Once back in Auburn, a 27-21, season-opening victory over Oregon in his back pocket, Auburn star defensive tackle Derrick Brown checked the scores from Week 1 of college football. And, particularly, in his own conference, he saw massive upsets, like Georgia State over Tennessee and Wyoming over Missouri.
He then turned on the tape of Auburn's Week 2 opponent, Tulane, on Sunday night. He immediately knew his teammates would have to bring their A-game in their home opener to avoid disaster.
"As you've seen last weekend in college football, people taking different conference teams not so seriously, and it came back to bite people," Brown said. "It's one of those things, like, that's not how we want to approach it."
Tulane isn't an average Group of 5 squad that's serving as lamb to the slaughter for a powerhouse program. The Green Wave has won six of its last seven games dating back to last year, and defeated FIU 42-14 in its season opener, holding one of the top returning offenses in Conference USA to under 300 total yards.
"They're a team on the rise," said Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn of Tulane. "When you turn on the film Sunday, when you get back and you put the other one to bed, they get your attention in a hurry. They're a very, very quality opponent."
Offensively Tulane is captained by quarterback Justin McMillian, an LSU transfer from two seasons ago. After shakily taking the reins as the full-time starter at the tail-end of last season, McMillian opened 2019 with a bang, accounting for 250 total yards and three touchdowns from scrimmage and posting quarterback rating of 207. He was named the American Conference's offensive player of the week for his performance.
Along the defensive front, the Green Wave return all four starters from a group that paved the way to 41 team sacks last season — allowing them to surpass 40 sacks for just the fourth time in the program's 125-year history.
The front four of Jeffery Johnson, Patrick Johnson, Cameron Sample and De'Andre Williams have a combined 52 starts. None of them are shorter than 6-foot-3.
Teeing off against an Auburn offensive line that ebbed and flowed with successes and struggles against Oregon, Tulane enters Jordan-Hare after posting the second-best run defense in its conference from last season and the eighth-best sacks-per-game mark in college football in 2018.
"Our players turn on the film and they can tell these guys play their guts out," Malzahn said of Tulane. "They play hard and they’re talented."
Under fourth-year head coach Willie Fritz, who left Georgia Southern for New Orleans in 2015, Tulane improved from back-to-back 3-9 seasons in 2014 and 2015. It won four and five games the next two seasons, respectively, before finishing in a tie for first in its division and claiming the program's fifth bowl win last year.
Saturday's showdown also rekindles a rivalry from generations ago. The teams faced off 36 times between 1902 and 1955 as they both moved from the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association to the Southern Conference, before becoming charter members of the SEC in 1932.
The Green Wave own the all-time series, 17-14-6. Saturday marks the second meeting between the teams since 1955, after Auburn won 38-13 at home in 2006.
As it stands Saturday morning, Auburn is a 17-point favorite over the Green Wave. The Tigers are undefeated (12-0) in games against Group of 5 teams in the regular season since Malzahn's arrival, though there have been some close calls against opposition that were, at least on paper, lesser than Tulane.
In what would be an omen for Auburn's highly anticipated 2015 season, the Tigers needed overtime to edge out FCS Jacksonville State in its home opener that year. In 2017, Auburn turned the ball over five times to allow Mercer to hang around in a 24-10 win. And last season, in a game delayed by lightning for three hours, Southern Miss remained within single digits until the fourth quarter in a sloppy, 24-13 win for Auburn.
Simply projections-wise, Tulane is expected to keep it closer than any of those teams. JSU, Mercer and Southern Miss were 41-, 40- and 26-point underdogs, respectively.
"When you look at them from top to bottom... a veteran team special teams, offense, defense," Malzahn said. "... You can tell they’re extremely well coached. It’s really one of the better teams, non-Power 5 that we’ve played since I’ve been the head coach. Very impressed with them, and we know we’re going to get their best."
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Check out the AUBURNSPORTS.COM team's picks for the game, as well as other major CFB matchups in Week 2, HERE.
For a position-by-position breakdown and analysis of the Green Wave, click HERE.
