Two Friday College Football Friday Betting Picks to Kick Off Week 5

After an incredible week of college football, we’ve got a bit of a lighter slate of games here in week five. Fortunately, the college football gods blessed us with a fun slate of Friday games to hold us over for the weekend. 

Here are my picks for the two biggest games of the day.

Pitt vs Virginia Tech (-3) Total: 54.5

At no point in the history of the AP Poll have two 4-0 or better teams from power conferences faced off against one another without either team being ranked. While neither team is ranked, it still will be a massive test for two teams that have looked incredibly similar. Both Tech and Pitt have dominated their weak out-of-conference opponents but have looked shaky against their power-conference opponents.

Both Mason Heintschel and Ethan Grunkemeyer have looked incredible against non-power-conference opponents, but Grunkemeyer has been the only one to shine against a tougher opponent with an impressive 31/39, 314-yard performance against a solid Maryland squad. I still believe in Heintschel after his impressive 2025 campaign, but he needs to prove it this weekend in Blacksburg.

This game comes down to Virginia Tech’s Jeffrey Overton for me. The Hokies were able to lean on Overton on the ground in their first conference win of the season last week, and they’ll need him to take over again in the biggest game so far in the James Franklin era. I like Virginia Tech to cover in this one, and think it will be lower-scoring as well.

Pick: Virginia Tech -3 and u54.5

Penn State (-2.5) vs Northwestern Total: 45.5

Both teams in this conference clash enter this game after a loss, but the vibes from each loss couldn’t be any different. Northwestern took the reigning national champions to the brink in Bloomington, while Penn State blew a 17-point lead in Happy Valley to a Wisconsin team that had the same number of wins Indiana had in 2025 combined in their prior three years.

This game is one of those don’t overthink-it spots. Northwestern is opening their new stadium on Friday night, and I believe they chose to do it now because they feel they can pull off the upset against a bad Penn State team. The Nittany Lions had no business being ranked at the start of this year, and I feel Vegas is still trying to catch up to the fact that Penn State is pretty bad.

Matt Campbell brought over half his Iowa State squad, but I think he’s starting to learn that Big 12 talent isn’t Big Ten talent. I love Northwestern in this game and think Aidan Chiles powers Northwestern to hitting this over as well.

Pick: Northwestern +2.5 and o45.5