Five programs from the American stand out in the hunt for a College Football Playoff spot, at least from the point of view of The Athletic’s Joe Rexrode: the Memphis Tigers, USF Bulls, North Texas Mean Green, Navy Midshipmen, and Tulane Green Wave.
Rexrode’s piece was mainly focused on Tigers head football coach Ryan Silverfield’s program after a riveting 32-31 upset win over the Arkansas Razorbacks at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium in Memphis on Saturday. Razorbacks head coach Sam Pittman now has a scorching hot seat because of it.
As Rexrode notes, Memphis plays three of the other four, excluding North Texas, in conference play. He also noted that the Tigers’ two-pronged rushing attack can lift them over any and all of their remaining opponents after acing the non-conference portion of their schedule.
“Ryan Silverfield’s Tigers (4-0) emerged as a Group of 5 team that should have as much buzz as any when it comes to College Football Playoff contention. Of course, some of the other teams that have earned similar hopes share the American Conference with Memphis — South Florida, North Texas, Navy and Tulane, primarily,” Rexrode wrote.
“Memphis has three of those four teams on its schedule, missing only North Texas. The Tigers figure to be a tough out if they can keep running the ball at a high level; Memphis had 290 rushing yards on 41 attempts against Arkansas, getting 147 on 12 carries from running back Sutton Smith and 103 and two touchdowns from quarterback Brendon Lewis.”
The Bulls defeated the South Carolina State Bulldogs, 63-14, on Saturday. The Mean Green outdueled the Army Black Knights, 45-38, in a slugfest. As for the other service academy in the American, the Midshipmen, they had a bye. The Green Wave may as well have had one, too. The Ole Miss Rebels stomped out Tulane, 45-10.
Elsewhere, the Mountain West has a couple of early standouts for the auto-Group of 5 CFP bid, but the Boise State Broncos put themselves behind the 8-ball with an early-season blowout loss to USF. The UNLV Rebels could be intriguing if they remain undefeated with Boise State, the New Mexico Lobos, and the Utah State Aggies on the schedule. Then again, it’s tough to project where those teams will be in the standings by late October and November.
Group of 5 football is far more unpredictable than the Power 4 at this point. Rosters are poached by the Power 4 annually, so it’s always an altered group when the next season starts.
We’ll see who survives the G5 crapshoot come December.