CFB Blitz: Fleck's masterpiece tops early Week 5 takeaways

The weekly CFB Blitz is the spot to catch up on the most important developments from the day's action and examine their significance moving forward.

Fleck's masterpiece adds to Michigan's misery

P.J. Fleck's coaching philosophy - other than smearing his players' blood on his face and yelling about rowing the boat - is to slow the game to a snail's pace and dominate time of possession. Consider Saturday's second half versus Michigan his Mona Lisa.

Fleck's Golden Gophers entered the third quarter trailing by a touchdown and proceeded to peel off a 12-play drive that took 7:38 off the clock ... and went only 33 yards. Do you know how hard it is to run 12 plays, take almost eight minutes off the clock, and not even go 40 yards? Still, it turned out to be effective because Michigan muffed the ensuing punt, setting Minnesota up on the Wolverines' 17-yard line. A field goal would bring the Gophers within four.

Two plays later, Fleck's offense got the ball again after an interception off Bryce Underwood. Take another five minutes off the clock with an eight-play, 34-yard drive, and add another field goal to cut the deficit to one.

The very next play:

A second straight interception sent Michigan's defense back on the field, and Minnesota scored the eventual game-winning touchdown three plays later.

Fleck's teams don't hide their motive and are proudly among the slowest in the nation in pace. While that can be damning to watch at times, when done properly, it can produce results that see Minnesota punch well above its weight. That was the case Saturday with the program's first home win over Michigan since 1977.

Notre Dame's a wagon

We aren't privy to Marcus Freeman's locker room conversations with Notre Dame, but you can probably bet that he's told the Irish that a victory doesn't count unless it's by double digits. It was interesting for much of the contest Saturday, but even the combo of the Tar Heels and torrential rain couldn't stop Notre Dame from again winning by at least 10 points. That makes it 15 straight double-digit wins for Freeman's program, an explosive run that's almost unheard of over the past 50 years of college football.

CJ Carr may have taken a back seat in the Heisman race after being the preseason favorite, but a five-touchdown performance against the Tar Heels in the driving rain will certainly remedy that.

So when will this double-digit Notre Dame run end? Considering next week's opponent, Stanford, - which lost 57-3 to Wake Forest on Saturday - it's probably a safe bet to hit 16. The next contest will be a true litmus test of how great this Irish team is, with a road trip to BYU on deck.

Alabama's a morning program

We all have an annoying friend in our life who is up at the crack of dawn and has accomplished more before 9 a.m. than most people do all day. In college football circles, that "morning person" is Alabama, and early kickoffs continue to be its time to thrive. With a blowout of previously red-hot Mississippi State on Saturday, the Crimson Tide improved to an outrageous 33-0 since 2008 in games that kick off before noon, Central Time.

The leader of this year's morning crew is undoubtedly Keelon Russell, who may have entered the contest with slightly less hype than Mississippi State's Kamario Taylor but left it having leveled that conversation and then some. Russell put up over 300 yards of total offense with four touchdowns as the Crimson Tide hung 56 on the home team. That's the most points Alabama has ever scored against a ranked team on the road, according to ESPN Insights.

Anytime you're hitting numbers the Nick Saban machine didn't touch, you know it's a good day.

Friday games

Campbell, Penn State off to rocky start

If last week's loss at home to Wisconsin ended the Matt Campbell honeymoon at Penn State, Friday's debacle at Northwestern might be sending the fanbase and new coach to couples therapy. How ugly did it get for the Nittany Lions? Wildcats coordinator Chip Kelly went full service academy offense with elements of the Wing T and piled up 413 yards rushing.

If that sounds like an absurd number of rushing yards, well, it is.

Penn State is now 0-2 in Big Ten play and the Campbell hire is already being questioned. The search process was about as sloppy as it gets, and Campbell seemed far from the first choice for the gig. Athletic director Pat Kraft wanted to land a big fish rather than an up-and-coming young coach. That strategy saw names like Pennsylvania native Bob Chesney end up elsewhere, and the former James Madison coach is now sitting 4-0 with UCLA.

Early returns suggest Campbell might be out of his depth in the Big Ten, and the 24 Iowa State players he brought with him haven't exactly hit the ground running. Campbell has the benefit of one of the easiest schedules in the conference on his side, with Penn State avoiding Oregon, Indiana, and Ohio State this year. However, the last two games have shown this version of the Nittany Lions can lose to anybody on the schedule.

New location, same Franklin

With Penn State getting run off the field at Northwestern, Friday had the potential to be an all-time James Franklin revenge night in college football. All he needed was for his Virginia Tech team to hold on to a 14-point lead at home against Pitt's backup quarterback. Easier said than done.

We can debate whether the last-second field goal was actually good or not, but regardless, the Hokies missed a golden chance to notch an early signature win in Franklin's tenure due to one thing: turnovers. Pitt's defense took the ball away on three of the first four drives in the second half to turn a four-point deficit at the break into an 11-point lead.

You can insert your own joke about Franklin's teams shrinking in big moments, but that was certainly the case once again Friday. Virginia Tech still made a great hire, and there's little doubt Franklin will turn around that program, but he didn't make any strides in shedding the narrative on his big-game issues versus Pitt.

As for the Panthers, it's time to listen to Pat Narduzzi and rank them.