A total of 21 FBS teams enter Week 5 of the college football season with unbeaten records, and four of those teams will put that on the line in top-10 showdowns on Saturday.
No. 4 Ohio State travels to No. 9 Penn State for a "White Out" at Beaver Stadium at 7:30 p.m. ET. At the same time, No. 7 Stanford and No. 8 Notre Dame will play a high-stakes showdown at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend. It's part of a weekend in which there are five games between ranked teams.
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With that in mind, a look at the Heisman watch, the coach on the spot, an upset alert and what else to look forward to heading into Week 5:
Heisman Watch
Ohio State's Dwayne Haskins could not have scripted a better four-game sample to go with his pinch-hit performance against Michigan in the regular-season finale last season. Through four games, Haskins is 87 of 115 passing (75.7 percent) for 1,194 yards with 16 touchdowns and just one interception. And he's made it look easy.
"When I'm playing, I feel like I'm playing a video game," Haskins said, via the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News. "I see the field. I see the receivers. It's like no one's there."
Haskins is right at the top of the Heisman Trophy conversation, and this is the perfect stage to make a Heisman statement. That's not just because it's against a top-10 team or that he's playing across from Penn State quarterback Trace McSorley, who hasn't lost a start at home.
It's because it's on the road, and that's where Heisman statements register the most. Like Cam Newton (2010) at Alabama, Johnny Manziel (2012) at Alabama, Jameis Winston at Clemson (2013) and Baker Mayfield (2017) at Ohio State. Troy Smith, the Big Ten's last Heisman Trophy winner in 2006, did the same thing at Ohio State against Texas in a No. 1 vs. No. 2 September showdown.
A lot of people will be at Beaver Stadium on Saturday, and a lot more will be watching on TV. If Haskins makes it look like a video game again, he'll be the front runner heading into October.
MORE: Penn State-Ohio State by the numbers
Coach on the spot
After back-to-back losing seasons, Kliff Kingsbury is enjoying better days at Texas Tech. The Red Raiders routed Oklahoma State 41-17 in Stillwater last week. Patrick Mahomes' incredible start with the Kansas City Chiefs is the perfect PSA for a program that cracked the top 25 and welcomes No. 12 West Virginia in what should be a shootout.
Or it could be the Big 12's version of a defensive struggle?
"All the teams that have won the Big 12 in the last 10 years have played solid defense and have been great on turnover margin," Kingsbury said on the Big 12 teleconference this week. "That's something we felt like we had to try and get better at. We hope we're trending that way."
The Red Raiders have an improved turnover margin (plus-3) and scoring defense (28.3 points per game), but still rank 106th in total defense (437.3 ypg) heading into the matchup with the high-powered West Virginia offense that has Heisman candidate Will Grier at the controls. The Mountaineers rank 18th in total defense (304 ypg) and tie for first nationally in scoring defense (12.3 ppg).
This is a chance for Texas Tech to place itself in the Big 12 contender discussion, and they'll need to get a few stops to do it.
MORE: Notre Dame can pressure Playoff with win
Upset alert
Kentucky and Duke open the college basketball season with a matchup at the State Farm Champions Classic in Indianapolis on Nov. 6.
That's three days after the Blue Devils, ranked No. 22 in the latest AP Poll, face Miami in what could be a de facto ACC Coastal Division title game. Same deal with Kentucky, which will play Georgia that Saturday in what could be a SEC East championship game in Lexington.
Can the Blue Devils and Wildcats handle that prosperity in football until that pivotal weekend in November?
"These guys are human and they're young. Every one of them will take notice of it. I'll go back to how we practice," Duke coach David Cutcliffe said at his news conference on Monday. "They probably don't feel like there is any difference. They might as well have been 122nd out there today because they were challenged."
The tests will be this weekend. Virginia Tech might not have Josh Jackson and is coming off a loss to Old Dominion, but the Hokies are still talented enough to beat Duke. Same deal with South Carolina, which visits Lexington in a primetime matchup that will go under the radar considering the top 10 blockbusters in that time slot.
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Think about it
UCF remains the only unbeaten Group of 5 team, and the Knights have the longest win streak in the nation at 16 games. UCF plays its first Power 5 opponent of the season when Pitt visits this weekend, but that's not what we're thinking about.
What if the Knights just keep on winning — and the 10 unbeaten teams ranked ahead of them keep on falling down? There's no makeup date for the matchup against North Carolina, but let's just say the Knights took a 23-game win streak into Black Friday and moved up the College Football Playoff rankings.
What would the irony be? Crimson Tide fans might actually root for USF and quarterback Blake Barnett, an Alabama transfer who left the team midseason and was criticized by Nick Saban, to silence the Knights once and for all. The Bulls are 4-0, by the way, under second-year coach Charlie Strong.
Or maybe Alabama would get a chance to do it themselves. We kind of want to see one or both of these things happen.
