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Alabama football: Past is prologue with Iron Bowl week here
By David Wasson
Published:
There have been times in the storied Alabama-Auburn rivalry where the annual game didn’t really matter all that much in the national picture.
But there has never, ever been a time that the Iron Bowl didn’t matter to the state of Alabama.
Ever.
And so we enter this week yet again, the 84th meeting of the Crimson Tide and Tigers. You can dispute that Alabama vs. Auburn (or Auburn vs. Alabama elsewhere on this site…) isn’t really the Iron Bowl anymore — as it isn’t being played anymore at Birmingham’s rusting Legion Field.
Purists will tell you that if risking your life to park on Graymont Avenue isn’t involved, it isn’t really the Iron Bowl. Purists will also tell you that television sets shouldn’t have more than three channels and that the only Bear worth fearing used to prowl the Crimson sideline.
But as it was, it shall always still be. The Iron Bowl. Two teams and two fanbases that hate each other so passionately, actual (tree) lives have been lost.
Oh sure, you get games like the 2003 Iron Bowl every now and then. Neither team was ranked in the Top 25 and Alabama vs. Auburn was a national November afterthought. But that game — a 28-23 Auburn victory — saw then-coach Tommy Tuberville begin his post-game tradition of waving fingers in the air to commemorate how many straight times the Tigers had downed the Tide.
The fingers eventually got to 2 hands, of course, ending in Auburn’s 36-0 loss to No. 1 Alabama in 2008 that cut the streak short at 6 wins and began a downward spiral that saw Tuberville “voluntarily resign” shortly thereafter.
But more often than not, and especially since 2003, the Iron Bowl has had national implications.
In 2009, Greg McElroy threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to fullback Roy Upchurch with 1:24 remaining to lift No. 2 Alabama to a 26–21 victory at Jordan-Hare Stadium. That play capped a 15-play, 79-yard drive that consumed 7:03 of game clock and helped propel Alabama to its 13th national title.
One year later, a certain son of a preacher man helped lead No. 2 Auburn past No. 11 Alabama 28–27 — as the Tigers erased a 24-0 Tide in Tuscaloosa and complete the largest comeback win in series history.
The 2011 and 2012 games were so lopsidedly won by Alabama — 42-14 and 49-0 — that Auburn fired Gene Chizik, who won a national title for the Tigers just 2 years before.
Someone tried a 57-yard field goal in 2013 at the buzzer and it didn’t quite have the distance. We can’t really remember much of how that all ended. …
No extra seconds were required in 2014, as No. 1 Alabama defeated No. 15 Auburn 55-44, the highest scoring Iron Bowl ever.
The 2017 Iron Bowl technically didn’t matter, either, as No. 6 Auburn defeated No. 1 Alabama, 26-14 for the Tigers’ largest margin of victory over Alabama since 1969. Even though the Crimson Tide neither won the Western Division nor the SEC title, the loss did not keep them out of the College Football Playoff — which they ultimately won for the school’s 17th national championship. That was the first time that either team went on to win a national championship after losing the Iron Bowl.
And just last season, No. 1 Alabama defeated unranked Auburn, 52–21, a win that extended the Crimson Tide’s FBS record of consecutive wins against unranked opponents to 82 games. Tua Tagovailoa, Alabama’s sweet Hawaiian prince, set an Alabama record with 6 touchdowns (5 passing and 1 rushing) and the Tide finished the regular season with a perfect 12–0 record for the fourth time in the Nick Saban era.
The 2019 version, back off Wire Road in Western Georgia, has at least tangental value in the current national championship picture. The 3-loss Tigers can put the final nail in Alabama’s CFP coffin by upsetting the Tide on the Plains. Alabama needs — with a capital N — a victory and a little help from elsewhere to keep hopes of an 18th title alive.
Of course, and perhaps you’ve heard, Alabama enters the 84th Iron Bowl without its most electrifying player — as Tagovailoa is done for the season after sustaining a hip injury 2 weeks ago at Mississippi State. The Tide tuned up for the Tigers in traditional style Saturday, as new QB1 Mac Jones threw for 275 yards and 3 TDs as Bama pounded FCS also-ran Western Carolina 66-3.
Make no mistake, though … Auburn isn’t Western Carolina. Even though the Tigers have lost thrice in 2019, said losses have come to No. 10 Florida, No. 2 LSU and No. 4 Georgia by a combined 19 points.
No matter the stakes attached to Saturday, though, an entire state’s worth of bragging rights is at stake when Alabama meets Auburn. Whether both teams are 11-0 or 0-11, legends are made and careers are lost based on the results.
Put another way, we turn to Paul W. Bryant — who knew a bit about winning games — to offer the proper context about facing Auburn every year.
“Sure, I’d love to beat Notre Dame, don’t get me wrong,” Bryant once said. “But nothing matters more than beating that cow college on the other side of the state.”
Welcome back to the Iron Bowl.
An APSE national award-winning writer and page designer, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. His Twitter handle: @TheSharpDW
