Top 5 Wide Receiver Performances of Week 5 College Football: Tory Horton, Jalen Royals, more

October 2, 2023

Justin's NCAA college football top wide receivers from Week 5 of the 2023 season. Top WR performers include Tory Horton and Jalen Royals.

Week 5 of college football is over and we saw a number of impressive performances this week. That includes seven wide receivers with at least 150 yards. Of those seven, Steven McBride (Hawaii), Tre Harris (Ole Miss), Tyler Brown (Clemson), and Monaray Baldwin (Baylor) weren't able to grab a spot on this week's list of top performances.

One thing I want to do every week here (since there's not an article specifically for them) is shout out the top tight end of the week. This week, it's too close to call so we've got two players. Georgia's Brock Bowers caught eight passes for 157 yards and a score while James Madison's Zach Horton had three catches for 116 yards and two touchdowns. Notre Dame's Mitchell Evans went over 100 yards as well.

Below are the top five wide receiver performances from Week 5 of the college football season. These are judged through a combination of statistics, fantasy scoring, and game context, with consideration also given based on the team's offensive systems. Let's take a look at this week's top performances.

5. Brian Thomas Jr. - LSU

The LSU/Ole Miss game was an incredibly entertaining one, with the Rebels coming out ahead 55-49. Both offenses just had their way in the contest. The two quarterbacks combined for 803 yards. Both teams had a 100-yard rusher. And four different players finished with at least 100 receiving yards.

One of those was Ole Miss' Tre Harris, who caught eight passes for 153 yards and a score. It's hard to argue against his inclusion on this list, but picking out just five wide receivers is tough. Especially when one on the LSU side was just as impressive, if not more.

Brian Thomas Jr. caught eight passes, the same as Harris. He only had 124 yards -- I use only with some sarcasm -- but he found the end zone three times, making him the only player in the game with multiple receiving scores.

Thomas now has three games this season with over 100 receiving yards and three games with multiple touchdowns. He's already surpassed his career highs in receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns and we're only five games into the season.

4. Tai Felton - Maryland

Maryland is now 5-0 and the Terps have averaged 38.6 points per game, the 16th-best in the country. Quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa has had a great season for the team, tossing 13 touchdowns over the first five games.

But every QB needs his weapons and wide receiver Tai Felton was a key one in Saturday's victory over the Indiana Hoosiers. The third-year receiver caught seven passes for 134 yards and three touchdowns. He came into the game having not found the end zone all season. His previous high in yardage was last week against Michigan State when he caught three passes for 67 yards.

Prior to this game, Felton had just two career touchdowns, both coming last season. With Felton, Jeshaun Jones, and Kaden Prather in the receiving game, Maryland's got a pretty strong offense. It'll be interesting to see if the Terrapins keep this up when the games start to get together. They play Ohio State next, the first of three games against current top-10 teams.

3. Omarion Miller - Colorado

It feels like Colorado has an endless amount of wide receivers to throw at people. This week, it was freshman Omarion Miller who had a breakout showing.

Miller, who was viewed as a top-50 wide receiver in his class after averaging 116.4 yards per game in his time at North Caddo High School, entered this game with zero career receptions. He'd only appeared in two of Colorado's games.

But he sure got his name out there on Saturday, as Miller caught seven passes for 196 yards and a touchdown in Colorado's 48-41 loss to USC. He was the only Colorado player with over 100 receiving yards and tied with Jimmy Horn Jr. and Xavier Weaver for the team lead in receptions.

2. Jalen Royals - Utah State

Utah State's Jalen Royals is an intriguing player. He began his college career at Georgia Military College before transferring to Utah State last season. He played in 12 games for the Aggies but didn't record a single stat. No receptions. No special teams tackles. Nothing.

He started this season with a solid game, catching five passes for 39 yards in the season opener against Iowa. He's remained involved since, catching a pair of touchdowns in the first four games and finishing with over 50 yards twice.

But that was nothing like what Royals did on Saturday against UConn. He caught seven passes, tying his season high. But he set new season highs in everything else. Royals finished with 185 yards in the victory and found the end zone three times.

1. Tory Horton - Colorado State

I considered putting someone else at No. 1 since Tory Horton's big game this week came against an FCS opponent. But in the end, Horton's numbers were just too impressive for him not to earn this spot.

Horton, a fourth-year player who played at Nevada in 2020 and 2021, had 10 receptions on Saturday, gaining 227 yards and finding the end zone three times. He's had at least nine receptions in all four games this year and has at least 81 yards in each contest as well.

He's the FBS leader in receptions right now with 45 and he sits seventh in FBS in receiving yards. He's tied for seventh in receiving touchdowns. Horton's been piling up the numbers. If you haven't been paying attention to his performance yet, it's time to start.

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