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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/2Pollaski2Furious on 2024-08-20 15:15:48+00:00.
Yesterday we covered the 2013 Iron Bowl and the Kick Six as our #10 Tank Job of the last 20 years, and, well, it’s only fitting…
9: AUBURN TIGERS (lost to Alabama 27-24) [2023]
The stakes were high for the 2023 version of the Iron Bowl. At least they were for one team- Alabama sat at #8 in the nation and still alive for a playoff spot should anything crazy happen, like, I dunno, a couple beneficial results and the selection committee completely disregarding every standard they had set in the previous nine years of its existence for the sake of appeasing the Walt Disney Company maybe a bit of luck. Auburn was just 6-5, and coming off one of the most humiliating losses in program history after being waxed by New Mexico State by three touchdowns the week before. The Tide were favored by 15 points as the game kicked off…
Alabama drew first blood, set up by a 33-yard completion from Jalen Milroe to Malik Benson on 3rd and 17 near midfield. After an exchange of punts, Jarquez Hunter broke loose for a 42 yard run to the Tide 15, setting up Auburn’s first score, but Alabama responded on their next drive with a field goal, making the score 10-7. The first half would be defined by explosive plays- Auburn scored again when Damari Alston broke loose for a 56 yard run into Alabama territory, then received another fifteen thanks to a facemask penalty, only for Milroe to hit Jermaine Burton for a 68 yard touchdown the following drive, taking a 17-14 lead to the locker room.
The game slowed down in the second half. Alabama had the ball first, and embarked on a nearly 6 minute drive that ended in a field goal, making it 20-14. Auburn responded by turning to Ja’Varrius Johnson, who made catches of 27 and 37 yards, the last being for the touchdown to give Auburn a 21-20 lead. Alabama’s next drive ended in a missed field goal, and now it was Auburn’s turn to burn clock, embarking on an eight minute sojourn that took things well into the fourth quarter and ended with an Auburn field goal. With ten minutes to go, the Tigers led 24-20.
As the clock continued to run, Alabama went three and out, forced an Auburn punt, and then went three and out again as the clock dipped below 5:00. But as Koi Moore went to make the catch, he stumbled, muffed it, and the Tide recovered at the Tiger 30, and the offense trotted out again, unaware that they were about to create one of the most bizarre drive charts ever recorded. Milroe immediately picked up 11 yards on a run to the 19. Two plays later, Marcus Harris broke through the line, and crunched Milroe for a sack, setting up a 3rd and 20. Milroe dropped back, and not finding anyone and five Auburn rushers closing in, ran for it, running into an Auburn defender right before the first down marker to make it 4th and inches. A pitch to Roydell Williams converted, and set up 1st and goal from the 7. But disaster struck on second down again, when a bad snap sailed by Milroe, who could only fall on it back at the 26. Then on third down, Milroe went to pass, couldn’t find anyone, and ran to the outside. He crossed the line of scrimmage, bizarrely hopped backwards, and threw the ball downfield- an illegal forward pass, five yards and loss of down… With 43 seconds to go, it was 4th and goal from the 31- one yard further away than when Alabama had started the drive eight plays and four minutes earlier.
Milroe took the snap, and waited for a receiver to get open. And waited… and waited. Inexplicably, Auburn had only rushed two men, while leaving a third as a spy on the offhand chance that Milroe might try to run for it and cover all thirty yards downfield before any of the eight guys standing in the end zone noticed. Finally, after six seconds in the pocket, Milroe finally heaved a pass to the back corner, where Isaiah Bond had gotten just enough seperation to make the catch. Touchdown Alabama, and one extra point later it was 27-24. The play will forever be known by its name- Gravedigger- but I feel that’s unjust credit, considering I doubt there’s a single part of that play that called for Milroe to stand in place for six seconds while waiting for a reciver to become open.
Auburn did have 26 seconds left to try and get into field goal range, but by then the wheels were off, and all that was left was to set fire to the wreckage. On first down, Peyton Thorne was nailed, the ball flying backwards out of his hands into the endzone, where an Auburn player picked it up and just barely avoided the safety. But the clock was running, and Auburn was discombobulated beyond belief. Thorne managed to get the snap off just as time expired- and threw directly to Tide defender Ternon Arnold, who originally returned it for a pick six before it was mercifully revised he had stepped out at the 3, keeping the final score 27-24.
Honestly, I’m convinced that Auburn’s 2023 season was simply whatever Faustian bargain had been made for 2013 to happen to become due. Everything about the 2023 season seemed to be tailor made to toy with Auburn’s fans emotions and end it in the most soul-crushing fashion imaginable. From the 3-0 start including a gutcheck survival at Cal, followed by a four-game losing streak against the meat of their schedule, then a three game winning streak, all by double digits, the latter being a 38 point whipping at Arkansas giving hope, just a bit of hope, that coach Hugh Freeze was finally starting to turn things around. And then finishing off with the three-touchdown debacle to New Mexico State 4th and 31 (somehow Alabama now has two moments in the last seven years that can simply be referred to by their down and distance) and finishing off the year being mercy killed by Maryland in the Music City Bowl. Heck, even 2013 coach Gus Malzhan wasn’t spared, with his current team UCF melting down to Baylor that year, not to mention the Gus Bus exploding into flames halfway through the Gasparilla Bowl.