Best of Week 5: An epic Alabama win and doubt

  • David Hale, ESPN Staff WriterSep 29, 2024, 01:43 AM ET

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    • College football reporter.
    • Joined ESPN in 2012.
    • Graduate of the University of Delaware.

The king is dead. Long live the king.

Also, that king is probably not entirely dead, which is either the fun or the flaw of a 12-team playoff.

It’d be easy enough to say Saturday night’s epic battle between Georgia and Alabama was simply an appetizer, the Bloomin’ Onion to the playoff’s 64-ounce filet. Indeed, nothing that happened on the field at Bryant Denny Stadium will ultimately guarantee a playoff bid or end anyone’s playoff hopes. If anything, the ridiculous, frenetic, chaotic conclusion serves as evidence that both these teams deserve to be playing deep into the postseason.

But none of that mattered Saturday.

On one side was the 800-pound gorilla, a Georgia team that hadn’t lost in the regular season since November of 2020 but found itself down four touchdowns early in the second quarter. It was enough to stun even the most reserved among us.

On the other side was the team that has defined the modern era of college football, but now with a new head coach looking to prove Alabama’s greatness didn’t end with Nick Saban’s coaching career. Saban had to wait until Year 2 to earn a signature win — against Georgia, as it happened — but Kalen DeBoer was here to prove he was ahead of schedule.

There were two quarterbacks vying for Heisman Trophy hype. There were two defenses playing at the top of their game on one drive and overwhelmed by explosive talent on the next. There were veterans Aiden Smith and Dillon Bell combining for 232 yards and two touchdowns, and there was 17-year-old freshman Ryan Williams, less aged than half our T-shirts, exploding for 177 yards, including the winning score.

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Georgia, Alabama trade huge TDs on consecutive plays from scrimmage

Georgia and Alabama trade leads on roller-coaster plays, trading 60+ yard touchdowns on consecutive plays late in the fourth quarter.

Alabama’s 41-34 win was epic — not in the way the word is used in trailers for “The Garfield Movie” but an actually monumental moment, a game that will be remembered, debated, discussed and dissected for years to come.

This was indicative of Week 5 as a whole. The first four weeks of the season offered us some surprises (Florida State will be converting Doak Campbell Stadium into a Spirit Halloween Store for the next six weeks) and some drama (Colorado reenacting the Kordell Stewart miracle) but hardly upended our view of what 2024 was supposed to be.

Week 5, on the other hand, delivered something we’ve deeply needed: Doubt.

It was a week in which Indiana, Rutgers and UNLV remained undefeated, but the Nos. 2, 6 and 10 teams lost, and Nos. 7, 9 and 12 teams narrowly avoided disaster.

It started Friday with Miami narrowly escaping Virginia Tech on a play that will haunt the dreams of replay officials everywhere.

It continued with Kentucky rope-a-doping Ole Miss just long enough to pull off the season’s most shocking upset.

It featured Notre Dame escaping Louisville by flexing its defensive might and getting just enough from Riley Leonard to secure a 31-24 win.

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It included USC overcoming an early hole against Wisconsin, Penn State winning an old-school Big Ten battle with Illinois, Jeremiah Smith making his own case as the most dynamic freshman receiver in the country for Ohio State and Arch Manning guiding Texas out of a first-half malaise to a proper win deserving of the whole team piling into Cooper’s F-150 for a postgame celebration at Whataburger.

Week 5 was the moment the things we knew to be true — Georgia’s dominance, Alabama’s fresh start, Miami’s easy road — were all called into question, and we were all reminded that, to paraphrase the great philosopher “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, just when you think you have the answers, college football changes the questions.

There’s a good chance Alabama and Georgia will see each other again — in the SEC championship game or the College Football Playoff (or both) — but on Saturday, it felt like do-or-die.

If Notre Dame’s win signaled the Irish were true playoff contenders in spite of their early loss to Northern Illinois, and Louisville and the ACC would be playing to an inside straight, Georgia-Alabama offered no such certainties. The Tide won, but it was a win that, like “Weekend at Bernie’s,” was so good it begged for a sequel.

If Penn State’s 21-7 rock fight against Illinois amounted to the world’s dullest chess match, Alabama-Georgia was a rollicking affair, a groundswell of momentum moving in one direction, only for the tide to turn and push back completely in the other direction.

If Kentucky’s defense keyed a shocking win over Ole Miss, it was nothing compared to Georgia and Alabama, a game that assured us that everything we’d come to believe about the Bulldogs was wrong, that Saban had been holding the Tide back for years, that Carson Beck was a bum, that Jalen Milroe was a hero — and then upended all of that, too, before the narrative turned back on itself in the game’s final moments, as Zabien Brown picked off a Beck pass to seal the win.

This was a game for the ages — even if our current age means the game could be played again (and maybe again after that).

So go ahead and pencil in a rematch for December or January. It’s worth looking forward to.

But if Week 5 taught us anything, it’s that our notions about the certainties of 2024 are precarious at best, and 30-point halftime leads at worst.

Jump to:
Big 12 race | Trap game | Chaos in Miami
Vibe shifts | Heisman five | Under the radar

The Big 12 race tightens

In the race to see which Big 12 team will get smoked in the playoff, Week 5 appeared to be a line of demarcation.

For Oklahoma State, the dream may be dead after a 42-20 loss to Kansas State. DJ Giddens ran for 187 yards and Avery Johnson accounted for five touchdowns in the win. Ollie Gordon II was held in check for the fourth straight game and is now averaging just 3.5 yards per carry against FBS competition.

Believe it or not, BYU is 5-0 after toppling Baylor 34-28. The Cougars were actually up 31-14 entering the fourth quarter, then nearly blew it late with what looked like Baylor’s “victory cigar” defense, only at BYU it would’ve been called a “victory generic caffeine free diet cola” defense. Baylor had numerous chances to take a lead, but turned the ball over on downs deep in BYU territory with 1:47 to play then threw a pick with 59 seconds to go to end the game.

Perhaps Iowa State should be the Big 12 favorite. The Cyclones are 4-0 after shutting out Houston 20-0. There’s nothing particularly flashy about Iowa State, but that’s sort of its weapon: To watch for too long is to be lulled into a false sense of security.

Cam Rising missed his third straight game due to being chased on high seas by the British Navy, leaving Utah’s offense in the hands of Isaac Wilson, who struggled to avoid Arizona’s DBs. Wilson threw 40 passes in the game, 20 of which were incomplete, eight that were broken up by Arizona’s D (including five by Tacario Davis) and two that were off in a 23-10 Wildcats win.

And here’s a thing that people who have never watched football have been saying since March but now seems like an actual possibility: Is Colorado a contender?

The Buffaloes are basically what it would look like if Deion Sanders planned a bank heist by hiring a getaway driver in a Ferrari, dressing a bag man in a tuxedo and assuming the rest would work itself out. And somehow, it’s all working out. The Buffs demolished UCF 48-21 behind three touchdowns from Shedeur Sanders and another do-it-all performance from Travis Hunter. Colorado doesn’t run the ball, doesn’t play great defense, doesn’t protect the QB and is willing to cut 20 players to make room for DJ Khaled’s entourage on the sideline, and yet, here we are — a team that’s 4-1 with an emphatic win over one of the teams we assumed was a Big 12 contender.

Doubt Coach Prime at your own risk, because he has two magical players and his two toughest games the rest of the way at home. Also, he’ll probably yell at you during a news conference if you say anything mean.

It’s a trap!

For the entirety of the offseason and the first four weeks of the season, Ole Miss looked the part of a playoff contender.

Lane Kiffin wasn’t so sure, noting the Rebels’ weak nonconference slate probably hadn’t prepared them for the SEC — despite also complaining that one of those nonconference foes canceled a follow-up game in 2025. Make up your mind, Lane!

In any case, if Ole Miss was only acting like a contender through four weeks, the act was exposed against Kentucky.

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Ole Miss’ Matt Jones fakes injury

Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart tells running back Matt Jones to go down with an injury.

Wildcats QB Brock Vandagriff took time away from listening to his Van Halen cassettes while leaning on the hood of his Camaro to throw for 243 yards and a touchdown in a 20-17 win, but no pass was bigger than a fourth-down shot to Barion Brown in the fourth quarter.

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Kentucky gets 63 yards on fourth down for huge gain

Facing a fourth down in their own territory, Brock Vandagriff goes up top to Barion Brown for 63 yards.

Mark Stoops’ decision to go was a huge roll of the dice in the game’s waning minutes, and it paid off in spades. Kentucky was 3-of-3 on fourth-down tries in the game, coming away with 10 points on those drives.

Ole Miss had won 15 straight against teams ranked outside the top five, but on Saturday, Kiffin was left on the tarmac of the playoff race, upended by a woeful 1-of-10 performance on third down.

Given that it was a close game against a team that had recently taken Georgia to the brink, Ole Miss can hold out hope that this will be viewed — as all SEC losses should be — as a “good loss” even if sources close to the committee suggest that, because UK is a basketball school, it all feels “a little too ACC.”

Chaos in South Florida

Friday night’s Miami-Virginia Tech game ended in utter chaos, as Kyron Drones’ Hail Mary heave to the back of the end zone came down into a horde of players from both teams. There was no clear visual of the ball amid the mass of humanity, and after nearly 30 seconds of shoving, swatting and struggling, a Miami defender came away with the ball and ran to midfield in celebration of the victory, only for an official to signal touchdown, giving Virginia Tech the win.

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Miami’s victory over Virginia Tech comes down to controversial final play

No. 7 Miami survives an overturned Hail Mary to defeat Virginia Tech 38-34 to remain unbeaten.

The play then went under review. TV showed numerous angles — none of which clearly showed who had possession of the ball when players fell to the ground in the end zone — but after a lengthy delay, officials ultimately overturned the call on the field and gave Miami the win.

Then comes the truly ridiculous part. Remember that ridiculous ending to Miami’s 30-27 win over Duke in 2015 that included eight laterals on a 93-yard kickoff return touchdown in which officials clearly made the wrong call and were eventually suspended by the ACC?

Well, the same head referee was leading the crew in Miami on Friday, too — and just like in 2015, there was no clear explanation given for any of the decisions made as they happened.

“He said, ‘Touchdown,'” a furious Virginia Tech coach Brent Pry said afterward. “Normally, when you look at something that long, it does not get overturned. I didn’t think there was enough evidence to overturn it. So, like I said, I hope they got it right.”

Now, it’s possible, as the ACC later said, that review showed a player who was out of bounds touched the ball before the Virginia Tech receiver had firm control, thus ending the play. But do we really believe that?

After all, consider the official’s name: Jerry Magallanes. Scramble those letters around and you get Merely Lasagna Jr. Let that sink in.

Or consider the throw from Drones. If gravity exists as the ACC would have you believe, then how did the ball even make it to the end zone? It doesn’t take a rocket science to know something doesn’t add up here.

Or how about the number of players surrounding the ball on that Hail Mary throw? Eight. And where else have we seen the number eight? That’s right, the number of laterals in Miami’s 2015 win over Duke. Coincidence? Oh, no. Our eyes are wide open now.

Look, the dark-monied power brokers of Big Replay can give all the lame excuses they want for how this ended, but we know the horrible truth. The officials were actually lizard people disguised as humans here to infiltrate the college football ecosystem to kidnap Mario Cristobal and have him start recruiting for their home planet’s team instead. There is no other reasonable explanation.

Week 5 vibe shifts

Each week, the college football world is upended by stunning upsets or dramatic wins, but far from the playoff race, other more subtle shifts happen, too. We keep tabs on those vibe shifts, too.

Trending up: Love for Arch

OK, so perhaps we went a little overboard last week in proclaiming Arch Manning the greatest thing to happen to the state of Texas since finding oil or at least since Matthew McConaughey discovered bongos.

No, things didn’t look quite so good for Texas as the Longhorns went to battle without their other starting quarterback and scuffled through the first three quarters with just a 14-6 lead over lowly Mississippi State.

It was, if anything, a gesture of compassion from Manning — saint that he is — in not showing up the true starter and reminding fans that he’s no savior, he’s just a quarterback here to do a job.

And yet, Manning couldn’t maintain the facade much longer, and he ultimately accounted for more than 350 yards of offense and three touchdowns in a 35-13 win.

The takeaway: Manning understands how to build the drama while always prevailing in the end. He’s like a cross between Leo DiCaprio and Batman, only with more charisma and probably a better car.

Trending up: Underpaying your QBs

Just days after UNLV starting QB Matthew Sluka left the team amid an NIL dispute, suggesting he had been promised $100,000 but paid just $3,000, the Rebels took the field and looked like they might have overpaid Sluka by $3,000.

Hajj-Malik Williams stepped in to start and tossed three touchdown passes and ran for another while accounting for 301 total yards of offense in a 59-14 win over Fresno State.

It’s an important lesson for everyone to know their worth. If you’ve ever called out of work because there was still beer left in a keg and it was getting warm, you’re probably replaceable. If you’ve ever taken a Zoom from the bathroom, you’re almost certainly replaceable. If you’ve ever completed just 43% of your throws through three games, you’re without a doubt replaceable. And if someone promised you six figures and you didn’t get it in writing, honestly, you’re probably replaceable.

Trending down: Losing your cool

A week after his team allowed 70 points in a loss to James Madison and thought he was about to quit, Mack Brown’s North Carolina appeared poised for redemption against rival Duke, leading 20-0 midway through the third quarter.

And then things fell apart.

Duke drove into UNC territory on four straight drives, finding pay dirt on three and taking a 21-20 lead. The Tar Heels’ second-half drives resulted in a field goal, a pick and five punts.

For Duke, it’s the program’s first 5-0 start since 1994, and for head coach Manny Diaz, it comes against a coach who once fired him as defensive coordinator at Texas. He had been 0-3 against Brown as a head coach previously. Still, Diaz wasn’t interested in a revenge narrative — perhaps because he’s still waiting to wear a turnover chain as he celebrates a win over Miami on Nov. 2.

As for Brown, he refused to be baited into an outburst, instead strolling casually into the locker room to address his team.

“Well, don’t worry,” he said. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to do what you all think I’m going to do, which is just flip out! All I’m going to say is, I’m starting a new team, and what I want to know is, who’s coming with me? Who’s coming with me? No, not you, Geoff.”

Trending down: Nocturnal birds of prey

On Thursday night, Army walloped Temple 42-14 to move to 4-0 on the season. It’s been a stellar September for the Black Knights, led by QB Bryson Daily, who checked in with 206 total yards and three touchdowns. He has been among the most productive runners in the country through four games.

But the real story goes much deeper: With Thursday’s win, Army has now beaten a team named Owls for the third time in the past three games — FAU, Rice and now Temple — a feat that should now be known as the “Superb Owl,” which in many ways is more impressive than a “Super Bowl.”

Still, Army’s recent run represents the government’s greatest attack on owl conservation since the U.S. Postal Service forced Hogwarts to use priority ground transportation for all deliveries.

Trending up: The option offense

In addition to Army’s 4-0 start, Navy also has opened the season without a loss after dumping UAB 41-18 on Saturday. The Midshipmen and Black Knights are both 4-0 at the same time for the first time since 1945 — nine years before the Air Force Academy was established — though no one at Army or Navy counts Air Force anyway.

But it’s not just Army and Navy excelling with a run-heavy offense. Michigan won for the second straight week, knocking off Minnesota 27-24 despite throwing for just 86 yards. The Wolverines have won four games when throwing for 134 yards or less and lost their lone game in which they threw for 200 yards. It’s a nod to former coach Jim Harbaugh’s longtime insistence that throwing too many forward passes makes a team soft, and soon enough, players are filming TikToks between downs and no longer hunt all food they eat.

Trending down: The space-time continuum

How bad was the football played between Purdue and Nebraska on Saturday?

So bad that Purdue Pete traveled through time in an attempt to stop the game from being played, only for the mission to fail, with further Petes following in an endless time loop that threatened to destroy the universe.

Unfortunately, the time-travel paradox created by the past Petes didn’t open up a wormhole that swallowed all of Ross-Ade Stadium, and the game continued, with Nebraska ultimately prevailing 28-10.

No one scored in the first half. The two teams combined for 24 penalties. The Cornhuskers were 1-of-8 on third down in the game. Purdue had just 12 first downs. Nebraska missed three field goals. Purdue had 30 more yards in punts than offense. And by game’s end, 46 different incarnations of Purdue Pete had given up on football and turned their attention to protecting Sarah Connor, fixing their DeLorean and sabotaging Texas’ attempts to build a bigger drum.

Trending up: College kickers

In Friday night’s loss to Miami, Virginia Tech kicker John Love connected on field goal tries of 52 and 57 yards, becoming the eighth kicker to knock down multiple kicks of 50 yards or more in the same game this season.

That happened just six times in all of 2023 and three times in 2022.

On Saturday, Texas State’s Mason Shipley drilled a 60-yard field goal, the second this season of 60-plus by an FBS kicker.

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Mason Shipley kicks 60-yard made field goal vs. Sam Houston

Mason Shipley kicks 60-yard made field goal vs. Sam Houston

Last year, there were just three 60-yard field goals made all season. From 2014 through 2022, there were just five.

Bottom line: College kickers, long the butt of many a joke for the missed chip shots, are getting really good.

At this point, it’s almost worth trying a kick from anywhere.

Almost.

Trending down: Winless seasons

We entered Week 5 with just seven winless teams remaining, and that number was cut significantly as Miami (Ohio), Old Dominion, New Mexico and Wyoming all nabbed wins on Saturday.

That leaves three teams without a win — UTEP, Kent State and Kennesaw State.

If we’re betting on a favorite to get to 0-12, we’re going with Kennesaw State, which lost to FCS UT-Martin on Saturday 24-13. For a team whose roster is just people who got bored while stuck in Atlanta traffic, this isn’t entirely surprising. All four of KSU’s losses have been by double digits thus far, the Owls have yet to top 16 points in a game, and the best chance for a W left on their schedule is fellow winless team UTEP on Nov. 9.

Heisman five

The bad news for Carson Beck is he lost an epic battle on a late pick and that probably means he won’t be winning the Heisman this year. The good news is, he still has a Lambo. The real winner in all of this is the car dealer with the wrinkly khakis.

1. Colorado WR/CB Travis Hunter

Former NFL star Richard Sherman referred to Hunter’s game as “bland” on a podcast last week, and this is where we should insert the meme of Michael Jordan laughing at a tablet and saying, “I took that personally.”

Sure, Hunter is a bit bland in the same way shoving a ghost pepper up your nose is a tad bland. It only seems that way because you’ve already lost all feeling in your upper extremities.

Truth is, it’s getting harder and harder to make a case that anyone in the country is a better player — on either side of the ball — than Hunter.

It also begs the question: Imagine a world in which Hunter had followed through on his commitment out of high school and gone to Florida State. Heck, the Noles might be 2-3 right now.

2. Miami QB Cam Ward

Friday was hardly a vintage performance, as Ward turned the ball over three times against Virginia Tech, but the plays he did make were downright magical.

https://www.espn.com/video/clip/_/id/41482867

It’s as if 20 years of ugly football at Miami has been the penance the Canes needed to pay to arrive at this point where seemingly everything is going their way. There were a dozen times they should’ve lost Friday, and yet they remain undefeated at 5-0. Not since The Rock starred in “Tooth Fairy” has anything about Miami been so inexplicably enjoyable.

3. Boise State RB Ashton Jeanty

Jeanty has three games with at least 15 touches this year. He has had 200 total yards or more in each. He added to his tally Saturday with a stellar performance against Washington State Cougars, carrying 26 times for 259 yards and four touchdowns as Boise State toppled the previously undefeated Cougars 45-24. It’s the most impressive performance in a win over the Pac-12 since Brett Yormark killed the conference.

4. Alabama QB Jalen Milroe

At halftime, he looked like the best player in the country. With three minutes to play, he looked like a fluke. When it was over, Milroe was the clear star — 491 total yards and four touchdowns, including a 75-yard completion to Ryan Williams for the game winner.

Here’s the list of SEC players with 480 yards and four touchdowns in a win over an AP top-five team in the past 20 years: Tim Tebow, Joe Burrow, Jalen Milroe.

That’s some good company.

5. Army QB Bryson Daily

Daily has the Black Knights at 4-0, has accounted for 732 yards of offense, 11 touchdowns and no turnovers, and could possibly be the next Captain America.

Under-the-radar play of the week

Oklahoma clearly just wasn’t ready for the toughness of the SEC … cheerleaders.

It was a brutal takedown, but credit to Hugh Freeze, who appreciated the unique context, quickly adding that, if the Sooners faced off against Auburn’s cheer squad 10 times, they’d probably win three or four.

For a while, it looked as if the cheer squad was the best team on the field, followed closely by Auburn, which led 21-10 midway through the fourth quarter. But Oklahoma scored to pull within five and, because he’d somehow gone 55 minutes without an interception, Payton Thorne then tossed a pick-six that gave the Sooners the lead.

Oklahoma got a late field goal and won 27-21 in a game that Freeze truly believed, had it been played 10 times, the Tigers would’ve won 12.

Under-the-radar game of the week

After the first quarter of play, Texas State was cruising with a 22-0 lead, an offer to defect to the Mountain West, another expected from the Pac-12 and a longstanding open invitation to become the new lead singer of AC/DC.

But such is life in the raucous world of realignment these days when fame is fleeting and love is ephemeral and the Sun Belt is open to sending some guys to slash your car tires for even flirting with another conference.

In this case, “some guys” was Sam Houston.

Texas State even led 39-21 early in the third but still lost 40-39 after the Bearkats scored the final 19 points of the game, including a 24-yard chip-shot kick with six seconds to play.

With the win, Sam Houston moves to 4-1 and suddenly has real interest from the Mountain West, the NFC South and the Freemasons.

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