The fifth week of the college football season has many questions. Journalists/wannabe college football insiders Mark Bergin, Lara Saavedra and Eric Heubusch try to answer some of them.
What’s your tweet-length reaction to Week 4 of the college football season?
Mark Bergin: Oregon absolutely blew its chance of upsetting Stanford. At one point, the Ducks had a 99 percent chance of winning!
Lara Saavedra: I’m glad I went to a preseason hockey game instead of paying $39.95 to watch Army at Oklahoma on pay-per-view. As an OU alum, I don’t think my nerves could have handled watching a back-and-forth game. At least Oklahoma won.
Eric Heubusch: It’s like a social commentary: the teams at the top are putting even more distance between themselves and teams at the bottom.
Which Week 5 game are you most looking forward to?
Bergin: A pair of undefeated ACC teams do battle when Syracuse goes to No. 3 Clemson this weekend.
The Tigers will be without demoted quarterback Kelly Bryant, who announced he is transferring from Clemson. He went 16-2 as a starter and took the Tigers to the College Football Playoff a season ago.
Players want to play. Under new NCAA redshirt guidelines, by leaving Clemson now, Bryant can salvage his final year of eligibility. He has not decided where he will spend it. Also, who knows about his chances of going to the NFL instead?
While five-star freshman Trevor Lawrence looks like a stud, traditionally freshman quarterbacks fail to lead their teams to a national championship. Jamelle Holieway is the only true freshman quarterback to lead his team to a national title in the modern era. Holieway took over for the Sooners in 1985 when quarterback Troy Aikman broke his leg in the fourth game of the season.
As good as Tua Tagovailoa was in the 2018 national championship for the Alabama Crimson Tide, it was only one game.
Maybe I’m still fired up from Syracuse coach Dino Babers’ postgame speech after the Orange beat Florida State for the first time since 1966. However, I’m psyched to see how the Orange fare as a 25-point underdog after beating Clemson a year ago.
Saavedra: The Ohio State-Penn State rivalry has been a little lopsided with Penn State winning only one matchup in the last five years, but I have a feeling Penn State is gonna show up Saturday and keep it close.
Coach James Franklin and his Nittany Lions have a lot to prove after they fell apart in the fourth quarter last year, and allowed Ohio State to come back and win the game 39-38.
Saturday marks Ohio State's first true test without defensive powerhouse Nick Bosa, who underwent season-ending core muscle surgery earlier this month.
Heubusch: I’m watching Kentucky, and it isn’t even basketball season? What is happening to me?
I was heartbroken when Kentucky beat Florida for the first time since 1986, but now the team is ranked No. 17 and I want to see if they’re the real deal against South Carolina.
This week marked the first time Duke and Kentucky have been ranked in the same football AP poll since the Sept. 14, 1957 poll. Duke and Kentucky have been ranked in the same basketball AP poll 547 times in that span.
Predict this weekend’s biggest upset in college football.
Bergin: Tennessee covers the 31-point spread against No. 2 Georgia. The Vols are 0-3 against the spread so far this season.
Saavedra: I’m wrapping my head around the fact that Kentucky is ranked No. 17.
With that said, South Carolina could pull an upset in Lexington and snap their four-game losing streak against the Wildcats if quarterback Jake Bentley can limit turnovers and convert on third downs.
Heubusch: I don’t know if there will be any, but the upsets I would pay money to see are the University of Central Florida losing to Pittsburgh and Michigan losing to Northwestern. Would a loss to Northwestern punch Jim Harbaugh’s ticket back to the NFL?
ESPN’s College GameDay heads to Happy Valley, Pennsylvania, this weekend for Ohio State at Penn State. Which team will Lee Corso pick?
Bergin: Whichever team knocks off Ohio State will immediately become America’s sweetheart. Corso picked the home team last week at Oregon. He does it again and picks Penn State.
Saavedra: Corso picked Ohio State earlier this month, so I don’t think he will change course. He’ll wear the weird-looking nut Brutus the Buckeye.
Heubusch: What even is a Buckeye? What is Brutus supposed to be? Gators are very straightforward.
What will Sunday’s college football headline be?
Bergin: Is anyone beating Alabama this year?
Saavedra: I think the quarterback controversy at Clemson is the most intriguing storyline of the week. Maybe Kelly Bryant announces which school he’ll transfer to and everyone and have the sports world talking. FAU coach Lane Kiffin and the boys from Boca could use a quarterback.
Heubusch: When will we let Alabama play an NFL team?
Note: The AP Top 25 Poll is used for team rankings throughout this story.
Bergin is a graduate of the University of Missouri, Saavedra is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma and Heubusch is a graduate of the University of Florida.
Mark Bergin is a journalist with 10News WTSP. Like him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter and Instagram. You can also email him at mbergin@wtsp.com.
