This is an opinion column.

It comes every late January or February, a blip in the dreary wearies.

They call it Fool’s Spring because that beautiful day in the low 70s will soon yield back to the somber gray winter for a few more weeks. Well, that came this week in Auburn — and to some degree in Tuscaloosa — as the Labor Day high became a Fool’s September.

For the Tigers, that and Groundhog Day provided a neatly packaged disaster as Punxsutawney Hugh saw his shadow. Though not a complete rewind of last November’s meltdown with New Mexico State, Saturday’s déjà vu was almost worse. For all the talk of a Year 2 bump, Auburn found itself in the same vortex against a team they should’ve handled.

At least that opening night 73-3 pounding of Alabama A&M set the fool’s trap for the next week’s letdown we should’ve seen coming.

What did we learn about Auburn?

Same story, different year.

Its fourth straight loss to FBS opponents saw an offensive line bullied by a Pac-12 castaway in California who openly mocked the SEC’s reputation. That contributed to the quarterback play Freeze proudly didn’t upgrade via the transfer portal.

One, two, three, four interceptions later, Auburn’s stuck in the same spiral its class of stud receivers couldn’t solve. What was supposed to be a four-game tune-up for a Sept. 28 visit from Oklahoma went sideways against the ACC’s West Coast bureau.

This is a Cal program that hasn’t had a winning record since 2019 — a sub-.500 streak that’s just one year longer than Auburn’s. And yet the Bears were the bullies in what began as a festive Jordan-Hare Stadium that slowly had its soul removed in the most predictable way.

The vibrations weren’t much better in Tuscaloosa on a Saturday of historic celebrations. What felt like a seamless transition a week earlier in a 63-0 show of force against Western Kentucky became Alabama’s version of a Fool’s Spring for 54 minutes against South Florida.

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That 42-16 final score will look nice in record books but the night Bryant-Denny Stadium christened Saban Field wasn’t quite as tidy as the final number indicates. Like Bill Murray punching his Pennsylvania alarm clock, South Florida brought the same voodoo that vexed the Tide last year in Tampa.

This was a Group of 5 team that, for a second straight year, drove Alabama to the brink of insanity. The Bulls trailed just 14-13 opening the fourth quarter and had momentum on a potential-game-tying drive midway through that final period.

For as efficient as Alabama looked in its Labor Day Saturday debut, it looked disjointed and outgunned for large stretches a week later. We’re not talking about even an ACC team. This is a team from the American Athletic Conference, a G5 league in which the Bulls were picked to finish fourth.

What did we learn?

First, Kadyn Proctor must be the best offensive lineman in America because his subtraction turned a highly-touted group into an absolute sieve. Jalen Milroe was running for his life on almost every snap Alabama wasn’t flagged for holding.

The three second-half fumbles brought the Auburn-Cal parallels into play as the 31-point underdog scrapped into serious upset range.

Alabama, of course, magically snapped back to Week 1 form in the final six minutes against a gassed defense.

But there was no mistaking the fact that it didn’t look like the nation’s No. 4 team most of the night. Though the Sunday Scaries aren’t quite as ominous as they are in Auburn, this Crimson Tide team needs the same look in the mirror it took after last year’s underwhelming 17-3 win at South Florida.

Because the heavyweights upcoming will play more than 54 minutes.

What else we learned this week

The second week of the 2024 college football season didn’t look overly attractive on Friday but we ultimately learned a lot more than we expected.

— Texas is for real. It took just minutes to see the Longhorns were in a different class than defending national champion Michigan. The 31-12 final score in Ann Arbor was a statement for the SEC’s new national title contender.

— Penn State had its Fool’s Spring in a 34-27 escape job against Bowling Green.

— Notre Dame was exposed as a fraud.

— Arkansas had just enough bullets to scare Oklahoma State but not enough kill the animal living on Mike Gundy’s head. The 39-31 overtime loss in Stillwater looked promising for the Hogs but couldn’t sustain the early momentum.

— No. 14 Tennessee’s playoff hype isn’t cooling after a 51-10 whooping of then-No. 24 NC State. The Vols finished with a 603-261 yardage edge in a game that was never competitive. They’re a machine right now.

— What’s the deal with Oregon? A week after a 24-14 win in FCS land, the Ducks needed a late comeback to beat Boise State. The 37-34 win was sloppy for the preseason No. 4 team that slipped to No. 7 last week and could tumble again.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.