Alabama-Auburn: The Iron Bowl looks like it will be a blowout. Don't be fooled.

A couple famous quotes start resurfacing among the Alabama and Auburn faithful around this time each year. The first, from Bear Bryant, is a thunderclap: “Nothing matters more than beating that cow college on the other side of the state.”

The second, spotted on T-shirts and peeling bumper stickers all over Lee County, is a knife blade: “Hey Nick! Got a second?”

The first line is a summation of Alabama’s entire ethos, a sense of superiority over, and condescension toward, Auburn. The second is Auburn’s devastating counter, a reference to its famous/infamous “Kick Six” victory. Alabama may have a wheelbarrow’s worth of championship rings, but in the most famous play in college football history, Auburn got the win.

It’s Iron Bowl week in Alabama, and as usual, everyone’s on edge.

Ever since Auburn and Alabama first played football — in February 1893, on a baseball field in Birmingham, a game that ended in a 32-22 Auburn victory — these two schools have measured their years by this game. A victory means you can hold your head high among your co-workers and in the grocery store; a loss mars your entire season, and the only way to heal is to survive another year.

There’s even more to it than that.

For Auburn, a victory is a triumph over elitism, over that white-columned arrogant bunch of old-family-money snots over in Tuscaloosa. Auburn gauges itself by the Iron Bowl; a victory in this game can turn around an entire season.

For Alabama, though, the stakes are very different. Especially during the Bryant and Saban eras, the Tide has had its eyes on a much bigger prize than an in-state victory over those mouthy farm workers from the Plains. For the Tide, the Iron Bowl is less an achievement to be treasured, more a threat to be survived.

This season marks the 10th anniversary of the Kick Six, the miraculous turnabout play that capped the 2013 Iron Bowl. The stakes were astronomical coming into the game: 11-0 Alabama, the back-to-back defending national champion, was ranked No. 1, while 10-1 Auburn was ranked No. 4. The game was tied at 28 as time ran out on regulation, but Saban pleaded for — and got — one second put back on the clock. He sent out an untested field-goal kicker to attempt a 57-yarder, and, well, this resulted:

Chris Davis is now a legend in the state. The ball from that game is on display at Auburn like a holy relic. The Tigers would ride that exhilarating victory to the national championship game, only losing to Florida State in the final seconds of the game. It marks the last real high point for the Auburn football program … but what a high point it is.

Alabama holds the overall edge in the series at 49-37-1, but most of the cinematic victories belong to Auburn. Three years before the Kick Six, Cam Newton led Auburn back from a 24-point deficit to win and continue the Tigers’ march to their most recent national championship. In 1982, freshman Bo Jackson snapped a nine-game Tide winning streak with his fourth-and-1 “Bo Over The Top” end-of-game goal-line dive. Ten years earlier, down 16-3, Auburn’s Bill Newton blocked a late Alabama punt and the Tigers’ David Langner ran it back for a touchdown … and then both did the exact same thing a few plays later, leading to another improbable Auburn victory over a previously undefeated Alabama squad.

One notable exception: 2021, when No. 3 Alabama took a heart-wrenching four overtimes to hold off a ferocious unranked Auburn team. Down 10-3 with less than two minutes on the clock, Bryce Young drove Alabama 97 yards to tie the game. The schools traded haymakers in overtime, with Young finding John Metchie III on a game-winning 2-point conversion in the fourth OT. The Tide would go on to lose to Georgia in the national championship game.

This year, both schools are barreling into the Iron Bowl on very different trajectories. Auburn, a 14.5-point underdog, is coming off one of the most stunning losses of the 2023 season, a 31-10 humiliation at the hands of New Mexico State — a loss for which Auburn also paid $1.8 million. The Tigers are bowl-eligible in their first season under head coach Hugh Freeze, but after last week still look like a teardown is necessary … unless this weekend goes well.

“We all know what the Iron Bowl means to so many,” said Freeze, and you can fix your feelings a whole heck of a lot with a good performance in that game.

Alabama, on the other hand, is still attempting to atone for an early season loss to Texas. The Tide is already locked into next week’s SEC championship game, but if Alabama wants any hope of reaching the College Football Playoff, it must win out … and a narrow, tight win just won’t do.

“People talk about all the crazy stuff that happens in this game. But since I've been here, the team that should have won the game won the game based on who played the best,” Saban said. “We've had this challenge several times before, and this one's going to be just as difficult as any of the rest."

There’s desperation in the air, and that fuels the Iron Bowl. Alabama can put its rival in its "proper" place with a beatdown. Auburn can salvage its season by destroying Alabama’s. Now that’s the recipe for a good rivalry.

The next chapter in this frenzied, unpredictable saga kicks off Saturday at 3:30 ET. It could be a routine game, but don't be surprised when it takes a sudden turn.