Week after week, the 2022 college football season has treated us to absolute mayhem.
Things have been rather chalky up at the top (despite Georgia’s best efforts), but otherwise, the middle class has been entirely unpredictable. Ten teams that entered Week 5 ranked in the AP Top 25 lost, resulting in a big shakeup in the polls as we enter Week 6.
In addition to all that movement, we also saw two more Power Five jobs open up on Sunday — one fairly surprising, the other not so much.
It’s hard to believe we’re already in the month of October and closing in on the halfway point of the season, but it just goes to show how important each and every game is, at least under the current postseason format.
Here are the winners and losers from Week 5:
Winner: The Pac-12 phoenix rising from the ashes
The Pac-12 looked dead in the water after Week 1. Oregon wasn’t even close to competitive against Georgia, and Utah lost to a Florida team that hasn’t won a Power Five contest since. But I have some news for you: This league is fun.
It’s not just fun, though. It’s good.
UCLA beat a top-15 team in Washington on Friday night and is now 5-0 on the year. The Huskies, meanwhile, had a fourth-quarter rally to make things interesting and still look like a solid team. Utah beat a good Oregon State team, 42-16, while USC didn’t have any problems with an interim coach-helmed Arizona State. Oregon continues to impress, and Week 1 is looking more like an anomaly.
The undefeated Trojans are likely the only real playoff contenders in this group, but this is the best this league has been in a long time.
Loser: Kentucky collapsing under the pressure
It was a big moment for the Wildcats on Saturday, but they just couldn’t close things out in a 22-19 loss to Ole Miss. Credit to the Rebels for pulling out the win against a good team at home, but Kentucky should have won this game. Quarterback Will Levis fumbled twice in the red zone on the final two possessions while the Wildcats were only down three.
This is still a very strong UK team that will likely be favored in all its remaining contests except against Tennessee and Georgia, but this was a major missed opportunity. Kentucky has now lost five-straight games against ranked opponents as a top-10 team, a streak that dates back to 1950.
Kentucky's now lost 5 in a row as a top 10 team against ranked opponents dating back to the end of the 1950 season https://t.co/30d0eyCLr6
— Matt Brown (@MattBrownCFB) October 1, 2022
Winner: Ranked Kansas!
Trust me, I don’t want to keep including Kansas in this column every week. But Lance Leipold and the Jayhawks just keep winning! My hands are tied.
KU is 5-0, its best start since 2009, after grinding out a 14-11 win over Iowa State in yet another sold-out crowd in Lawrence. As a reward, it’s now in the top 25 for the first time in 13 years and will host ESPN’s College GameDay for next week’s contest against No. 17 TCU.
This team is fun, has a legit Heisman contender in Jalon Daniels and appears to be an actual contender in the Big 12. This turnaround is one of the most impressive things we’ve seen in this sport in a while.
Loser: Paul Chryst's rapid fall from grace at Wisconsin
Losing by 31 points to Ohio State in Columbus is one thing. But dropping a 34-10 game at home to Illinois is another entirely. Wisconsin made the surprising decision on Sunday to part ways with eighth-year coach Paul Chryst after a 2-3 start. The Badgers have lost all three of their contests against Power Five opponents.
The last two seasons have been discouraging in Madison, but this one is still a bit hard to swallow. Chryst is a two-time Big Ten Coach of the Year and won three West division titles. He won two New Year’s Six games in three appearances, and he had a 67-26 record.
Aside from the 2020 season, in which UW played only seven games, he never won fewer than eight games and only won fewer than 10 twice. There’s no denying this program has underachieved over the last few years, but it’s going to be hard to beat what Chryst accomplished.
Winner: Oklahoma State, pillar of consistency and competence
The Big 12 is an absolute mess right now, and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. You could make a case for several teams winning this division, but Oklahoma State could play spoiler to all the fun.
The Cowboys are undefeated and are a complete team. They’re coming off a big win on the road against Baylor in what will likely be their toughest test in Big 12 play, and they’re the team to beat in the conference right now, especially with Oklahoma clearly down.
Credit to the Pokes for serving as a stark contrast to the chaos in the rest of the league. Those are words I never thought I would write about a Mike Gundy-coached team.
Loser: An Oklahoma team on the verge of tilting
Saturday was one of the lowest moments in recent history for Oklahoma football. The Sooners were absolutely dominated in a 55-24 loss at TCU, one of their worst in years. Sure, quarterback Dillon Gabriel left the game after taking a shot to the head on a late hit, but OU was already struggling and playing from behind at that point.
This team has now lost two-straight games, and there could be a lot more coming with some tough conference matchups coming up. I’m not casting judgment on the Brent Venables hire yet, but going with a first-time head coach was an interesting choice for a program of Oklahoma’s stature.
This program has regressed since Lincoln Riley’s departure, and the degree to which it has happened is concerning, to say the least.
Winner: TCU's change of direction
The Horned Frogs did something bold last season. After all, it’s rare that a program chooses to fire a coach who has a freaking statue in his likeness outside the building (for football reasons, at least). But TCU wanted a change from the Gary Patterson era, and the early returns have been promising.
Sonny Dykes is an experienced coach in the region, and he has this team playing really good football in Year 1. Saturday was the first big test of the year, and the Horned Frogs have another when they travel to face Kansas with both teams in the national spotlight.
Loser: Texas A&M's purgatory
This was a big Year 5 for Aggies coach Jimbo Fisher, who is yet to reach the 10-win mark in College Station since Texas A&M made him a very, very rich man back in 2018.
About that…
The Aggies sit at 3-2 after a blowout loss to Mississippi State and are staring at a likely .500 record with a road trip to Tuscaloosa on the docket this week. Texas A&M still has losable games against LSU, Florida and Ole Miss after that, and there’s at least the potential for this thing to spiral badly.
That doesn’t matter for Fisher, though. He has 10 years left on a deal that is fully guaranteed. If the Aggies fired him today, they’d owe him around $95 million. Translation: No matter how bad things crater, he’s not going anywhere. Not for a long time, at least.
Winner: Mississippi State and doing things differently in the SEC
The air-raid experiment in the most talented conference in college football has gone much better than many — likely, even Mississippi State — expected. There’s nothing gimmicky about the Bulldogs. They’re just good.
They proved it in a 42-24 win over Texas A&M. MSU totaled 473 yards against a good defense, and 144 of those came on the ground. This team is balanced on offense, at least as far as air-raid teams go, and its defense isn’t too shabby either.
Coach Mike Leach’s team lost to an LSU team that may not be all that bad, and at 4-1, the ceiling is still pretty high in Starkville.
Loser: Mel Tucker's poor early returns at Michigan State
Sticking with the theme of coaches taking athletic directors for an absolute ride, the returns in Year 3 under Mel Tucker haven’t justified the 10-year, $95 million extension the Spartans gave him at the end of last season.
Michigan State is 2-3 and coming off a 27-14 loss to Maryland. Coaching in the uber-competitive Big Ten East calls for the benefit of the doubt to a certain degree, but this is certainly not the year the brass in East Lansing was hoping for.
Like Fisher, though, Tucker’s contract is fully guaranteed. Michigan State will have to ride this one out or the long haul, whether those results are glorious or tragic.
Quick Hitters
- Winner: Ole Miss. As much as Kentucky gave this game away, the Rebels forced turnovers when it mattered. This is a flawed team, but it’s also a 5-0 team in something of a transition year.
- Loser: Auburn. Bryan Harsin almost put the boosters in a tough spot, but his team squandered a 17-0 lead at home against LSU and was held scoreless in the second half once again. No movement on the Harsin front yet, but let’s revisit that after next weekend’s trip to Athens.
- Winner: Clemson. It was yet another big win for the Tigers, this time in an even more complete game against NC State. They have survived what will likely be their two toughest tests in conference play, and a return to the CFP could be in the cards for this quickly improving team.
- Loser: Houston. So much for being this year’s Cincinnati. After an overtime loss to Tulane, the Cougars are 2-3 and aren’t even positioned to compete for an American title, let alone a New Year’s Six spot.
- Winner: UConn. Well, this came out of nowhere! The Huskies beat an FBS team (and a decent one, at that) in Fresno State. The Bulldogs didn’t have quarterback Jake Haener, but we don’t have to talk about that.
- Loser: Louisville. After losing by one point to a bad Boston College team, don’t be surprised if the Cardinals join the list of programs with coaching openings in the coming weeks
- Winner: Colorado. Not on the field. No, on the field, the Buffs were very bad, losing convincingly to Arizona in one of their few theoretically winnable conference games. But CU fired coach Karl Dorrell, a respected figure who just wasn’t working out, after the game. This is a tough job right now, but there’s at least a glimmer of hope in Boulder. Not this year, though, as Colorado remains the worst team in the P5 by a wide margin.
- Loser: Indiana. Last year’s 2-10 finish is looking less and less like an aberration. The Hoosiers lost 35-21 to interim coach Mickey Joseph and Nebraska, and though they are technically 3-2, this still looks like one of the Big Ten’s worst teams. Losing out is a real possibility.
- Winner: Wake Forest. Wake could have had a monumental win over Clemson last week, but beating a good Florida State team on the road was a nice consolation, even if the Deacons almost blew a sizable lead. This is the clear No. 2 team in the ACC right now.
- Loser: Pittsburgh. I was so preoccupied with LSU-Auburn in the evening block, I didn’t even realize the Panthers lost to a coachless (and hopeless) Georgia Tech team at home. Seriously, Pitt?
- Winner: Duke. The Blue Devils look much-improved under first-year coach Mike Elko, and their only loss came on the road against an elite team (Kansas). They dismantled Virginia on Saturday night, and with Pittsburgh’s loss, we could be talking about the ACC Coastal favorite. Not too shabby.
- I have questions: Georgia. I invented a new category for the Bulldogs because this is my column, and I make the rules. UGA has now looked out of sorts in back-to-back games. Last week against Kent State was never really in doubt, but this week’s 26-22 win at Missouri absolutely was. Georgia could have easily lost this game, and I’m not sure what to make of the way this team is playing right now.
