With Heisman Trophy conversations starting to carry a little more weight, multiple performances this week showed why certain players are already on the short list.
In a season where true freshmen are shining in the spotlight, Oklahoma's Michael Hawkins Jr. is another name to add to that list. The Sooners decided to start Hawkins this past week, and the results spoke for themselves in a road victory Saturday.
We also saw some high-stakes games in Tuscaloosa and South Bend, and continued success from some unexpected sources.
Our college football experts break down key takeaways from Week 5.
12-team CFP hasn't diminished high stakes of regular season
The new 12-team College Football Playoff is going to drastically change how the sport crowns its national champion, but the month of September illustrated how critical the regular season remains. The new format took nothing away from the spectacular, high-stakes instant classic between Alabama and Georgia, which gave the Tide the best win this month and an edge in the SEC race. Two-loss Oklahoma State is now an afterthought in the Big 12 race and the national picture, and one-loss Notre Dame is under tremendous pressure to win out and look good doing it after its stunning home loss to NIU.
While the expanded field is much more forgiving, Ole Miss took a real gut punch when it lost at home to Kentucky -- not because it can't afford a loss, but because it has even more difficult games ahead and no longer has much wiggle room. Nonconference schedules still matter to the selection committee. Teams aren't just playing for their league titles -- they're jockeying for first-round byes and first-round home games. It might be possible the regular season now matters even more than in the past. -- Heather Dinich
Freeman's aggressive approach sparks Notre Dame offense
Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman played college football for Jim Tressel, who might have burned his favorite sweater vest after watching what Freeman did during Saturday's win over Louisville.
Despite a 10-point lead and Notre Dame's offense struggling late in the third quarter, Freeman elected to go for fourth-and-1 from the Fighting Irish's 43-yard line, which the team converted. Then, three plays later, Freeman went for fourth-and-3 from the Louisville 46-yard line. Notre Dame came up short, but Freeman made his point. On the Irish's next possession, they scored what turned out to be the winning touchdown.
"I want our team to be aggressive," Freeman said. "We have to be aggressive, an aggressive mentality. That [decision] was a reflection of that."
Freeman trusts his defense, but he also wants to prod an offense that hasn't found its groove for long stretches, especially at home. Notre Dame finished the Louisville game with very similar offensive totals to its Week 2 loss to Northern Illinois -- except for points, of course. After a hot start, the Irish still went more than 24 minutes without a score.
"We've got to get a first down," Freeman said of his second-half conversations with offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock. "What we're doing right now is not working. Let's try something else."
An open week comes at a good time for Notre Dame, which will look at ways to improve its scheme. Quarterback Riley Leonard played a mostly clean game Saturday, but he still hasn't eclipsed 163 passing yards in a Notre Dame uniform. Earlier in the week, Denbrock told ESPN that Leonard is "still getting used to what it means to be the quarterback at Notre Dame."
"We're starting to roll, we're starting to get our confidence back," Leonard said. "So big picture, we've got a lot of potential."
Notre Dame still has enough potential to be a CFP team. Perhaps Freeman's pedal-down approach will help the Irish realize how good they still can be. -- Adam Rittenberg
Heisman moments on full display
The Heisman Trophy is supposed to go to the best player in the country, though typically it's reserved for the best QB -- or, at least, a very good QB on a very good team. In other words, the qualifications are a bit nebulous. But one prerequisite that seems to exist each year is this: The winner should have his "Heisman moment."
Well, Week 5 was chock full of them.
There was Cam Ward, rescuing Miami on Friday night against Virginia Tech with one mystifying play after another, including an absolute magic trick as he escaped from tackles behind the line of scrimmage, then shoveled a throw at the last second to Riley Williams that went for 26 yards and set up the winning score.
There was Jalen Milroe, the Alabama QB who utterly dominated Georgia's defense in the first half, then delivered the dagger in the final three minutes with a 75-yard touchdown heave to freshman Ryan Williams, whose shimmy away from defenders en route to the end zone might've been its own Heisman moment.
There was Boise State's Ashton Jeanty, who ran for 259 yards and four touchdowns against Washington State, including an epic 64-yard touchdown run on which he pinballed off -- or through -- a half-dozen defenders. And that might not have been his most impressive run of the day. He's simply impossible to bring down.
And then there was Travis Hunter, who made sure no one missed his Heisman moment, picking off UCF's KJ Jefferson and striking the Heisman pose to celebrate. Former NFL star Richard Sherman called Hunter "bland" on a podcast this week, which seemed to be all the motivation Hunter needed to add more fireworks to the already astonishing show.
It's impossible to handicap the Heisman race with any real accuracy in late September -- particularly a race as unconventional as this year's -- but what Week 5 showed us is there's no shortage of elite candidates, and the ride to the podium in New York is going to be awfully fun. -- David Hale
Army-Navy is going to be a blast this year
The Army-Navy game is a spectacle every season, but the 2024 game has potential to be a classic. Through four weeks, both Army and Navy are 4-0, which hasn't happened since 1945.
The Black Knights stormed past Temple at Lincoln Financial Field on Thursday night 42-14. QB Bryson Daily led the charge for Army with 152 yards and three touchdowns on the ground, while the defense sacked Temple quarterback Evan Simon seven times.
For Navy, a 41-18 win at UAB continued what has been a dominant start to its season, including a 56-44 win against Memphis last week. Blake Horvath completed 9 of 11 passes for 225 yards and two touchdowns Saturday, allowing him to lead the nation in Total QBR through this first month-plus of the season.
Their remaining schedules aren't particularly frightening. There's still plenty of football to be played prior to these two playing on Dec. 14 (including potentially the AAC championship on Dec. 6).
But if they look anything like they have to begin this season, that game's going to be an even more special event than it already is. -- Harry Lyles Jr.
Jeremiah Smith, Ryan Williams just keep getting better
So, we wrote about the impact freshman wide receivers sprouting across the country last week. They're all still outperforming their fellow first-year counterparts, but none of them are having freshman campaigns like the ones Jeremiah Smith and Ryan Williams are having.
With the second of two spectacular, one-handed grabs in the span of 23 seconds of game time at Michigan State Saturday, Smith became the first Ohio State true freshman to record a receiving touchdown in four straight games, per ESPN Research. Through four games, he's up to 19 receptions, 364 yards and five receiving touchdowns, on pace to break the program freshman receiving records Cris Carter set for catches (41), yards (648) and scores (eight) in 1984.
Meanwhile, Williams unleashed one of the most devastating spin moves you'll see all fall and emerged as the electrifying force in the most thrilling game to date in the 2024 season. Six catches for 177 yards and a game-winning score against No. 2 Georgia? Pretty good. By the way, did you know he's just 17 years old?
Already the most productive pass catchers in two of the nation's most productive offenses, Smith and Williams are on their way to authoring two of the most prolific freshman receiving seasons in recent college football history. -- Eli Lederman
Don't forget about Noah Fifita
After Arizona's offense struggled in a 22-10 win against FCS foe Northern Arizona and a 31-7 loss to Kansas State, it would have been easy to cast aside the Wildcats as a team that lost the magic it used to finish the 2023 season with seven straight wins. Things were ... off. But even though their 23-10 win against Utah on Saturday wasn't an offensive showcase, there were enough moments from quarterback Noah Fifita to remind everyone that he's a special player.
There were two throws, in particular, in the fourth quarter that effectively demoralized Rice-Eccles Stadium. The first was a deep 41-yard strike to Devin Hyatt on third-and-11; the second, a 35-yard touchdown to Keyan Burnett two plays later to go up 13 points. With the Utah offense struggling, there was little hope the Utes could erase that deficit and the stadium began to clear out. Utah coach Kyle Whittingham pointed to Fifita as the difference in the game.
What's even more encouraging for Arizona is that while Tetairoa McMillan had six catches for 50 yards, this was far from one of his better games. The Wildcats have needed others to step up around him and they got that from Burnett -- a high school teammate of Fifita and McMillan -- and the running game (Arizona ran for 169 on 6.5 yards per carry).
The K-State loss was a nonconference game, so the win means Arizona is 1-0 in Big 12 play with a chance to make a statement the next three weeks with games against a trio of teams that have started 2-0 in the league: BYU, Texas Tech and Colorado. -- Kyle Bonagura
Sooners have found their QB
Through the first month of the season, Oklahoma had been desperately searching for an offensive spark. In a 27-21 win at Auburn, the Sooners didn't just find a spark -- they found their quarterback of the future in true freshman Michael Hawkins Jr.
In his first start replacing Jackson Arnold, who was benched last week, Hawkins generated 230 yards of offense. That included a 48-yard scoring dash on the opening drive, and later a 60-yard strike to J.J. Hester, setting up another touchdown that ignited OU's biggest fourth-quarter comeback since 2021.
On Auburn's ensuing drive, Kip Lewis returned an interception 61 yards for the winning touchdown, prompting Brent Venables to call the victory his "first experience with Sooner Magic as a head coach." A loss to Auburn would've portended a long season for OU in its first year in the SEC. Instead, the Sooners now have a young quarterback who's proving to be as fearless as he is talented. -- Jake Trotter
Ashton Jeanty is must-watch TV
For those who did not make the choice to stay up late on Saturday night, what you may have missed was the latest edition of the Ashton Jeanty show. It did not disappoint.
Facing undefeated Washington State, Jeanty could not be tackled. Literally. For the second time this season, Jeanty crossed the 200 rushing yard mark with ease and added four touchdowns to his tally, which now sits at 13. No running back has had that many through four games since 2020. He is the only FBS player in the past 20 years to have at least 10 rushing touchdowns and average 10 yards per rush through four games in a season, and he's also averaging over 200 yards per game. He is a one-man offense, and so far, it's working wonders for the Broncos, who remain on the short list for the Group of 5 playoff spot.
Don't let yourself be swayed by gaudy numbers alone. What makes Jeanty special is the experience of watching him turn defenders into mere bumper cars before hitting his stride and outrunning anyone else who dares to try to catch him. Any time it appears he will be downed, he is somehow able to escape and gain more yards than the play warranted. He never stops moving.
This season, Jeanty already has five runs of 60 yards or more. No one else in the nation has more than three. The entirety of Jeanty's résumé -- and the experience of watching him do it -- has Heisman written all over it.
Boise has, so far, two more late games coming up: a 10:30 ET kickoff against currently undefeated UNLV in two weeks and an 11 ET kickoff at Hawaii the week after that. Get your coffee ready. -- Paolo Uggetti
Time to embrace the QB1 debate?
If you had to put together a 2025 mock NFL draft today, who's going No. 1?
That question crossed my mind Saturday night while watching Alabama's thrilling 41-34 win over Georgia. Carson Beck had never thrown two interceptions in any of his first 17 starts for the Bulldogs. We had never seen him struggle to the degree he did against Kane Wommack's Alabama defense, completing 27 of 50 passes and finishing with four turnovers.
It's obviously way too early to write off Beck, whose 439 passing yards fueled an incredible comeback attempt, but it is fair to wonder how that performance will impact the conversation around who's QB1 in the 2025 draft. Because Beck has an awful lot of competition at the moment.
Colorado's Shedeur Sanders has been excellent since the loss to Nebraska, throwing for 941 yards with nine touchdowns and one interception over his past three games to push the Buffs to 4-1. Alabama's Milroe is showing a lot of growth in Kalen DeBoer's system and went 27-of-33 through the air against Georgia, raising his completion percentage to 73% on the year. Ward set out to prove he's a first-round talent at Miami and continues to be extremely productive.
And don't forget Quinn Ewers and the dominant performance he put together in Texas' road win at Michigan. When he's healthy and back on the field, he belongs in this conversation. We've got a long way to go, but it'll be fascinating to see how scouts size up and sort these QBs going forward. -- Max Olson