College Football Watch Guide - Week 5

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    NCAA Football: Florida at Tennessee
    Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports

    As big as college football is in this country, it still has to play by mother nature’s rules. We saw that two weeks ago when lightning delays pushed the Nevada game into the wee hours of Sunday morning and were seeing it again this week.

    Right now, Hurricane Ian is slamming central Florida, bringing with it massive storm surges and widespread flooding. Its strength has dropped from category 4 upon landfall to category 2 two minutes ago at the time of this writing, but from the looks of things that classification seems like cold comfort.

    It seems kind of shallow to be concerned with college football right now, but the storm has wreaked havoc with the CFB slate this weekend. As you’ll see, some teams’ have had to bump up their games earlier in the week, or push them later. As slim a silver lining as it is, Hurricane Ian did give us a slightly longer weekend of college football to enjoy.

    There was only supposed to be one college game Thursday night. Utah State @ #19 BYU will now be joined by South Carolina State @ South Carolina as the Bulldogs and Gamecocks race to stay ahead of the storm.

    The Group of 5 show reigns on Friday night with a hefty dose of Mountain West, AAC, and Conference USA. Middle Tennessee, in particular, was one of headlines of last week as the Blue Raiders topped the Hurricanes 45-31. It was the just the newest entry in Miami’s storied tradition of entering the season highly ranked only to fall off a cliff in spectacular fashion.

    Before you start thinking it’s only the G5 teams who’ll get to shine, #15 Washington @ UCLA is our only P5 game of the night. With a top-15 team in town, I’m sure there will be tens of dozens of Bruins fans there to support the home team.

    Saturday time!

    Well, look who’s at the top of the charts Saturday morning. FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff will once again broadcast live from Iowa City for #4 Michigan @ Iowa Saturday morning at 11:00. I’ll be honest, I was really hoping for Kinnick At Night for this one, and I think that would’ve boosted Iowa’s chances by healthy margin. But a big game is a big game and we’ll be counting on some of that Kinnick voodoo.

    What else do we have Saturday morning?

    Purdue @ #21 Minnesota...guys, I don’t think I’m mentally prepared for Minnesota being good. Granted, I wouldn’t exactly call New Mexico State, Western Illinois, and Colorado a murderers row. But the Gophers have done exactly what good teams should do to lesser competition, defeating every team so far by no less than 27 points. Someone, I won’t say who, did pick them to win the West this year, and with the way the division has looked so far, there doesn’t look to be much standing in their way.

    #7 Kentucky @ #14 Ole Miss is your morning ranked SEC-palooza on ESPN and #18 Oklahoma @ TCU will be a bounce back game for the Sooners after dropping their fifth game to Kansas State since 2011. Speaking of the Wildcats, they’ve jumped into the top 25 and face a dangerous Texas Tech squad in Manhattan.

    In the afternoon we’ve got a really great mix of high profile and under the radar games. #2 Alabama faces #20 Arkansas on CBS at 2:30 while at the same time #9 Oklahoma @ #16 Baylor airs on FOX. Add to that #22 Wake Forest visits #23 Florida State at the same time on ABC so you’d better have your recall button on standby if you’re looking for ranked action.

    NCAA Football: Duke at Kansas Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

    But before you think it’s all AP Top 25, don’t forget about future National Champion Kansas hosting Iowa State on ESPN 2. The Jayhawks’ in-state neighbors just beat them out for the final spot in the rankings but a win over the Cyclones should give them the bump they need.

    In the Big Ten, at 2:30 Northwestern @ #11 Penn State shouldn’t be close, which means the Wildcats will either lose by three or win by ten, and Michigan State @ Maryland pits a Spartan squad desperate to right the ship against the Terps who put up a valiant effort against Michigan last week.

    Come nightfall our headline matchup takes the form of #10 NC State @ #5 Clemson at 6:30 on ABC. Last Saturday’s Clemson/Wake Forest game was an offensive extravaganza, but I’ll guess we’ll see a lot better defense out of the Wolfpack.

    Indiana @ Nebraska at 6:30 on BTN is the game of choice for all you weirdos out there, and West Virginia @ Texas on FS1 will likely see some fireworks. The rest of the night is a Pac-12 showcase, with Colorado @ Arizona, Arizona State @ #6 USC, and Stanford @ #13 Oregon from 8:30 PM onwards.

    And that’s all for this...

    ...what’s that now...

    ...well of course I knew there are games on Sunday.

    If there was any possible good coming from the mess of Hurricane Ian, its that we get to enjoy some college football on a Sunday for the first time since week 1. Eastern Washington @ Floriday kicks off at 11:00 AM, so if you absolute must have football before the NFL kicks off at noon you’ve only got one choice.

    One more week of college football in the books after that, so enjoy it. And if you live in Florida and are dealing with Hurricane Ian I hope you’re as safe as can be and the worst passes you by.

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