College Football Group of 5 Roundup (Week 5)

It’s Week 5 of the college football season, and we’ve already seen the Group of 5 pick up some solid wins over the Power 5. Now it’s everyone’s turn for conference play, so let’s take a look at some of the important matchups in all of the G5 conferences. 

All odds from DraftKings Sportsbook.

AAC

South Florida @ Navy

3:30 p.m. ET Saturday
Navy -4, O/U 53

Navy has had two weeks to go over some things after they lost a tough one to Memphis 28-24 on the road. The Middies have bounced back nicely from their awful effort Week 1 overseas vs. Notre Dame. USF has had quite the past few weeks after hanging tough with Alabama for three quarters and then picking up a 42-29 win over Rice at home to move to 1-0 in AAC play. These two haven’t met since 2019, and I think the Naval Academy is potentially the look here as the high of the past few games has to wear off eventually for the Bulls. 

Conference USA

Middle Tennessee @ Western Kentucky 

7:30 p.m. ET Thursday
Western Kentucky -5.5, O/U 60.5

The Hilltoppers wipe the slate clean as they begin conference play Thursday. WKU is 2-2 on the season, which is what they did last year in the nonconference games. It’s the same story in 2023 as the offense has tremendous potential, but the defense has been an issue. The Blue Raiders are the opposite as their defense has been very good, but it’s the offense that has let them down. It’s a short week so you usually lean to the home team, but Rick Stockstill is a very good coach and will have MTSU ready. 

MAC

Northern Illinois @ Toledo 

3:30 p.m. ET Saturday
Toledo -13, O/U 50

Toledo looks the part of a potential MAC repeat champion after another impressive victory last week. Their defense showed some holes, but the offense put up 49 in a 49-31 win over Western Michigan. Of course, of importance is the status of QB Daequan Finn, who left the game with an injury. Luckily the Rockets have Tucker Gleason who has some experience of his own. NIU is 1-3 after the offense scored 14 or less for the third straight game. The Huskies haven’t been able to get anything going and their defense has actually kept them in games. 

Mountain West

Hawaii @ UNLV

4 p.m. ET Saturday
UNLV -11, O/U 61

The Rebels are rolling offensively with their third 40-plus-point effort last week in a 45-28 win at UTEP. Jayden Maiava has been pretty solid under center, but it’s the ground game that has been huge for UNLV. They get a Hawaii team that’s looking to start the conference schedule 1-0 Saturday after completing their nonconference slate 2-3. Clearly things have improved in year two for Timmy Chang with Brayden Schager at quarterback, but we’ll see if they improved at all away from home in this one and if they can compete against a great offense. 

San Diego State @ Air Force 

8 p.m. ET Saturday
Air Force -11, O/U 42.5

This game was supposed to mean so much more in the Mountain West race, but San Diego State has lost three straight as the defense isn’t the stout unit it was in the past. The offense has been the issue in a couple of their games as well as Jalen Mayden hasn’t taken the leap some people thought he would in Ryan Lindley’s offense. Air Force is feeling good after their 45-20 win at San Jose State, which moved them to 4-0 on the year. The Falcons had so many questions about their offense with Haaziq Daniels departing, but so far so good.

Sun Belt

South Alabama @ James Madison 

Noon ET Saturday
James Madison -3, O/U 51.5

The Dukes are finally home after three straight on the road. They answered every question we had over that span with an emotional win at Virginia, a defensive win at Troy and a shootout victory over Utah State. If this was the NBA, we’d wonder if the Dukes struggle in their first game at home after all that, but of course football is different. The Jaguars looked great at Oklahoma State in a 33-7 win, but then was bad at home against Central Michigan as a double-digit favorite. These two teams didn’t play last year, but it’ll be a good one in the Fun Belt. 

Coastal Carolina @ Georgia Southern 

7 p.m. ET Saturday
Georgia Southern -6.5, O/U 62

The Chanticleers are 0-1 in conference after their 30-17 loss to Georgia State at home. Their defense just couldn’t slow down the Panthers, and now they get another high-powered offense. The Eagles won at Ball State 40-3 last week and finished the non-conference3-1 overall. Davis Brin and this offense has been spectacular under Clay Helton and their defense is doing just enough to get by. Last year Coastal won 34-30 as a 10-point favorite at home.