But it would only get worse. After narrowly missing the chance to capture a second National Championship in two years in 2010, Alabama was soon to get a tight stranglehold on the Championship. In both 2011 and 2012, Alabama bulldozed their way through all but one of their regular season games but got tripped up each time, losing to LSU by 3 points in 2011 and by 5 points to Texas A&M. But because the rest of college football was so weak, producing only one undefeated team each year, Alabama managed to get up to No.2 in the BCS Standing and get an invite to the National Championship Game. Both years they made their competition look silly and beat them easily, making for two boring Championship games. Ugh! It makes my blood boil just thinking about it.
When Alabama won their 3rd Championship in 4 years, it was nothing more than old news. College football fans everywhere read in the paper: "Alabama wins again," and thought "Big Whoop!" I had been stretched to the limit of my tolerance for seeing Alabama win again and again. It was then I thought of a good way to describe them. Another word for crimson is red. So you could think of Alabama as "Red Tide." Growing up in Florida, I know that Red Tide is a harmful and toxic algal bloom that sometimes occurs along the coast, which makes beaches off-limit to people. That's what I think Alabama is: a harmful infestation in college football that is just plain ugly. Furthermore, their mascot is an elephant. How does that make any sense at all!
Now it was time for a team to finally step up and take down Alabama fully and completely. And that team was Auburn....
Auburn had an absolutely horrendous go of it last year, finishing the season with a record of 3-9 and no wins against SEC opponents. After a season like that, firing their head coach Gene Chizik, even though he was only two years removed from winning a National Championship, seemed like the only good choice for Auburn. And it certainly paid off.
Enter Gus Malzahn, who in his first and only year at Arkansas State led them to a Sun-Belt Conference Championship. He accomplishes a massive turnaround for the Auburn program, suffering only one loss in their first ten games. No small feat in the SEC.
But the first real test for Auburn happened when Georgia came to town. With some key players back from tough injuries, Georgia fought with wild abandon and got themselves a 38-36 lead with under 90 seconds to play. Auburn needed a miracle to win. And that's just what they got. On 4th and 16, with 30 seconds left, Auburn quarterback Nick Marshall lofted up a desperation pass to receiver Ricardo Louis locked in double coverage. The two Georgia defenders jumped up to grab a sure interception. But they impeded each other, and the pass bounced off of one of their arms and flew through the air right in front of Louis. He simply grabbed the free gift and ran into the endzone. The fans in Auburn's Jordan-Hare Stadium went nuts. TOUCHDOWN TIGERS!!
But looming on the horizon was Alabama, a bitter in-state rival. Thankfully, they had a bye week to recover after such a wild ending. The stakes were high enough in the yearly Alabama-Auburn rivalry game, nicknamed the "Iron Bowl." The winner would earn a trip to the SEC Championship game. Even more, College Gameday, the nation's premier pregame show which attends the biggest game of the week, was there at Auburn. The stage was set...
Jump to late in the fourth quarter, 2 minutes left, Alabama is up 28-21 and getting ready to attempt a medium distance field goal. If the kicker makes it, Alabama would have a two score lead with almost no time left. The ball is snapped, the kicker gives a mighty kick, but it's blocked! Auburn has a chance.
In the next minute, the Tigers rip and claw down the field, using their potent read option running attack to get 3 first downs. It's 1st and 10 at the Alabama 40 yard line with 40 seconds left. Quarterback Nick Marshall fakes the handoff, makes like he is going to run, but just before he crosses the line of scrimmage, he throws the ball to wide-open receiver Sammie Coates. With nobody in front of him, Coates runs easily into the endzone. After the extra point, the score is tied at 28. "We're going to overtime." Or so everyone thought.
Alabama received the kick with about 30 seconds left, and instead of smartly kneeling down and conceding overtime, they try to go for the win. They get a short pass play to about to their 40 yard line and with 10 seconds left they call a run play. It works well against the prevent defense and Tide running back T.J. Yeldon makes it to the Auburn 40 yard line and steps out of bounds. But the clock reads 0:00. Time for overtime right? Nope! Upon further review, Yeldon stepped out of bounds with 1 second left on the clock. Alabama head coach Nick Saban calls on the back-up kicker to attempt a 57 yard field goal, because their starting kicker had missed 3 in a row. But before the kick Malzahn calls a timeout to "ice the kicker" and decides to put speedy cornerback Chris Davis in the back of the endzone in case the kick falls short. The ball is snapped, the kick is on the way and the Alabama kicking team stares at the ball sailing through the air. But the kick is short and is caught by Davis, and the kicking team leaps into action to cover the return. But it's too late, Davis is racing down the field, picks up a wall of friendly blockers, tightropes the sideline, and literally walks into the endzone.
TOUCHDOWN!!!!! TIGERS WIN!!!!!!
The Auburn fans go ballistic, one Auburn player stands in shock, the mouths of Alabama fans are agape. Alabama's reign of terror is over. The fans storm the field, celebrating a long overdue win against the Crimson Tide.
College football fans everywhere, except the formally overconfident and now dumbfounded Alabama fans, rejoice loudly. And I join with most of college football fans to say: THANK YOU AUBURN!!
Well written blog following a well played game. There is just something so very sweet about watching Alabama suffer =)
ReplyDeleteVery well put! I was so very pleased to see the Tide fall. OSU Has a BCS chance now! :)
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