Week 5 Stock Report: Pair of generational WRs, Lane Train off the tracks, wasted season at Auburn
Week 5 delivered a banger! But what did we learn aside from a ESPN Classic replay of Georgia-Alabama?
Well, I have some thoughts.
The 2024 Week 5 Stock Report:
📈STOCK UP — Generational wide receivers
Typically, we’re way too cavalier with terms like generational, historic and all-timers, but not in this instance! Not with these two teenagers.
What Ryan Williams and Jeremiah Smith are doing as true freshman is truly outlier stuff. Two Top-10 overall prospects who aren’t just living up to their ridiculous recruiting hype — but already exceeding as the best playmakers in America.
The last time this happened? Maybe never. Maybe in 2008, when college football was introduced to Julio Jones and AJ Green — two Top 10 overall recruits who went on to have Hall of Fame careers in the NFL.
Is that the path that Williams and Smith are already on? I wouldn’t bet against it!
These two 5-star freshmen are aliens. Elite body control. Crazy hands and catch-concentration. After-burner speed.
On Saturday night, both wideouts were in an unknown dance-off against one another in separate primetime games — every time Smith would make a ridiculous one-handed catch, Williams responded with his own highlight play.
The game-winning catch-and-run against Georgia truly made me wonder if Williams was from this planet. The catch. The pirouette. And then the jets to take it to the house?
Williams had “Kill Everybody” written on his eye-black, and sure enough, he savagely delivered the death blow to Georgia’s comeback hopes in an instant classic.
What’s terrifying is that both Smith and Williams are only going to improve — and again — they’re already the best receivers in the country!
For reference, Julio, who Williams has long been linked to, had four touchdowns as a freshman in 2008. The game-winner against UGA gave Williams his fifth score already. On the season, he has 16 catches for 462 yards (28.9 per catch!!!!).
AJ Green was more productive as a true freshman (56 catches for 966 yards and eight touchdowns) but Williams and Smith (19 catches for 364 yards (19.2 per reception) with six total touchdowns) are still going to dwarf those numbers come season’s end.
These are special, special players who don’t come around often. Dare I say: Generational?
So yeah, like the “Did you know Matt Stafford used to catch Clayton Kershaw in high school” stories, the “Williams is just 17!!!” is already way overplayed, but it’s ok to mute the announcers.
Just don’t take your eyes off these studs.
📉STOCK DOWN — The Lane Train is off the tracks
In the last several seasons at Ole Miss, the Lane Train typically hums along against lesser teams, and then when it faces a Goliath (say Alabama or Georgia in 2023) it gets railroaded. And yet despite the Rebels having their “most talented team ever,” per Kiffin, the train caromed off the tracks when it ran up against the first program with a pulse on its 2024 schedule.
Kentucky pushed around Ole Miss on Saturday, especially along the defensive interior. The Rebels’ offensive line which was a concern against the likes of Wake Forest and Georgia Southern got outright exposed by the Wildcats (five sacks allowed, 11 TFLs). Jaxson Dart wasn’t great against a secondary missing its top corner. Ole Miss’ defense was solid enough, yet it still allowed seven explosive passing plays to one of the worst aerial attacks in the SEC. They also committed multiple undisciplined penalties that gave the Wildcats first downs.
This was supposed to be the year for Ole Miss. Their most hyped team in school history. Their highest preseason ranking ever. A cake schedule by SEC standards. They’d pushed their chips all in with one of the most expensive portal hauls in the country. They returned a veteran roster with an experienced starting quarterback in Year 3 of Kiffin’s system.
After Saturday’s uninspiring, underwhelming loss to UK, the Rebels are on fraud watch. Anything short of a 10-2 regular season would be a major disappointment and a completely derailed season conspiring the expectations, roster investments and schedule. But if you can lose to Kentucky at home, you definitely can lose to Texas A&M or Georgia, and the road trip to LSU in two weeks looks a lot tougher now, too.
If Lane Kiffin is truly a Top 10 coach, now is the time to prove it. Otherwise, the Rebels’ supposed storybook season could instead result in an unforeseen train wreck.
Top 10
- 1Breaking
DJ Lagway
Florida QB to return vs. LSU
- 2
Dylan Raiola injury
Nebraska QB will play vs. USC
- 3
Elko pokes at Kiffin
A&M coach jokes over kick times
- 4New
SEC changes course
Alcohol sales at SEC Championship Game
- 5
Bryce Underwood
Michigan prepared to offer No. 1 recruit $10.5M over 4 years
📈STOCK UP — Unheralded defensive coordinators
Utah’s Morgan Scalley, Iowa’s Phil Parker and Texas’ Pete Kwiatkowski aren’t exactly household names, but most semi-informed CFB fans know who some of the top defensive coordinators in the country are. Even coaches like Al Golden (Notre Dame) and Tony White (Nebraska) are fairly well-established.
But what about a few veteran DCs who don’t get discussed quite as often. Here’s three who deserve a little shine and sugar after the way their units have played to start the season:
Brad White, Kentucky — Been at Kentucky since 2018, calling the defense since 2019. His defense has allowed just 30 points in the last two weeks to Georgia and Ole Miss. His unit wasn’t the problem in the galling loss to South Carolina, either, allowing just 250 to the Gamecocks. In Saturday’s upset over the Rebels, they limited Ole Miss to under 350 yards of total offense and held them to just 1-10 on third downs.
Jon Heacock, Iowa State — At ISU with Matt Campbell since 2016, Heacock’s units have consistently ranked in the Top 25 nationally in total defense. So far this season, the Cyclones rank 12th in yards per play allowed, No. 4 in scoring (7.3 points per game) and 8th in takeaways (10). Heacock’s unit pitched a shutout in the win over Houston last weekend.
Jonathan Patke, Duke — The former Texas State DC was one of Manny Diaz’s first hires with the Blue Devils, and while the former Penn State DC has a heavy influence on Duke’s defense, Patke is the one calling the plays for the Top 10 defense in 2024 (4.1 yards per play). Duke is 5-0 explicitly due to its defense. The Blue Devils are No. 2 nationally in TFLs (52) and Top 10 in sacks. They have nine takeaways, fourth-most in the ACC. In the comeback win over rival North Carolina, Patke’s unit held an explosive Tar Heels offense to just three points in the second half, and star tailback Omarion Hampton needed 30 carries to gain 103 yards (3.6 per rush).
📉STOCK DOWN — A lost, wasted season on the Plains
Auburn’s collapse against No. 21 Oklahoma — one in which it dominated the box score but still inexplicably lost the game — made the Tigers 2-3 to end September — this despite fives-straight home games to open the 2024 season.
The runway was there for Hugh Freeze to get off to a fast start in Year 2 on the Plains. There was all sorts of optimism after signing a Top 10 recruiting class and allegedly upgrading the coaching staff. Freeze was calling plays again! A manageable early slate. And yet, the opening month as been nothing but frustration and pain.
If you peel the onion down to the core, Auburn has an offense capable of scaring some teams. But the Tigers do so much damage to themselves it doesn’t matter. Payton Thorne had over 350 yards passing and three touchdowns against OU, but he couldn’t avoid another back-breaking INT-pick-six that totally changed the tenor of the game.
With painful losses against Cal, Arkansas and now Oklahoma all mounting, Freeze is on record that his staff and team are “feeling the weight” of the pressure of expectations.
Well, imagine what that “weight” might feel like if the Tigers are 4-7 headed to Alabama to end the season?
Freeze isn’t on any hot seat list right now, but the pressure cooker has been ratcheted up after Auburn botched its offseason QB room and then opened the season with three losses at home. In his two years with the Tigers, Freeze has yet to beat an FBS team that finished with a winning record, and Auburn still has games against Georgia, Missouri, Texas A&M, Kentucky and Alabama on its schedule.