Auburn, Penn St. look legit

New starting QBs at helm of surprise playoff contenders

Welcome to the college football overreaction index, where we examine the most important storylines from the last weekend of games to determine what’s worth paying attention to and what’s getting a little too much attention.

Here are the biggest takeaways from Week 5.

Auburn and Penn State are playoff contenders.

Verdict: Not an overreaction. Talk about taking care of business.

The Tigers and Nittany Lions each faced what were thought to be tricky matchups, entering their respective games as roughly seven-point favorites. Instead, they delivered a pair of blowouts, with Penn State thumping Maryland, 59-0, and Auburn crushing Mississippi State, 56-23.

Considering both teams entered the season relying on first-year starting quarterbacks — with junior Sean Clifford taking over for Trace McSorley at Penn State and Bo Nix getting the nod as a true freshman at Auburn — their dominant starts are a bit of a surprise. Clifford was masterful Friday night in College Park, throwing for the third-most passing yards in a single game in school history (398), including a school-record 287 in the first half, and scoring four total touchdowns. Nix accounted for 391 total yards and three touchdowns and set a season high with 335 passing yards.

Auburn and Penn State have climbed into the top 10 in ESPN’s Football Power Index and Bill Connelly’s SP+ rankings, a tier that includes top playoff contenders like Alabama, Ohio State, Oklahoma and Clemson.

Even in a watered-down ACC, Clemson is vulnerable after all.

Verdict: Overreaction.

The top-ranked Tigers were a 2-point conversion away from losing on the road to Mack Brown and North Carolina, hanging on for a 21-20 win.

While it’s easy to get caught up in Trevor Lawrence’s early struggles — five interceptions in five games after throwing just four all of last season — there just isn’t enough evidence yet that this Clemson team is in danger of losing a regularseason game.

The defense, despite losing three first-round picks to the NFL draft, hasn’t regressed. And even with Lawrence slow to find his footing, Clemson still boasts one of the best receiving corps in the nation. Perhaps most importantly, the ACC just doesn’t have the talent right now to offer much resistance.

The Tigers get a week off to clean up what went wrong against UNC.

Virginia Tech is in trouble.

Verdict: Not an overreaction. It’s hard to follow a legend. Frank Beamer turned the Hokies into a Big East and then ACC power during his long tenure, setting the expectation for success in Blacksburg.

Justin Fuente, who was widely praised as a smart hire following Beamer’s retirement at the end of 2015, has failed to meet that standard.

Virginia Tech suffered its worst home loss since 1974 on Friday night, falling 45-10 to Duke.