The hot seat boils within the Eastern Time Zone, and the quotes are goofiest in South Carolina.
At Alabama, a 315-pound man flashed the Heisman pose — not because he thinks he’s going to win the award, but because he thinks his quarterback will.
That's not a crazy take, even if Ohio State's Jeremiah Smith reminded us he’s “the best player in the country,” and nobody argued.
In a sign of the apocalypse, Southern Cal’s defense made a winning stop, as Lincoln Riley raised his arms in triumph, because ugly wins count, too.
Here's what's on my mind after Week 5:
Yikes, Penn State looks soft under Matt Campbell
Part of what made James Franklin so reliable at Penn State is also what made him so maddening. You knew exactly
what to expect from Franklin and his teams, in ways both good and bad.
His Nittany Lions would be resolute along the lines of scrimmage. They’d run the ball well. They’d pass it not well enough to elevate from good to elite.
His consistency of double-digit-win seasons became as commendable as his inability to win a big game was nauseating, spurring the sarcastic nickname “Big Game James.”
Franklin was a turkey sandwich. You knew what you were getting, with few surprises, until he deviated script in the final hour of his tenure and lost to two opponents he typically would’ve beaten.
Penn State was due for a change. The change produced a chaotic coaching search, before the hiring of Matt Campbell. Campbell assembled a team that would be reduced to a pulp if it went up against up a vintage Franklin-coached squad.
Or, as it happened on Friday, reduced to a pulp by Northwestern.
Campbell’s Nittany Lions look like a middling Big 12 team playing dress-up in a Big Ten uniform.
Because, that’s exactly what this team is.
Campbell imported his Iowa State roster and expected it to work in the Big Ten. I’ll admit, I thought Penn State would look better than this, not because I loved Campbell’s 2025 Cyclones, but because the Nittany Lions got an enviable Big Ten schedule draw.
Penn State’s back-to-back losses to Wisconsin and Northwestern proved a mid-level Big 12 roster will struggle against mid-grade Big Ten opponents.
Worst of all for Penn State, it lost its identity. It’s getting whipped at the line of scrimmage. Northwestern outrushed Penn State 413 to 48 in a rout. That’s not a misprint. The odd part is, Campbell’s Iowa State teams were rarely electrifying, but they weren’t soft. This team is.
Campbell quite obviously misjudged the uptick in competition from the Big 12 to the Big Ten. Most first-year coaches within this landscape must rely on transfers. Campbell’s mistake was thinking most of those transfers could come from Iowa State, and that’d be good enough for Penn State.
Veteran Rocco Becht already had proven he was an average Big 12 quarterback. Unsurprisingly, that equates to a below-average Big Ten quarterback.
Becht’s shaky performance isn’t nearly as jarring as it is seeing Penn State getting dominated in the trenches.
“The standard of what this program plays football with — the attitude, the effort, the toughness — we lacked it in every way, shape, and form (against Northwestern), and I put a lot of that on me,” Campbell said after the loss.
The only silver lining for Penn State? Officials ruled Virginia Tech’s game-winning field goal attempt no good, robbing Franklin of the chance to celebrate a 5-0 record.
After a perfect September, Franklin lost his first big game as Virginia Tech’s coach. At least some things never change.
South Carolina, Clemson dueling for misery
Just when you think a coach couldn’t offer a batch of rhetoric more inane than Shane Beamer’s “hell of a practice” routine at South Carolina, Dabo Swinney stepped to the mic and said Clemson “absolutely” is in the hunt for an ACC title after a 28-point loss to Miami.
Swinney made himself into a legend, but by the time his tenure ends, Clemson could be back in the place where Swinney found it, ranking as an average ACC team.
If Swinney had a sense of adventure, he’d ask John Calipari for the chicken man’s phone number and inquire whether Arkansas is ready for another coaching change.
You might be thinking, “Didn’t Arkansas just hire Ryan Silverfield in November?”
I might be thinking I’ve seen enough to know I’ve seen too much of Silverfield at Arkansas.
I’ve also seen enough of Clemson to know it’s not winning the ACC.
Notre Dame is undefeated, but are Irish elite?
The obvious take from Notre Dame’s 37-26 win at North Carolina is that Bill Belichick is progressing toward finding out college football’s indefatigable maxim is, “Fire everybody!”
The more nuanced take: Is something off with Notre Dame?
The Irish are undefeated, and their offense dominated Belichick’s defense, but they failed to crush UNC in the manner you might expect from a team with national championship aspirations. That's becoming a theme.
A few weeks ago, Notre Dame let a bad Michigan State team hang close for much too long. Against Wisconsin, the Irish struggled in the first half of what ultimately became a blowout win.
None of this should spark panic in South Bend. CJ Carr looks sharp, and the ground game delivered its best outing yet on a day when Notre Dame needed it, in wet conditions.
The Irish don’t look as polished as Georgia, Miami or Alabama. Notre Dame’s schedule is such that it won’t be tested often in the regular season, but don’t confuse an undefeated record with unparalleled brilliance.
Off the hot seat?
Before the season, I earmarked six coaches as being on the hottest seats in the nation.
Of that contingent, Belichick, Beamer and Maryland’s Mike Locksley remain surrounded by flames, and they’re fighting the inferno with a water pistol.
In contrast, Luke Fickell (Wisconsin), Mike Norvell (Florida State) and Dave Aranda (Baylor) are fighting with enough vigor that they might last into 2027.
Aranda is 3 feet away from being undefeated. October is filled with winnable games for Baylor. The Bears need to pad their record before closing against BYU, Texas Tech and Houston, three of the Big 12’s top-four teams.
Wisconsin alumnus Jason Eck seemed like a ready-made candidate for the Badgers. He’s been masterful at New Mexico. Fickell could foil that plan by continuing to win. Wisconsin is 4-1 after trouncing Michigan State. A peek at the schedule shows a realistic avenue for eight-plus victories, which would be good for Fickell’s best season at Wisconsin.
The Seminoles routing Virginia won’t absolve Norvell for past losses, but alleviates the heat for one week, anyway. Florida State's upcoming stretch of Louisville, Miami and Clemson feels like a make-or-break swing.
Three and out
1. Josh Heupel appears to have chosenthe wrong starting quarterback again (just as he did in 2021), but he hired the right defensive coordinator. Jim Knowles shook off that bad cup of coffee at Penn State and regained his form. His defense is why Tennessee beat Auburn, 24-14, allowing the Vols to remain ranked despite their quarterback warts.
2. Kenny Dillingham stayed at Arizona State too long. He didn't parlay his Cam Skattebo-fueled success into a better job, and now his Sun Devils are losing 55-19 to Baylor.
3. The voters in the US LBM Coaches Poll aren’t ready to admit it, but Utah is the team to beat in the Big 12.
One for the road
It’s official: The 2026 Florida Gators are not 2019 LSU. Glad Missouri could clear that up for us.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's senior national college football columnist. Listen to his podcast, "College Football Unfiltered." Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: James Franklin was maddening at Penn State. This is so much worse | Opinion
