Best Price: $49.95Iron Bowl
Alabama Football VS Auburn Football
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The first time I attended the Iron Bowl I was a junior in High School. December 3, 1966. Alabama had won the previous year and 6 out of the last 7 years. Alabama was the defending National Champion. With Kenny Stabler at quarterback, the Tide was “unstoppable”. Coach Bear Bryant considered the 1966 team his best even though they were not voted national champs despite being undefeated.
1966 was a rebuilding year for Coach “Shug” Jordan’s Auburn Team and Alabama beat them, 31-0. Alabama was on top of the football world! Legion Field and Birmingham was not a “friendly” place for the Auburn faithful. This was my first “taste” of the Iron Bowl, but far from my last.
Many, many other states and schools have “rivalries” and tradition but none can compare to the annual “Iron Bowl” between Auburn and Alabama. The first game was played on February 22, 1893 at Birmingham’s LakeviewBaseballPark. About 400 people witnessed what would be the beginning of one of the most heated and emotional rivalries in the history of college sports.
Auburn dominated the first 15 years of the series, winning 11 times, but in 1907 the series was suspended and would not continue until 1949. There were many reasons for the suspension but most agree that this game was “too” dividing and distracted the fans and alumni from the other objectives of the athletic programs and the “Iron Bowl” was deemed more important than Conference, National and Bowl Game rankings.
As the Rivalry was re-born it also became the “focus” of all of the football fans in the state. Auburn brought in Ralph “Shug” Jordan and Auburn countered with Paul “Bear” Bryant. Jordan had returned in 1951 and dominated the Crimson Tide until 1958 when Bryant came to Tuscaloosa. Alabama and Auburn would split the decade winning five games each, with Crimson Tide dominating the first half and the Tigers dominating the second half. But tough times lay ahead for Auburn as Bryant would go on to take control of the increasingly bitter rivalry. The legendary coach focused on Auburn and again, the state was divided!
By the 1960s interest had begun to “snowball” and the Legendary Iron Bowl was attracting National attention. The game was played at Legion Field (a “neutral” site) in Birmingham. When the decade began, Auburn held the unique distinction of being the only Southeastern Conference team that held a lead over Alabama in its series of games. The Tigers’ 13-10-1 advantage was to become an 18-15-1 Tide advantage by the time the 1969 Iron Bowl was played. In 1964 National Television began broadcasting the Iron Bowl to the entire country and the rivalry and reputation of hard-nosed, championship football continued to grow with the Legends of the schools and coaches.
The 1970s was “Crimson” as far as the Iron Bowl is concerned but the Auburn was not without moments of emotion and glory. Alabama won three more national championships before the decade ended but perhaps one of the greatest upsets in the history of this series happened in 1972. This was one of the GREATEST games I have ever witnessed! This was the “Punt, Bama, Punt” game! Soon to adorn billboards, highway overpasses, full page newspaper ads and everything that would hold paint across the state.
Alabama came into the game undefeated, number 2 in the nation. Auburn was heavy underdogs despite a 9-1 record. Alabama completely controlled the game for 3 quarters and had a 16-0 lead with 10 minutes to go. Auburn couldn’t move the ball and Coach Shug Jordan was “booed” as he called for a long field goal try. The kick was good and the score was 16-3.
Alabama received the kick-off but was stopped and set up for a punt. With less than 3 minutes left in the game, Auburn’s Bill Newton blocked the punt and it bounced into the hands of David Langner who ran 25 yards for a Tiger touchdown and that narrowed the gap to 16-10.
After the ensuing kickoff, again, the Auburn defense held and Bama’s Greg Gantt was set to punt again. The ball was snapped and Newton broke through and blocked the punt, AGAIN and Langner AGAIN scooped it up for a 20-yard run for a touchdown. Time expired as Langner crossed into history and Alabama fans were stunned as the scoreboard revealed a 17-16 Tiger win.
The Iron Bowl will continue to be THE game in Alabama.
73 Iron Bowls
Auburn 33
Alabama 39
Tie 1
The passion the commitment to excellence and the TRUE LOVE of football will ALWAYS be part of Auburn vs. Alabama, “THE IRON BOWL.” It is what football fans across the state of Alabama live and die for!
Another wild week in the SEC!
The SEC knows exactly how to keep their fans on the edge of their seats. In some of the wildest games of the year, teams from around the SEC put on a show! The South Carolina Gamecocks and Tennessee Volunteers faced off first in a showdown that came down to the fourth quarter. Tennessee finally got their passing game up to par until Alshon Jeffery of the Gamecocks had a 70-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.
The World’s largest Outdoor Cocktail Party between the Florida Gators and Georgia Bulldogs in Jacksonville, Florida was a shoot out to remember. Trey Burton and John Brantley of the Gators put of 450 yards of total offense to lead the Gators. The game went into overtime before Florida’s punter/place-kicker hit a 37-yard field goal in overtime to give the Gators the victory and keep them alive in the Eastern Division race.
The Vanderbilt Commodores traveled to Arkansas for their homecoming. Vanderbilt came out swinging early and took a 14-6 lead at the end of the first quarter. Ryan Mallet and the hogs took charge and scored 43 unanswered points. Mallet broke his own single game record for passing yards and finished the day with 409 yards and 3 touchdowns. That total was the highest for any player in the SEC this season.
Mississippi State hosted the Kentucky Wildcats which was a defensive battle. It came down to the final seconds as Kentucky was driving down trailing the Bulldogs 24-17, before Hartline was intercepted at the goal line with seconds to spare. The Bulldogs were lead by senior linebacker Chris White who posted a career-high 15 tackles with one for loss and one interception. The Bulldogs are on a six game winning streak, but have a tough road ahead facing Alabama, Arkansas, and Ole Miss.
The last and most exciting game of the week came down between the Auburn Tigers and Ole Miss. Ole Miss came out striking when Jeff Scott raced 83 yards for a touchdown on the second play from scrimmage for the Rebels. He finished with 134 yards on nine carries. Jeremiah Masoli, a transfer and running threat like Newton, completed 20 of 33 passes for 189 yards with a touchdown and an interception for Ole Miss. He ran for 29 yards. Both Masoli and Scott were no match for Cam Newton who became the third Auburn player to have touchdowns passing, rushing and receiving in the same season, joining Carnell Williams (2004) and Kodi Burns (2009), the quarterback-turned receiver who threw the pass to Newton. The 6-foot-6 Newton outfought 5-10 cornerback Jeremy McGee in the role reversal. Newton was 18-of-24 passing, and ran 11 times for 45 yards after running wild in recent weeks.
The Auburn Tigers are now number 2 in the BCS standings and if they win out, are guaranteed a spot in this year’s BCS National Championship game. The only problem is that they play in the SEC which has been a crazy conference this year.
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Coach of the Year
There should be a lot of debate on which coach in the South Eastern Conference has done the best job so far. Of course, you have Gene Chizik who has taken Auburn to an 8-0 start and has the Tigers at the number one spot in the BCS Standings. But I think if you have Cam Newton on your team playing the way he has this year, any coach could be in the same spot Chizik is.
Then you have Nick Saban, who even though his Alabama Crimson Tide team lost early in the year to South Carolina, still has a shot to get to the BCS National Championship Game. Saban’s Crimson Tide team looked a little rough for a few weeks but over the last few games have started playing with more fight and is starting to look like the Alabama team that everyone was scared of before the season started.
Now you have to look at Bobby Petrino and the Arkansas Razorbacks who are off to the best start since Petrino took over for Houston Nutt. The Razorbacks are sitting at a 5-2 record with the two losses coming from the teams above late in the fourth quarter of each game. The Razorbacks still have a shot of a 10 win season and a major bowl bid if they can hold on to their leads. They have 3 ranked opponents left which can help them tremendously in the BCS standings.
We can’t forget about the Mad Hatter and Les Miles down in the Bayou Country either. LSU is #12 in the country with only one loss to an Auburn team that is playing better than anyone else in the country right now. Les Miles has done some crazy things this year, but in the end a win is a win. He has a shot to redeem himself when the Tigers play host to Alabama on Nov. 6, before finishing the year off at Arkansas in Little Rock.
Last but not least is Dan “The Man” Mullen over at Mississippi State University. He has taken a non-bowl team and turned them around in less than two years. The fans have supported him from day one and so far it has proven to be right. He has the bulldogs ranked for the first time in 9 years and bowl eligible in 8 games so far. His only loses have come against Auburn and LSU. Mullen and the Bulldogs have their toughest challenge ahead playing Kentucky, at Alabama, Arkansas, and finishing up at Ole Miss. If Mullen can win just two of the four games in the stretch, his name will be hard to not say for the Coach of the Year.
There is still a lot of football left to play in a conference that has been all shaken up from week one. With controversy around every corner, who knows what we are in store for as we prepare for the second half of the year.
Check out our Alabama Christmas Ornament or our Auburn Christmas Ornament or our Mississippi State Christmas Ornament
What a year in the South Eastern Conference!
All summer long, it looked like Alabama would be the team to beat, but who knew that it would be the two Tigers that were the top dogs. That’s right Auburn and LSU. The SEC has always had its two powerhouse teams, but this year all has changed. The SEC West has 5 out of the 6 teams ranked in the Top 25, while the East is only boasting in one with South Carolina.
It’s still a guess who will end up in Atlanta on December 4th to play for the SEC championship. With Auburn, Alabama, and LSU still having to play each other this year, things are still bound to get shaken up. Auburn and LSU face on Oct 23, which will give the West a little room. Then LSU and Alabama face off on Nov.6, before Bama faces Auburn on Nov 26. That’s just in the West. The Eastern Division is still anyone’s game through midseason.
It is just a mess in the East, with Florida losing three straight conference games; they could still end up in Atlanta playing for a conference championship. If they can beat Georgia in Jacksonville on Oct. 30, Vanderbilt on the road on Nov. 6 and South Carolina at home on Nov. 13. There has not been a three-loss champion represent the division in Atlanta since divisional play started in 1992.
Who knows where the conference will stand this year, but one thing for sure is if the SEC wants to send a team to the BCS National Championship for a 5th straight year, a hard road lies ahead. Auburn is sitting at No. 4 in the first BCS standings, but LSU isn’t far behind at No. 6. Alabama is the highest one-loss team nationally at No. 8.
The SEC is still going to have some work cut out for them if both Oklahoma and Oregon remain undefeated. The past does show that if an SEC team goes unbeaten through the regular season, the voters have rewarded them. Florida jumped up to the top two spots in 2008 and in 2006 after being 10th and 6th in the first BCS Standings.
The Auburn Tigers look like they are the team to beat from this point forward. Cam Newton is a machine and has been racking up the yards and the touchdowns on every team they have faced so far. If LSU or Alabama have a say in it, they will have to shut down Newton.
From record setting scores, to major upsets, the SEC has been full of a ton of surprises. The crazy thing is we are only half way through the season. There is no telling what is in store for college football fans as we embark on the second half of the year. Will the SEC send a team to the BCS National Championship game, or will a new conference take over as this year’s best? Only time will tell, but one thing for certain is that it will be entertaining.
Check out our Florida Christmas Ornament and our South Carolina Christmas Ornament
SEC in Week 7
So here we are in Week 7 of college football.
The SEC is still leading the pack with 3 teams in the top 10 and 6 in the top 25. Even though some of the poll guys don’t take into account that the guys from the SEC play in the SEC so there are going to be some really good teams playing some other really good teams.
So number 12 from last week Arkansas played number 7 Auburn. It was a literal shootout with all kinds of records being broken in scoring. Arkansas gun slinger got hurt in the first half with a concussion. Ryan Mallet was in street cloths during the 2nd half. His backup Tyler Wilson cam in and did a great job. Except for about 20 seconds where he had two turnovers that probably caused the game to get away.
Alabama pretty much dominated the Black Bears of Mississippi. Bouncing back to form after losing to a very good South Carolina last week.
South Carolina on the other hand loses to Kentucky with some great plays at the end by Jocker Phillips Wildcats.
Mississippi States Dan Mullen took his much improved Bulldogs down to the Swamp and handed his old mentor Urban Meyers his first 3rd lost in a row of his career. Mullens said it was not an upset his team expected to win the game. Upset or not the Bulldogs are making people take notice.
Georgia seems to be getting back on track after getting their top player back after a lengthy suspension. The man handled Vanderbilt 43-0.
LSU started slow but easily handled McNeese State 32-10
Things we discovered in the SEC is that Cam Newton is for real. He has shown up as a legitimate Heisman contender. As good as Newton is the Tiger defense may be just as bad. The Tigers have yet to stop anybody who can throw the ball. They were shredded by Arkansas’s 2nd string quarterback. It’s official. Mississippi State is the SEC’s most improved team. The Bulldogs are 5-2 have won 4 straight games. They are winning the old fashion way by hitting people in the mouth. State ran the ball 49 of 58 plays and had 24 straight running plays at one point in the game. Also let it be know that the two games that MSU has lost were to two teams that are as of now undefeated this season. Both ranked in the top 10 in the country.
In Florida it is looking like Tebow light is the way to go. Brantly may be a great athlete but Florida is still doing much better when he is not at QB.
And the last question in the SEC is does anyone really want to win the East. It seems that the 4th or 5th team in the West could be better than number 1 in the East.
But again this is the SEC and anything can happen. Remember in the SEC it is not that far from Top to Bottom. Pretty much any of them can win at any time.
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Auburn Tigers
Tommy Tuberville’s 10 year reign as the Auburn Tigers coach came to an end following a 36-0 demolition by the rivals Crimson Tide in the annual game. His replacement, Gene Chizik brought in a new team of backroom staff and after the disappointing 5-7 season, 2009 is going to be a tough year for the Tigers with a gruelling road schedule which sees them visit LSU, Tennessee and rivals Georgia. The team’s bid to get to a Bowl for the first time since the New Year’s Eve 2007 win over Clemson in the Chick-fil-A Bowl will not be helped by tough matches like the game against Ball State who are coming off a very good 12-2 season. The Tigers are likely to have new faces for the upcoming season to fit with Chizik’s ideas and to replace departed Jerraud Powers and Tyronne Green.
