Oregon-Penn State, Bama-Georgia and 26 more to watch in college football's biggest week

Since the assemblage shot preseason, it has been casual to ellipse Week 5 arsenic benignant of a rubber-meets-road weekend. It's yet here, and it's arsenic large arsenic we could person hoped.

Oregon and Penn State person beaten 7 overwhelmed opponents by an mean people of 48-8; their seasons statesman successful earnest successful Happy Valley connected Saturday night. Alabama's nonaccomplishment to Florida State successful Week 1 made the Tide's archetypal travel to Athens, Georgia, successful a decennary adjacent bigger from a consequences perspective. Unbeaten LSU and Ole Miss look disconnected for what could beryllium their 3rd consecutive down-to-the-wire affair. Top-ranked Ohio State's archetypal roadworthy trial of the play pits the Buckeyes against a Washington squad with 1 of the astir prolific offenses successful the country.

Those are conscionable the main events! On Friday night, resurgent Florida State visits a wonderfully astonishing Virginia team. After past week's merciless blowout of Illinois, Indiana has to debar a monolithic letdown astatine Iowa, wherever galore a letdown has occurred. Notre Dame and Arkansas play for the archetypal clip successful a conflict of frustrating and spectacularly explosive teams. Auburn and Texas A&M, which person played galore chaotic and silly games implicit the past decade, person tons connected the enactment successful College Station. USC tests its unbeaten grounds successful Champaign against scorned Illinois. We adjacent get a Big Sky Saturday nighttime with a conflict of FCS top-10 teams!

We've spent 4 weeks gearing up for this one. Time to get hyped and hydrated. Here's everything you request to travel successful an unthinkable Week 5.

Games are Saturday unless noted; times are Eastern.

The play begins successful Happy Valley

No. 6 Oregon astatine No. 3 Penn State (7:30 p.m., NBC)

With each owed respect to Nevada, Florida International and Villanova -- the No. 138, 134 and 186 teams, respectively, successful my all-division SP+ rankings -- Penn State began its 2025 play with 3 glorified scrimmages. Per SP+, an mean top-five squad would expect to commencement the play 3-0 against those opponents 97.3% of the time, winning by an mean of 38.3 points per game. The Nittany Lions won by precisely 38.3 per game.

Penn State traded résumé-building opportunities and a small spot of borderline for mistake for 3 definite wins and got them. Oregon besides hasn't played overmuch of a murderer's row; the Ducks person dominated 4 teams ranked betwixt 89th and 123rd successful SP+. They didn't let their archetypal non-garbage-time touchdown until past Saturday. Nothing is simply a must-win crippled for 2 name-brand Big Ten teams with unbeaten records, but neither of these teams volition person sparkling strength-of-schedule rankings if they're in, say, a ample heap of 10-2 playoff hopefuls. It's astir apt champion to triumph this one.

Penn State's defence has been each spot arsenic ascendant arsenic we expected, considering James Franklin already had a top-five defence and added the champion antiaircraft coordinator successful the state (Jim Knowles) to pb it. The Nittany Lions unit turnovers and don't let large plays, and they've continued to predominate the reddish portion arsenic they did past season. The tally defence possibly hasn't dominated arsenic overmuch arsenic I thought it would, but the walk defence has been conscionable astir perfect: Corner Elliot Washington II has much catches (one interception) than helium has allowed (0-for-6), antiaircraft extremity Dani Dennis-Sutton has been arsenic bully arsenic advertised (4.5 tackles for loss, 2 sacks, 2 forced fumbles), and linebacker

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