The Rumors of Alabama's Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Week 5 CFB Recap
Days like Saturday are why we watch ball, folks. We got 12 hours of wall-to-wall bangers in one of the best weeks of college football in recent memory. Let's get into the recap.
- Bama Is Back?
Well alright, then.
The title of my Week 1 college football recap blog was "The Alabama Dynasty Is Officially Dead." And to some extent, that's still true on a macro scale for a multitude of reasons. But I'll be damned if this team hasn't responded in a way I don't think anyone saw coming after its loss to Florida State.
It's not just that Alabama lost at FSU, it's how the Crimson Tide looked: unorganized, disinterested and unprepared. And then out of nowhere, Ty Simpson decided he was going to become the best quarterback in this draft class and the Tide casually went into Athens and became the first team to beat Georgia at Sanford Stadium since 2019.
With Simpson playing the way he is right now, this team is right up there with the best teams in the country. I didn't think this group had this level of play in it and now seeing that it does, I don't understand how it produced such an awful Week 1 performance. But these guys are a contender.
- This Wasn't the Same Old Penn State ... And Yet It Was
I know you're not allowed to have any sort of nuanced take when it comes to James Franklin and Penn State. And from most of what I've seen, people think losing in double overtime to what very well may be the best team in the country means you suck, which is fine if that's how you want to view things.
Yes, Penn State's offense was lifeless for most of the game. But if this was the same old Penn State that everyone keeps decrying, it probably wouldn't have come back from down 14 in the fourth quarter and taken the lead in overtime before Drew Allar was picked off by an incredible play from Oregon's Dillon Thieneman in 2OT.
Look, at some point Franklin does have to win some of these games, particularly now that his team is as good or better than the opponents — which wasn't the case for much of his tenure in State College. But if your takeaway from that game was that Penn State stinks and has no chance of winning anything of significance this season, we didn't watch the same game.
But yes, they lost to another Top 10 opponent. I wouldn't pick them to win on the road at Ohio State, either. Let's just see how things turn out, though.
- Austin Simmons Has Been Waly Pipp'd
There isn't a better story in college football this year than Trinidad Chambliss. The transfer quarterback from Division II Ferris State has started the last several games after Austin Simmons suffered an ankle injury and it seems impossible for the Rebels to go back at this point.
In three starts, Chambliss is 42-62 for 719 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions, 195 yards and two touchdowns on the ground and has Ole Miss at 5-0 after beating LSU on Saturday. Even if Lane Kiffin really wanted to put Simmons back out there — which he shouldn't because Chambliss is actually just better — he can't now.
I honestly wouldn't even be surprised if Chambliss is in New York for the Heisman ceremony in December. He's a special player.
- Get Ready for the Notre Dame Glazing
This is why we kept 0-2 Notre Dame in the Top 25, folks. Only a couple more wins until they're right back in Playoff position at 4-2 without a good win.
The only ranked team left on ND's schedule is USC, which will likely be out of the rankings released later today. So all the Fighting Irish have to do is run the table against a pretty weak schedule the rest of the way and they're in the CFP no problem. If they were able to go into a fairly tough environment in Arkansas and dismantle the Razorbacks — who were two ill-timed fumbles away from being in the Top 15 this week — there really isn't a game they should lose the rest of the year.
- Ohio State Is All Business
For a team that came into the season ranked No. 1, beat the then-No. 3 team in the country to start the season and now went on the road to beat another very good football team by three scores, it feels like nobody is really talking about Ohio State. And I feel like that might be a product of the way the Buckeyes seem to be playing this season, which is very business-like.
You watched last year's team at some points and wondered how any other group of college students was supposed to compete with it. And this team is certainly extremely talented, but it seems content to just sort of squeeze the life out of you, score when it needs to and get out of there.
Washington felt like it was in control of the game for much of the first half and then you looked at the scoreboard at halftime and the Buckeyes were up 7-3. Then the defense went out and did the same thing in the second half, Julian Sayin led a couple touchdown drives and OSU flew back to Columbus with a 24-6 win.
I don't know if it's possible for anyone to be sleeping on the No. 1 team in the country and defending national champions, but these guys just take care of business in a way that might not be as sexy as last year, but is going to win a lot of football games.