Brian’s College Football Top 5: Week 7

Photo by Lydia Ely from The Associated Press

We’re now halfway through the college football season, and we have officially entered prime firing season, with three coaches losing their jobs Sunday, some bigger firings than others.

Tough times.

Here is this weeks top 5.

5. Pitt Panthers

It has been almost an entire calendar year since Pitt beat a Power 5 opponent.

What better way to break the streak than going on the road and upsetting Florida State in Tallahassee?

True freshman QB Mason Heintschel has been a breath of fresh air for a struggling offense, and might just be the future at Pitt.

4. USC Trojans

It was a long bye week for the USC Trojans after a tough loss to Illinois, and they welcomed in a tough and improving Michigan team.

And Lincoln Riley schemed up an offense that sliced and diced Wink Martindale’s Michigan defense for an easy 31-13 victory.

USC is a very sneaky 5-1.

3. Marshall Thundering Herd

Old Dominion was red hot, and was frankly looking at a possible playoff run considering their future schedule.

All that was left was a tough game against James Madison.

But they overlooked their current game against Marshall, and Marshall made them pay with a dominant 48-24 win at home for the biggest win of Tony Gibson’s young tenure as the Marshall boss.

2. Northwestern Wildcats

Penn State’s loss last week to UCLA was bad.

Historically bad, actually.

So Northwestern unfortunately had to be the sacrificial lamb for a pissed off Penn State team at home.

The problem is, nobody told Northwestern they were supposed to be a sacrifice, because that defense came to play in a BIG way, with some crucial red zone interceptions and fourth down stops.

Northwestern’s 22-21 upset over Penn State was not only a big win going forward for the Wildcats, but was the final nail in the coffin of James Franklin’s tenure at Penn State.

A win so surprising that it gets a coach fired always feels good.

And if you’re saying to yourself “Brian, you shouldn’t want people to get fired,” James Franklin is getting paid 50 million dollars to not coach football. He’ll be fine.

1. Indiana Hoosiers

Last year, Indiana was the talk of the college football world because they went 11-1 and simply had to be a playoff team to protect the sanctity of the regular season, even though nobody believed they were that good.

I claimed Indiana was just flat out really good after their absolute demolition of Illinois a few weeks back, and I was proven right by Indiana’s huge win against Oregon at the Autzen Zoo.

This was a statement by Indiana that they aren’t just simply a team winning games to be a playoff team.

They’re a legitimate title contender.