Auburn: We have never beaten Auburn in JH when they enter the game with 8+ wins

[Ole Man Dan]

I was going through the SEC schedules and projecting each team's record for the year. When I was doing Alabama and Auburn's projected record, I had Auburn at a record of 7-4 going into the game. I started wondering when the last time we beat Auburn in JH when they've had 7 or more wins entering the game, and we have a few, but we have never beaten them in JH when they enter the game with 8+ wins. While there are only 7 seasons for Auburn that meet this criteria (89, 93, 97, 05, 13, 17 and 19) we've lost all those games.

I don't anticipate Auburn getting to 8 wins before we play them, but it was just a reminder of how dangerous that game will be if Auburn does improve this year. As an aside, we haven't beaten an Auburn team that won 9 games in a season since 94.

IT'S TIME WE BREAK THAT LOSING STREAK.

 

[BamaInBham]

Seriously, the only REAL upset in the series was in 1984. I understand there was a PERCEPTION of upset in 1972, 2001, 2002, and 2013, but the reality is that the teams that won those games had records as good (or better) than the teams that LOST those games.

I know 1972 is a thorn in our side, but Auburn wound up with a BETTER RECORD than we did, and a higher ranking in the AP poll. Yes, statistically we thumped them pretty good, but the fact is that it's not like lightning striking twice in a matter of moments changed the fact 1972 Auburn was a good team.

Likewise, in 2001, both teams ended the year with 7-5 records, although Auburn finished ahead of us in the SEC standings because we had one more in conference loss. As much as 2002 sticks in our craw, the fact is that a 9-4 Auburn beat a 10-3 Alabama, which hardly constitutes a colossal upset.

And look a little closer in 2002:

- both of us beat LSU by scoring 31 points (31-0 for us, 31-7 for them)
- both of us lost narrowly to UGA at home (2 points for us, 3 for them)
- they beat MSU and Vandy by a good bit more than we did
- the odd duck is they got clobbered by Arky while we did the clobbering of the Hawgs
- they got juked by 11-2 USC (with the Heisman winner) and we got juked by 12-2 OU

Everybody fixated on "Alabama barely lost to OU and UGA" and "Arky clobbered Auburn" but their analysis went no further. That's not to absolve fRan for the worst prepared team I've ever seen in my Alabama watching life, it looked like DuBose prepped them for the 2000 MSU game. But we didn't lose to a team 1/2 as good.

The only REAL upset in this series in the TV era has been 1984, and it only happened because Pat Dye outsmarted himself. Granted, there were some close call upsets like in 1997 and 2009 but they never came to pass.


The Iron Bowl - where the better team is pretty much going to win every time.

I will quibble a bit with the ‘72 game. (I was in attendance.) Alabama was a 14 point favorite (our bookie had Bama as a 16 pt favorite - this was before I knew the Lord). They dominated the game much more than that, outgaining AU 315-80. Over 40 of those yards came on a 4th qtr drive for what we thought was a meaningless FG with under 10 min left in the game. It made the margin 13 putting AU ahead of the 14 pt line. It made everyone mad because of the bet, no one thought about the game being in doubt, even after the first block/return. What happened next was surreal: same part of the field, same blocker coming from the same direction, same recoverer, same result. It think in both cases the ball bounced up perfectly into Langner’s hands. As I said, it was surreal, we were all more than stunned.

Yes, AU had a good record but they were not in the same universe as Alabama that year.

Having said that, I agree with your premise, there have been few genuine upsets in the series. I’ve made that point before myself.

I think sometimes Bama fans don’t give AU the credit they deserve and I understand - but they’re a top 15ish program all time and have had many good teams. The last 5 years have been one of the worst periods in their history since the very early 50s. IMO, their program will likely struggle in the new world.

 

[Cruiser]

I will quibble a bit with the ‘72 game. (I was in attendance.) Alabama was a 14 point favorite (our bookie had Bama as a 16 pt favorite - this was before I knew the Lord). They dominated the game much more than that, outgaining AU 315-80. Over 40 of those yards came on a 4th qtr drive for what we thought was a meaningless FG with under 10 min left in the game. It made the margin 13 putting AU ahead of the 14 pt line. It made everyone mad because of the bet, no one thought about the game being in doubt, even after the first block/return. What happened next was surreal: same part of the field, same blocker coming from the same direction, same recoverer, same result. It think in both cases the ball bounced up perfectly into Langner’s hands. As I said, it was surreal, we were all more than stunned.

Yes, AU had a good record but they were not in the same universe as Alabama that year.

Having said that, I agree with your premise, there have been few genuine upsets in the series. I’ve made that point before myself.

I think sometimes Bama fans don’t give AU the credit they deserve and I understand - but they’re a top 15ish program all time and have had many good teams. The last 5 years have been one of the worst periods in their history since the very early 50s. IMO, their program will likely struggle in the new world.

I was there as well; the Barn could not have scored a TD in month. Yes, I was one of 10's of thousands of Bama fans that just sat there stunned after the game ended. Probably the nexus of the quote now used a lot; "WHAT JUST HAPPENED???"

 

[NoNC4Tubs]

Unless Freeze has already sold his soul to the devil, look for him to start negotiations in the months before this year's Iron Bowl...

 

[selmaborntidefan]

I will quibble a bit with the ‘72 game. (I was in attendance.)

You can quibble - the board would be boring if we all agreed - and I'm not sure when you say you were there whether I should say "wow" or "my condolences."

Yes, AU had a good record but they were not in the same universe as Alabama that year.

I know that's in the Alabama canon of religious beliefs, but it doesn't stand up, either.
It's only true in regards to one side of the ball.

Looking at the box score - and getting it from multiple sources - this is what we have:

Alabama rushed for 235 yards against a team that gave up a little over 153 per game (that's good)...when those teams AVERAGED 41 rush attempts per game. Alabama ran the ball 65 times against a team that gave up 3.2 per rush (208), so again, the Alabama running game was good overall in that game. But the total yardage stats tell us a different story.

Alabama TOTALED 251 yards against a team that normally surrendered 286 yards per game. In other words, Alabama's offensive output was 35 yards BELOW what an average opponent got against Auburn that year. Of course, we can say the overall numbers were lower because the rush numbers were higher, too, so the clock was running. On average, teams got 67 plays against Auburn - and Alabama got 72 (we are obviously excluding punts here), so this does justify the idea Alabama ran the ball well against Auburn.

But again, this is where analysts get tripped up in their fascination with powerhouse offenses. Sure, Alabama DID exceed the usual rushing total that Auburn surrendered but on the other hand, but the Tide AVERAGED 308 yards rushing per game (on 64 attempts), so the reality is that Auburn held Alabama 57 yards BELOW the Tide's average. The Tide IN AN AVERAGE performance with Auburn's defense giving an AVERAGE performance should have netted 231 yards...so they accomplished that, yes. (I've not culled the numbers as I usually do so it's a little off but not enough to matter given the performance).

The Alabama argument goes like this: "Auburn couldn't move the ball, Auburn wouldn't have scored on us, etc." Except the problem is that Auburn didn't move the ball much against ANYONE in 1972, so this doesn't count as an argument in Alabama's favor. Auburn had ZIP as a passing game in 1972 with Sullivan gone (their average game was 5-for-10 for 78 yards). Auburn's offense was 72 out of 127 teams (about 260 ypg). Auburn's offense only averaged 18 points per game in 1972 - and they won ten games, so it's not hard to figure out why: they had a defense ALMOST as good as Alabama's (12.1 vs 13.8).

I've heard the statistic about how "we ran all over them (mostly true) and they only had 80 yards of offense." Yeah, that's true, too...as long as you ignore 76 more return yards on punts/kicks and a total gain on punt yardage of over 120 yards. We can offset that a little by Auburn's additional 18 penalty yards, but the OVERALL numbers are not nearly in Alabama's favor as that "80 yards of offense" stat suggests, either. Fact is that Alabama had about 303 total yards and Auburn had little more than half of that - plus a net gain of nearly 100 yards in punt return game. My point is that the yardage game was much closer statistically than Alabama fans want to admit.

My suspicion is that if you had told Shug Jordan his team would hold Alabama to 251 yards of offense, he'd have taken that in a heartbeat.

Of course, the game is really only remembered - who would remember it otherwise? - for the double lightning strike in the waning moments. We can call it skill, karma, luck, a failure of the Alabama special teams (or a triumph of Auburn's if we prefer), but it happened.

I'm not going to argue Auburn was "the better team," they probably weren't. But likewise, they weren't some 4-6 also ran who caught a couple of breaks, either. Nor was the contest as one-sided as the recitation of stats suggests. Keep in mind Auburn won THREE OTHER GAMES in 1972 where they scored fewer than the 17 points they got in the Iron Bowl plus another game where they scored 19.

That's always been my point. Yes, I'm sure the hype at the time was how "Auburn has no chance," and the way they won just drove home that idea. But Auburn beat us largely doing the same thing they'd done all year (with the conspicuous exception of the LSU game) - plus a double shot.

Having said that, I agree with your premise, there have been few genuine upsets in the series. I’ve made that point before myself.

I think sometimes Bama fans don’t give AU the credit they deserve and I understand - but they’re a top 15ish program all time and have had many good teams. .

That's part of it, and I'm certainly not including you in that particular club even with 1972. Thing is, when a team loses a game that the whole universe expects them to win, it's almost always because of something the average fan overlooks. For whatever reason, turnovers only register with some fans if it's an immediate touchdown (say a Pick Six) and return yardage only registers if the returner scores on the play.

My contention has always been we are too drawn to the electric moment - and ignore what set it up in the first place. In this case, however, the electric moment was like something out of Groundhog Day.

 

[sanjosecrimson]

Could be wrong but I only see these wins before the iron bowl and I'm being generous:

@Baylor
Ball State
South Alabama
@Arkansas
Kentucky
@Vanderbilt
Mercer

It won't be easy at Arky. Kentucky is competitive enough under Stoops to cause problems.

 

[BamaInBham]

You can quibble - the board would be boring if we all agreed - and I'm not sure when you say you were there whether I should say "wow" or "my condolences."



I know that's in the Alabama canon of religious beliefs, but it doesn't stand up, either.
It's only true in regards to one side of the ball.

Looking at the box score - and getting it from multiple sources - this is what we have:

Alabama rushed for 235 yards against a team that gave up a little over 153 per game (that's good)...when those teams AVERAGED 41 rush attempts per game. Alabama ran the ball 65 times against a team that gave up 3.2 per rush (208), so again, the Alabama running game was good overall in that game. But the total yardage stats tell us a different story.

Alabama TOTALED 251 yards against a team that normally surrendered 286 yards per game. In other words, Alabama's offensive output was 35 yards BELOW what an average opponent got against Auburn that year. Of course, we can say the overall numbers were lower because the rush numbers were higher, too, so the clock was running. On average, teams got 67 plays against Auburn - and Alabama got 72 (we are obviously excluding punts here), so this does justify the idea Alabama ran the ball well against Auburn.

But again, this is where analysts get tripped up in their fascination with powerhouse offenses. Sure, Alabama DID exceed the usual rushing total that Auburn surrendered but on the other hand, but the Tide AVERAGED 308 yards rushing per game (on 64 attempts), so the reality is that Auburn held Alabama 57 yards BELOW the Tide's average. The Tide IN AN AVERAGE performance with Auburn's defense giving an AVERAGE performance should have netted 231 yards...so they accomplished that, yes. (I've not culled the numbers as I usually do so it's a little off but not enough to matter given the performance).

The Alabama argument goes like this: "Auburn couldn't move the ball, Auburn wouldn't have scored on us, etc." Except the problem is that Auburn didn't move the ball much against ANYONE in 1972, so this doesn't count as an argument in Alabama's favor. Auburn had ZIP as a passing game in 1972 with Sullivan gone (their average game was 5-for-10 for 78 yards). Auburn's offense was 72 out of 127 teams (about 260 ypg). Auburn's offense only averaged 18 points per game in 1972 - and they won ten games, so it's not hard to figure out why: they had a defense ALMOST as good as Alabama's (12.1 vs 13.8).

I've heard the statistic about how "we ran all over them (mostly true) and they only had 80 yards of offense." Yeah, that's true, too...as long as you ignore 76 more return yards on punts/kicks and a total gain on punt yardage of over 120 yards. We can offset that a little by Auburn's additional 18 penalty yards, but the OVERALL numbers are not nearly in Alabama's favor as that "80 yards of offense" stat suggests, either. Fact is that Alabama had about 303 total yards and Auburn had little more than half of that - plus a net gain of nearly 100 yards in punt return game. My point is that the yardage game was much closer statistically than Alabama fans want to admit.

My suspicion is that if you had told Shug Jordan his team would hold Alabama to 251 yards of offense, he'd have taken that in a heartbeat.

Of course, the game is really only remembered - who would remember it otherwise? - for the double lightning strike in the waning moments. We can call it skill, karma, luck, a failure of the Alabama special teams (or a triumph of Auburn's if we prefer), but it happened.

I'm not going to argue Auburn was "the better team," they probably weren't. But likewise, they weren't some 4-6 also ran who caught a couple of breaks, either. Nor was the contest as one-sided as the recitation of stats suggests. Keep in mind Auburn won THREE OTHER GAMES in 1972 where they scored fewer than the 17 points they got in the Iron Bowl plus another game where they scored 19.

That's always been my point. Yes, I'm sure the hype at the time was how "Auburn has no chance," and the way they won just drove home that idea. But Auburn beat us largely doing the same thing they'd done all year (with the conspicuous exception of the LSU game) - plus a double shot.



That's part of it, and I'm certainly not including you in that particular club even with 1972. Thing is, when a team loses a game that the whole universe expects them to win, it's almost always because of something the average fan overlooks. For whatever reason, turnovers only register with some fans if it's an immediate touchdown (say a Pick Six) and return yardage only registers if the returner scores on the play.

My contention has always been we are too drawn to the electric moment - and ignore what set it up in the first place. In this case, however, the electric moment was like something out of Groundhog Day.

Alabama was a 16 point favorite. Auburn had 3 first downs and about 30 yards of total offense in the first 3+ qtrs. They had not blocked a punt all year. IMO, the only reason Jordan kicked the FG was that he was trying to avoid the shutout. Logic dictated that he should go for the TD and a 2pt conversion in case lightning struck and AU was able to score another TD, maybe they could tie the game and gain a “moral” victory.

Make no mistake about it, it was not an upset, it was a monumental upset. Anyone who was there knows that even the 16 pt spread did not fully reflect Alabama’s superiority. Alabama came to play but the loss was a fluke. Only 1949 was a greater one. It’s not that AU was bad, they were a good team, it’s that Alabama was clearly a far superior team.

 

[81usaf92]

The 1972 Auburn game wasn’t a “monumental” upset nor was it a true upset when you factor in modern data and betting systems. If you input modern betting practices then Alabama is about a -4 or -5 point favorite. There is no world in which a top 10 matchup on a neutral field is ever a “monumental” upset unless you are directly emotionally involved in the game.

I’ll grant some that you could consider it possibly an upset because of how it was won by Auburn, but too many older Alabama fans treat it like Bill Curry beating Bryant in 81 when it was not. Hell, too many Alabama fans treat every Auburn loss like some monumental upset to begin with.

I still go with Selma on this in that the only real legit upset is 84. Auburn was night and day the better team and that Alabama team had no business being on the same field in the 4th quarter with them.

 

[Tideflyer]

1989 we went 10-2, tied 1st in the conference, lost the Sugar Bowl; Auburn went 10-2, won the Hall of Fame Bowl

1993 we went 9-3-1 on the field and won the Gator Bowl, Auburn was undefeated but was on probation and didn't play in a bowl

1997 we went 4-7, Auburn went 10-3 and won the Peach Bowl

2005 we went 10-2 and won the Cotton Bowl, Auburn went 9-3 and lost the Capital One Bowl

2013 we went 11-2 and lost the Sugar Bowl, Auburn went 12-2 and lost the BCS championship game

2017 we went 13-1 and were National Champions, Auburn went 10-4 and lost the Peach Bowl

2019 we went 11-2 and won the Citrus Bowl, Auburn went 9-4 and lost the Outback Bowl.

My conclusion is that voodoo and Pat Dye's pants are solely responsible for those victories.

Maybe it’s a combination of them being pretty good those years, plus …..just that place, along with what seems to be that they are ALWAYS seemingly super amped up for that game, particularly in JH. Comparatively, it quite often looks like we’ve just been going through the motions. Never understood that. Watched Alabama football since ‘58 and have always felt that they feel that game is more special than we do. It’s THE game for them.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

I still go with Selma on this in that the only real legit upset is 84. Auburn was night and day the better team and that Alabama team had no business being on the same field in the 4th quarter with them.

Again, I'm willing to call it an "upset" in the sense that the higher-ranked team lost, although if that's the logic then the 1989 Iron Bowl was ALSO an upset (hint: it wasn't).

But it was not some "this team has no business on the field with this other team" Harlem Globetrotters versus Washington Generals idea, either.

In fact, we'd be hard-pressed to say that 1972 was REALLY any different than 2013, and yet we have folks here who will admit 2013, while at least a slight upset wasn't a complete out of the blue knockout, either. The circumstances are quite similar:

1) Alabama is installed as a pretty huge favorite against a one-loss Auburn team

It was 14 points in 1972 (the same point spread Auburn was an underdog to Tennessee, but I don't see anyone calling THAT one a monumental upset), and it opened at 9.5 in 2013. It probably would have been even more had the game not been played at JHS.

2) Auburn has a bunch of narrow wins against also-rans and a road loss to LSU in a game where LSU scored 35 points.

3) Auburn beats UGA at home and has an off week prior to the Iron Bowl.

Granted, nothing like the Prayer at Jerking Hair but similar setup. Another major difference is that Alabama also had an off week in 1972 but played UTC in 2013.

4) Alabama vastly outgained Auburn but lost due to multiple breakdowns in the special teams.

Granted, it wasn't the "we got 3 times their offensive yardage" of 1972 (which as noted was largely offset by the gains on special teams), but we still had 102 more yards of offense (cut in about half by return yardage in 2013). Here we had four missed field goals, there we had two blocked punts returned for a touchdown.

5) "Our best team ever...."

Yeah, 2013 (and rightly so) is listed highly on our list of "best team to not win the national title." But in the runup to trying to set up an Alabama vs USC national title game in 1972 (yep, it WAS discussed), one Alabama official is quoted as saying, "Coach Bryant says this is the best team he's ever coached, and he's coached national champions before so this says a lot." (Amusingly, this article ran THE DAY AFTER the 1972 game).

What's funny is I've heard variations of that same quote (or attribution) to Coach Bryant about his 1961, 1966, and 1979 teams, too. I've watched people on this board insist to me that Bryant said his 1966 team was the best he ever coached, and he did......in 1966. (He said quite different things in other years...all of them by coincidence I'm sure years in which Alabama was trying to angle into a national championship game). Don't take coachspeak as an ex cathedra statement from a football pope.

So see, 1972 was "our best ever team" entering the Iron Bowl so......so nothing.

And then we have the reality that the oddsmakers of 1972 didn't even bother to pay close attention to what was happening around them.

-14 vs MSU (Auburn barely won, 14-3)
off-the-board vs UTC (Auburn again barely won, 14-7)
+14 vs Tennessee (apparently a "monumental" upset here, too)
+7 vs Ole Miss (yes, Auburn was a 7-point dog to a team that had BARELY scraped by Memphis and USM back in the days of limitless scholarships and neither team being any good
+11 vs LSU (well, you gotta give it to 'em)
-4 vs Ga Tech (yes...after Auburn beat the Vols as a huge dog and the Vols SLAUGHTERED Tech, 34-3, Auburn went off as "well, they might barely win")
-2 Florida State (amazingly, nearly ever prognosticator picked FSU to win this)
-1 Florida (FSU had massacred the Gators, 42-13, and a week later Auburn - after beating FSU is HALF the favorite they were the previous week????)
-6 Georgia (Auburn covered the spread of 17 whereas Alabama covered -14 with an 18-point win over UGA)
-14 Alabama
+11 Colorado (Auburn wins, 24-3)

An 8-1 team ranked #9 beating an unbeaten #2 BY ONE POINT at a neutral site game the first week of December is by no meaningful definition anything other than a mild upset. If Auburn would have gained 160 ground yards and scored those two TDs after starting at the Alabama 49 after a bad punt, would ANYBODY try to argue now that this was huge? No, it's being hung up on the HOW rather than the WHAT happened.

 

[81usaf92]

An 8-1 team ranked #9 beating an unbeaten #2 BY ONE POINT at a neutral site game the first week of December is by no meaningful definition anything other than a mild upset. If Auburn would have gained 160 ground yards and scored those two TDs after starting at the Alabama 49 after a bad punt, would ANYBODY try to argue now that this was huge? No, it's being hung up on the HOW rather than the WHAT happened.

To me that is why everyone is saying it’s an upset. It’s more how than actually that it happened. I would say it’s more of a game flow upset than an actual upset. It’s more like our last two trips to JHS tbh.

When I think upset I’m thinking Central Florida, La Tech, and Georgia Tech. The closest real upset that Auburn pulled on us imo is 2002. I think too many people look at Auburn as a third class program to the point that they will never accept that every now and then there are instances in which they are just as good as Alabama in a given year, and when they do beat Alabama it’s an upset.

 

[colbysullivan]

To me that is why everyone is saying it’s an upset. It’s more how than actually that it happened. I would say it’s more of a game flow upset than an actual upset. It’s more like our last two trips to JHS tbh.

When I think upset I’m thinking Central Florida, La Tech, and Georgia Tech. The closest real upset that Auburn pulled on us imo is 2002. I think too many people look at Auburn as a third class program to the point that they will never accept that every now and then there are instances in which they are just as good as Alabama in a given year, and when they do beat Alabama it’s an upset.

Don’t forget 2019. Auburn had no business beating us that year.

 

[81usaf92]

Don’t forget 2019. Auburn had no business beating us that year.

It wasn’t an upset even from a betting perspective. Bama was -4 closing. Auburn was an above average team that year and could realistically beat any team in the country on any given Saturday.

I will level a say the refs heavily influenced the game. But in the spirit of what is considered an upset I don’t see it.

 

[colbysullivan]

It wasn’t an upset even from a betting perspective. Bama was -4 closing. Auburn was an above average team that year and could realistically beat any team in the country on any given Saturday.

I will level a say the refs heavily influenced the game. But in the spirit of what is considered an upset I don’t see it.

Bama was better than Auburn at every position other than kicker (obviously), even with a backup QB. The only possible exception was DL, but there’s no way we should have lost that game. I will die on this hill.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

It wasn’t an upset even from a betting perspective. Bama was -4 closing. Auburn was an above average team that year and could realistically beat any team in the country on any given Saturday.

So in this one thread we've gone from "14 points is a huge upset" to "3.5 is a huge upset."

Look, we lost the 2019 Auburn game thanks to sloppy officiating (and a rule that has been changed) and two Pick Sixes. And the fact our defense wasn't all that great (Auburn's defense was better than ours was; sure it was 18.6 vs 19.5...but we didn't play Oregon, Georgia, or Florida that year, either). And our quarterback was hurt. And they were stealing our signals (sorry, wrong excuse for the loss there - but hey, they're the Tigers, too).

However, when you give up 48 points (Auburn) and 45 points (LSU), you're pretty much always gonna go 0-2. (UTAH STATE held LSU to fewer points than Alabama did and VANDY had nearly the same points total against them we had (41 vs 38).

I will level a say the refs heavily influenced the game.

I mean, AUbie pretty much conceded one of the two points there, but the idea they got to start with their field goal kicker ON THE FIELD that they could not possibly have done otherwise was disgusting.

But in the spirit of what is considered an upset I don’t see it.

Nah.

1984 was an insane upset - and even that only happened because Pat Dye thought about it too much.

 

[81usaf92]

Bama was better than Auburn at every position other than kicker (obviously), even with a backup QB. The only possible exception was DL, but there’s no way we should have lost that game. I will die on this hill.

You do realize that Bo Nix is a starting quarterback in the NFL and Mac Jones isn’t currently…

 

[81usaf92]

So in this one thread we've gone from "14 points is a huge upset" to "3.5 is a huge upset."

Look, we lost the 2019 Auburn game thanks to sloppy officiating (and a rule that has been changed) and two Pick Sixes. And the fact our defense wasn't all that great (Auburn's defense was better than ours was; sure it was 18.6 vs 19.5...but we didn't play Oregon, Georgia, or Florida that year, either). And our quarterback was hurt. And they were stealing our signals (sorry, wrong excuse for the loss there - but hey, they're the Tigers, too).

However, when you give up 48 points (Auburn) and 45 points (LSU), you're pretty much always gonna go 0-2. (UTAH STATE held LSU to fewer points than Alabama did and VANDY had nearly the same points total against them we had (41 vs 38).



I mean, AUbie pretty much conceded one of the two points there, but the idea they got to start with their field goal kicker ON THE FIELD that they could not possibly have done otherwise was disgusting.



Nah.

1984 was an insane upset - and even that only happened because Pat Dye thought about it too much.

Like I said most Alabama fans live on the perception that any loss to Auburn is the greatest upset of all time unless Alabama sucks. I had tickets to the 2019 game and had somewhat a degree of confidence going into the game but my gut told me we were going to get beat so i gave away my tickets and suffered in a bama man cave instead of seeing Auburn storm the field. TBH that Auburn team underachieved and anyone with an ounce of football knowledge and isn’t wearing crimson colored glasses knows it. I still think LSU and Bama were above the rest of the country but Auburn had enough talent to give both a run. I think it undoubtedly proves that it wasn’t a real upset.

Now the only thing that still makes me mad about that game is the only holding call in the entire game and the fact the refs gave Gus a few timeout. But other than that there really was no big shock that Auburn beat us that night just disappointment.

 

[colbysullivan]

You do realize that Bo Nix is a starting quarterback in the NFL and Mac Jones isn’t currently…

That has literally nothing to do with college. Bo Nix was AWFUL at Auburn, and Mac Jones was throwing dimes that game, except for one bad pass and another typical JHS voodoo fluke. We should have won that game by 14.

 

[81usaf92]

That has literally nothing to do with college. Bo Nix was AWFUL at Auburn, and Mac Jones was throwing dimes that game, except for one bad pass and another typical JHS voodoo fluke. We should have won that game by 14.

Should’ve, could’ve, would’ve doesn’t make losing a game where you are favored by 4 in a game on the road with a backup quarterback a monumental upset. Just because you are upset over the result doesn’t make it an upset.

FTR Bo nix wasn’t awful at Auburn. He had the wrong coach for his talent. We are lucky he was hurt in 2021 or else Alabama fans would understand what a true iron bowl upset actually is.

 

[BamaMoon]

I'll just leave this here:
View attachment 51788

So you are saying expect a name change to the stadium/field one day?

Jordan-Hare-Tubberville Stadium!

Pat Dye/Tommy Tuberville Field!