On the Line: Previewing a massive Week 5 college football schedule

In the late 2010s, lacking a traditional name, we dubbed the Alabama-LSU rivalry as the Deep South Super Bowl. The obvious Nick Saban connection fueled the series, and either the Tide or the Tigers repped the SEC West in Atlanta all but two seasons from 2007 until the divisional format went kaput after 2023. Clearly, that torched has been passed to Alabama-Georgia. Ten of the last 11 SEC champions wore crimson or red-and-black (2019 LSU being the exception, and they had to beat Bama and UGA to win that crown). These programs have also won the conference's last three national championships. 

Which makes Saturday's game (7:30 p.m. ET, ABC) so interesting.

While the conference is in sole custody of the Tide and the Bulldogs, the series has belonged to Georgia. Alabama is 9-1 vs. UGA since 2008, which makes Kirby Smart 1-6 against his former employer. He's 107-13 against everyone else -- a winning percentage gap of .749. 

No. 17 Alabama has a huge psychological edge, historically. But Derrick Henry, Eddie Jackson and co. aren't playing on Saturday. No. 5 Georgia owns the nation's longest win streak at 33 games, while Alabama is 1-5 in its last six away from Bryant-Denny Stadium. 

Now, Alabama has played like the best team in the country since the Florida State loss. The caveat there is obvious. But, Ty Simpson has thrown more TDs (seven) than incompletions (five) in Bama's two wins, games in which the Tide's offense scored 15 touchdowns over a 17-drive stretch (the other two were a field goal and a turnover on downs). Yes, it was ULM and Wisconsin, but that's hard to do against air. 

But enough about Alabama. To me, this game is about Georgia. Kirby Smart has praised his team's character all year long, and they proved him right in winning at Tennessee. When the Bulldogs marshal their entire heart, body and soul toward scoring a touchdown or holding you out of the end zone, very few teams have the physical and mental strength to withstand that. So far, Alabama hasn't shown that level of mettle. I don't think that changes on Saturday.

What have you got for us, Drew Allar? Enough has been written and said about James Franklin's big game struggles, so much that they've obscured Drew Allar's big game struggles. Allar is 26-6 as a starter. In his losses, Allar is a combined 91-of-186 for 1,063 yards with six touchdowns against six interceptions. Those are well-outside-the-national-top-100 type numbers. That includes a Big Ten Championship where Penn State scored 37 and ran all over the Ducks, but Allar was barely over 50 percent, averaged less than six yards per attempt and threw more INTs (three) than TDs (two).

Yes, there are arguments to be had about his supporting cast. Franklin and No. 3 Penn State have upgraded Allar's coordinator and his receivers. Find me a program that has invested more in its supporting cast -- coordinator, running backs, receivers -- than Penn State. You're at home, at night (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC). You've had six months to prepare for this game, and two weeks to practice. No. 6 Oregon is younger, and going on the road for the first time with this cast of characters.

Penn State has every reason to be better and win this game. Now it's time to go do it. 

We could see a new Heisman front-runner by Saturday night. No. 13 Ole Miss will start Trinidad Chambliss on Saturday (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC) against No. 4 LSU. In a year where there is no clear-cut Heisman front-runner, I think the former Ferris State quarterback captures America's heart (and the Ole Miss QB1 job) against the Tigers. 

But wait, isn't LSU's defense really good? Sure, they're top 10 in scoring and against the run, and top 25 per play and against the pass. The problem is, the respect LSU has garnered came in wins over Clemson and Florida. Yeah. 

Chambliss sparkled in starts over Arkansas and Tulane (not exactly murder's row, I realize), but even a B performance based on his previous standard is something like 250 yards and two touchdowns through the air, plus another 50 and a score on the ground. If he does that, Ole Miss likely wins something in the neighborhood of 31-24. 

A win over an AP top-5, name-brand team in a big TV spot? Check. Lack of a true alternative? Check. A lovable underdog story? Check. A name that's fun to say? Triple check. 

We'll have a Heisman leader by Saturday evening, and his name will be Chambliss. 

Additional Games

-- No. 8 Florida State at Virginia (7 p.m. ET Friday, ESPN): Florida State joined the ACC in 1992. The 'Noles didn't lose a conference game until 1995, on a Thursday night at Virginia. With the biggest home game in a decade looming flor Florida State, Virginia is harkening every spirit it can to summon the ghosts of 1995 to spoil the occasion by donning their '95 throwbacks.

-- No. 24 TCU at Arizona State (9 p.m. ET Friday, Fox): 

-- No. 22 Notre Dame at Arkansas (noon ET, ABC): Oh, what might've been. These two teams are collectively four plays away from one of the biggest parties of the college football season as an undefeated Notre Dame could be making its first trip to Fayetteville to play undefeated Arkansas for the first time ever. Instead, the pair are a combined 3-4 and Arkansas is looking to stop the bleeding with a trip to No. 15 Tennessee and a home date with No. 9 Texas A&M following this one.

-- No. 21 USC at No. 23 Illinois (noon ET, Fox): What is Illinois? We should find out quickly after last week's disaster. What is USC? We should also find out quickly, a year after the Trojans went 0-for-3 in their trips to the east last season. We should also see lots of points here. Both Illinois's Luke Altmyer and USC's Jayden Maiava are completing 70 percent of their throws with perfect 9-to-0 TD-to-INT ratios; Maiava has averaged nearly a full four yards per attempt more than Altmyer (and two yards more than any other QB with a similar number of passes) to lead the nation. Last week, Indiana's Fernando Mendoza threw more touchdowns (five) than incompletions (two) against an Illini defense that now ranks 107th in the nation against the pass.

A sneaky-big factor in this game? The kick time. After playing at 8 p.m. local time on Saturday night, USC must now play at 9 a.m. body-clock time on Saturday morning. Can USC muster enough energy across 60 minutes? 

-- UCF at Kansas State (noon ET, FS1): Kansas State has looked and played like one of the most miserable teams in the country so far, and in no large part because they've played one of the most miserable schedules in the country. After losing to Iowa State in Dublin, K-State had to come home and play three games in 13 days -- one of those was against Army, and another was a Friday night road trip to Arizona. I'm interested to see what Chris Klieman's crew looks like after two weeks off. 

-- Eastern Michigan at Central Michigan (noon ET, ESPN+): We love 3-way trophies here at On the Line and wish there were more. EMU and CMU get the battle for the Michigan MAC Trophy underway; both sides are looking to rip the trophy out of WMU's hands after the Broncos retained the honor last year.

-- Utah State at No. 18 Vanderbilt (12:45 p.m. ET, SEC Network): Vanderbilt exorcised the demon of last year's Georgia State loss by getting plenty of exercise in last week's 70-21 demolition of the Panthers. But Georgia State isn't really This Year's Georgia State for Vandy, Utah State is. Win here, and Vandy has the biggest spotlight game since the 19th-ranked 'Dores beat No. 13 Auburn in 2008 when they go to Alabama next week, and that game might be even bigger than the one 17 years ago -- especially if the Tide win on Saturday night.

-- No. 1 Ohio State at Washington (3:30 p.m. ET, CBS): Ohio State beat No. 1 Texas in the opener, and then has been out of sight, out of mind for three weeks. Now, in their first true road game after nine straight home/neutral contests, they go to the toughest place to play in college football, statistically speaking. We already know Georgia owns the longest active home streak in the country, but Washington's 22-game home win streak endures despite the Huskies going 0-7 away from home last season. That includes a loss to Washington State... at the Seahawks' stadium, seven miles away from Husky Stadium! Georgia is Georgia no matter where they play, they're just slightly more Georgia than usual at Sanford Stadium. Washington is that one dog meme.

Big Ten teams were 8-18 when crossing two or more time zones last season, and this will be Julian Sayin's first road start. I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'.

-- Auburn at No. 9 Texas A&M (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN): “No, no,” Mike Elko said when asked about Battered Aggie Syndrome this week. “I don’t think there’s any curse over the Texas A&M football program.” Maybe so, but the ultimate BAS moment would be to spend two weeks basking in the glow of finally getting a signature road win in the most un-BAS way possible at Notre Dame, and then turning around and losing your conference opener inside vaunted Kyle Field. 

This is pretty much a must-win game for Auburn if the Tigers have any hope of accomplishing anything this season. And they're not going to win the game if Jackson Arnold doesn't get rid of the football. I don't have specific numbers at my finger tips, but Oklahoma allowed the most sacks in the country last season, and Auburn is two off the national lead this season. There's one common denominator there, and I don't see Hugh Freeze coaching that out of him in six days. But, A&M has allowed five completions of 30-plus yards through three games. I'd dial up as many shot plays to Cam Coleman as possible and see if you can double that number over 60 minutes.

-- No. 11 Indiana at Iowa (3:30 p.m. ET, Peacock): Ever seen a coach provide Reverse Bulletin Board Material before? Curt Cignetti did so this week. "We're going to have to play well. This will be a challenge, a more difficult challenge than the last one, for sure. And the sooner our guys realize that, the better." Indiana has not won at Iowa since 2007. Indiana also has an offense that ranks a full 100 spots ahead of Iowa's in yards per play. 

-- No. 25 BYU at Colorado (10:15 p.m. ET, ESPN): Colorado doesn't know what it is on offense, and it's unlikely to find out against a BYU defense that allows a national-best 1.6 yards per carry, 5.1 yards per attempt, and has yet to permit a touchdown pass in 94 attempts.