I’ve said it most of the year. Almost everything related to Auburn football feels good, except the scoreboard. The stats are good. Stretches of games have been really good. The recruiting is historically great. But the scoreboard.
Finally, Auburn was able to break through last week. It started great, got a little typical, then ended really fun. The basketball team even obliterated Maui. Everything is good.
For Alabama, they got dismantled, destroyed, embarrassed by Oklahoma in Norman. They scored zero touchdowns. They really did score one that was called back by a truly awful call, but we don’t question officiating. Alabama scored zero touchdowns against a team that needed a late pick-six to beat Auburn.
That’s all that matters.
The vibe around these two teams could not be more different. Auburn’s win over Texas A&M was a huge release of negativity that has hung over the end of otherwise positive games all season. Alabama’s loss has the world’s greatest fanbase wanting the QB, who is the best athlete on the team, benched and the new coach fired.
If the game was being played at Jordan-Hare, especially given how the last two Iron Bowls in Auburn have gone, I would dare to say that Vegas might actually pick Auburn. But it’s not.
The game is in the stadium where Auburn has never lost a game when a coach not named Nick Saban was on the other sideline. Let me say that a better way. Alabama has literally NEVER beaten Auburn in Tuscaloosa without Nick Saban as their coach. They are 0-7 in such situations.
He may be back in two seasons after DeBoer completes a 6-loss season, but Nick Saban will not be coaching Alabama this weekend.
For a while they said “you can throw the record books out” about the Iron Bowl. Then somebody noticed that wasn’t really true and said “the better team usually wins.” Alabama has had the better season and at times has looked decently strong.
But they also have a more embarrassing loss to Vanderbilt than Auburn’s, a standard loss to Tennessee, and then last week’s awful loss to Oklahoma. They’ve had some good (against teams that maybe aren’t as good as we thought), and they’ve had some bad against teams that a good Alabama team should have no problem with.
Auburn has some truly infuriating losses this year, but their worst was by 18 at Georgia. Nothing like a 21 point loss to a 6-5 team.
This game will come down to two things: Auburn’s handling of a playing a road Iron Bowl (specifically zero panic turnovers) and containing Milroe.
Payton Thorne has looked like a safe, old quarterback the last few weeks. Even though his interception stat was way overblown from the Cal game, his turnovers are way down over the course of the season. Georgia’s Carson Beck and Alabama’s Milroe have 4 and 3 more interceptions than Thorne, respectively.
If Thorne leads the team and does what so many Alabama quarterbacks did while getting way too much credit, and just manages the game well, Auburn’s offense should be fine. Auburn’s weapons have been jammed up in many inopportune times this season, but they’ve fired on all cylinders that last two games. They know what works, the coaches know how to use them, and they’re more confident that it works than they have been all season.
Milroe is one of the better athletes in college football. That doesn’t mean he’s a great quarterback, and his fans will tell you that. But if he’s given a chance to run all over the field and keep the Auburn defense’s heads swimming, it could be tough to win on the road.
In similar quarterback situations, Auburn has used freshman linebacker Demarcus Riddick to spy the quarterback and keep them hemmed up. Given that Milroe lied and said he didn’t know who Riddick is, that should be an interesting little chase.
This is one of those Iron Bowls where the team that hasn’t played as well is trending in a better direction than the team that has mostly played well. Alabama fans are preemptively saying they’ll lose so you can’t make fun of them when they do. That’s when you know they’re down.
Look, Auburn can go in there and win, but the last time they did it took Cam Newton coming to town to do so. Better Auburn teams than this one have gone to that place and played much better Alabama teams and not been successful.
I’m making it sound like Tuscaloosa is a tough place to play. It’s not. Nick Saban was just tough to beat. That’s all.
And he’s not there.
Thorne will manage. Jarquez will bulldoze. Cam Coleman will fly. KLS will Moss. Riddick will reintroduce himself to Milroe. Alabama fans will leave early. Auburn players will dance. Maybe they can use some of the basketball team’s moves.
It will be fun by the 4th quarter.
Auburn 31, Alabama 21
