Real Kato Blog: College Football 2012: Week 5 Recap and Week 6 Preview

Yeah, I'm late again... combining this week's articles into one. Michigan is coming off a bye and will play Purdue; N.C. State loses a tough one to Miami FL and now has to face #3 Florida State.

Michigan (bye)
Michigan at Purdue

With two weeks to stew over their six-turnover loss to Notre Dame, Michigan will be looking to bounce back with (hopefully) an improved offensive game plan this week. Purdue has perhaps the best defensive tackles in the conference, but their defensive ends and outside linebackers are perhaps not as talented, so look for Michigan to run to the outside and roll Denard out of the pocket. Devin Funchess may have a big game as well, if he gets into the secondary matched up with Purdue's undersized secondary.

I'm more and more convinced that Michigan's defense has figured things out. Linebacker and defensive line play especially seems much improved. Michigan will need to beat some one-on-one blocks to attack Purdue's spread offense, but I think that's doable.

The oddsmakers are down on Michigan due to the Notre Dame debacle, but I think that game was an outlier. Michigan, even playing on the road, should win this one comfortably.

Prediction: Michigan 28, Purdue 13.

N.C. State 37, Miami FL 44
N.C. State vs. #3 Florida State

Last week was tough. Like Michigan against Notre Dame, N.C. State turned the ball over 6 times, and that was largely the difference in the game. Neither team was able to defend against big plays, and in total there was over 1300 yards of offense in the game. Staggering.

State did finally find its ground game, as I thought they might, with Tony Creecy running for 120 yards and Shadrach Thorton adding 87 more. That's an encouraging sign.

Defensively, the play of the secondary is worrying. This was supposed to be a strength of the N.C. State defense and they've been exposed a number of times now. They'll need to step it up to have any chance against FSU.

Meanwhile, FSU looks legit, though last week's closer-than-expected South Florida game was a bit of a reason to be hopeful. And though FSU's defense has been pretty ferocious, they did give up 37 points to Clemson, so they're not impermeable.

Still... N.C. State has been too inconsistent and I worry they don't have all the pieces to take on a top-5 team, particularly with some injuries on the offensive line. I think State will get a few big plays, but FSU will just be too much in the end.

Prediction: N.C. State 21, FSU 44.

Week 5 Notable Games
Northwestern remained unbeaten, knocking off Indiana 44-29.

Penn State crushed hapless Illinois 35-7.

Iowa handed Minnesota its first loss, winning 31-13.

#22 Nebraska beat Wisconsin 30-27. Wisconsin is really struggling this year.

Washington surprised #8 Stanford 17-13.

#3 LSU struggled to beat Towson 38-22.

#5 Georgia had to hang on to beat Tennessee 51-44. Tennessee is for real.

#9 West Virginia beat #25 Baylor 70-63. 1507 yards of combined total offense. Geez.

#12 Texas squeaked by Oklahoma State 41-36.

#14 Ohio State won in ugly fashion against #20 Michigan State, 17-16. Both teams looked like they had major issues on offense to work out, which is an encouraging sign for Michigan.

#18 Oregon State beat Arizona 38-35. I still think Rich Rodriguez will find success in Arizona.

Duke is a surprising 4-1 as they beat Wake Forest 34-27.

Virginia Tech lost to Cincinnati 27-24.

Week 6 Games to Watch on TV
At noon, #24 Northwestern plays at Penn State on ESPN in what should be an intriguing game. Can the Wildcats remain unbeaten, or will Penn State show that they're truly competitive in the league?

At 12:30 Virginia Tech plays at UNC... that's only being shown online.

At 3:00, Arizona plays at #18 Stanford on Fox.

At 3:30, there's a huge game with #4 LSU at #10 Florida on CBS. Meanwhile Georgia Tech plays at #15 Clemson on ESPN.

At 4:00, the Michigan-Purdue game starts on BTN.

At 7:00, #5 Georgia plays at #6 South Carolina on ESPN. This is a big day if you're an SEC fan. #8 West Virginia plays at #11 Texas on Fox, which is also a big game. We're finally getting into the meat of the season... fewer and fewer cupcake games to bore us with.

At 7:30, Miami FL plays at #9 Notre Dame, and this will be a big test for the Irish.

At 8:00, the N.C. State-Florida State game is on ESPN2. Meanwhile #21 Nebraska plays at #12 Ohio State on ABC.

Your nightcap game is #23 Washington at #2 Oregon on ESPN.

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