College Football Week 5: Bulldogs, Bearcats, and a Broken Curse

By Julie R. Ball 3 years ago

If university soccer had a defining theme in September, it was that there were two certainly terrific teams—Alabama and Georgia—and that it was tough to type out anyone else. Faculty soccer Week 5 (the first weekend of October) strengthened that theme. The No. three staff in the AP Poll, Oregon, lost to an unranked Stanford, while Bama and Ga ruined the rated opponents on their own plates. As the period methods its midway stage, here’s a sampling of who arrived out of the weekend wanting better and who did not.

 

 

Faculty Football Week 5 Recap

Winner: Kirby Clever

Smart’s No. two Ga Bulldogs walloped Arkansas in Athens, 37–0. It was an ideal Clever victory in that Ga handed the ball eleven occasions, permitted zero points, and ensured the underneath strike. Smart’s joyful area is to get bullyball-design online games that really do not include newfangled developments like “spread passing” and “downfield obtaining threats,” even while UGA has dabbled in those people spaces from time to time.

An obvious injury to beginning QB JT Daniels meant backup Stetson Bennett had to stage in. He’s a previous stroll-on who’s been entrusted with not messing up on arguably the most proficient roster in university soccer. He has succeeded in that pursuit so considerably, but it would be better for Clever if Daniels returned to overall health swiftly (and stayed that way).

Loser: Other Former Nick Saban Assistants in the SEC

Clever, a previous Alabama defensive coordinator underneath Saban, had a superior weekend. What about the other ex-Saban understudies who now have their own SEC teams? They did not. Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin, who served as Bama’s offensive coordinator from 2014–16, was on the obtaining end of a 42–21 shellacking by the Crimson Tide. Kiffin tried to change 5 fourth downs and only designed two of them, hastening his team’s demise—although punting almost certainly wouldn’t have designed much variation anyway.

In other places, Saban’s long-in the past LSU offensive coordinator, Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher, lost at household to Mississippi State, 26–22. The Aggies entered the calendar year with plausible national title hopes, but those people are now a matter of the past.

Winner: Cincinnati

The even now-unbeaten Bearcats bolstered their situation to be the Group of Five’s first-at any time Faculty Football Playoff staff by convincingly beating Notre Dame in South Bend by a rating of 24–13. Luke Fickell’s protection was suffocating as standard, and some Notre Dame turnovers helped Bearcats QB Desmond Ridder and the offense get into the 20s against their team’s previous defensive coordinator, Marcus Freeman, who now retains that gig at Notre Dame.

The Playoff collection committee will almost certainly locate a way to devalue Cincinnati and exclude it from the industry even if UC wins out, but for the first time at any time, there’s at least a flicker of a purpose to assume a non-power-meeting school can make the lower. (A get about Notre Dame would be a headliner most elite G5 teams lack, as long as the Irish really do not tumble aside in the back again 50 percent of the period.)

But Cincy’s validation needn’t appear from some fits on a committee. Any person who watches them appreciates they are severe.

Loser: Oregon

Aspect of Cincinnati’s optimistic outlook arrives down to the Pac-12’s lone Playoff contender, Oregon, dropping a 31–24 selection at Stanford in additional time. The Ducks have what may possibly be the ideal get of any staff this year—they pounded Ohio State in Columbus back again in Week 2—but they have not seemed elite exterior of that. Quarterback Anthony Brown struggled in Palo Alto, and the offense hardly ever seemed appropriate with coordinator Joe Moorhead not current. (Moorhead was sick, while not with COVID-19.) The Cardinal glimpse better than they did in the season’s first couple of weeks, but this even now constitutes a cash-b Poor loss for Mario Cristobal and his staff.

Winner: Kentucky

Kentucky performs Florida in soccer just about every calendar year, and the online games alternate among Lexington and Gainesville. The past time the Wildcats beat the Gators in Lexington was in 1986. What followed was a streak of 16 straight losses, but it is about now that Uk received on Saturday, 20–13. In addition to burying a persistent demon, Mark Stoops’ staff is 5–0 and has a good likelihood to end 2nd in the SEC East at the rear of Ga.

Loser: Maryland

Here’s one particular staff that did not bury a demon. Maryland has persistently struggled to break into university football’s higher tier. Going back again numerous head coaches, the Terps have often commenced very well, damaged into or near the best 25, and then experience-planted while striving to set up themselves as a superior staff. The classic of the style is a 63–0 loss to Florida State in 2013, when the Terps were briefly rated twenty fifth. A close-adequate remake happened on Friday night time, when the 4–0 Terps hosted No. 5 Iowa and had an possibility to establish they’d leveled up underneath head coach Mike Locksley. It did not go very well. Maryland passers threw 6 interceptions, and Iowa received in Faculty Park, 51–14. The lesson? By no means dream.


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