College Football Week 5 Awards 2016 October 2, 2016

(Note:  All rankings are current AP [week 5] unless otherwise noted.)

COACHES Wish I were him: Chris Petersen, Washington

Glad I’m not him: Mark Dantonio, Michigan State

Lucky guy: Butch Jones

Poor guy: Kirby Smart, Georgia

Desperately seeking a wake-up call: Jimbo Fisher, Florida State

Desperately seeking a P.R. man: D.J. Durkin, Maryland

Desperately seeking sunglasses and a fake beard: David Shaw, Stanford

Desperately seeking … anything:  Charlie Strong, Texas

TEAMS Thought you’d kick butt, you did: Ohio State (defeated Rutgers 58-0)

Thought you’d kick butt, you didn’t: Florida (defeated Vanderbilt 13-6) T

hought you’d get your butt kicked, you did: Louisiana-Monroe (lost to Auburn 56-7)

Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you didn’t:  Vanderbilt (lost to Florida 13-6)

Thought you wouldn’t kick butt, you did:  Maryland (defeated Purdue 50-7)

Dang, they’re good: Washington

Dang, they’re bad:  Purdue

Can’t Stand Prosperity:  Stanford

Did the season start?  Michigan State

Can the season end?  Georgia State

Can the season never end?  Clemson

GAMES Play this again:  No. 5 Clemson 42, No. 3 Louisville 36

Play this again, too:  No. 11 Tennessee 34, No. 25 Georgia 31

Never play this again: No. 20 Arkansas 52, Alcorn State 10

Close call:  No.13 Baylor 45, Iowa State 42

What? Virginia 34, Duke 20

Huh?  Cal 28, No. 18 Utah 24

Double-Huh? Indiana 24, No. 17 Michigan State 21

Are you kidding me?  North Carolina 37, No. 12 Florida State 35

Oh – my – God:  No. 10 Washington 44, No. 6 Stanford 6

NEXT WEEK

(rankings are current AP (post-week 5, pre-week 6)

Ticket to die for: No. 9 Tennessee @ No. 8 Texas A&M

Also: No. 23 Florida State @ No. 10 Miami

Best non-Power Five vs. Power Five matchup: BYU @ Michigan State

Best non-Power Five matchup: No. 6 Houston @ Navy

Upset alert: No. 5 Washington @ Oregon

Must win: Texas vs. No. 20 Oklahoma also: No. 25 Virginia Tech @ No. 17 North Carolina

Offensive explosion: No. 21 Colorado @ USC

Defensive struggle: LSU @ No. 18 Florida

Great game no one is talking about: Georgia Tech @ Pittsburgh

Intriguing coaching matchup: Jimbo Fisher of Florida State vs. Mark Richt of Miami

Also: Rich Rodriguez of Arizona vs. Kyle Whittingham of Utah

Who’s bringing the body bags? TCU @ Kansas

Why are they playing? No. 4 Michigan @ Rutgers

Plenty of good seats remaining: Vanderbilt @ Kentucky (the SEC Toilet Bowl)

Also: Florida International @ UTEP

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? No. 19 Boise State @ New Mexico

Week 5 Take-aways:

So much for “Texas is back”. After losing on the road to California and now losing on the road to an unranked Oklahoma State, something is wrong. The rot in Denmark is all the more apparent when one considers that A) defense was supposed to be Charlie Strong’s specialty, and yet B), the Longhorns lost to both respective teams 50-43 and 49-31. Notre Dame, it turns out, was highly overrated going into the season. That became rather obvious after getting embarrassed by Michigan State and then laying an egg at home to Duke. Oh, and overrated as the Fighting Irish are, they still scored 47 points on the Horns, in Austin. Let all this sink in for a moment. Once it has sunk in, the logical conclusion is that Strong’s seat cannot get hot enough.

But don’t take my word for it.

In any case, so far what we have seen is that Tennessee is capable of coming back strongly to dominate a rising Florida Gators team. Last year, their problem was that they had to learn to “close the deal,” which they eventually did, but not before losing to both Florida and Oklahoma.

This time, their problem is reversed. Instead of needing to “close the deal” – something they demonstrated in abundance last week – they need to learn to play four full quarters of football. Case in point: during the game at Georgia, they slacked off for the entire first half, save for the last drive of the second quarter. In so doing, they spotted the Bulldogs 17 points before they finally decided to start playing with appropriate urgency.

That urgency could not have been more palpable than in the final seconds of the game, whereby it took a Hail Mary pass that was actually completed in the end zone (!) for the Vols to come away with the win. Tennessee has no time to take a breather, though, as they face undefeated Texas A&M next weekend.

In other news, Michigan beat Wisconsin in a 14-7 slugfest, where both teams kept the ball mostly between the tackles. Both Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler were nodding approvingly. Interestingly, this was the Wolverines’ first win over a top ten team since 2008.

But let none of this obscure the showdown of the week in Clemson’s Death Valley with visitor Louisville. This “ticket to die for” certainly lived up to its hype, with high drama and a back-and-forth score. The Tigers triumphed in the end, 42-36, largely due to the fact that the Cardinals took too long to get going and also because Clemson refused to fold. The fact that the referees did not call Clemson’s subtle holds on receivers at all certainly did not hurt, though it certainly does call Dabo Swinney’s coaching ethics into question. That aside, the Tigers have a clear path to the playoffs, to say nothing of an ACC championship. The Cardinals, meanwhile, still have an 11-1 season for which to play, which would still command a premium bowl berth. Indeed, Kirk Herbstreit insisted that the Cards’ playoff hopes are not dead yet. He may very well be correct. After all, Houston still lurks on their schedule.

With all the excitement going on, one is apt to overlook that Colorado is now ranked again (No. 21); they have made the polls for the first time in roughly 15 years. Nice going, Coach Mike MacIntyre!

College football in October has started off with a huge bang, for this was one fantastic week for the sport. Next week entails a number of solid matchups (I honestly had to reach for both “Why are they playing” and “They shoot horses, don’t they”, which rarely happens), but they do not add up to anything as exciting as that which we enjoyed this time. Then again, they cannot all be this exciting all the time. As far as let-downs go, next week will be just fine, especially with the Red River Shootout awaiting in first shift.