College football's Week 5 winners and losers
As much as the East Division championship of the Big Ten Conference seemed preordained to Ohio State in the preseason, the West Division was the opposite. The presumptive favorites, Nebraska and Wisconsin, each entered the season with new coaches. Illinois and Purdue entered the season as two of the most lightly regarded Power Five teams in the FBS, and that was before the Illini fired their coach in August.
Northwestern was coming off a 5-7 season in which it had lost five of its final seven games. Iowa had done 7-6 but finished 1-3 down the stretch. Despite key losses at the offensive skill positions, Minnesota seemed to have as good a shot as any.
Yet only two teams in the division emerged unbeaten after Week 5, and each opened conference play Saturday with crucial wins.
This week's winners and losers in college football:
WINNERS
Iowa: The Hawikeyes are off to their best start since 2009, which happens to be the season they last beat Wisconsin prior to Saturday. The Badgers outgained Iowa by nearly 100 yards, but the Hawkeyes translated two Badgers turnovers into 10 points.
Iowa hosts Illinois next week, then visits Northwestern on Oct. 17 in a game with huge division implications.
Northwestern: The Wildcats are 5-0 for the first time since 2012, and their defense shows no sign of letup. Northwestern held Minnesota to zero points and 173 total yards on Saturday, 200 less than the Golden Gophers' average. The Wildcats have shut out two opponents in the same season for the first time since 1965, and they likely will have the nation's No. 1 scoring defense when the FBS stats are updated Sunday.
Central Michigan: The Chippewas, under first-year coach John Bonamego who is is being treated for cancer, beat Northern Illinois 29-19 and won their Mid-American Conference opener for the first time since 2010. They saddled Northern Illinois with its first three-game losing streak since the end of the 2009 season.
LOSERS
West Virginia: The Mountaineers had been playing un-Big 12-like defense, leading the nation in scoring defense and turnover margin. But because the Mountaineers play in the Big 12, there were inherent questions of how long it might last. Well, it barely lasted a quarter of West Virginia's Big 12 opener, as prolific quarterback Baker Mayfield and Oklahoma did almost anything they wanted on offense vs. the Mountaineers. West Virginia is now 0-4 vs. the Sooners since joining the Big 12. Worse yet, West Virginia's next three games are home vs. Oklahoma State, at Baylor, and at TCU — not a defense-friendly lineup.
Georgia: The good news for the Bulldogs is that Saturday's 38-10 loss had nothing to do with the SEC East standings, where Georgia still may be one of the best of the division's seven teams. But a weak outing against Alabama raises questions about Georgia's viability as a team outside its immediate region. It will be rare that the Bulldogs face a defense as strong as Alabama's, which showed that Georgia might not have the ability or players to adjust when one part of its offense is taken away.
Georgia was the first team to be favored against the Crimson Tide since 2009, and Alabama seemed determined to prove to oddsmakers that they had made a mistake. Georgia also showed that considering it a College Football Playoff contender might have been a mistake, too.
Mississippi: The Rebels have the win in the head-to-head matchup with Alabama, and that's not going to change. But as much as that may help in the SEC West race, Mississippi lost huge ground Satruday in the race for the greater prize: the College Football Playoff. The SEC's highest-ranked team could see a precipitous fall in the polls and in public perception after falling 38-10 at Florida.
Nebraska: Cornhuskers opponents have won on their final play three times this season. That not only makes Nebraska a loser, but a maddeningly frustrating one.
HOW THE TOP 25 FARED IN WEEK 5