Stars fell on Alabama
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Happy Thanksgiving and War Eagle everyone! In the Great State of Alabama, this week is one of the best times of the year. With the weather finally cooling down, the leaves left in the trees begin to sparkle of blood red and golden yellow, families reconvene at home around supper tables enjoying the year’s bountiful feast, and The Iron Bowl caps off the weekend launching a colder December for some, and a much warmer Christmas for others. The drama of it all really does make me think of Jimmy Buffet in that Big Caribbean in the sky watching all the festivals while singing “Stars fell on Alabama” for all the heavens to hear!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKwGw12E4Xc
As someone born into the bubble of Auburn just before Pat Dye took over Auburn football helping make it nationally relevant, it is hard to describe the emotions that run through these veins on weeks like this. Needless to say, there are millions of me out there from all corners of the state scattered all over the world of all ages who either were born into this dynamic or reborn into to it by moving here for work or for college. Wherever life takes people from Alabama, the one constant perennially is The Iron Bowl. The game casts a shadow of all conversations year round and comes to a crescendo late in November when toe finally meets leather, Crimson and Navy Blue trade paint, and for an entire state in this union, time stands still for nearly three hours. Brother vs Brother, A Civil War, Houses Divided, all the cliches encompass an event in college athletics like no other when these two schools meet on the gridiron every season. For this world, it is as near a religious experience not being religious as you can get.
In my lifetime I have witnessed Alabama have not just one, but possibly two of the greatest college football coaches grace their sidelines with Paul Bryant and Nick Saban. When I was younger, I hated The Tide, FACT. As the years have gone by and the Good Lord marrying me into a crimson household, his ways are not our ways, that hatred has turned to respect. For when you go against Alabama in football, you are going against a mighty machine that takes the game as seriously, professionally and passionately as anyone in college football. Quite frankly and as painful as it is to say truthfully, they are the best.
In my lifetime I have witnessed Auburn have so many ups and downs as a program, university and city which I make home it is indescribable. Through it all though, Auburn people have remained determinedly loyal to the bone. A former Bryant disciple, Patrick Fain Dye, molded a battered and bruised fanbase into one of the most rabid groups of passionate firebrands the college football world has ever seen. It is family and like all families, it sure has not been perfect, but it still proudly stands. There have been great ones on the plains too named Pat Sullivan, Bo Jackson and Cam Newton along with folks most people would not recognize named Danny Skutack, Tim Drinkard, and many other “blue collar” over achievers who built an orange and blue foundation fans have cheered on forever. Quite frankly and as proudly as it is to say truthfully, the best of the rest.
So here we are again in late November 2025 with an Iron Bowl looming as the best of college football poised to take on the best of the rest of college football inside Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa. Historically The Crimson Tide leads the series against The Tigers 50-37-1. Alabama also owns a four-game winning streak against Auburn but in two of those games like several other Tide wins over The Tigers, they escaped by the hair on their trunks just barely. Sure, there have been beatdowns against poor Auburn squads like in 2008, 2012, and 2020, coaches last seasons on the plains, but no other school in this conference has over time given fits to Alabama in football like it’s in-state brothers over in Auburn. Don’t believe me? Just ask Nick Saban about playing in Auburn from last Saturday on ESPN Gameday.
"Well, I would be alerting Texas A&M, because in my opinion, 17 years going to Auburn and playing at Jordan-Hare [Stadium], that place is haunted," Saban said. "I guarantee it. "The way we lost games and the way we won games there, it's unbelievable. Kick Six, and then the 'gravedigger' last year—I mean, I'm telling you, the place is haunted."
It sure as hell is Nick! This entire State is haunted by its past, so why would anyone think otherwise that normal things occur when these two brothers go at it every year on the grounds of this state? If you pay attention to the signs ever, the past screams out at you in Alabama like a radio wave leaving a tower. In Auburn alone there are ninety-eight thought to be Texas confederate soldiers buried in Pine Hill Cemetary and no one knows their names, really how they got here, where they came from and even how they died. Taking a quick glance back at the history of this state, it does not take a historian from either university to point out how much pain, destruction, despair and agony has happened here. That jerk Neil Young even wrote a song about it and in pure Alabama form, got it thrown back in his face “because a southern man doesn’t need Neil anyhow”! We sure as hell don’t!
There is no telling other than history what is buried underneath the ground that fans will walk upon, and players will do battle on in Tuscaloosa on campus at The University of Alabama. Above it this Saturday will be anxious fans watching two teams fight for an identity this season. Both schools being disappointed for various reasons, Alabama and Auburn mainly will compete for state pride in Saturday’s Iron Bowl. A combined nine losses between the two, for championship reasons this game means very little for either university this season. After a rare November beatdown of Alabama by the hands of Oklahoma last Saturday, first year Tide coach Kalen Deboer is learning really quickly how rabid Alabama fans can be. On the other side of the state, Tiger coach Hugh Freeze has been under fire since a week two loss at home against California. Auburn upset Texas A&M last Saturday and after years of frustration, the crowd spontaneously charged the field in an emotional release that even surprised this longtime AU alum who thought he had just about seen it all. I have not!
The ramifications for this game are huge off the field. Auburn has dominated Alabama with in-state recruiting since Nick Saban retired. Kalen Deboer desperately needs a win here to stem the tide of that momentum while reassuring powerful Alabama people that he was indeed the right choice to replace a living legend. History has a way of repeating itself here in the south, and if Deboer loses this game Saturday, like Bill Curry and Mike Shula before him, his stay at the Capstone will be brief. As for Hugh Freeze, after a win finally of two years waiting over a Top 25 team, can the Auburn coach seize the momentum and drive a steak into Alabama’s heart like so many before just could not do?
There are all kinds of stats, injuries, rushing yards, rushing defenses, and whatever you can breakdown with The Iron Bowl just like any other game heading into Saturday. Leave it to the experts to find that one wrinkle or factor which determines the outcome of this game. After watching every Iron Bowl passionately since “Bo went over the top” in 1982, there are just a few intrinsic values which matter most heading into the game for each squad. Who has the most pressure on them, who handles the pressure best, who has the momentum heading into the game, and who can keep the momentum until the play clock hits .00? Kick Six, The Kick, The Reverse, Grave Digger and Bo over the top say hello!
As stated before, in the south and in Alabama, history has a way of repeating itself. This game eerily reminds me of “Black Saturday” in 2001 but reversed. A struggling 4-5 Alabama team that year with some newfound momentum rolled into Jordan-Hare Stadium destroying two-loss and 17th ranked Auburn 31-7. The game was a total shock to an over-confident Tiger program that had beaten nemesis Georgia the weekend before and at some point in the season previously beat a #1 ranked Florida team. Led behind a powerful running attack, sound familiar Jarquez Hunter, Alabama pounded Auburn all day behind Santonio Beard who went for 199 yards on 20 carries out of Alabama’s dominate 328-yard rushing day. If there is anything Auburn has done well this season, it is run the ball. Nevertheless, it is a long time until Saturday, Happy Thanksgiving and tune back in here at Radio Free Auburn Friday morning for predictions in The Iron Bowl and all of rivalry weekend!