Takeaways from College Football Week 5: Miami looks elite, Alabama’s offense rolls

College football is unpredictable and delightful, which is why we live for what happens on Saturdays. And Week 5 absolutely delivered, from fireworks at the new stadium in Evanston to the statement made by Mizzou in CoMo.

Each Sunday, I’ll publish my biggest takeaways from the college football weekend. I’ll highlight the most interesting storylines, track College Football Playoff contenders and specifically shout out individual and team performances that deserve the spotlight.

1. Miami might be the best team in the country, but we won’t know for sure for another month.

 No offense to Wake Forest. Some offense to Clemson. But Miami hasn’t been truly challenged yet (unless you count injury luck). And as fun as it is to watch Darian Mensah have as much time as he needs to throw the ball, it’s also not teaching us much about the ‘Canes overall. Miami’s schedule is weaker than Notre Dame’s — which is being held up as the example — which means that the Hurricanes really are not expected be challenged by an ACC foe at any point. Perhaps Pitt? Maybe Duke? I don’t know. I truly don’t think we’ll know just how good Miami is until we see that team against Notre Dame in South Bend.

2. Alabama’s offense is scary good.

Now that’s what a Kalen DeBoer team is supposed to look like. We all remember what Michael Penix Jr. looked like throwing to all those future NFL draft picks. It was an insanely fun and creative offense, and there were just so many different receivers who could break a game open. This year’s Alabama offense reminds me of that, led masterfully by quarterback Keelon Russell.

The Crimson Tide have scored 45 or more points in their first five games. It’s the first time Alabama has opened its season with five games of 45 or more points since 2018. That team was pretty good, too, huh?

3. Week 5 was a mixed bag for coaches on the hot seat.

Mike Norvell entered the season on the hottest seat in the country and then watched as his athletic director was fired mid-September. Norvell was a big winner on Saturday, as Florida State beat Virginia, 38-7. Meanwhile, Luke Fickell’s Badgers crushed Michigan State, 31-3, to improve to 4-1. Fickell’s seat has cooled considerably, and this Wisconsin team is definitely better than it’s been.

Meanwhile, Shane Beamer and Mike Locksley saw leads evaporate and their teams suffer painful losses (South Carolina in overtime, Maryland to an eventual blowout). And may I suggest a new name for the hot-seat list? I’d like to nominate Cal first-year coach Tosh Lupoi. I know, I know. It’s just his first season. But after losing to UNLV, Cal is just 2-3 with an offensive coordinator who had never been an OC or play-caller at the college or professional level before.

4. Eli Drinkwitz and Missouri finally got their big win.

All week, everyone wanted to talk about whether Missouri deserved to be ranked. Hand up — I didn’t rank the Tigers! I didn’t think they deserved to be ranked. And now I do, because they completely shut down a previously explosive and prolific Florida offense. Austin Simmons also torched a rather suspect Florida defense to the tune of 340 passing yards and two touchdowns. So, I ranked Missouri. It’s Eli Drinkwitz’s first regular-season win over a top-10 team in 11 tries. “It's a good win against a really good team today. That's all it was,” Drinkwitz said, downplaying past struggles against the SEC’s — and college football’s — elite. “Nobody in our locker room could care less about that. I couldn't care less about that. I really couldn't care less. The SEC is a hard league, and yeah, I'm done with that."

5. Chip Kelly was the most important coordinator hire of the offseason.

Cue the hard-hat photo. Kelly came back to college and went to work on a new-look — and suddenly versatile, surprisingly explosive — Northwestern offense. And it’s working well! The Wildcats tallied 413 (!) rushing yards in their win over Penn State on Friday night while holding the Nittany Lions to just 48 yards on the ground. It was as thorough a beatdown as the 34-13 final score indicated, a big-time win to christen the brand-new Ryan Field. This is a good football team that can win games in different ways. It’s also a team that went toe-to-toe with the defending national champs a couple of weeks ago and showed that it’ll be a tough out in Big Ten play.

“I tried to tell everybody Northwestern was a good football team, but nobody was buying that,” Curt Cignetti said after the Hoosiers beat the Wildcats by six points. “Two years ago, if people said Indiana was a good football team people weren't buying that stock either.”

That’s a heck of a compliment. It’s also true.

6. Jeremiah Smith is still very, very good at football.

No explanation needed.