College Football Playoff Scenarios (Week 5)
College football never ceases to amaze. In a week where there were so few quality matchups outside of the Pac-12 conference, upsets and close games were strewn about the national landscape nevertheless. We are also beginning to get a better idea of who’s actually good this season (FYI, not very many schools) and who were preseason phonies.
The Cream of the Crop:
Ole Miss (4-0): Probably owns the best win going so far with its triumph at Alabama. Next up is an improved Florida team, also on the road.
Baylor (3-0): We don’t yet know much about the Bears other than they can put away weak foes. A lot will be revealed this week as Baylor hosts Texas Tech…although who knows how TT will be emotionally after its devastating loss to TCU this past weekend.
Michigan State (4-0): The Oregon win seems less impressive now. October 22’s game at Michigan will be a real insight to how good this team is and how it performs under the spotlight.
Ohio State (4-0): OSU has yet to play anyone good and has yet to look dominant. It has time to work on the latter because the former remains true for at least another month-plus.
UCLA (4-0): A win over BYU was not impressive, but a demolition of Arizona was.
Utah (4-0): Utah’s win over Oregon, coupled with its win over Michigan gives the Utes a very solid resume in the early going of the season. Few other teams have a pair of quality victories like that banked.
On the Outside Looking In:
LSU (3-0): LSU’s win over Auburn seemed like a statement game. Instead, it was a bunch of nothing. Leonard Fournette is still the best player in college football. LSU’s problem is it has nothing else. The passing game is nonexistent. Once real opponents show up on the schedule, they will game-plan against Fournette and the ground attack, at which point Brandon Harris will have to show something, anything, to get this offense moving.
TCU (4-0): The Horned Frogs won, barely, over Texas Tech. This team’s defense is too injured and atrocious to be a viable championship contender though. The Big 12 is better overall than it was last year, but there isn’t another elite team here outside of Baylor. That means TCU has to/had to take care of business against weaker foes. Instead, it is getting shredded. This team is a lot of fun to watch, but even SMU (who just lost to the FCS’ James Madison) put up 37 on it.
Cross Them Off:
Auburn (2-2): The Auburn Tigers were put on notice after last week’s performance, marking them as all but eliminated. The only thing keeping them around was their strength of schedule. A run through the SEC would vault them back up into contention. However, things looked cracked.
Just one week later, the cracks spread into a chasm. A change at quarterback wasn’t enough to propel this team. Preseason prognostications were off on Auburn, who can’t seem to find success on either side of the football right now. Through four games, Auburn has looked good in zero of them.
