2015 e-Systems College Football Pool – Week 5 Results

Welcome to October! After five weeks, there are twenty undefeated teams left in the FBS. A fun fact about each:

• #1 Ohio State has been playing with fire: two of their wins are by a single touchdown.
• #2 TCU’s Trevone Boykin broke Andy Dalton’s school record for passing TDs last week; he now has 74.
• #3 Baylor’s lowest scoring output this year is 56 points. They’re averaging a shade under 64 per game.
• #4 Michigan State hasn’t had to leave the state of Michigan yet; their first trip outside the Great Lakes State is this weekend against Rutgers.
• #5 Utah has perhaps one of the best non-conference wins in their season-opener 24-17 win over Michigan; the Utes are the only team to score more than seven points on the Wolverines.
• #6 Clemson has two wins against Power 5 schools by an average of 2.5 points, and two against non-Power 5 by an average of 35 points.
• #7 LSU’s Leonard Fournette became the first SEC running back to rush for over 200 yards in three straight games in their win over Eastern Michigan.
• #9 Texas A&M is the lowest-ranked team with a first-place vote; it helps that they have two wins over then top-25 competition.
• #10 Oklahoma has a win by single digits (31-24 over Tennessee), by 10-19 points (52-38 over Tulsa), by 20-29 (44-24 over West Virginia), and by 30+ (41-3 over Akron).
• #11 Florida has followed three wins by a touchdown or less over unranked teams with a 28-point win over the then-#3 team in the country.
• #12 Florida State has played both of its conference games on the road, and somewhat struggled; they’ve won by 14 and 8 points. They don’t play on the road again until the 24^th of October.
• #13 Northwestern had its first shutout of a Big Ten team in twenty years on Saturday in a 27-0 win over Minnesota.
• #21 Oklahoma State had their second straight game with a game winning field goal in the last minute in a 36-34 win over Kansas State.
• #22 Iowa is the only team in the country that has not given up a rushing touchdown.
• #23 California is off to its first 5-0 start since 2007. Hopefully it turns out better in the end; the Bears finished 7-6 that year.
• #24 Toledo owns two wins over Power 5 teams (Arkansas and Iowa State); they’re the only two Power 5 teams the Rockets will play.
• Houston has the #4 offense in the country; only Baylor, TCU, and Texas Tech average more yards per game.
• Temple is off to its first 4-0 start since 1974; counting the previous year, that team at one point had a 14-game winning streak, the longest in school history.
• Memphis has the #4 scoring offense in the country; only (you guessed it) Baylor, TCU, and Texas Tech score more points per game.
• Navy averages the third-most rushing yards per game in the country.

In small school news, Minnesota State beat Upper Iowa 38-10 on Saturday to improve to 5-0.  The Mavericks, currently ranked the #1 team in Division II, have won 38 straight conference games, and have not given up a point in the second half of any game thus far this year, outscoring opponents 129-0.  The Mavericks were the Division II runner-up last year to Colorado State-Pueblo; will this be the year they win their first football national championship?

Congratulations to AllySun, who wins week 5 with 171 points!  Tied for second were JG Bama and pachyderm, who each had 169 points.

Standings after five weeks (dropping two lowest weeks’ scores):

As the seasons change and the air gets cooler, the games get tougher!  The first game this week is Washington at USC, Thursday, October 8 @ 9 PM ET, so make sure to get your picks in by then!