College football games today: Week 5 schedule for Thursday

Here’s what you need to know as the Week 5 college football schedule gets an early start today, with one matchup kicking off under the lights on Thursday night.

Week 5 of the college football schedule figures to be one of the most consequential Saturdays of the 2025 season, with four games pitting ranked playoff hopefuls against each other across the country in the SEC and Big Ten, in particular.

But before those teams get on the gridiron, the college football slate brings us an early preview with one game that has some potential intrigue of its own.

College football games today: Week 5 schedule for Thursday

All times Eastern, game lines are courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook

Army at East Carolina
Thurs., Sept. 25 | 7:30 p.m. | ESPN

Line: East Carolina -4.5

East Carolina (2-2)

At the helm of this Pirates offense is senior quarterback Katin Houser. Over four starts, he’s completing more than 68 percent of his passes for 1,258 yards and five touchdowns with three interceptions, rushing for another touchdown.

A couple weeks ago, Houser hit 75.7 percent of his throws for 293 yards with 2 TDs and 1 pick as East Carolina defeated Coastal Carolina in a dominant 38-0 decision.

Yannick Smith is Houser’s principal target. The sophomore wide receiver has 23 catches for 282 yards and 2 touchdowns while averaging 12.3 yards per catch this season.

Army (1-2)

Dewayne Coleman, a senior, and Cale Hellums, a junior, are splitting Army’s quarterbacking operation this season.

Coleman is 13 of 23 on the year with 217 yards and 2 touchdowns while rushing for another 211 yards on 43 carries with 2 more scores and averaging 4.6 yards per carry.

Hellums has rushed for 184 yards and 3 touchdowns on 58 attempts while throwing for 45 yards in the Black Knights’ characteristically run-heavy attack.

Hayden Reed leads the Army backfield, a group ranking fourth in the country with over 301 yards per game on the ground, himself posting nearly 5 yards per touch with 2 touchdowns on 43 attempts.

Where the money is going

A slight majority of bettors are expecting the Black Knights to make this a game on the road against the Pirates.

Army is getting 56 percent of bets to either defeat East Carolina outright in an upset, or to keep the final margin to 4 or fewer points in defeat.

The other 44 percent of wagers project the Pirates will beat the Black Knights by at least five points and cover the narrow point spread.

What the analytics say

Most football analytical models are siding with the Pirates to hold serve at home against their American Conference rivals.

That includes the College Football Power Index, a computer prediction model that uses data points from both teams to simulate games 20,000 times and pick winners.

That model is siding with East Carolina, which came out ahead of Army in the majority 75 percent of the computer’s simulations of the matchup.

That leaves the Black Knights as the presumptive winner in the remaining 25 percent of sims.

How does that translate into an expected margin of victory in the game? Expect this matchup to come down to a touchdown.

East Carolina is projected to be 6.6 points better than Army on the same field in both teams’ current composition, according to the model’s 20,000 simulations of the game.

East Carolina: 75% chance to win
Army: 25% chance to win
Prediction: East Carolina by 7