College football roundup, Week 5: Boston College falls, UMass comes close and UConn gets back on track

Week 5 brought agony for the Boston College Eagles, dramatic improvement for the UMass Minutemen and a winning record for the UConn Huskies.

Boston College was on the short end of a 45-31 score in its game against the Clemson Tigers, falling to 1-3 (0-2 ACC) on the young season. Chase Rettig was on his game, throwing for 341 yards and three touchdowns on 25-of-43 passing. The defense, however, was unable to keep pace with Rettig's high level of play, surrendering 576 total yards to Clemson, which converted on 6-of-7 red zone chances. Offense hasn't been a problem for Boston College this season, but defense has been a major concern. The Eagles will have a chance to work out some kinks against Army, which lost to Stony Brook this week, next Saturday.

UMass, meanwhile, played its best game of the season, losing 37-34 to the undefeated Ohio Bobcats. Mike Wegzyn had a career-best 373 passing yards and three touchdowns on 27-of-51 passing. Michael Cox, coming off a 188-yard, two touchdown performance against Miami (Ohio), had 80 rushing yards on 22 carries. Deion Walker had a career day with 11 catches for 162 yards and a touchdown and Alan Williams had seven catches for 127 yards and three scores. Does that count as improvement? Absolutely. The Minutemen continued their trend of playing better every week in their first FBS season. Most likely, the loss to Ohio will be the highlight of the season for the Minutemen. UMass will look to build on that success when it faces Western Michigan next week.

UConn was the only New England FBS team to pick up a victory, beating the Buffalo Bulls, 24-17. Chandler Whitmer played well, throwing for 227 yards and a touchdown, and Lyle McCombs racked up 97 rushing yards and a score for the Huskies, who had 360 total yards of offense. After coming up short against Western Michigan last weekend, despire Whitmer playing the best game of his UConn career (333 passing yards, three touchdowns), UConn was able to get back in the win column and improve to 3-2, making them the only team out of the New England FBS bunch to have a winning record so far this season.

Harvard showed off its dominance with a 52-3 stomping of Holy Cross on Friday. Colton Chappie had 260 passing yards and four touchdowns for the Crimson, who had 520 total yards. Treavor Scales rushed for 82 yards on 15 carries and Ricky Zorn had six catches for 99 yards. Ryan Laughlin completed just 9-of-24 passes for 105 yards and Nate Stanley had two grabs for 71 yards to lead Holy Cross, which fell to 0-4. Harvard is a perfect 3-0 on the season.

NEW ENGLAND COLLEGE FOOTBALL SCOREBOARD: WEEK 5

FBS

Clemson 45, Boston College 31.
Ohio 37, UMass 34.
UConn 24, Buffalo 17.

FCS I-AA

Colgate 47, Yale 24.
Pennsylvania 28, Dartmouth 21.
New Hampshire 34, Delaware 14.
Stony Brook 23, Army 3.
Sacred Heart 34, Central Connecticut State 21.
Wagner 31, Bryant University 21.
Brown 37, Georgetown 10.
Bowling Green 48, Rhode Island 8.
Villanova 35, Maine 14.

Division II/III

Bentley University 17, Stonehill 7.
MIT 28, UMass Dartmouth 27.
Gallaudet 52, Anna Maria 24.
Endicott 33, Curry 28.
Hobart 61, Worcester Tech 8.
College of NJ 55, Western Connecticut State 27.
Framingham State 35, Mass Maritime 28
Middlebury 42, Colby 13.
Bates College 31, Tufts 23.
Worcester State 47, Maine Maritime 34.
Wesleyan 34, Hamilton 14.
Amherst 22, Bowdoin 10.
Mount Ida 36, Norwich 32.
American International 27, Assumption 23.
Merrimack 63, Pace 14.
Southern Connecticut State 45, St. Anselm 34.
Salve Regina 43, Western New England 0.
Bridgewater State 26, Westfield State 14.
Coast Guard 59, FItchburg State 0.
Trinity (CT) 17, Williams 13.
Becker 34, Husson 7.
Union 49, Springfield 21.

Did we miss any local college scores? Let us know at boston@sbnation.com.