Week 5 Overreactions: Jekyll and Hyde Georgia, wide-open Big 12, UNLV vs. Boise State for best of G5

The final Saturday of September proved to be spectacular, as Georgia–Alabama was an instant classic and another two dozen games had major ripple effects on the rest of the 2024 season. 

With all that, here are the latest Week 5 overreactions:

The Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Bulldogs. So which version is the real Georgia?

We still don’t know. It remains T.B.D. for Kirby Smart’s 2024 team. 

We’ve seen the Bulldogs suffocate what now looks like a very quality Clemson team for 30 minutes, turning a one-score game in a laugher. 

We’ve seen Georgia mostly sleepwalk for 60 minutes at Kentucky, but make just enough plays to escape with a victory against a team that clearly has some high-level NFL talent on defense. 

On Saturday, we witnessed UGA playing perhaps its worst first half ever under Smart, only to rally at No. 4 Alabama and take (albeit brief) the lead for the biggest comeback in a Top-5 matchup ever. 

This much we do know: There probably isn’t another team in the country that gets ambushed the way Georgia did by Jalen Milroe, Ryan Williams and Alabama’s defense and doesn’t simply turtle the rest of the game. Most teams would’ve let go of the rope and lost by 50 — or more. 

Bryant-Denny Stadium was a hornet’s nest, and the Tide was a rising tsunami. But in the words of ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt, “Georgia signed up for 60.”

Character, resolve, culture, fight, etc. are all overused phrases, but hell of they didn’t ring true for Smart’s team on Saturday night. There’s a competitive spirit and resolve within that program that doesn’t exist most places. There’s a reason why they’d won 42 straight regular-season games. 

At this point, the Bulldogs are like Freddy Krueger. You have to kill them 10 times, and then they still might not be dead.

But which version is the true embodiment of 2024 Georgia?

The glass-half-full reading says this remains the scariest team in the nation.

If the Bulldogs can erase a four-touchdown deficit in Tuscaloosa, they can beat anyone, anywhere. Carson Beck has the ceiling of the best pure passer in the country. Of course, Georgia misses Brock Bowers and Ladd McConkey, but Dillion Bell, Arian Smith and Dom Lovett were open most of the night against the Tide. A young defense is going to get better — and healthier.

The glass-half-empty reading says Georgia is legitimately flawed. Beck can be Joe Namath in one half, but also Jets Sam Darnold for another. Too often this season, he’s been the latter — not playing with confidence, lacking zip on his throws, seeing ghosts in the pocket and making outright horrible decisions. The offense’s slow starts as a whole persist, too. The defense seems to need to get punched in the mouth before it wakes up and holds the edge defensively. 

So Saturday night showed us what 2024 Georgia is capable of — highs and lows. What exactly does that mean for the Bulldogs’ ceiling this fall?

Too be determined.

The Big 12 race is as wide-open as ever 

Just one week ago, Utah was in the driver’s seat as the top team in the Big 12, then Cam Rising missed a third-straight start and the Utes laid a total egg at home to Arizona. 

Now the conference of carnage seems set for two more months of chaos, where entering October as many as half the league can still make a realistic argument for getting to the Big 12 Championship. 

Utah remains a contender, but that might not be true if Rising doesn’t return too. Suddenly, an Arizona squad pushed aside is back in the mix — especially with what the trio of Noah Fifita, Tetairoa McMillan and PBU-All-Star corner Tacario Davis (five pass breakups against the Utes on Saturday) are capable of.

We can comfortably cross off Oklahoma State, which embarrassed itself for the second week in a row. But Kansas State bounced back in emphatic fashion and looks like the best team in the conference when all engines are a go. Iowa State continues to just put opposing offenses in a cyclone, while BYU is still undefeated. 

Texas Tech can score on any team in the league, and what about Colorado? 

Shedeur Sanders saved the Buffs’ season with his comeback heroics against Baylor, and then Colorado went and upset UCF 48-21 with another 300-yard, three-touchdown performance from its star quarterback. The Buffs still can’t block or play quality defense, but with Travis Hunter’s two-way brilliance, one of the top quarterbacks in the country slinging it to a loaded receiver room, Deion Sanders’ team has something. 

For at least one Saturday, they looked a whole lot more like a Big 12 contender than UCF. Will that still be the case in two weeks when they host K-State? Stay tuned. More anarchy may be on the way. 

Boise State or UNLV will be the G5 representative for the College Football Playoff

With apologies to the Troops (both Army and Navy are 4-0 for the first time since World War II!), JMU and Liberty, the highest-ranked Group of 5 champion will hail from the Mountain West this season — with either UNLV or Boise State grabbing a coveted spot in the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff. 

For at least one week, the Rebels won a very public PR battle with ex-quarterback Matthew Sluka, who left the program over an alleged NIL dispute of $100,000, and did not seem to be missed one bit. 

The word behind the scenes was that UNLV really liked its backup quarterback, and sure enough, Campbell transfer Hajj-Malik Williams, who ran with the 1s all spring, had 300 total yards and four touchdowns in UNLV’s 59-14 bludgeoning of Fresno State. No wonder UNLV’s wideout were tweeting their support for Williams amid the Sluka he said-he-said. 

The most encouraging takeaway for UNLV wasn’t just that its QB decision looked correct, but that with Williams being a better passer, star wideout Ricky White was suddenly a major factor in the offense again. White entered Saturday with just 10 receptions and three touchdowns, and he had as many catches (10 for 127) with two scores against the Bulldogs. 

UNLV has already banked non-conference wins against Houston and Kansas, and they host Syracuse next weekend. The Oct. 25 matchup against Boise State looms large — which should be the first of two meetings between the MWC foes. 

Boise State has the 37-34 loss to No. 8 Oregon on its ledger, but that’s hardly a demerit on their resume. A 45-24 splattering over undefeated Wazzu helps their case, too. 

It also doesn’t hurt the Broncos that they have one of the most electric and integral players in all of college football. 

Ashton Jeanty, 59 yards to the house. Cougs with a few more missed tackles.

Jeanty tonight: 18 carries, 218 yds, 3 TD

BSU 31, WSU 17 pic.twitter.com/fZvExf1aAA

— Greg Woods (@GregWWoods) September 29, 2024

What Ashton Jeanty is doing so far this season is bananas. The junior tailback had 259 yards and four touchdowns in the rout over Wazzu. He broke 17 tackles, per PFF, in the win, and now has 845 yards and 13 touchdowns on the season — easily the most in all of CFB. Jeanty has accounted for more than 40% of Boise State’s entire offense — and 50% of their touchdowns.