The first two weeks of the 2021 Auburn football schedule were designed to be confidence-building weeks ahead of a critical non-conference collision with Penn State at Beaver Stadium in Happy Valley, PA next weekend.
Consider confidence built.
Week One against Akron was a coming-out party for Bryan Harsin’s new offense, which saw Bo Nix frequently target TEs and air the ball out to great success. Tank Bigsby did Tank Bigsby things, and Jarquez Hunter shined in his freshman-year debut.
Week Two saw early struggles, with the Alabama State defense being up to the task and preventing the Tigers from scoring a touchdown in their first two drives.
Unfortunately for the Hornets, it was only a matter of time before RBU ran all over Travis Pearson’s point prevention unit, and before long it was 20-0 heading into halftime.
ASU’s Marching Hornets, Stingettes, and Honey Beez stole the show at halftime with a routine that honored the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York in 2001.
The second half saw the Tigers blow past the 49-point spread and take a commanding a 62-0 lead.
With one of the season’s defining matchups approaching next week, whose stock is up…and whose took a hit in AU’s second win of the 2021 campaign?
Let’s take a look:
Stock up: Auburn football RB Jarquez Hunter
How can your stock go anything but up when you break away for the longest touchdown run (94 yards) in the history of Auburn football?
Jarquez Hunter had over 100 yards rushing in his debut last week, and put himself on the map with a 147 rushing effort in Week Two.
Jboy absolutely nailed his prediction of Hunter being RB2 in the Tiger backfield.
Stock up: Auburn football WR Demetris Robertson
Demetris Robertson was all over the field, scoring three touchdowns (two receiving, one rushing) in what was his first big game as a Tiger.
Onto his third school, Robertson may have finally found a home he can thrive on, assuming he could still produce when the level of competition severely escalates in the coming weeks.
Stock down: Auburn football QB Bo Nix
It was borderline inevitable that Bo Nix would see his stock go down after a 20/22 performance in Week One. ASU was far more game than Akron was in the first half of their game, forcing tough throws from Nix, who finished with 9/17 and a single score.
No matter. Maybe our Dark Horse Heisman candidate just had himself a fun Friday night on the Plains and overlooked the Hornets.
Stock up: Auburn football QB TJ Finley
On the flipside, backup TJ Finley only had up to go after a rough debut against the Zips, and he soared there with a massive deep ball to Malcolm Johnson Jr. for 49 yards in a 2/2 performance in limited playing time.
It’s clear that Bo Nix is QB1, but it’s always good to have a backup that can step in and deliver as well. We’ve seen little of Finley so we don’t yet know if that’s the case, but Week Two gave us hope.
Stock up: Auburn football CB Roger McCreary
One of the more spectacular games on Saturday afternoon was Roger McCreary’s pick-six on Alabama State QB Ryan Nettles, who otherwise had a damn good showing for an FCS signal-caller stepping up to the highest weight class in college football against Derek Mason’s defense.
McCreary’s INT was one of two turnovers in the third quarter that swung the momentum so far in AU’s direction that anyone that had any action on Auburn is a happy person today.
Stock up: Auburn football CB Nehemiah Pritchett
Before Roger McCreary’s INT in the second half was the second non-offensive touchdown scored in AU’s decimation of Alabama State on Saturday.
The first was a block field goal that was recovered and brought back to the house by CB Nehemiah Pritchett. After Bo Nix’s unimpressive start, Pritchett’s fumble recovery turned into a touchdown fired up a Jordan-Hare Stadium crowd sitting on their hands from the unimpressive offensive play.
Stock up: Auburn football DL
46 rushing yards. That was the total for Alabama State on the offensive end on Saturday. With Hornets QB Ryan Nettles creating most of the offense through the air (130 yards), the DL as a whole prevented any holes for Jacory Merritt or Jared Daniels to exploit.