College football Week 5: Reality checks, receivers to watch - ESPN

Each of the Power 5 conferences enter Week 5 of the college football season with three or more unbeaten teams. There will be at least one fewer in the Big 12 after Saturday, when No. 24 Kansas travels to No. 3 Texas.

That's not to say the rest of the teams without a defeat will get out of the weekend unscathed. No. 8 USC is on the road at once-beaten Colorado, No. 17 Duke hosts No. 11 Notre Dame, and unranked but unbeaten Syracuse gets a test at home against Clemson.

Our reporters preview Week 5 with a look at teams that will give us a reality check, receivers to watch and some of the week's best quotes.

Syracuse: There are six undefeated teams in the ACC, but two remain unranked: Syracuse and Louisville. Considering that fact alone, it is fair to question whether both are for real. But let us focus on Syracuse for just a moment, since the Orange host Clemson on Saturday (noon ET, ABC).

Syracuse has given the Tigers fits over the past few years, with little to show for it. Last year, the Orange went into Clemson undefeated at 6-0 and led 21-10 heading into the fourth quarter. But they lost 27-21, then dropped their next four.

In 2021, Syracuse missed a game-tying field goal in the final seconds. Four of the previous six meetings were decided by fewer than seven points, but Syracuse won only one of them — in 2017.

Going into the matchup this year, Syracuse is 4-0; Clemson is 2-2. Garrett Shrader has put up big numbers at quarterback, ranking No. 2 in the ACC in total offense behind Drake Maye at North Carolina, and he has done it without his top receiver in Oronde Gadsden II (out for the season).

But there is no going around the nonconference schedule Syracuse just played to start 4-0: one FCS win, two Group of 5 wins,