Antonucci’s College Football Primer: Week Five
This past weekend in college football was a bloodbath of upsets. Absolute terror ran as carnage was all over the place.
Number one-ranked Alabama jumped out to an early lead of 35-0 against No. 12 Ole Miss and proceeded to cruise to a 42-21 victory.
No. 2 Georgia dismantled the No. 8 Arkansas, winning 37-0 and continuing their defensive dominance. Georgia has allowed just one “garbage time” touchdown through five weeks.
In case anyone has not watched football this year, it’s Alabama and Georgia then everyone else.
That case was furthered when then-No. 3 Oregon lost to Stanford and six top-15 teams lost, proving the true talent gap between Alabama, Georgia and the rest of the top-25.
That race for the third spot is tight as Cincinnati took down Notre Dame in South Bend. Iowa and fellow Big Ten school Penn State will clash in a much anticipated battle this weekend. More on that later.
My rankings through five weeks:
- Alabama
- Georgia
- Iowa
- Penn State
- Cincinnati
- Oklahoma
- Michigan
- Ohio State
- Kentucky
- Arkansas
- Notre Dame
- Ole Miss
- Oregon
- Coastal Carolina
- BYU
- Florida
- Michigan State
- Auburn
- Oklahoma State
- Wake Forest
- Arizona State
- Texas
- SMU
- San Diego State
- NC state
It’s long been known that for a “group of 5” team to make it into the Playoff, they need to get over a huge hurdle pitted against them. Teams like BYU, Coastal Carolina, UCF, Houston, or Boise State need to play good competition. This is the reason that UCF or Cincinnati didn’t make it last year.
Things could change this year with Cincinnati’s better schedule this year. Not only did they beat Indiana, but they also played and beat Notre Dame this past week. With all of these power 5 teams losing, it’s starting to look like the College Football Playoff committee is going to have to rethink its stance on this group of 5 team.
Still, Cincinnati will have to leave no doubt in the committee’s eyes. They have to not only win out, but do so without any question the rest of the way.
Fun fact: Georgia’s defense is good, really good. They have not allowed a single point as in not even a field goal in their last 130 minutes of play.
Arkansas has averaged over 261 rushing yards in its first four games, but picked up only 74 total rushing yards against Georgia, with many of those yards coming in at a meaningless time. With Georgia’s starting defense in the game, the Razorbacks netted 23 carries for 34 yards. That’s about a yard and a half per carry against one of the top rushing offenses.
If you want to look back at the last and only touchdown Georgia’s defense has given up, you have to look at the week three win over South Carolina, where a garbage time touchdown was the only one they have given up all season. Georgia is currently leading the nation with 4.6 average points against.
This upcoming week is going to hold a lot of weight come December, when the committee has to decide who is in the Playoff. Iowa and Penn State face off in the battle of the third and fourth best teams, and could make major headway towards a postseason run.
Photo courtesy of the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
