On a Saturday where the Alabama Crimson Tide–Georgia Bulldogs clash stole the show, here are five (well, slightly more than five) takeaways from an exciting Week 5 across college football.

1. The Kentucky Wildcats validate strength of their defense in road upset of the No. 6 Ole Miss Rebels

Kentucky’s offense in 2024 remains a work in progress (to say the least), but after Saturday’s road upset of No. 6 Ole Miss—Big Blue’s first win in Oxford, Miss., since 1978—there’s very little dispute about the Wildcats’ defense.

They’re elite.

Kentucky recorded four sacks, seven tackles for loss and held a potent Ole Miss offense to just 3.2 yards per rush on 29 attempts and a 1-for-10 mark on third down.

Sure, the Rebels still racked up the passing yards, primarily in the form of the Jaxson Dart–Tre Harris connection that led to 11 completions for 176 yards and a touchdown. But everything else for Ole Miss was made difficult by Kentucky’s consistent defensive pressure all game long. 

The Wildcats showed their teeth defensively in a near home upset of then-No. 1 Georgia earlier this month, but validated their performance with another lights-out effort on Saturday.

Kentucky is now 3–2 and 1–2 in SEC play. It is not a conference title contender, but could certainly play spoiler to SEC hopefuls in the No. 6 Tennessee Volunteers and No. 1 Texas Longhorns that are still to come on the schedule this fall.

2. Controversial Friday night ending to the No. 7 Miami Hurricanes’ victory over the Virginia Tech Hokies underscores growing officiating problem in college football

No. 7 Miami was caught in a dogfight with preseason ACC darling Virginia Tech—a Hokies bunch that fell out of favor after dropping their opener on the road to the Vanderbilt Commodores and following it up three weeks later with a home loss to the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.

Virginia Tech head coach Brent Pry had a couple of game management decisions that he’d certainly like to have back. These decisions included a prematurely called timeout prior to a 57-yard field goal before halftime that allowed enough time for Miami to drive down the field with 25 seconds left and kick a field goal. The Hokies also tried a fake field in the third quarter off a Cam Ward interception that would have given them a 13-point lead.

But ultimately, it all came down to a final drive offensively for the Hokies. Trailing 38–34 with three seconds remaining, Virginia Tech quarterback Kyron Drones lofted a pass into the back left corner of the end zone. The ball was juggled by a host of players, before it appeared that Virginia Tech wide receiver Da’Quan Felton came up with the football. What was unclear was whether or not he gained sole possession before a Miami defender ripped it free in the scramble for the ball.

The officials concluded it was a Virginia Tech touchdown, which should have scored the Hokies one of their biggest road upsets in years. However, after a replay review that lasted for over five minutes, the conference’s officiating command center determined Felton never gained possession. 

There didn’t appear to be conclusive evidence to prove the call on the field should have been overturned, but it was anyway, scoring Miami a narrow victory.

Virginia Tech made plenty of mistakes that cost it a victory, but the game-ending kick in the teeth from the ACC officials underscored the growing sentiment across college football that the sport has an officiating problem.

3. The Auburn Tigers snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, and once again, a turnover was the culprit

One week removed from turning the ball over five times in a 24–14 home loss to the Arkansas Razorbacks, Auburn again had turnover problems at the worst time in a 27–21 home loss to the No. 21 Oklahoma Sooners. 

With the Tigers leading 21–16 with just over four minutes to play, Auburn starting quarterback Payton Thorne felt pressure from his right side and threw an inexplicable pass over the middle right into the arms of Oklahoma linebacker Kip Lewis. The redshirt sophomore took the interception back 61 yards for the touchdown in the deciding score of the contest.

Auburn’s Hugh Freeze needs to right the ship, and fast, or things could go sideways quickly heading into Year 3 if the Tigers continue to let victories slip away by self-inflicted mistakes.

4. The Colorado Buffaloes win again as Travis Hunter continues to make his Heisman Trophy case

Colorado’s dominant 48–21 road win on Saturday at the UCF Knights marked not only the biggest win of the Deion Sanders era in Boulder, Colo., but also another step toward legitimizing Travis Hunter’s Heisman case.

Hunter is arguably the best player in college football. He’s more than worthy of winning the Heisman. But in order to capture the sport’s most iconic individual award, team success is almost always a prerequisite. Hunter is one of the only players in college football who plays both offense and defense, and nobody plays both wide receiver and defensive back to the level he does.

Hunter caught nine passes for 89 yards and a touchdown and added an interception on defense against UCF.

Colorado is 4–1 and 2–0 in Big 12 play. The Buffs are off next week before hosting a ranked Kansas State Wildcats team. Colorado has improved after a rocky Year 1 under Sanders, but will need to continue to stack wins for Hunter to have a real shot of capturing the Heisman.

5. No Matthew Sluka? No problem for the Group of 5 CFP hopeful UNLV Rebels

It was quite the week for UNLV’s football program.

First came a late Tuesday social media post from starting quarterback Matthew Sluka, who announced his decision to sit out the rest of the season, redshirt and transfer amid alleged “representations” (NIL payments) that were not met.

Next came a PR messaging war that pitted UNLV and its NIL collective against Sluka’s camp. In the end, there was no executed written contract binding UNILV (yes, that’s the name of the collective) to any sort of payment obligation to Sluka.

On the field, UNLV needed to continue the momentum built by the program’s first 3–0 record in 40 years with the Fresno State Bulldogs in town to kick off Mountain West play. 

The result? A 59–14 drubbing by the Rebels in which newly minted starter Hajj-Malik Williams accounted for 182 passing yards, 119 rushing yards and four total touchdowns.

After a week marked by tumult, the Rebels have come out on the other side with their most lopsided victory of the season and perhaps their first AP Top 25 ranking in program history come Sunday.

OXFORD − There’s a downside to 11 a.m. kicks for Ole Miss football coach Lane Kiffin. When games start in the morning, it’s harder to move on from a loss.

“It’s 3 o’clock, so you’ve got all day to sit around and deal with this,” Kiffin said. “It could have went our way so many different ways and we didn’t make the plays. We didn’t close them out.”

Ole Miss lost 20-17 to Kentucky at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on Saturday. It was a cool, overcast homecoming game with a record crowd of 67,616 on hand to watch. That record wasn’t announced midgame on the videoboard.

As nervousness turned into dread, there weren’t many times where the fans were ready to celebrate. After four weeks of decimating teams, No. 6 Ole Miss (4-1, 0-1 SEC) played poorly in offense, defense and special teams. Kentucky (3-2, 1-2) took advantage.

That’s what made Saturday especially long for Kiffin. The loss was a result of team-wide scuffling.

“All three phases had chances to win the game, or at least tie the game, and didn’t do it,” Kiffin said. “Credit (Kentucky). Big win for them. But very discouraging, disappointing.”

Ole Miss special team’s chance was evident with 48 seconds to go. Senior kicker Caden Davis’ potential game-tying field goal sailed wide left. There was more to it than that, though.

The Rebels’ offense entered the game averaging 582 yards per game. On Saturday they gained 353. Third downs were especially problematic. Ole Miss moved the chains just once in 10 third-down snaps.

“We got caught in too many ‘third-and-longs’ and we play in the SEC and that’s really hard to convert,” quarterback Jaxson Dart said. “There’s a lot of things that we need to look at on tape and find ways not to be in that situation again.”

A season-low offensive output combined with lackluster defensive play. The Rebels defense did come up big at times, especially the defensive front that sacked Kentucky quarterback Brock Vandagriff five times. Surrendering late big plays and penalties, though, doomed the Rebels defense.

With Kentucky in desperation mode facing fourth-and-7 on its 20-yard line, the Wildcats hit a 63-yard pass down the left sideline with 3:49 left. Vandagriff stood in the pocket against pressure and sailed a deep ball to Barion Brown that beat man coverage with a go route. It led to the eventual game-tying touchdown.

“There’s good moments and there’s bad moments, we have to do a better job of relating to routes and making plays on the ball,” safety Trey Washington said. “We just have to get better overall as a team.”

Kiffin said all three phases playing poorly simultaneously was too much to overcome.

“Those things just aren’t going to add up very well,” Kiffin said.

Sam Hutchens covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at Shutchens@gannett.com or reach him on X at @Sam_Hutchens_

Several counties and cities in eastern and central Kentucky declared states of emergencies after remnants of Hurricane Helene — now considered a post-tropical cyclone by the National Hurricane Center — pounded the region with heavy rain and winds Friday.

After making landfall in northwest Florida’s Big Bend region Thursday night as a category four storm, Hurricane Helene’s remnants migrated into Kentucky, wreaking fallen trees, downed electrical lines and widespread power outages.

Gov. Andy Beshear announced on social media that the following counties declared states of emergencies Friday:

• Boyd County
• Breathitt County
• Clark County
• Clay County
• Lee County
• Letcher County
• Magoffin County
• Wolfe County

Gov. Andy Beshear said the following cities declared states of emergencies Friday:

• Ashland
• Catlettsburg
• Clay City
• Winchester

Power outages impacted roughly 221,000 households across the state Friday, Beshear said.

Alex Vorst, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service Office Jackson, Kentucky, which oversees forecasting for many of the areas that sustained the worst damage, said fallen trees and powerlines were the primary sources of damage. Wind gusts above 40 mph and the damp ground caused by steady rain created conditions for trees and poles to topple over, he said.

The National Weather Service Office Jackson is close to verifying the damage within their territory with emergency dispatch centers in each of the impacted counties, Vorst said.

Parts of eastern Kentucky received rain Tuesday and Wednesday prior to the arrival of Helene’s remnants. The mounting rainfall throughout Friday compounded the impacts of the wind, Vorst said.

“You’re having essentially four days of nonstop rain. That’s going to make soil saturated, and when you throw 40-55 mph wind gusts on top of that, it really makes it easy for trees to fall down. And that’s a big part of what we saw yesterday,” Vorst said.

Tony Edwards, spokesperson for the National Weather Service Forecast Office Charleston, which oversees Boyd County, reported a similar scope of damages in northeast Kentucky. Boyd County suffered significant tree damage, he said.

With trees still covered with leaves this time of year, wind has more surface area to catch and pull off tree limbs, Edwards said.

“When you get that kind of wind with trees leafed-out, it’ll do quite a bit of damage,” he said.

The number of people without power is steadily dropping. As of 11 a.m. Saturday, more than 130,500 customers are without power.

Windy conditions are expected to fade throughout Saturday, though southern and eastern sections of central Kentucky could still see gusts at speeds 20-25 mph, according to the National Weather Service Louisville. Rain is expected to stick around through the weekend and early into next week, Vorst said. As of late Saturday morning, the center of the weather system is hanging over the western portion of the Kentucky-Tennessee border, according to the National Hurricane Center.

“As these remnants have stalled over the commonwealth, that’s going to keep rain and some isolated thunderstorms in the forecast through the weekend and then early next week,” Vorst said.