College football has 3 teams rising, 3 teams falling after Week 5

Week 5 of the 2025 college football had a little bit of everything.

Fans storming the field on Friday night. A relationship between a star linebacker and the opposing coach’s daughter being hard launched in the days leading up to a game. A double-overtime contest between a pair of teams ranked inside the Top 10.

And Bowling Green’s beloved Pudge taking a week off to rest.

Let’s get into the week that was with the three teams trending up, and the three teams trending down, after this week’s games.

Up: Mississippi

With under two minutes remaining at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium Saturday, No. 13 Mississippi held a 24-19 lead over LSU, as well as possession of the football.

But Lane Kiffin faced a decision against No. 4 LSU.

With Mississippi facing a 4th and 3 at the LSU 35-yard line, would he send kicker Lucas Carneiro into the game for a long field goal try, or would he keep his offense — led by backup quarterback Trinidad Chambliss — in the game?

Kiffin kept his offense on the field, and his backup iced the game:

The Mississippi head coach also had a little left for social media after the win:

What a win. What a sport.

Down: Florida State

As the seconds ticked down Friday night at Scott Stadium, Virginia fans could barely contain their excitement. Their beloved Cavaliers were seconds away from closing out a stunning upset of eighth-ranked Florida State, and the student body could not wait to storm the field.

They would need to wait a little longer, as a dramatic fourth-down pass from quarterback Tommy Castellanos to tight end Randy Pittman Jr. pulled the visitors within one, with the extra point helping to send the game to overtime.

But in the second overtime, Virginia quarterback Chandler Morris scored from four yards out to give the Cavaliers the lead, and when Castanellos was intercepted on FSU’s next possession, the fans got their chance.

It was a bitter loss for the Seminoles and head coach Mike Norvell, who pointed to Florida State’s slow start after the defeat. “They started fast, took advantage of some of the mistakes we had early,” said Norvell. “We did not get off to the start that we needed to have.”

Redemption could come quickly for the Seminoles, who face Miami next weekend.

“We have a big opportunity here in front of us next week, a huge game for us, for our program and university,” Norvell added. “There are some big steps we need to take as a football team to be able to handle that environment and emotions and make sure our discipline and execution is what it needs to be.” 

Up: Oregon

“That’s a walk-off, white-out winner for the Ducks!”

That was the call on NBC when Purdue transfer Dillon Thieneman leapt in front of a Drew Allar pass in the second overtime to seal a huge win for Oregon on the road, in front of a White Out at Penn State.

The matchup between No. 3 Penn State and No. 6 Oregon was the biggest game on the slate, and it lived up to the hype. The visitors got out to a 17-3 lead on a touchdown run from Jordon Davison early in the fourth quarter, but Penn State stormed back with a pair of touchdowns in the final ten minutes to force extra football.

After the teams traded touchdowns in the first overtime, Oregon quarterback Dante Moore connected on his third touchdown pass of the night, this time to Gary Bryant Jr. While Moore was intercepted on the ensuing two-point try, it set the stage for Thieneman’s heroics.

After those heroics, Oregon head coach Dan Lanning struggled to find the words to describe the win:

The win improved the Ducks to 2-0 in the Big Ten, tied with Indiana atop the conference.

As luck would have it, those two teams square off in Oregon’s next game, coming after a bye week. With Indiana and USC the only two ranked teams left on Oregon’s schedule, the win over Penn State could prove massive at the end of the season.

Down: LSU

Following a 20-10 win over the Florida Gators, LSU head coach Brian Kelly was asked if he had any concerns about LSU’s offensive production.

The head coach did not take kindly to the question.

“Stop. Really?” Kelly shot back during his post-game press conference after the win over Florida. “Is that the first question? We won the game 20-10. Try another question. What do you want me to tell you? I just laid it out for you. We played the game to win the game.”

Kelly eventually apologized to the reporter, but the questions about the LSU offense did not go away overnight.

And they remain after Saturday’s 24-19 loss to Mississippi.

Granted, LSU was without top running back Caden Durham, but the Tigers gained just 57 yards on the ground. Quarterback Garrett Nussmeier managed to connect on 21-of-34 passes for 197 yards and a touchdown, but did throw an interception early in the second quarter.

Kelly, in his post-game comments, pointed to a lack of “complementary” football.

Given some of the games LSU has coming up, they’ll need to play complementary football sooner rather than later. But as things stand right now, LSU’s two biggest wins have come against Clemson and Florida, two teams not even receiving votes in the Top 25.

Up: Alabama

When the Alabama Crimson Tide opened their season with a 14-point loss to Florida State, questions about the tenure of Kalen DeBoer flooded the airwaves in Tuscaloosa.

It got so bad that Alabama fans were hoping to win Powerball to finance DeBoer’s buyout:

That fan, Susie Conerly, might feel a bit better about Alabama’s head coach today.

The Crimson Tide went into Athens and knocked off No. 5 Georgia, behind three total touchdowns from quarterback Ty Simpson and a defense that stopped Georgia on downs early in the fourth quarter, and forced a loss on third down later in the quarter that led to a Georgia punt, and a chance for Alabama to run out the clock.

After that season-opening loss, the Crimson Tide tumbled down the rankings.

But going on the road to knock off Georgia in their SEC opener likely pulls Alabama back up those same rankings.

Down: Georgia

As for the Bulldogs, Kirby Smart fell to 1-7 all-time against Alabama, a fact that was brought up in his post-game press conference.

There are some silver linings for Georgia. After falling behind 24-14, Georgia held Alabama scoreless in the second half and limited the Tide to only 135 yards over the final 30 minutes. After giving up 262 yards and eight third-down conversions in the first half, the Georgia defense put the Bulldogs in position to come back and win the game.

This loss will drop Georgia down the rankings, but with games remaining against ranked opponents such as Mississippi, Texas, and Georgia Tech, the Bulldogs will have several chances to bounce back.