Countdown to Auburn at Alabama: No more preliminaries
The 79th Iron Bowl between Auburn and Alabama will be played in Tuscaloosa's Bryant-Denny Stadium on Nov. 29. Alabama leads the all-time series 42-35-1 with the teams splitting the last 24 meetings exactly 12-12. As the two programs progress toward Rivalry Week, we'll take a look each Wednesday at current trends -- and the current state of hostilities -- between the Tigers and Tide.
Days until game: 74
Auburn last week: The Tigers enjoyed a bye week as they prepared for this Thursday's showdown at No. 20 Kansas State. No doubt plenty of folks on the Plains were happy to see Arkansas travel to Lubbock and bulldoze Texas Tech, though, after Auburn's relatively comfortable Week 1 win over the Hogs.
Alabama last week: The Tide got a light workout in against 49-point underdog Southern Miss, winning 52-12. If there was any lingering doubt regarding the outcome of Alabama's quarterback battle, Blake Sims going 12 of 17 for 168 yards and two touchdowns while Jake Coker attempted only seven passes probably extinguished it. Perhaps the biggest news of the Tide's weekend was West Virginia beating Maryland on the road -- confirming that the Tide's struggles against the Mountaineers weren't as shocking as they seemed in Week 1.
2014 Auburn-Alabama Power Index: 1. Auburn, 2. Alabama. Why, in a sentence: As has been the case since Week 1, the Tigers' performance against its only quality opponent (Arkansas) still looks a little more impressive than Alabama's against its only quality opponent (West Virginia).
Auburn this week: at Kansas State (+9), Thursday, 7:30 p.m. ET (ESPN)
Alabama this week: vs. Florida (-14.5), Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET (CBS)
Auburn storyline: Are the Tigers legitimate national championship contenders or still merely riding the highs of their dizzying late-season run last year? It's hard to think of a better litmus test than going on the road to Manhattan, Kansas, for a Thursday night primetime special against Tyler Lockett, Ryan Mueller, Jake Waters and Bill "That Dude's a Wizard" Snyder. Gus Malzahn's no slouch himself, of course, and the Tigers have by far the deeper, more talented roster overall -- but that's been true of no shortage of Snyder victims over the years. If Auburn can win this game in this Thursday night environment -- with bonus points for doing so in style -- the sky really will be the limit.
Alabama storyline: Blake Sims has looked perfectly solid and at times downright crafty. Amari Cooper appears well on his way to an All-American season. The tailbacks are the tailbacks. The offensive line has blocked as well as could be expected. But after West Virginia, FAU and Southern Miss, playing Florida -- and Will Muschamp's still-loaded defense -- represents the first true test for Lane Kiffin's reformatted Tide offense. And though the Gators' even-more-reformatted offense doesn't look to be as troublesome as the Mountaineers' well-tuned spread (particularly in Tuscaloosa), it remains the most talented unit the Tide defense will have faced on the young season, too. As with Auburn, if Alabama wants to prove its playoff credentials, there's no time like this week's present.
Moment in Hatestory: November 19, 2005
Thanks to "Punt Bama Punt," bumper stickers had been a preferred means of Auburn trash talk for more than two decades by the time Alabama arrived at Jordan-Hare Stadium for the teams' 2005 meeting.
But they came back into style among the Tiger faithful in a hurry thanks to one of the most memorable defensive performances in Iron Bowl history. Tommy Tuberville's swarming front seven sacked the Tide's Brodie Croyle 11 times, powering a 28-18 Tiger win over a Mike Shula-led Alabama team that entered the game 9-1:
From Every Day Should be Saturday's memorable response to the game:
Seven different scholarship athletes, fed thousands of quality calories and exercised into chunks of hypertrophied mass in their training, were credited with sacks on Saturday. Their names and weights follow, with multiple sacks indicated by number in parentheses following their weight.
Wayne Dickens: 303 lbs.
Quentin Groves: 243 lbs. (2)
Antarrious Williams: 206 lbs. (2)
Tommy Jackson: 303 lbs.
Marquies Gunn: 238 lbs.
Stanley McClover: 247 lbs. (3)
Travis Williams: 207 lbs.
Total weight: 2690 lbs.
The closest equivalent we could find--and the most appropriate one--for a one-ton animal of equivalent size and attitude to a football player was a black rhino, which averages around 2500 lbs. (A giraffe, while capable of kicking the head off an adult lion and around the same weight, doesn't seem as good a match as the rhino.) So on Saturday, Brodie Croyle could have taken the punishment by installment of 11 separate sacks, or simply gone out on the African serengeti with an air horn and taken one massive ass-kicking from a rhino.
And with that, the newest form of Auburn bumper sticker trask talk -- "Honk if You Sacked Brodie" -- was born.
Hate tweets of the week:
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