Week five of the college football season features the most contests with ranked teams so far this fall as five games highlight the schedule.
Three of the affairs are in the Southeastern Conference as No. 3 Mississippi (3-1, 1-1) visits No. 25 Florida (4-0, 2-0), No. 8 Georgia (3-1, 1-1) entertains No. 13 Alabama (3-1, 1-0) and No. 21 Mississippi State (2-2, 1-1) is at No. 14 Texas A&M (4-0, 1-0).
The other two games are No. 6 Notre Dame (4-0) at No. 12 Clemson (3-0) and the Big 12 opener for rivals No. 23 West Virginia (3-0, 0-0) with a trip to No. 15 Oklahoma (3-0, 0-0).
Mississippi is coming off a 27-16 win over SEC foe Vanderbilt.
“Ole Miss is a highly-ranked opponent that has everything going for them,” Florida Head Coach Jim McElwain said. “I remember when I was in the SEC a ways back and now when I see them on film, this is a totally different Ole Miss team from a talent standpoint. You can obviously see what they’re doing in recruiting is paying huge dividends because of the players they have on both sides of the ball.”
Florida beat Tennessee 28-27 for its second conference win of the season.
“When you have a quality opponent that is very well coached and very confident right now, a team that is ranked in the top-25 right now, it is going to test you,” Mississippi Head Coach Hugh Freeze said.
Alabama blanked non-conference opponent Louisiana-Monroe 34-0 last week.
“This game is obviously an exciting game for our team,” Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban said. “They’ve been consistently very good. This year’s team has a lot of players coming back. Offensively, defensively, special teams; they are very solid in all areas as their statistics really prove out. This is a good team all the way around, and it’s going to be challenging to go on the road and play a team like this. I think our team is excited about the challenges that we have ahead of us. We certainly want to focus on the things we need to do, and go over there and play the best game possible.”
Georgia Head Coach Mark Richt agreed with Saban as far as being an exciting contest.
“A lot of people have been excited about this for a while, at least that’s what I hear,” Richt said. “I know we’re excited because we’re playing them this week.”
Mississippi State and Texas A&M are both riding high after winning SEC contests a week ago. Mississippi State upended Auburn 17-9 and Texas A&M needed overtime to sneak past Arkansas 28-21.
Notre Dame is looking for its fifth straight win after beating Massachusetts 62-27 last week. Clemson was idle last week, but defeated Louisville 20-17 in its most recent battle.
West Virginia and Oklahoma are both unbeaten as they begin conference play. West Virginia took care of Maryland 45-6, while Oklahoma got past in-state foe Tulsa 52-38.
Here are the rest of the Top 25 games: No. 1 Ohio State (4-0) at Indiana (4-0); Purdue (1-3) at No. 2 Michigan State (4-0); Texas (1-3, 0-1) at No. 4 TCU (4-0, 1-0); Texas Tech (2-2, 0-0) at No. 5 Baylor (3-0, 0-0); Arizona State (2-2, 0-1) at No. 7 UCLA (4-0, 1-0); Eastern Michigan (1-3) at No. 9 LSU (3-0); No. 11 Florida State (3-0, 1-0) at Wake Forest (2-2, 0-1); Minnesota (2-2, 0-0) at No. 16 Northwestern (4-0, 0-0); Arizona (2-2, 0-1) at No. 18 Stanford (3-1, 2-0); Iowa (4-0, 0-0) at No. 19 Wisconsin (2-2, 0-0); Kansas State (3-0, 0-0) at No. 20 Oklahoma State (4-0, 1-0); No. 22 Michigan (3-1, 0-0) at Maryland (2-2, 0-0) and Washington State (2-1, 0-0) at No. 24 California (4-0, 1-0).
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