Week 5 college football coverage, Thursday through Saturday

Six days is down to 10 minutes and one more speech from Tommy Tuberville.

“You get one shot at these guys, and we came to win this damn thing,” the Cincinnati head coach says. “Defense, bow your neck. Offense, play fast.”

It didn’t take long for Watson to validate the decision to give him his first start, as the 6’2, 205-pounder out of Gainesville, Georgia threw a 74-yard touchdown pass on his first attempt against the Tar Heels.

All told, Watson hit 10 different receivers on the day, with four of them catching touchdown passes.

Another week, another brawl in the stands between fans. This time it was between Notre Dame and Syracuse and gave us something we don’t see every day.

One Notre Dame fan was getting clubbed in the back of the head while being held down. As soon as he slipped the grasp of his attacker, this happened.

Only one minor shuffle this week: Oklahoma ahead of Alabama. That’s based on the SEC West looking tougher and tougher, while OU only has one especially challenging road game left: following a bye, this Saturday at TCU. Since we still have no idea how much the Playoff committee will actually value strength of schedule, we have to assume a team’s chances of going undefeated remain by far the biggest factor.

(This shuffle is especially minor because there’s no difference between the Nos. 2 and 3 seeds. The No. 1 seed gets to go to the Playoff bowl that’s closer to its campus, and everything else locks into place without regard for geography.)

As the non-conference games die down, there are fewer and fewer opportunities for these teams to grab national attention, which makes slip-ups in conference play that much more detrimental to these teams’ dreams of playing in a New Year’s Day bowl game.

Week 5 saw the kickoff of widespread conference action, and while our top three teams all saw byes, there was plenty of action, and some movement in the poll as a result.

Via BTN

Unsurprisingly, they did not pick up the first down, and eventually lost 29-6. It could’ve been worse.

The first coach firing of the 2014 college football season is here, as Charlie Weis has been fired by Kansas just four games into the season, the school announced Sunday.

Weis posted a 6-22 career record with the Jayhawks, including a 1-18 record in Big 12 play. Hired in 2012 to replace Turner Gill, Weis was never able to take Kansas out of the conference cellar. The Jayhawks posted wins over Southeast Missouri State and Central Michigan this season, but blowout losses to Duke and Texas sealed his fate.

Saturday night, assistant Ohio State strength coach Anthony Schlegel laid out a fan who’d decided to go for a trot during the Cincinnati game. Land-Grant Holy Land immediately soundtracked it with the appropriate musical accompaniment:

And Uproxx added a couple of rasslin’ calls:

An instantaneous survey of five teams in the best position for the College Football Playoff’s four spots at this very moment, plus the biggest threats looming for each. Be advised: these have nothing to do with the Top 25 polls. If you get mad about this, you will be pointed to the previous sentence.

Can it be correlated with all of them watching the degenerative disease known as Michigan football during the day? It’s definitely that. Stop watching Michigan football, sportswriters, and start watching Pac-12 football, even if it’s late in the day. It’s why they make unregulated liquid stimulants you can purchase in bulk at any store in America and put in your stupid face. It’s so you can watch Oregon and note how well their existing key victories (Michigan State and Washington State) have held up as foundational building blocks for their strength of schedule.

Update: Another big thing happened! Kansas fired Charlie Weis.

Things are bad in Ann Arbor. Bad, bad, bad, bad. Michigan just got throttled on its home field, 30-14, by Minnesota. It wasn’t even that close. And that’s the least of head coach Brady Hoke’s problems.

Now before you get mad, the Big 12 has a legitimate reason to make the request. The conference no longer has contracts with several of the bowl games whose logos were on Snyder’s various windbreakers, while others have changed their sponsors or names. This is apparently a proactive move by the conference to avoid any issues, especially since Snyder sometimes shows up on national TV wearing the windbreakers.

One can only imagine how many windbreakers Snyder has after 26 years in charge at Kansas State.

What made Oregon State defensive coordinator Mark Banker make this amazing face right before halftime of his team’s game against USC?

This play ...

This is the face of a man whose team just recorded a 21-point comeback on the road to log its first conference win of the season.

I’m sure he’s in a fine mood. It’s a funny photo. Please do not email me to explain he’s actually very happy right now, unless you really want to.

Oregon State’s Ryan Murphy returned a kickoff 97-yards for a touchdown and ESPN’s Mark Jones had just one thing to say.

“TURN UP! TOUCHDOWN!”

The Ole Miss Rebels received good news beyond their 24-3 victory over Memphis Saturday night: they’ll play host to College GameDay October 4. Oh, and they’re also playing host to Alabama.

Both teams are 4-0 this season, with a spot in the top 10 of the rankings to show for each. Neither has had to face a ranked opponent so far, but neither has won a game by less than two scores.

For the second time this season, Memphis traveled to play a top-11 opponent. For the second time this season, the Tigers will return home with a loss.

No. 1 Ole Miss escaped with a 24-3 victory over Memphis Saturday night, with three fourth quarter scores padding the victory in what was one of the day’s biggest defensive battles.

Thus, our sincerest sympathies to Turner, who was the unfortunate Illini in Gregory’s crosshairs on this interception return:

Via BTN

Guns up y’all! It’s “Baby Kliff Kingsbury”.

HEY LOOK! It’s a guy with some cinnamon ... wonder what that play is.

Christian Green is a fifth-year senior wide receiver for the Seminoles and entering the game against NC State, he’d never caught a touchdown pass during his career.

Green’s grandfather passed away Saturday morning and Winston told Green he’d help get him a TD during the game. Sure enough, Winston went to Green in the 2nd quarter for a score that cut the Wolfpack’s lead down to three at 24-21.

Soooo there’s probably story behind this, but we have no idea what it might be.

How did he get into the stadium with a fire extinguisher? Did he steal one that was in the stadium? Why?

Gray! Matte! ‘90s pickup truck graphics! This is the definitive 2012-2014 college football uniform, and that is not a compliment.

Bet recruits like it, though, and that’s what matters. Because impressing me with beautiful fashions is not high on Syracuse football’s list of priorities.

The defending national champions remain unbeaten. Just barely.

No. 1 Florida State traveled to Raleigh and managed to come away with the victory, handing NC State their first loss of the season in a 56-41 comeback win for the Seminoles.

It wasn’t by the book, but Texas A&M came back from 14 down in the fourth quarter to beat Arkansas 35-28 in overtime in Dallas. Kenny Hill ended up with 386 yards and four touchdowns, leading the Aggies to a successful comeback after looking rather pedestrian for long stretches.

The big break in the game happened right before halftime. Arkansas lined up to punt near midfield, but instead of a simple change of possession, we had this masterful 51-yard touchdown run by Razorback punter and noted Australian Sam Irwin-Hill to make it 21-14 at the half.

The Golden Gophers’ sad recent record against Michigan? It’s suddenly a thing of the past. The Little Brown Jug, among the oldest rivalry trophies [corrected] in college football, is Minnesota’s for the first time since 2005.

1. Brady Hoke is as gone as gone can be. His boss might be, too.