Week 5 Record: 2-4

Week 5 was one of the most hyped up weekends of college football in recent memory and it absolutely delivered!

From Illinois getting off the mat in the noon window, all the way to the two heavyweight matchups we had at night, and everything in between; this was a truly epic Saturday.

Unfortunately, it was not quite such a good Saturday for me gambling wise. That’s the whole point of these blogs though! It’s to try and figure out where I went wrong on in my logic when looking at these games.

Let’s get into it!

USC vs Illinois

• The Pick: Illinois +6.5
• Result: Illinois 34 – USC 32

This is one of the few games on my card that I can say I was 100% right about.

There was never a point in this game that I was worried about the Illini covering. Illinois was in control of this game for just about the entire game. They were able to run the ball very effectively and played good enough defense to slow down the high powered USC offense.

The Illini were their own worst enemy in this one. They fumbled twice in goal to go situations and lost both fumbles. I bring this up because this score really doesn’t show how well Illinois played in this one.

USC did threaten late after one of the Illini fumbles into the end zone. However, the Illini were able to drive down the field with plenty of time still on the clock and kick a game winning field goal.

Notre Dame vs Arkansas

• The Pick: Under 64.5
• Result: Norte Dame 56 – Arkansas 13

There really isn’t much to break down here. This one wasn’t even close.

While I actually only missed this one by one score technically, this game was trending over the entire time. I thought Arkansas would show at least some fight in this one but the Notre Dame offense proved to be just too talented for that soft Arkansas defense.

I learned that Arkansas is horrible and the Notre Dame offense is good. Nothing more. Nothing less. On to the next one.

Auburn vs Texas A&M

• The Pick: Auburn +6.5
• Result: Texas A&M 16 – Auburn 10

I won this bet but I was completely wrong in my thinking on this one.

I was of the opinion that this might be a bounce back spot for Auburn against an A&M defense that is a bit overrated in my opinion. However, it turns out that Jackson Arnold just stinks. I don’t even think that does it justice either. The guy truly looks lost out there.

Texas A&M out gained Auburn by almost 250 yards in this one. The final score does not show just how dominant the Aggies were in this one.

The good news is I learned a very valuable lesson in this one: never trust Jackson Arnold again!

LSU vs Ole Miss

• The Pick: LSU Moneyline
• Result: Ole Miss 24 – LSU 19

Ole Miss looked damn good in this one. I said in the Week 5 Sixer that if Trinidad Chambliss was the real deal then Ole Miss was going to have a great chance to win this one and sure enough he looked fantastic. I am still not a believer in the Ole Miss defense but they are right back in the SEC race with Chambliss at QB.

LSU on the other hand, looked like a good team with some real problems. The most notable one being the offensive line. They just are not getting any push up front and it has led to the Tigers having little to no run game. On top of that, there are rumblings that Garrett Nussmeier might be hurt. It certainly looked that way Saturday. He just didn’t have the same kind of zip on the ball that we have seen him have in the past.

The LSU defense is legit so, if Nuss can get healthy, this team could still be a legit contender. If not, this will just be an average SEC team going forward.

Alabama vs Georgia

• The Pick: Georgia -3.5
• Result: Alabama 24 – Georgia 21

Alabama is back! They came into this game with a lot of doubters. One of those doubters being me. I just did not see it with Ty Simpson but he shut my ass up QUICK.

Simpson just never looked rattled in this one. He looked like a guy who had played in this game a million times even though this was really his first start in Athens. It helped that the Alabama defense finally woke up too! I guess when Alabama is feeling down about themselves, they should just go play Georgia. This game seems to get them right every year.

I don’t think this game said a whole lot about Georgia except that Gunner Stockton might be just OK. It’s definitely something to watch for as the season plays out.

Oregon vs Penn St.

• The Pick: Penn St. -3.5
• Result: Oregon 30 – Penn St. 24

I said going into this game that this was more or less a coin flip game based on how little competition each of these teams had played. I liked Penn St. to cover because they were at home going up against a QB that was making his first true road start.

However, Dante Moore proved to be more than capable of taking on this challenge. He was aided by a strong running game, but Moore looked sharp in this one. He was the one who looked like the third year starter at QB. Not Drew Allar.

Speaking of Drew Allar, when are we going to see the guy that Penn St. fans have said is “the guy”. From what I am seeing, this is a QB who is slightly above average but was helped last season by Tyler Warren. Without Warren, he just doesn’t have the easy completions he had last year and it has hurt his play tremendously.

I don’t think this Penn St. team is bad, but I do not think they are the elite team that we all anticipated they would be before the season.