College Football Week 5 Preview: Two Great Quarterbacks in Starkville and $138 Million in Hot Seats

Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, where No. 5 Ohio State visits No. 14 Iowa on Saturday with College GameDay in town. Photo: Ken Lund, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0

Last week I promised that nobody in my house touches the remote until the clock says zero.

This week is going to test that, because the schedule doesn’t offer a good time to walk away. There’s a good game Friday night, a great quarterback matchup early Saturday, and College GameDay is in Iowa City for the first time since 2006. Also, three head coaches are on very hot seats, and firing all of them would cost about $138 million.

Let’s go in order.

Friday night

We start with Pittsburgh at Virginia Tech, and I actually think that’ll be a good game. Both of those teams are good. Both are 4-0, the Hokies are favored by a field goal at home, and it’s a game I’ll tune into.

Penn State at Northwestern is the other one. It’s the first game at Northwestern’s new Ryan Field, which cost roughly $870 million, seats 35,000 and looks super cool. It’ll also be interesting to see if Penn State can bounce back after losing its Homecoming game to Wisconsin. (I’m told that one was painful. I enjoyed it very much.)

The early window

Alabama at Mississippi State is the one I’m super excited to watch, and it’s because of the quarterbacks. Kamario Taylor against Keelon Russell will be a great matchup. Taylor has thrown 14 touchdown passes in four games for the 4-0 Bulldogs. Russell has nine total touchdowns in his last two games for 4-0 Alabama. Both are sophomores, and both are in the Heisman conversation. Nick Saban said on GameDay that if he were still coaching, he’d be trying to get Taylor into the portal. (Subtle.)

Alabama is favored by 5.5. Mississippi State hasn’t beaten the Tide since 2007.

Also early: a decent Minnesota team against a decent Michigan team. Both are 3-1, the spread is closer (Michigan by 5.5), and I think that’ll be a good game.

West Virginia at Iowa State will definitely be interesting too. West Virginia is feisty this year. Iowa State is 2-2 and has not played up to expectations, although the Cyclones did lose their coach, their quarterback and a lot of other players, so for some people there weren’t a lot of expectations there. (The coach and the quarterback both went to Penn State. See above.) New coach Jimmy Rogers told fans this week, “Although you might want to rip your hair out with this football team sometimes, we can be bald together.” That is a man who has made peace with his situation.

Iowa City

Ohio State at Iowa will be a great game. The spread favors Ohio State by two touchdowns, and I think it’ll be closer than that. Iowa is 4-0 and allowing eight points a game, the fewest in the country.

But Ohio State always seems to show up in these games. I expect a huge game out of Jeremiah Smith, who caught 12 passes for 217 yards and four touchdowns last week and is now the Heisman favorite. He has 617 receiving yards through four games. Josh Pate pointed out this week that Smith has more receiving yards by himself than Iowa’s defense has allowed through the air all season. It just seems like the type of game where we see a vintage performance from the Ohio State receivers.

The rest of Saturday

Notre Dame at North Carolina: it’ll be interesting to see if North Carolina can keep it close. The spread suggests otherwise (it’s three touchdowns), but North Carolina has looked better as of late. The Tar Heels led Clemson by 14 on the road two weeks ago before losing by eight, and they’ve had a bye week to get ready. Maybe we’ll see an upset in Chapel Hill. You never know.

Florida at Missouri: I don’t really understand why Missouri is ranked. The Tigers are No. 25 after losing to Mississippi State, and I think that’s a little bit of AP SEC bias. It’s still early, and nobody has played more than a couple of conference games. Florida is coming off a huge win over Ole Miss, so we’ll see if the Gators can continue that momentum.

Texas A&M and Arkansas are two extremely underwhelming SEC teams. Both are 2-2. Somebody is going to right the ship in this game, more or less by default.

Miami at Clemson is another big ACC game. Miami is favored by a bunch (16.5). Clemson is 3-1 and has won three straight since getting embarrassed 51-10 by LSU in the opener, though it needed a comeback to get past that same North Carolina team. We’ll see if the Tigers are really back on track.

$138 million worth of hot seats

Virginia at Florida State is a big ACC matchup. Virginia is looking pretty decent at 3-1. That Florida State coaching seat is really hot right now. The Seminoles are 2-2, and firing Mike Norvell would cost roughly $51 million.

Washington at USC: that Lincoln Riley coaching seat is getting very hot, even with a buyout reported at around $70 million. That USC defense has been bad (Oregon put up 504 yards and 41 points on it last week). For me, this is a must-win for USC.

Indiana at Rutgers, briefly: that Greg Schiano coaching seat is really hot too. He needs a big-time win, and I don’t really know if he’s going to get one here. Indiana is a 23.5-point favorite. Schiano’s buyout is $17,296,875, which is a very specific number to have in your head on a Saturday.

Add those up and it’s about $138 million to fire three guys. (USC is a private school, so nobody has to show the receipt.)

That’s 13 games between Friday night and late Saturday, and the remote stays where it is. I turned the TV off once this season. Tennessee recovered an onside kick about a minute later.