Week 12 - Auburn

Tide Fans –

Sweet Victory!! The Tide stays undefeated in a thrilling win over arch rival Auburn! What a classic Iron Bowl… a slug fest back and forth with The Tide coming out on top. What started out to look disastrous, turned into a big time gut check for Alabama. Down 14 points to your hated rival on their field, and coming back to pull off the win on the final drive…that was classic old school Alabama 4th quarter football. This team never gave up...they kept pushing and pushing, and when we had to have points in the end, we produced what will be known as “The Drive” to seal victory. How sweet it was to crush Auburn’s hopes of a huge upset with one final drive, and one incredible play for a touchdown. McElroy to Upchurch…just beautiful! We are 12 - 0 my friends, and headed for a much anticipated rematch with Florida!

This game told me a lot about this team…I believe this is exactly what we needed to prove to ourselves that we can stay calm and execute under pressure to get the job done. You cannot ever count this team out. Many fans were mad about how we barely beat Auburn, etc…but how can you be questioning this team after this 4th quarter performance? This was the Iron Bowl, and it is never an easy game! As coach Saban said, we knew we would be entering a “sh*t storm” as he called it, and sure enough we did. Auburn laid it all on the line and did whatever they could to try and pull off the upset. We fell victim to the smoke and mirrors trickery in the first quarter, but we ended up on top at the end and that is all that matters. I don’t care if we beat Auburn by 1 point – It is a rivalry game and anything can happen. Yes, I was extremely stressed out to the point where I literally thought I was going to die, but how sweet is it to win a huge game like that? It is a great way to win and a terrible way to lose…just ask Auburn! I am very proud of our team and what we pulled off Saturday, and I cannot wait to play Florida for the SEC Championship – Roll Tide!

I have only been to Auburn twice before this game, and we lost both times. The first was 1989 when we were ranked 2nd in the nation and Auburn pulled off the win. The 2nd time was in 1995 when we got screwed – Curtis “Touchdown” Brown clearly caught the ball in bounds for the TD, but it was ruled out and Auburn won. I am somewhat superstitious when it comes to Tide Football. I have little traditions I keep up before each game, like what outfit I wear, doing a Jaeger Bomb shot, etc… and I started to get nervous before this game because in 1989 I went to the game with my dad. I went with my dad this year also, and both times we went into this game, Alabama was ranked 2nd. When we were down quickly by 14 points I was thinking…Oh no – I knew I shouldn’t have come to this game, as was my dad. At half I felt a little better, but then Auburn scored again in the 3rd. At one point late in the 3rd quarter I decided we were going to win the game. We were down by 7 points, and not doing much offensively, but I just knew we would pull it out. I began to will us to win – I was not going to accept defeat. I didn’t care how we got it done, we just needed to go out there and win it…and that is exactly what we did.

There are few better things than a last minute drive to victory over your hated arch rival. Visions of the 1996 Iron Bowl filled my head when we lined up for our final drive. As you may recall in ‘96, we drove 90 yards for the game winning TD. We had about 80 to go this time, and it felt very déjà vu to me. Calm and cool, our guys took the field and methodically marched their way to the end zone. Incredible passes to Julio and gutsy runs by Ingram and Richardson got us to the 4 yard line. Tiffin was warming up on the sideline for a game winning field goal…but we had other plans. Enter Roy Upchurch on 3rd and 4. Many of you who read this blog, know Roy Upchurch is one of my favorite players on the team. He does not play much, but when he does he gets results. On 3rd down when it looked like we were just lining up to position for the field goal I see Upchurch come into the game. As soon as I saw number 5 come in, I knew we were going to win. It’s like he has this magical super power on 3rd downs. What came next was one of the most beautifully executed plays ever…the play action pass! At first I thought Richardson had the ball and got stuffed at the line, but no no…McElroy played a beautiful fake and tossed the ball perfectly to Roy Upchurch in the end zone…Touchdown Alabama…pandemonium in the stands…and the State of Alabama is Crimson!

I hate going to Auburn. I usually start to feel nauseous around Alex City. The past two times I had been for a football game, their fans were obnoxious and loved to shake their shakers at very high speed in your face. This time was different – we actually had a very pleasant experience in Auburn. Most of their fans were nice, and we even tailgated with a big Auburn group before the game. I would like to give a big shout out to an old friend of ours Anthony, who hosted us at their tailgate and provided us with a delicious deer stew! Great hospitality and great food! I have now beaten my personal Jordan-Hare jinx and can enjoy my time in Auburn. (but not too much – I will always be a little queasy)

Huge week ahead Bama fans…the SEC Championship awaits! Do not worry about how Florida played yesterday…Florida State is terrible. Florida is beatable this year, and we have almost seen this happen twice. Yes, they are a very good team – but so are we, and we can beat them. We have unfinished business. We had them beat last year and we did not finish in the 4th quarter. Our team knows that even if they do fall behind that we can come back and win – we will not quit. Our coaches will have a game plan to attack Florida offensively, and keep them at bay defensively. This will be a battle, and we will come out on top. Florida is ready to be beat, Florida will be beat, and the Crimson Tide is headed to victory for an SEC Championship!

Keep the faith Tide Fans…this is a huge week and we need big time support! Let’s all get fired up and ready to play the Gators. It is time to teach those cocky jean short, tank top wearing, Tebow loving fans what a real football team looks like. Until next week…Roll Tide Roll!