College football winners, Week 5 losers: Auburn misses another chance, Indiana is off to its best start since 1967

The last week of September is when college football really starts to unravel. Every team is in the midst of conference play and the league's first big games appear on our radar.

Luckily, No. 2 Georgia and No. 4 Alabama gave us one of the most entertaining regular season contests in recent years as the Tide shocked the Dawgs 41-34. In fact, at least five teams were eliminated in Week 5, with Utah losing to Arizona in the second half.

Amid all the chaos, here are some of college football's biggest winners and losers from Week 5, including a coach moving into the elite ranks, a receiver entering the Biletnikoff race and a staff suffering yet another loss from the jaws of victory brings unprecedented fashion.

Winner: Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer

SEC fans are skeptical of outsiders, and for good reason. There were a few questions for Kalen DeBoer, a man who had never coached closer to the Southeast than Carbondale, Illinois. Consider all of these questions answered after the Tide built a 28-0 lead and beat the mighty Georgia Bulldogs 41-34 in their game of the year so far.

DeBoer is an elite quarterback coach, but Jalen Milroe has exceeded his expectations. He is the first quarterback in AP Poll history to post 300 yards passing, 100 yards rushing and two rushing scores against a top-five opponent. As Georgia got back on track in the second half, Kane Wommack's defense held the Bulldogs to 3.1 yards per carry and forced Carson Beck into three interceptions, including a game-winning hit in the end zone by freshman Zabien Brown.

Admittedly, DeBoer will have to learn some lessons from this game. He tends to take his foot off the gas early and let teams get back into games. That won't work with the SEC. It almost cost them on Saturday. But now DeBoer is a cool 30-3 as a power conference coach and 6-0 against Kirby Smart, Steve Sarkisian and Dan Lanning. Welcome to the Elite Trainer class, Kalen.

After last week's loss to Arkansas, Auburn coach Hugh Freeze claimed that if the game was played nine more times, they would win every time. Maybe he feels the same way after the stunning 27-21 loss to Oklahoma, in which the Tigers blew a 21-10 lead in the fourth quarter at home. Auburn outgained Oklahoma by nearly 200 yards, but put the game away thanks to a pick six from Payton Thorne in the fourth quarter.

Under Freeze, Auburn has put together a masterclass in losing winnable games over the last two years. So far this year, the Tigers have probably played California, Arkansas and Oklahoma only to lose. A year earlier, the Tigers failed on a fourth-and-31 touchdown against Alabama and suffered a three-touchdown loss against New Mexico State. Auburn is already a bad team. The last thing they need is to lose games where they are actually playing well. It's terribly difficult to find even two more wins on the schedule. The worst season since Gene Chizik's firing is upon us.

Oh, and by the way, it doesn't help that Alabama replaced the best coach of all time with another legend. Freeze is on pace to become the first Auburn coach to have three straight losing seasons since Earl Brown from 1948-50.

The Running Rebels were the talk of college football for the strangest of reasons after starting quarterback Matthew Sluka opted out of the rest of the season just days before a big game against Fresno State. Turns out UNLV backup Hajj-Malik Williams was more than ready for his close-up.

UNLV took out all of its frustrations against the Bulldogs, defeating FSU 59-14 behind 300 total yards and four touchdowns from a near-perfect Williams. The Rebels led 21-0 at halftime and never looked back to re-establish themselves as top contenders over Boise State in the Mountain West. More importantly, they answered any questions about whether the program is ready to stay in the College Football Playoff race after a quarterback change.

The Rebels invested heavily in their 2024 roster and were rewarded with a No. 6 national ranking. It took one game against a capable opponent for everything to fall apart. The Rebels blew a lead in the fourth quarter and missed a makeable field goal that would have forced overtime to end a 10-game home winning streak dating back to Nov. 24, 2022.

While the team's performance was disappointing, the path taken is far worse. Suddenly, road trips to South Carolina and No. 14 LSU feel a lot more difficult. A home game against No. 2 Georgia won't be a walk in the park. The Rebels have very little margin for error to stay in the conversation among elite teams.

Smith's expectations were exceeded entering his first season at Ohio State. In his first Big Ten game, a 38-7 win over Michigan State, Smith exceeded those hopes. The freshman and former No. 1 recruit broke through for the Spartans, making a pair of highlight-reel one-handed catches and also adding a 19-yard rush for a touchdown. Ohio State entered the season with a hole next to Emeka Egbuka at receiver, and Smith has already stepped into that hole. His next game against Iowa will be a real test to see if he can get into the Biletnikoff or Heisman race.

Loser: Baylor coach Dave Aranda

The Bears lost a real heartbreaker in overtime to Colorado in Week 4. Unfortunately, the emotional hangover cost them a must-win game against No. 22 BYU. The Cougars took a 21-0 lead in the first quarter, but that ultimately proved to be too much of a deficit in a 34-28 home loss. The Bears had two drive opportunities in the final minutes but ended with turnovers on downs and interceptions. While the Bears have certainly improved from last season, the same poor trends continue to show up in Aranda teams' big moments. With a 2-3 start, the Bears are well behind 8 Ball when it comes to reaching a bowl game. A road trip to No. 18 Iowa State next week could be the low point for Aranda's tenure.

Indiana coach Curt Cignetti talked about great success every time he took the job, but the results came quicker than anyone could have imagined. The Hoosiers shocked Maryland 42-28 to reach 5-0 for the first time since 1967. While the list of opponents isn't unnerving, Indiana's dominance is. With a two-touchdown win over the Terrapins, Indiana outscored FBS competition by 26.3 points per game. With games against Northwestern, Nebraska, Washington and Michigan State coming up, the Hoosiers have a chance to add to the win list before big matchups against No. 12 Michigan and No. 3 Ohio State later in the year. To call these efforts a best-case scenario is an understatement. Indiana breaks the mold.

Winner: SMU

The Mustangs' first-ever ACC conference game at Gerald Ford Stadium against top-ranked Florida State went off without a hitch. SMU tight end RJ Maryland caught two second-half touchdowns from Kevin Jennings as the Mustangs pulled away to a 42-16 victory and began their power conference reign 1-0. Since Brashard Smith took over as running back, the Mustangs have been running the ball much more consistently. Smith rushed for 129 yards and a touchdown in the win as part of a 200-yard rushing attack against a solid FSU front. Perhaps just as encouraging, BYU's 2-0 start in Big 12 play is helping SMU's only non-conference loss look a little more bearable. If Louisville falls out of the rankings, the Mustangs will have no opponent left on the schedule and no chance of competing with Miami and Clemson for a spot in the ACC Championship Game.

Winner: The Troops

Don't look now, but the Army and Navy were well-received in attending the same conference for the first time in history. The last time both programs started 4-0 was 1945, in the final years of World War II. Navy defeated UAB and is 3-0 in AAC play, while Army reached the mark with a 42-14 win over Temple on Friday. Both have very manageable schedules ahead of them. We could get it two unexpectedly Army-Navy iterations in consecutive weeks?