Week 5’s slate of games did not disappoint as ranked matchups went down to the wire, and four of last week’s AP poll top-10 teams fell to their opponents.
LSU showed that it can’t seem to show out on both sides of the ball. It was a tough week for James Franklin and the Nittany Lions as they fell to yet another top-10 opponent, while Oregon coach Dan Lanning is saying that the Ducks’ Dante Moore is “the best quarterback in college football.” And Virginia, which upset then-No. 8 Florida State, now begins the task of showing that was no fluke.
What do LSU and quarterback Garrett Nussmeier need to improve on going forward? What has Moore done through Week 5 for his coach to be making such a big claim? What’s ahead for Tony Elliott and the Cavaliers?
Our college football experts break down key takeaways from Week 5 performances.
Jump to:LSU falls short | Dante Moore deliversVirginia’s win no flukeKiffin, Lanning approach | Same old USC
LSU can’t put it all together
LSU coach Brian Kelly has a much-improved defense, one he said is capable of competing at a championship-caliber level. But so far, he hasn’t had the offense to go with it. And when the offense has found a groove, the defense has given up a big play — maybe because it’s exhausted. Kelly snapped at a reporter who questioned his offense after a 20-10 win against Florida, but there was no sugarcoating the Tigers’ ineptitude in Saturday’s 24-19 loss at Ole Miss.
“You start with the first half, where our inability to sustain anything on the offensive side of the ball put our defense on the field for over 50 plays,” Kelly said. “At the end of the day, when you put it all together for four quarters, we didn’t play complementary football. … We were out of sync with that.”
Quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, who entered this season as a projected first-round NFL draft pick, didn’t play like one. He was often off-target and made some bad decisions, throwing into coverage. The Tigers couldn’t run the ball. They’re banged up and young on the offensive line. This was a team that — according to Kelly’s summer declaration — should be a contender for the national title. But the performance in the loss to the Rebels indicated it might not be built to contend for the SEC title. — Heather Dinich
This college football season was supposedly loaded with future NFL starting quarterbacks: Texas’ Arch Manning. Clemson’s Cade Klubnik. South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers. LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier. Penn State’s Drew Allar, just to name a few.
But through the quarter pole of the regular season, Oregon sophomore Dante Moore has impressed as much as any quarterback in the country in his first season as the starter.
On Saturday night, in front of a hostile White Out crowd at Penn State’s Beaver Stadium, Moore completed 29 of 39 passes for 248 yards and 3 touchdowns — without an interception.
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But more impressive than the numbers, Moore showed immense poise. He hung tough in the pocket, calmly went through his progressions and delivered the ball accurately.
Moore also helped Oregon weather Penn State’s furious fourth-quarter comeback. After two straight touchdown drives sent the game to overtime, the Nittany Lions had all the momentum, especially after they opened the first overtime with another touchdown in three plays.
But Moore answered with a series of clutch plays to send the game to a second overtime. Then, on the ensuing snap, he threw a touchdown strike to Gary Bryant Jr. that proved to be the winner.
Oregon coach Dan Lanning said afterward that he believes the Ducks have the best quarterback in the country. Based on the way Moore is playing, Lanning might not be wrong. — Jake Trotter
Virginia’s win over Florida State no fluke
Tony Elliott and Virginia have endured more than any other program in the country since his arrival in 2022. That is what made its 46-38 double-overtime win over No. 8 Florida State on Friday night even more special.
Ten games into Year 1 under Elliott, Virginia players Lavel Davis Jr., Devin Chandler and D’Sean Perry were shot and killed after returning to campus from a class trip to Washington, D.C. The final two games of that season were canceled, and the weight of that trauma is something that never goes away.
On the field, Virginia struggled but showed flashes — wins against Top 25 teams in 2023 and 2024 — the steady drumbeat of progress sometimes hard for those outside of the program to see because the results had yet to get Virginia to a bowl game. Headed into this season, Elliott was given the chance to truly compete.
With a new football facility complete, Virginia made a massive investment in NIL and revenue share, allowing the Cavaliers to use the transfer portal in a far more meaningful way. They upgraded at nearly every key position — from quarterback Chandler Morris to running back J’Mari Taylor to receiver Cam Ross to defensive ends Mitchell Melton and Daniel Rickert — raising expectations for this season.
When Morris arrived in January, he said, “I didn’t come all the way to Virginia as a Texas boy to win five, six games. I want to win the conference championship.”
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Those expectations have now ratcheted up further after the win over Florida State. ESPN FPI gives Virginia a 14.1% chance to win the ACC, the second-highest odds in the league behind Miami. When asked to reflect on the journey to get to this point after the game, Elliott specifically mentioned Davis, Chandler and Perry.
“I know what I signed up for,” Elliott said. “But for me, it’s really about the Davis family, the Chandler family, the Perry family, the coaches in that locker room, the staff, the players and just trying to be a model of that belief. There have been days that I didn’t know how I was going to do it, but as soon as I walk in the office and I see one of their faces, it reminds me why we’re here.
“I came here because I believe Virginia can be one of the premier football programs in the country to go alongside with being one of the premier academic schools. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, and I didn’t know what adversity we were going to walk into, but here’s what I do know — adversity is a companion to a champion, an enemy to the weak. We had to embrace the adversity.”
There also is needed perspective. Virginia is 1-0, with a road game against undefeated Louisville next.
“We wanted to be in the driver’s seat and that’s all we did was keep ourselves in the driver’s seat,” Elliott said. “We’ve got to keep two hands on the wheel, put the seat belt on, make sure that we check the rearview mirror, make sure we’re awake so we don’t hit a pothole along the way.” — Andrea Adelson
Why aggressiveness is the only approach for Lanning, Kiffin
Oregon’s Dan Lanning and Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin are on the short list of best coaches never to have won a national title (both have been part of championship teams as assistants). Whether either raises a trophy Jan. 19 in South Florida remains to be seen. Oregon might be a year away, with all of its youth, and Ole Miss likely had a more talented team in 2024, only to fall short of its first CFP appearance.
But Lanning and Kiffin have given themselves — and their teams — a chance at making history. And they’ve done so by being themselves — bold, aggressive and fearless in key situations. Oregon led Penn State 10-3 early in the fourth quarter and faced fourth-and-1 at the Nittany Lions’ 8-yard line. Rather than take a two-score lead against an opponent that had looked completely feeble on offense to that point, Lanning went for the touchdown, and Jordon Davison scooted into the end zone.
I have seen very few coaches go for the win like Lanning did in State College. Oregon needed the two-touchdown cushion as Penn State rallied to force overtime, but Lanning’s decision reinforced his belief in his team. The Ducks won in OT, giving Lanning arguably the best win of his young coaching career. Lanning’s boldness came back to hurt him early in his tenure, especially in losses to Washington, but the approach is unquestionably who he is, and he shouldn’t deviate from it.
Kiffin also stayed true to himself with Ole Miss protecting a 24-19 lead against LSU and facing fourth-and-3 at the Tigers’ 35-yard line. He trusted quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, a Division II transfer who has become one of the early stories of this season, to execute one final time, as Ole Miss gained 20 yards to secure the win.
Maybe Oregon and LSU lose if those conversions fail, but coaches like Lanning and Kiffin are at their best when playing pedal-down football. And it could lead them to the top this season. — Adam Rittenberg
Same old USC
When USC receiver Makai Lemon made yet another brilliant grab to put USC up 32-31 on Illinois with 1:55 left in the game, what happened next was very predictable. A pair of Illini fumbles bailed out USC to get to that point, but the Trojans had done almost nothing to slow down Illinois’ offense all game. So, when Illinois took over, it had no trouble bullying the USC front on the ground to get into field goal range for the walk-off win. This is who the Trojans are: a team that can occasionally excite, but ultimately still soft and devoid of winning DNA.
This was USC’s first real test of the season and, like it has so often over the past three years, it failed. USC should benefit as much as anyone in the NIL era, but instead, it continues to tread in mediocrity. — Kyle Bonagura
