Week 6 Stock Report: Option offenses flourish, time to have the Sonny Dykes conversation, what's wrong with Nico Iamaleava, Tennessee offense

If Week 5 was a banger, then Week 6 was an all-timer. We had crazy upsets, a colossal comeback and another show-stopping performance by Boise State tailback Ashton Jeanty. 

But what else did we learn from Week 6?

I have some thoughts. 

The 2024 Week 6 Stock Report:

📈STOCK UP — Fun option offenses are flourishing!

Vanderbilt 40. Alabama 35.

Army 34. Air Force 7. 

Navy 49. Tulsa 7.

SMU 34. Louisville 27.

Georgia Tech 24. Duke 14.

What do all these teams have in common? Well for one thing, they all won Saturday. But they also all run varied versions of the option offense. And they’re fun as hell to watch. These are certainly not the only teams in college football leaning heavily into option principles (hello, UNLV’s GO-GO offense or Jamey Chadwell with Liberty) but this weekend was a great example at how much these heavy motion, misdirection, QB-run-or-pass offenses can stress defenses. 

All the eye candy and horizontal movement is causing defenses — particularly ones that aren’t prepared — to play on their heels. And they start guessing. 

Diego Pavia carved up Alabama because the Tide were terrified of his wheels. Army and Navy — both 5-0 for the first time since World War II! — are shredding defenses because they’ve leaned into new-age triple-option attacks that are still run-based but have real drop-back passing principles. 

Load Option Reverse on 4th & 2 pic.twitter.com/HPcqySqYER

— Coach Dan Casey (@CoachDanCasey) October 5, 2024

Both service academies are gashing teams with explosive plays. 

SMU’s offense was a mess with Preston Stone offering next to nothing in the run game, but Rhett Lashlee has mixed in more tempo and spread option with Kevin Jennings, who had 113 yards rushing in the upset over Louisville. Jennings’ eight designed runs, per PFF, were easily the most he’d had all season. 

Georgia Tech beat an undefeated Duke with 245 yards rushing. Bees OC Buster Faulkner has an Air Raid background, but since going to Atlantan, he’s leaned heavily into motion and spread option concepts with Haynes King at quarterback. 

This is what makes college football so fun. It’s not the same cookie-cutter McVay or Shannon offenses everywhere. There’s a bunch of ways to skin a cat to get results. 

One teaser I’m curious about for Week 7? How much spread option, QB-run will new Ohio State OC Chip Kelly bust out against Oregon?

📉STOCK DOWN — Sonny Dykes

It’s time to have the Sonny Dykes conversation. 

Since riding all that HypnoToad Magic to a 13-2 season in Year 1 at TCU, the Horned Frogs have been the warty’ist of wart programs. They’re just 8-10 since getting shellacked by Georgia in the national title game — 4-8 in the Big 12. 

This season, TCU squeezed past Stanford, lost at home (to a now-we-know bad) UCF, got blasted by crosstown rival SMU, beat Kansas and just lost to a hapless Houston team 30-19 against a backup quarterback and an offense that had been shutout for two straight games. 

The Horned Frogs turned the ball over four times, allowed said backup quarterback Zeon Chris to complete 83% of his passes in his first-career start and have given up at least 27 points in every game against a FBS team this year. 

Dykes lost much of the momentum from run to the national title game last season, and now after even more portal additions and staff changes, the program looks stuck in the mud.

Dykes received a contract extension after the 2022 season, but barring a total turnaround by TCU this fall, he’s going to enter 2025 on a seat hot enough to boil a Horned Frog. 

STOCK HOLDING — Is Tennessee’s offense broken?

I’m not ready to sell my shares in Josh Heupel’s offense, but that doesn’t mean I’m not reconsidering my portfolio’s holdings. Not only is Tennessee’s offense no longer a wagon, I’m not even sure how many horses they have right now?

Where Art Thou Explosive, Fireworks Offense, Big Orange?

Dylan Sampson is a dude, but he’s about the only one right now — and Heupel is calling these games as such.  

The receiver room is banged up but has also really underwhelmed. Tulane transfer Chris Brazzell has done nothing, while 5-star signee Mike Matthews has been a non-factor, too. 

The offensive line has struggled to block Oklahoma and then Arkansas’ odd front, which recorded 16 pressures on Nico Iamaleava in the 19-14 upset win. Tennessee’s OL was also responsible for six penalties. 

But a lot of Tennessee’s issues circle back to Iamaleava. He played like a freshman Saturday night against the Hogs. The Razorbacks’ 3-3-5 defense confused him. He was jittery in the pocket and inaccurate when he did have time to throw. He completed just 57% of his throws Saturday, and he hasn’t thrown for more than 211 yards against any FBS opponent this season. 

Every once in a while Iamaleava can uncork a bomb — like he did on the 42-yard pass late in the fourth quarter — that has the Nico Mania Fan Club go wild, but a couple of plays later he can run out of bounds rather than even attempting a potential game-winning pass and look like a wide-eyed freshman. 

The expectations that Iamaleava would instantly be a Heisman Trophy contender were always unfair, but I definitely thought he’d be further along than this. 

Heupel went conservative against OU, and was even more gun-shy against the Hogs (which came into the game ranked 90th nationally in pass defense success rate). Even as awesome as Tennessee’s defense is, will that cut it against Alabama or Georgia?

📉STOCK DOWN — Teams on Q-Watch

Pumpkin patch season just started but it’s never too early to identify some rotten teams ready to pack it in on the 2024 season.

There will be no second-half renaissance for Mike Gundy this fall, as Oklahoma State is officially cooked with their third-straight Big 12 loss. The Pokes laid down at home to a West Virginia team (who jumped out to a 24-0 lead) that saw Garrett Greene go in and out of the game. 

I already dove into Dykes and TCU, but another former CFB media-darling Kansas is now 1-5 after getting hammered in the second half against Arizona State. Baylor is still playing fairly hard, but the Bears are 0-3 in the Big 12 now and have to at least be monitored. 

In the Big Ten, Purdue gave up a 50-burger to Wisconsin. WISCONSIN. Maybe Graham Harrell wasn’t the lone issue? 

The ultimate ‘Quit Watch’ team has to be UAB, though, which got trucked by Tulane 71-20. Trent Dilfer has had a horrible last couple of weeks, and the ugliness is likely only going to continue. They’re 1-4 and have now lost eight losses by 20 points under Dilfer.