We had 10 must-watch games featured in our article last week and from that group the favorites won 9 of the matchups. The only exception was the Pac-2 matchup out west that went in favor of the Cougars from Washington State. Add in our dear Irish crumbling and it was yet another favorite that won in South Bend. It’s hard to say it was a fun weekend for Notre Dame fans although we’re slowly seeing the rankings take a firmer shape after a lot of ranked teams faced each other this past weekend.

Here’s the latest 18S Top 20 Poll.

18 Stripes Top 20 Poll

RANK TEAM RECORD NEXT
1 Georgia 4-0 at Auburn
2 Washington 4-0 at Arizona
3 Texas 4-0 vs. Kansas
4 Ohio State (+7) 4-0 vs. Maryland
5 Florida State 4-0 vs. Virginia Tech
6 Michigan (-1) 4-0 at Nebraska
7 USC (-1) 4-0 at Colorado
8 Utah (-1) 4-0 at Oregon State
9 Penn State 4-0 at Northwestern
10 North Carolina 4-0 BYE
11 Oregon (+6) 4-0 at Stanford
12 Notre Dame (-4) 3-1 at Duke
13 Oklahoma (+1) 4-0 vs. Iowa State
14 Duke (+1) 4-0 vs. Notre Dame
15 Washington State (NR) 4-0 BYE
16 Alabama (+3) 3-1 at Miss State
17 LSU (+1) 3-1 at Ole Miss
18 Miami (+2) 4-0 BYE
19 Kansas (NR) 4-0 at Texas
20 Tennessee (NR) 3-1 vs. South Carolina

Out:

#12 Oregon State

#13 Ole Miss

#16 Colorado

National Storylines

The fun is over at Coastal Carolina as they drop to 2-2 following a 30-17 loss to Georgia State.

Purdue is suddenly 1-3 after a 38-17 home loss to Wisconsin.

Boise State defeated San Diego State 34-31 as both teams opened up Mountain West play.

Georgia’s 3rd non-Power 5 opponent of the year (UAB) lost 49-21 in Athens.

The perennially slept on Air Force move to 4-0 after blasting San Jose State 45-20.

Texas Tech was my pre-season darkhorse team and that pick continues to look terrible. The Red Raiders lost 20-13 at West Virginia and are already 1-3 in 2023.

Alabama showed just enough signs of life on offense to put away Ole Miss 24-10 in Tuscaloosa.

Kansas came away with a quality win over visiting BYU by the score of 38-27. That’s back-to-back 4-0 starts for Kansas (they did go to 5-0 in 2022).

Penn State slowly strangled Iowa while winning 31-0 in Happy Valley.

Oklahoma had a workmanlike 20-7 win at Cincinnati.

Baylor beat Long Island University last week to break their losing streak but then fell 38-6 to Texas this past weekend.

Michigan fell behind 7-0 to Rutgers then scored 31 unanswered to beat the visiting Knights.

Auburn’s offense continues to struggle as the Tigers are now 3-1 with a 27-10 loss at Texas A&M.

Michael Penix threw for 304 yards and 4 touchdowns in Washington’s 59-32 win over California.

Oregon showed no mercy jumping out to a 35-0 halftime lead over visiting Colorado. The Ducks added another touchdown in the 3rd quarter before Colorado broke the shutout late in the 42-6 loss for Coach Prime.

LSU needed a late field goal to move past Arkansas 34-31.

Talk to your friends about 4-0 Syracuse as they trailed at halftime against Army but came back to win 29-16.

A late comeback by Oregon State was shut down as Washington State won 38-35 in the battle of unbeatens.

Dark days at Virginia Tech as they lose their 3rd straight, this time to Marshall 24-17. Imagine losing to Marshall.

Indiana needed 4 overtimes to beat lowly Akron 29-27 this weekend.

A low-scoring affair in Salt Lake City saw Utah remain unbeaten and hand UCLA their first loss of the season, 14-7.

Maryland is 4-0 after crushing Michigan State 31-9 in East Lansing.

Oklahoma State opened up Big 12 play with a 34-27 loss at Iowa State.

UTSA were without Frank Harris at quarterback and got whooped 45-14 by Tennessee.

Northwestern put up an incredible comeback to drop visiting Minnesota 37-34 in overtime. That is a really bad loss for P.J. Fleck.

Opponent Watch

Navy (1-2): The Middies were off this week and host USF on Saturday.

Tennessee State (2-1): The Tigers were also on a bye last weekend and will travel to UT-Martin on Saturday.

NC State (3-1): Not a real inspiring performance as NC State needed a late field goal to beat Virginia 24-21.

Central Michigan (2-2): The Chips went on the road and beat South Alabama 34-30.

Ohio State (4-0): Maryland is up next for the Buckeyes.

Duke (4-0): The Blue Devils wrecked UConn 41-7 in Storrs and now GameDay is coming to Durham.

Louisville (4-0): Another undefeated opponent remains on the Irish schedule as the Cardinals take care of Boston College 56-28.

USC (4-0): Arizona State was no challenge for the unbeaten Trojans 42-28 in the desert.

Pitt (1-3): Phil Jurkovec was injured and left the game as Pittsburgh lost 41-24 to visiting North Carolina.

Clemson (2-2): It’s now 4 straight years of at least 2 losses for Clemson who couldn’t hold on in overtime 31-24 to visiting Florida State.

Wake Forest (3-1): Georgia Tech hasn’t beaten many P5 teams by double digits in recent years but defeated Wake 30-16 in Winston-Salem.

Stanford (1-3): This team kicked a field goal with 3:05 remaining trailing by 4 points and lost 21-20 to visiting Arizona.

Week 5 Games to Watch

All time are eastern. 

Louisville [-3] at NC State
Friday, Sept. 29th, 7:00 PM, ESPN

Notre Dame’s next opponent after Duke travels to Raleigh to try and keep their undefeated season alive. This will be a good test for the Cardinals who have showed plenty of life on offense recently (quarterback Jack Plummer has thrown 10 touchdowns and is averaging a 3rd best nationally 11.5 yards per attempt in 2023) and go against a tough-ish NC State defense on a Friday night.

Utah [-3] at Oregon State 
Friday, Sept. 29th, 9:00 PM FS1

I don’t know, maybe Cameron Rising is never coming back to play quarterback for Utah. Maybe it’ll never matter if they continue to, checks notes, give up only 9.5 points per game. Utah has played against 3 Power 5 teams already and haven’t given up more than 13 points in any single game so far. Impressive. However, only scoring 22.3 points per game is worrisome, too. We’ll see if the Beavers bounce back from their first loss this past weekend.

USC [-22] at Colorado 
Saturday, Sept. 30th, 12:00 PM, Fox

Deion Sanders had some great quotes about the idea of being humbled this past weekend in Eugene and the Buffaloes will have to come right back and host USC for another likely beatdown. Heading into this weekend, Colorado is allowing 6.3 yards per play on defense, only Stanford (lol), Georgia Tech, and Boston College (haha) are allowing more per snap among Power 5 teams. USC is one-thousandth behind Washington for the best offensive YPP in the nation at an eye-watering 9.22 yards. That’s a bad matchup for Colorado.

Florida [+2.5] at Kentucky
Saturday, Sept. 30th, 12:00 PM, ESPN

Florida is in a bit of a soft spot in their schedule now before a really challenging finish to the season. They’ve lost 2 straight in this series and 3 out of the last 5, too. Before that, the Gators had won approximately a million in a row against Kentucky. I have to think this game remains super close until the end. Outside of a few blowouts won by Florida this is typically a one-score type of rivalry.

Kansas [+17] at Texas 
Saturday, Sept. 30th, 3:30 PM, ABC

Kansas just can’t get any respect. Seventeen point spread! After KU came into Austin the last time these teams played here and pulled out one of the best wins of the season? What’s that? Texas won by 41 points last year? Well then…the Jayhawks might have their work cut out for them. At the same time, this is also a potential Texas Is Not Back™ moment.

LSU [-3] at Ole Miss
Saturday, Sept. 30th, 6:00 PM, ESPN

The 112th meeting of the Magnolia Bowl kickoffs off in a weird 6 PM timeslot this weekend and after the offensive struggles by Ole Miss last year this one doesn’t have the feel of a big game anymore. However, Ole Miss is still hanging on in the AP Poll at no. 20 and this is a ranked vs. ranked SEC matchup so we have to include it. Last year, in Brian Kelly’s first game of this rivalry the Tigers won easily 45-20.