College football picks, Week 5: Penn State heads to Maryland; Notre Dame hosts Virginia

Here are our staff picks for this week’s top college football games., which are listed in standard Vegas rotational order.

Last week and year-to-date standings are at the bottom.

Memphis (3-0) is third in the nation in defense while Navy (2-0) is fourth. The Middies beat Memphis last year, 22-21, so the under of 53.5 is worth a look.

“We’re playing the best team, probably them and Notre Dame, two of the better teams athletically and size-wise that we’ll play all year,” Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo said. “It’s going to be a really tough game for us.”

The Terrapins had a week off to lick their wounds after getting thumped by Temple. Now they get the Nittany Lions, in a game the Big 10 would love to see grow into a rivalry. Only problem is that Penn State holds a 39-2-1 series edge.

»READ MORE: Penn State preparing for a rough environment

“We’ve got some work to do for us to be able to call it a rivalry,” Maryland coach Michael Locksley said. “You can’t wish and make a game a rivalry. The only way it gets to that point is by competing and having success. So I wouldn’t say that it’s a rivalry yet.”

If Cal is to be taken seriously, it better not get caught looking ahead to next week’s trip to Oregon. Bears linebacker Evan Weaver tied a school record with 22 tackles in last week’s disputed win at Ole Miss. He said afterward that he’s never seen anyone in red he didn’t want to bring down, an obvious nod to archrival Stanford.

The Owls welcome former coach Geoff Collins, who explained this week why he left Philadelphia to head south.

“I think the players who are there [at Temple] understand how important Atlanta is to me,” he said. “I made no bones about how much I loved Atlanta, even while I was up there and really at any stop that I’ve been at.

»READ MORE: Temple QB says ‘I won’t let you down again'

"My grandmother, who is 80 years old now, the first three weeks of the season she’s seen me coach more football games than she had in the previous 11 years of my coaching career. She’s seen my 3-year-old daughter more in the last three months more than she had in the previous three years. As you get older in the coaching profession, those things matter.”

Georgia Tech is 0-3 against the spread. The Yellow Jackets are coming off a loss to FCS Citadel when they were laying 27.

This will be the first meeting between the two since 2015. Top-ranked Clemson has covered six of its last seven.

Auburn is the only team in the nation with two wins over ranked teams (Oregon, Texas A&M). The Tigers will get a test this week with Kylin Hill, who leads the SEC in rushing and ran for 126 yards in Mississippi State’s win over Auburn last season.

It’ll be interesting to see how the Irish respond to last week’s difficult loss at Georgia. Getting the running game going should be the first priority for Notre Dame, which can play its way back into the playoff conversation.

First big test for Ohio State, which laid 17 to Nebraska last year and won by just five. The Buckeyes are 3-1 against the spread this year, and Nebraska is 1-3. Ohio State moved up to No. 5 after putting a 76-5 hammer on Miami (Ohio) last week. The Cornhuskers have lost nine in a row to top-5 teams. GameDay will be on campus.

It’s looking like Matt Fink will be USC’s third starting quarterback in five weeks. He had considered transferring when he came into the season buried on the depth chart. “It’s kind of surreal," Fink said, "[but] it’s an amazing opportunity for me and the team to keep moving forward.”

Washington is 2-8 against the spread in its last 10 Pac-12 games.

Chip Kelly’s Bruins picked up their first win of the season by rallying from 32 down and stunning Washington State, 67-63, in the highest-scoring game in Pac-12 history. It also was their first cover. Arizona, 2-1 straight-up/1-2 ATS, is coming off a bye.

Note: Luke Reasoner did not pick in Week 1.