Week 2 Overreactions: Tennessee is the No. 3 team in the SEC, Nebraska will start 7-0, NBA comp for Auburn
Two weeks into a chaotic 2024 season already has some wondering if we’re in store for a 2007 redux. Maybe? or maybe not?
We’ll find out in due time.
But thus far, we have seen some wild swings in just the first few weeks of the 2024 season, which makes the rest of the slate all that more exciting.
After the latest Silly Saturday, here are some Week 2 Overreactions.
Tennessee is a Top-3 team in the SEC
The 2024 Vols are an avalanche.
I was high on Tennessee during the preseason, and through two games, Josh Heupel’s team has only impressed me even more. While the 11-win squad from 2022 was an offensive juggernaut, this year’s Vols look like a more complete behemoth. Whether it’s their tenacious defensive line, tailback Dylan Sampson or quarterback Nico Iamaleava, they come at you downhill — and fast. As NC State learned Saturday night, Tennessee can bury you in a flash.
The Vols molly-whopped the Wolfpack 51-10 — a defeat somehow even more embarrassing than the final score indicated. They held the Wolfpack to 2.9 yards per play, had three sacks, 13 tackles for loss and a pick-six — and that’s without All-American edge rusher James Pearce even going off yet this season. NC State’s lone touchdown was a pick-six down 37-3. Like a pee-wee game, Dave Doeren had to mercifully bench Grayson McCall just so the seventh-year senior didn’t get hurt or scar’d for the rest of the 2024 season.
Georgia and Texas look fantastic to start the year, but I would take Tennessee over every other team in the SEC for the No. 3 spot right now. Over Alabama. Over Ole Miss, Missouri and Oklahoma.
The Vols play elite defense, and they’re a threat to score anytime Nico and Sampson touch the ball, and that’s a dangerous combination.
Nebraska is going to start the season 7-0
Nebraska is 2-0 for the first time since 2016 — 2-0! — That’s it!
We’re going to find out how well the Cornhuskers can handle success, because they had their long (long, long) awaited coming out party against Colorado on Saturday (a 28-10 smothering), and now they have a schedule that provides a runway to a storied start to the 2024 season.
With Dylan Raiola slingin’ it and Tony White’s 3-3-5 defense creating all sorts of havoc (six sacks against the Buffs), Nebraska should be 7-0 before its trip to Ohio State late October. They’ll be favored in every game, and their toughest test is probably a home date with Rutgers.
As we saw in the second half against Colorado (nine penalties, including a long touchdown wiped away, just 3.9 yards per play), this team still has plenty of room to grow, so as long as they avoid a Notre Dame no-show, they should end their postseason drought and setup at Top-15 matchup with the Buckeyes before Halloween.
Auburn is the SEC’s Bruno Caboclo
Let’s go back to a decade ago during the 2014 NBA Draft when ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla made the infamous comment about Toronto Raptors pick Bruno Caboclo that the raw big-man was “Two years away, from being two years away.”
That’s Hugh Freeze’s Auburn Tigers football program right now.
They’re still a year away from being a year away from seriously competing in the SEC. All offseason, the discourse was that Freeze had seriously upgraded the roster (and he has in some areas) and improved Auburn’s coaching staff (TBD on that) where the Tigers would be a feisty team in 2024. The idea was that then Auburn would either grab a big-name quarterback in the portal (or flip Notre Fame 4-star commit Deuce Knight) to chase an SEC championship in 2025.
Even Nick Saban was leaning into Tiger hype on College GameDay this weekend, saying, “I think they’re going to be one of the most improved teams in the SEC. … They’re going to be somebody that everybody has to reckon with.”
We sure about that?
For the second-straight season, Auburn was stunned at home as a double-digit favorite — this time losing 21-14 to a Cal team down six starters.
Freeze’s decision to stick with Payton Thorne (four interceptions on Saturday) always reeked of arrogance, but the former Michigan State transfer quarterback is not Auburn’s only problem right now. The receiver room might be vastly improved, but the Tigers’ offensive line still stinks. The secondary is young — and bad, too (Francisco Mendoza connected on 20 of his first 22 passes). The Tigers are recruiting really well right now, so some of these issues could be addressed. But not overnight.
There’s also the whole ‘Hugh Freeze experience’ issue. It’s a rollercoaster.
He can nearly coach Auburn to an upset over Alabama, only to look unprepared and get waxed at home by New Mexico State. Now, the Tigers just lost to a Cal team picked to finish in the bottom-third of the ACC. Ole Miss fans are reading this shaking their head, saying, “Yup.”
The Tigers have been a championship program before, and they’ll be a title contender again sometime. It won’t be this season — or the next, though.