Alabama out for Ultimate Revenge vs. Auburn in Iron Bowl
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — It wasn’t supposed to happen that way.
Alabama was either going to end the “Mother Of All Iron Bowls” with a field goal or test its luck in overtime. Black and white, one or the other. Right?
Auburn’s Chris Davis had other ideas. You know the rest of the story.
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As the Crimson Tide get ready to step on the field with the Tigers again for the first time since that November night in Jordan-Hare Stadium, they will do so behind the backdrop of that play.
Alabama is the No. 1 team in the country and a 9.5-point favorite to topple the Tigers, yet it can’t seem to shake that feeling that hung around after last season’s stunning ending.
“We’re still reliving that moment,” Alabama safety Landon Collins told reporters after the Western Carolina game. “It shows up on the TV every now and again. It just breaks our heart every time. That one second took our whole chance away of winning anything.
“Definitely it rewinds in my head. It’s definitely going to be rewinding in our head constantly throughout this week when we prepare for them.”
If the team feels the same way as Collins, it’s doing a good job of hiding it.
“I could really care less about last year. That was a completely different team. It’s a new team," said right tackle Austin Shepherd. "We have a great opportunity. We’ve set ourselves up for success, so we’ve just got to go out there and finish the season off.”
“We haven’t really been thinking about last year. We’ve really just been focused on what we can handle this year—what we can be talking about for the next 365 days and going in and just handling what we can do and let the past be the past and let’s control the future,” said quarterback Blake Sims.
The team is more or less sticking to the party line during this week of practice.
Still, as anyone who has watched TV in the last year knows, it’s not like you can exactly ignore Davis’ 109-yard missed-field-goal return for a touchdown at the end of regulation.
It’s been played constantly on highlight shows. It won the 2013 ESPY for Play of the Year. ESPN is featuring it heavily in promotions for this year’s Iron Bowl.
“We all kind of remember what happened,” head coach Nick Saban said. “It was very, very disappointing to all of us here. Not just the last play but the last five minutes of the game that we never really ever finished the game like we needed to. It was a tough way to lose a game, and I'm sure everybody sort of has that in mind.”
Collins estimates that he’s seen the play “maybe over 200 times.”
“I get asked about it constantly,” he said. “Last year we saw it too many times. I mean it’s just a constant thing that goes around and we can’t think about it now. It’s never going to leave until we do something about it.”
That makes this year about revenge.
Only a handful of redshirt seniors on this year’s team were around for the 2010 comeback in Bryant-Denny Stadium. A lot more, though, were on the sidelines for the Kick Six.
So while Alabama has a lot to lose in this game—the SEC West, a shot at the league title and a berth in the playoff—it’s looking at revenge as a motivating factor.
“I mean, I wouldn’t try to avoid it, but I wouldn’t try to watch it as well,” defensive end Jonathan Allen said. “I just view it was more motivation for me throughout the whole offseason.”
Marc Torrence is the Alabama lead writer for Bleacher Report. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Betting information courtesy of Odds Shark.
Follow on Twitter @marctorrence.
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