College Football has a way with theatrics. Whether it is a bowl game like Miami-Ohio State in 2002, Boise State-Oklahoma or a regular season game like the 'Bush Push', 'The Play', it tends to have a thrill for the dramatics. On Saturday, Auburn, Alabama played host to the latest film in college football masterpiece with Auburn beating Alabama, 34-28, winning in the most improbable fashion knocking the Crimson Tide from their third straight National Championship appearance, continuing their dream season and Gus Malzahn's limited dominance of Nick Saban.
Alabama won their last 15 games going into Iron Bowl on Saturday, and to win that many games in a row, you need to execute with precision and near perfection. Alabama played a less than stellar game in all facets of the game starting with their special teams. Cade Foster did his best Kyle French impression by missing three field goals including one that would have gave Alabama a 10 point lead in the final four minutes of the game. This would lead to an Auburn touchdown on the next game tying the game. Madness would then happened at Jordan-Hare.
Despite all the struggles with their kicking game, Alabama attempted a 57-yard field goal at the end of the game after Nick Saban received one second on the clock. T.J. Yeldon went out of bounds and the officials correctly gave a second back. It seemed like Saban's deal with the devil was merely just continuing here as they brought in a backup kicker to try and win this game. It fell short leading to senior cornerback Chris Davis taking it back from the end zone throwing the Auburn's crowd in pure pandemonium while Alabama fans could only wonder 'What the f--- just happened.'
It is hard to tell whether Alabama's field goal unit saw Davis head back to the endzone because watching the video, the first Crimson Tide player appears at the 15-yard line and not many after it. As Gary Danielson of CBS noted, 'the team was full of fat guys' meaning Davis had more of a clean path than say on a kick off return. While Rod Bramblett's call is fantastic, nothing is better than a perfect crowd reaction video shot here by Bruce Haynes. He turned on his phone video and all of the natural noise can sum up how much this game meant to the fans.
Many people are calling this 'The greatest game ever' and it is very hard to argue with it even if we can perceive it as 'in the moment' yet think about how much was on the line with National Championship, SEC West and the rivalry itself which is probably the most hated in college football right now. On top of it, Auburn continued their storybook season that feels like it should be an original series from Netflix.
Whenever a team comes out of nowhere, I try to look what I said before the season started and surprisingly, I had nice things to say about the Tigers. My thoughts were 'Malzahn would start to lead this back to prominence,' but I did not see this coming at all. To think Auburn started the season by having to sweat out a home game against Washington State is a testament to college football and the coaching job of Malzahn. Auburn lost one game this season against LSU in late September but since then, they beat the likes of Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Georgia and of course, Alabama. The craziest thing about the Georgia win is it happened in similar miraculous fashion yet it did not have the importance plus the craziness of Saturday's affair. Georgia fans have belated thanks this holiday season. Auburn could end up in the National Championship, and that is something no single person, not even the biggest Tigers fan could fathom on Labor Day. Even for Auburn to play in a January 1st bowl game would have seemed insane at the beginning of the year.
It all starts with Malzahn and ends with Malzahn. We talked about it two weeks ago when Auburn beat Georgia, but he has done a masterful job. One of the things that might be getting overlooked given the nature of the big play on Saturday is how well Malzahn has done against Nick Saban during his time in the SEC. In 2010, Alabama led Auburn 24-0. It seemed like the Tide were dashing Auburn's National Championship hopes and Cam Newton's Heisman bid. Malzahn adjusted the offense at halftime leading the Tigers back to victory in the second half.
Last night, Auburn's running attack dominated Alabama to the point where they had two 100 yard rushers, something that has not happened against the Crimson Tide since 2004 when Mike Shula was the head coach. Saban did not have an answer for Malzahn's potent attack. While this is only two games, not many people get Saban multiple times. Les Miles is the only one other than Malzahn, and technically, he only got him once. Yet this is something to monitor in the coming years in the SEC as Auburn will continue to get better.
Auburn's Athletic Director Jay Jacobs already started campaigning for the National Championship as Auburn has one loss. Yes, the SEC has won seven straight, but if Florida State or Ohio State does not lose next Saturday, Auburn or Missouri for that matter will be on the outside looking in. SEC may have cost themselves an eighth straight National Championship, but they played one of the best games ever. I say that's worth it.
Charlie.
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