Week 5 College Football Watch Guide and Open Thread

The Iowa Hawkeyes looked dominant on Friday evening in their 51-14 beat down of the Maryland Terrapins. It was a game that Hawkeye fans had been nervous about, but quickly devolved into a blowout that left the Iowa faithful ready to enjoy the weekend.

Now that we turn the page to Saturday, we can do just that. Friday night college football means conflicts with high school football and late nights if it’s your team on the screen, but it also means Saturday is wide open for broader college football viewing without distraction. For Hawkeye fans, that comes at a great time as week five of the 2021 season has a solid slate of college football games this Saturday.

Below is this week’s watch grid from For The Win, which is run by former SB Nation staffer Jason Kirk.

Image via For The Win.

The grid is fantastic in its simplicity. Start with you TV sets (do we still call them sets when they’re 60” flat screens?) tuned to the game in green and meander over to the games in yellow as time and commercials permit.

In the early slate at 11am CT, that means getting to ESPN for what should be the game of the week featuring #8 Arkansas at #2 Georgia. The Bulldogs have a very Iowa feel to them with a suffocating defense, so as ugly as it might get Hawkeye fans should have an appreciation for how that one plays out. Oh, and given Iowa is sitting right between these two teams in the ranks, there are implications for the Hawkeyes.

Beyond that, don’t sleep in #14 Michigan at Wisconsin. The Badgers are no longer ranked in the top-25, but they are favored in this one. It should be a solid matchup and there are Big Ten West implications for Hawkeye fans to monitor.

In the afternoon, we get another really good matchup as #7 Cincinnati travels to #9 Notre Dame on NBC kicking off at 1:30 CT. There are no direct impacts to the Hawkeyes in this one for now, but for the dreamers out there this game may well have playoff implications with two unbeaten teams from a G6 conference and an independent. Then at 2:30, we get the full afternoon slate, which includes #12 Ole Miss at #1 Alabama. That could get ugly, but Bama found themselves in a fight with Florida a week ago.

The evening slate is a bit lighter, but we do get #21 Baylor at #19 Oklahoma State at 6pm CT on ESPN2. Then at 6:30, Indiana is at #4 Penn State in a game Hawkeye fans will be highly interested in. Not only will it be a litmus test for Iowa’s matchup next week against PSU, but if the Nittany Lions get a win there’s a lot of smoke that ESPN may join FOX in Iowa City for their GameDay broadcast.

Enjoy the day Hawkeye fans! You’ve got a top-5 team in the nation that just pummeled an unbeaten Big Ten opponent in the road and now you get to kick back, relax and soak up some college football all Saturday!