While I do not think they are the best team in the country, (that title belongs to Alabama) Ohio State has had a red hot start to this season. While the Buckeyes have played a pretty unremarkable schedule, there is quite a bit to be impressed with through the first five games, and they definitely solidified themselves with a 48-7 win at Nebraska last weekend. Against Nebraska, Ohio State’s offense flourished as they came away with at least a field goal on eight out of nine drives that were not interrupted by the end of a half. They scored a touchdown on six of those drives. Justin Fields had a another good day, completing 15/21 passes for 212 yards while adding another 72 yards on the ground. Fields has competed 69.8% of passes this season for 1,092 yards and 16 touchdowns. Fields has added another 222 yards and seven touchdowns on the ground, and what is also impressive to me is that he has yet to fumble or throw an interception. Going into the season, I expected Fields to have a bit of a learning curve and take a few games to get used to Ohio State’s offense. That has clearly not been the case as he has done very well and made an immediate impact. JK Dobbins has also flourished in his first season as the main running back for the Buckeyes, as he has 654 rushing yards on the season.

One of the biggest surprises to me about this team is how well they have done defensively. Ohio State’s struggled on defense at times last season but seems to have already turned around their previous misfortunes. The Buckeyes have allowed just 8.6 points per game and have seen many players emerge on that side of the ball. Defensive end Chase Young already has eight sacks on the season. Young is a surefire top 10 pick in the upcoming NFL Draft, and has shown that already. Cornerback Jeffery Okudah has picked off three passes and is establishing himself as a future first round pick. Okudah and Damon Arnette are a very strong duo at cornerback. Malik Harrison leads a strong linebacking corps.

Ohio State has not played any teams that should have given them a real game, but I think fans of the Buckeyes have a definite reason to be excited and should be. Their matchup with Michigan State on Saturday will be an interesting test.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma sits at 4-0 after a 55-16 win over Texas Tech last week. One of the main catalysts to Oklahoma’s success has been quarterback Jalen Hurts. Hurts had 485 all-purpose yards against Texas Tech and five total touchdowns. Hurts has completed 77% of his passes this season for 1,295 yards while also leading the Sooners with 443 rushing yards. Hurts has been a constant bug play threat as he averaged 15.2 yards per pass and 9.4 yards per rushing attempt. Hurts has become the current favorite for the Heisman trophy in the eyes of most fans and has found tremendous success in his time so far with Oklahoma. The Sooners yet again have a very good group of receivers led by CeeDee Lamb, who had 185 receiving yards against Texas Tech, and Charleston Rambo. While Oklahoma has yet to play a world beater, they do not look to have experienced the offensive drop off that I thought they might have had. The transition from Kyler Murray to Hurts has nearly felt seamless.

Defensively, Oklahoma is a bit harder to gauge as they have not played a truly deadly offense yet and will not until the Red River Shootout in a couple weeks. Kenneth Murray is still making tackles like there is no tomorrow, but the defense will really see how it holds up against high powered offenses when they play Texas. All in all, I think there is a lot to be excited about for Oklahoma. They yet again have a quarterback playing like a Heisman front runner, their offense is still flourishing, and they have a great head coach in Lincoln Riley. The Sooners look to be in a good spot to make another playoff run.

Auburn

Auburn is now 5-0 this season and ranked seventh in the country after a 56-23 drubbing of Mississippi State last Saturday. The Tigers jumped on Mississippi State early as they led 42-9 at halftime scored 21 points in the first six minutes of the game. Quarterback Bo Nix had what looked like his best performance of the season, completing 16/21 passes for 335 yards and two touchdowns. Nix also led the team in rushing yards. Nix connected often with Seth Williams who had eight catches for 161 yards on the day. Auburn has a very strong and balanced receiving corps as Williams and Sal Cannella are both very good possession receivers and Anthony Schwartz might be the fastest player in college football. While Auburn did not produce quite as much on the ground game against Mississippi State, JaTarvious Whitlow did find the end zone three times. Whitlow has 463 yards on the season. The emergence of Auburn’s offense is one of the most interesting stories in college football so far this season, and it has greatly elevated this team’s ceiling.

In addition to an improved offense, Auburn has what could be the country’s best defensive line unit. Derrick Brown, Marlon Davidson, and Nick Coe are all stars on the defensive front and will surely be playing on Sundays soon, their presence has allowed for the emergence of other defensive linemen such as Big Kat Bryant and Tyrone Truesdell who have both if very good seasons. It has also taken some pressure off of the linebacking corps.

While I think Auburn is worthy of their top 10 ranking, they still have four top 10 teams left to play. While Auburn is a NY6 caliber team, I worry that they will look worse due to their schedule being so tough. Still, I think Auburn fans should be quite excited.

Panicked

Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech has not missed a bowl game since 1992. They are in very serious danger of that streak snapping as the Hokies are 2-2 and 0-2 against Power Five opponents. Virginia Tech’s defense has fallen apart quite a bit as they allowed 45 points to Duke last week. The Hokies have unraveled a bit on defense since last season. While they have improved a bit on that front, it is far from something to write home about. On offense, quarterback Ryan Willis has not taken the steps forward that he was expected to take, and they lack a solid threat at running back. I think the biggest issue with the team is that defensive coordinator and Virginia Tech legend Bud Foster has lost a bit of his touch, and the team seems to have lost faith in head coach Justin Fuente. 16 players transferred out of the program last offseason and it seems like Fuente has lost the locker room. It seems likely that Virginia Tech will be watching bowl season from home and if that happens, Fuente will likely be kicked to the curb. I think Virginia Tech fans have every reason to panic.

Texas A&M

While losses to Clemson and Auburn had some concerning aspects to them, they were both predictable, especially Clemson. What raised the concern levels in College Station was the fact that they beat a pretty bad Arkansas team 31-27 and trailed for periods of the fourth quarter. The Aggies are 3-2 this season, but should not feel as comfortable going into SEC play as they did before the season.

The most prevalent issue for Texas A&M has been their ground game or lack there of. Trayveon Williams was an excellent player for the Aggies last season but as he has moved on to the NFL, Texas A&M seemed to lack a next man up. Jashaun Corbin looked like that guy but will be out with injury for the rest of the season. Texas A&M has not had a player rush for more than 38 yards against a Power Five opponent this season, and it has made the rest of their offense worse. Kellen Mond is a good quarterback but he is not good enough to be asked to do everything and that is exactly what he is having to do at the moment. The offensive line also needs to improve their run blocking. Defensively, I worry about the Aggies getting slowly beat into submission against the ground. They might not allow a ton of big plays but Clemson, Auburn, and Arkansas have been able to work their way up the field slowly with the run game. That trend will continue through SEC play if they are not careful. I think that this season might be a wash for Texas A&M, (by that I mean they go 7-5) but I think they still can do well in the future. Then again, Jimbo Fisher was not bored to do fine. I think Texas A&M should expect to get around nine wins regularly and be a NY6 caliber team every few years and a very occasional playoff contender. Fisher was hired to be a consistent NY6 caliber team and contend for a playoff spot often. I still have doubts he can do that, but I still expect him to put them in the second tier of SEC teams behind Alabama and Georgia.

Clemson

Clemson had a very close call on Saturday as they won 21-20 against a North Carolina team that won just two games last season. The Tigers trailed for much of the game and only won after stopping North Carolina’s two point conversion with 1:17 to play. Clemson failed to burn North Carolina’s defense at all, and did not play up to their talent level offensively. On defense, Clemson clearly misses their fearsome defensive line unit from last season. I believe that they will improve up front as the season goes along, but they did allow 4.1 yards per carry. Clemson still should steamroll the rest of the ACC, but I think they have clearly lost the title of National Championship favorite and handed it off to Alabama. Then again, there is plenty of time to regain the title.

Some Random Thoughts:

1. Penn State destroyed Maryland, who is for sure back to earth now, 59-0. Also Penn State students took over Maryland’s student section in the second half after so many Maryland fans left, which is awesome.

2. Arizona State took down Cal and handed the Golden Bears their first loss of the season. I have to say that it looks like Eno Benjamin is back as he ran for 100 yards and three touchdowns against a very good defense.

3. I think Chase Garbers getting injured cost Cal the game, and with him out for the season, things look much worse for Cal.

4. Michigan took out their anger on Rutgers as they won 52-0 over the Scarlet Knights and clearly had a lot of offensive success.

5. Rutgers head coach Chris Ash took home the title of being the first head coach fired this season. I think Rutgers will likely look to former head coach Greg Schiano, who did great things for the Scarlet Knights in the 2000s, but I think they definitely need to look at Chris Creighton and Lance Leipold first. Regardless, Rutgers is in dire need of some rejuvenation as a program.

6. Wisconsin had an ugly win over Northwestern but that win was not nearly as ugly as their terrible uniforms that make them look like they went straight to the game from their shift at Target.

7. Toledo upset BYU 28-23, which was a bit of a surprise.

8. The floating Wendy’s at Washington’s tailgate was definitely one of the more weird but fun stories of the weekend.

9. Rondale Moore’s injury was terrible to see for Purdue. While he now looks like he could return sooner than expected, it is sad to see a player as exciting as him miss time.

10. Ole Miss started off well and even led at the end of the first quarter before collapsing against Alabama and losing 59-31. Tua Tagovailoa and his receivers are just so good it can be unfair.

11. Minnesota quarterback Tanner Morgan had an astounding performance as he completed 21/22 for 396 yards and four touchdowns in a 38-3q win for the Golden Gophers over Purdue.

12. Wake Forest is 5-0 and I promise this is not a drill. Seriously, you can look it up. Jamie Newman has turned into a great quarterback for the Demon Deacons and Sage Surratt has emerged as a great receiver as well.

13. Temple beat Georgia Tech 24-2 in the Geoff Collins bowl. Collins now works at Georgia Tech and was previously the head coach at Temple, meaning this must have been a very nice win for the Owls.

14. Baylor is 5-0 after a last minute win over Iowa State in Saturday and is going to be interesting to see how the Bears do against better competition as they get into the thick of Big 12 play.

15. I feel like I need to mention that Clemson might have played bad, but North Carolina had an amazing performance as well. Sam Howell never backed down and did well. Running back Michael Carter was solid. Linebacker and former quarterback Chazz Surratt had himself a day as he racked up seven tackles, a sack, two tackles for loss, two pass deflections, and three quarterback hurries. Surratt led the team in every one of those categories on Saturday.

16. Going for 2 was the right call for North Carolina and if you disagree, then you probably think ketchup is spicy, and you probably sleep with a night light.

17. Virginia desperately needs a run game as Bryce Perkins has to do everything for their offense and is running for his life behind a bad offensive line as he was sacked eight times in Virginia’s 35-20 loss to Notre Dame.

18. I was wrong about Tony Jones Jr. and Notre Dame’s run game as Jones ran for 131 yards on the day. Notre Dame might have lost to Georgia, but they are still elite.

19. SMU is actually quite good as they sit at 5-0 for the first time since they receiver the death penalty.

20. Michigan state beat Indiana 40-31 in the Battle for the Old Brass Spatoon. Brian Lewerke had a very good day for the Spartans.

21. Chuba Hubbard flexed his muscles again as he ran for 296 yards for Oklahoma State in their win over Kansas State. Tylan Wallace also had 145 receiving yards which is impressive, but more impressive when you find out the rest of the team had eight receiving yards. This shows just how unguardable Wallace can be. Texas holding him to 86 receiving yards is an accomplishment that should be put on a plaque.

22. Mississippi State needs to just go with Garrett Shrader at quarterback. Tommy Stevens player for head coach Joe Moorhead before and seems to know the system better, hit Shrader definitely looks like the guy of the future for the Bulldogs.

23. Stanford needed a large second field goal to be Oregon State, showing that Stanford is in a pretty rough place.

24. Ladies and gentlemen, Alex Hornibrook is back. Hornibrook started in place of an inured James Blackman and completed 29/40 passes for 316 yards and three touchdowns. It will be interesting to see if Florida State makes the change in starters once Blackman is healthy.

25. Utah blew out Washington State 38-13. Utah quarterback Tyler Huntley had a very good day while Utah’s defense played very well too.

26. After that game, Washington State Jess coach Mike Leach said his players are “fat, dumb, happy, and entitled” which is quite an interesting response.

27. Hawaii is just a flat out fun team with their boom or bust offense. It is especially fun to watch them when they are good, which they are this season.

28. This week’s cool uniform award goes to Texas Tech, Duke, Oregon State, and Utah.

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