Washington vs. USC, third-string QB lead a thin slate of non-Buckeye action

For the first time during the 2019 season, Ohio State fans will have to wait a while on a football Saturday to see their Buckeyes play. OSU will be in primetime for the first time, which means that we will have to keep ourselves occupied before the No. 5 Ohio State Buckeyes take on the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Tom Osborne Field at Memorial Stadium.

Unfortunately, Week 5 lacks many marquee games (which is way ESPN’s “College GameDay” is in Lincoln), but we will effort to find you some contests to keep you company until kickoff, but folks, it ain’t gonna be pretty. The Buckeyes will take on the Huskers on ABC, beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET, so if you’ve got something — anything — else to do before game time, go ahead and do it.

12 noon ET Window

Northwestern Wildcats at No. 8 Wisconsin Badgers | 12 noon ET | ABC

In all fairness, this game won’t be close. Wisconsin will almost certainly run all over the ‘Cats from Evanston, but the game features two of Ohio State’s next three opponents, so the value in this one is in the recon that you can do for those games. I wouldn’t invest a ton in this game, because after what Wiscy did to TTUN in last week’s Battle of Weasels, it likely won’t be much of a contest.

Afternoon Window

No. 18 Virginia Cavaliers at No. 10 Notre Dame Fighting Irish | 3:30 p.m. ET | NBC

Coming off of last week’s 23-17 loss to Georgia, for the Domers seem to be getting more respect than they have in recent years off of wins. They will return back to South Bend this afternoon to take on a frisky UVA squad looking to gain some more respectability. However, after trailing Old Dominion 17-7 at half last week, it probably won’t come under the watchful eye of Touchdown Jesus.

No. 21 USC Trojans at No. 17 Washington Huskies | 3:30 p.m. ET | FOX

At this point, it would take a lot of weirdness for a Pac-12 team to make the College Football Playoff. After just four weeks, there is not a single team in the league that is still undefeated. But, with No. 15 Cal’s loss last night to Arizona State, the herd is continuing to thin. If the left coast conference is going to find a way to butt into the national conversation, it might just be because of one of these teams. The Trojans are being led by their third QB of the season, as Matt Fink will start his first game today.

Evening Window

Normally I like to recommend another game to flip over to while the Buckeyes are playing, but, honestly fam, there ain’t much else out there. So, just stay tuned to ABC and enjoy OSU’s first “test” of the season.

Pac-12 After Dark Window

Washington State Cougars at No. 19 Utah Utes | 10:00 p.m. ET | FS1

I’m not going to lie, I got caught up in the weird hype preseason and picked the Utes to make the College Football Playoff. That ain’t gonna happen, but they can still be entertaining, and few team-coach combinations are as fun to watch as Wazzu and Mike Leach. Assuming that the Buckeye game doesn’t wrap until close to 11:00 p.m. ET, you should be able to jump over to this one with plenty of time for that after-dark goodness.

Check out the complete Saturday schedule here: