History Repeating? Auburn- Alabama A&M

Oof. What a nightmare of a week. Last Saturday was one of the worst Auburn football games I have ever watched. For the first time all season, I contemplated turning the television off and doing something—anything—else. My desire to finish watching the game was as weak as a Sean White pass to the flat.

This week is going to be different, I think. I can’t be sure considering the Auburn team taking the field Saturday will look completely different from the teams that have played this season. We will probably look at the backfield with confusion and needing a roster guide next to us the entire game.

So, in order to feel better about Auburn’s chances of not getting upset by an FCS team, let’s pull back the curtain of time and look to the past. Hopefully something happened that will give us insight into the future.

The Shipwrecks of the Island Maid and the Angele

On November 19, 1911, two ships wrecked off the coast of Cornwall in England. One of the ships was English and one was French. They were different types of ships, with different types and sizes of crew, and they both crashed in the same spot on the same day. How is this possible?

Off the coast of Cornwall, there is a sandbar known as “Doom Bar.” Legend has it a mermaid built it as a curse to the area after she was shot by a man. That is probably not how it was made, but it has been a curse to the coast of Cornwall for hundreds of years. Since the 1800’s, there have been over 600 shipwrecks caused by this sandbar. The doom bar is a menace. Even ships who have attempted to avoid the doom bar have found themselves running headlong into it as the wind is unpredictable in this area of the estuary. It is almost unavoidable.

The Auburn-Alabama A&M Game

Auburn comes into this game ranked in the top 15, but 0-1 against teams with “A&M” in their name. Auburn will be without its starting QB (hopefully he is allowed to rest), two of its running backs, a fullback, and who knows who else considering this staff’s official policy on injury is misinformation. Will the offense be able to move the ball with JF3 at QB? Yes. He is more than capable of slashing through an FCS defense. There is a decent chance that he is faster than every player on Alabama A&M’s team. Will he throw more than six passes? I hope so. Only because I want to be proven wrong about my doubts of his accuracy. The best possible remaining storyline for this season, in terms of sheer drama and unlikelihood, is a JF3-led upset of Alabama. Well, other than a “Jeremy Johnson: Redemption” storyline but that is almost too Hollywood for Hollywood.

Alabama A&M quarterback is De’Angelo Ballard. He is a dual threat, do-everything quarterback who accounts for the majority of the Bulldog offensive attack. He had over 100 yards rushing and over 100 yards passing in last week’s win over Jackson State. Ballard will not find similar success on Saturday because he is going to run into the Doom Bar of Auburn’s defensive line. Carl Lawson will be playing in his last home game as an Auburn Tiger. While this is a sad realization for me as I type it, I also know it means certain doom for whoever is in Carl Lawson’s way on Saturday. He is three sacks away from breaking Auburn’s single-season sack record. I think he knows that.

Montravius Adams is bigger than all but four players on the Bulldogs roster. He is going to live in the backfield on Saturday. Hopefully, the Auburn defense can get a few scores of its own so we can get Carl and Mon out of the game as much as possible. We will need the Doom Bar to be fully operational in a week.

Auburn is going to win this game, but it might be ugly in the early going as inexperienced players will be getting a lot of snaps.

Auburn 52

Alabama A&M 10