Game Preview and Open Thread - Auburn vs Alabama

We’ve had some misfortune against Alabama over the past few seasons. A coach on the verge of getting fired, a defense in over its head, and two offenses, rudderless without quarterbacks, that just couldn’t gut it out enough to get some points on the board to support improved defenses.

There’s no need to focus on any of that.

“You can hide ‘neath your covers and study your pain, make crosses for your lovers, throw roses in the rain...

...waste your summer praying in vain for a savior to rise from these streets.”

There’s no need to remember the shutout that ended Chizik’s time on the Plains, or the shootout where we just didn’t have enough in the end, or the last two seasons, trotting out Jeremy Johnson to go against the best defense in the country.

And as much as we love it, there’s really no need for us to remember the Kick Six, because once Chris Davis serves as our honorary mic man, his presence in the stadium does little for the play on the field. If a brutal flashback somehow ages Nick Saban a bit more on the other side, and makes him question a decision, then it matters. For our side, however, we can’t lean on the memories that fade a little more with each passing day. They won’t help our guys make blocks, tackles, and catches today. We need to create new memories, end this three-year streak of futility against the Tide, and give Rod Bramblett something new to add to that highlight reel.

We are the saviors risen from the streets. We’re the ones that college football’s depending on to end (likely temporarily) Alabama’s stranglehold on the sport. We’ve got the defense, and the running attack, and the quarterback, and the coaches to make this happen. We’ve been tested, we’ve been beaten, battered, bruised, sent home in defeat, and yet, here we are.

Here we are.

Still alive.

“Hey, what else can we do now, except roll down the window and let the wind blow back your hair?

Well, the night’s busted open these two lanes will take us anywhere.

We’ve got one last chance to make it real, to trade in these wings on some wheels.

Climb in back, heaven’s waiting down on the tracks.”

All week, our players have talked about playing loose. If we can tie it on from the end of the Georgia game, we may smash Alabama. It may happen. We all know that this game will be one heck of a fight, however, and that whether we’re up or down, we’ll all have significantly shorter fingernails come 6:30 tomorrow evening.

It’s fine. I’m scared. You’re scared. They’re scared. Nobody wants to lose. Nobody wants to deal with the inevitability of defeat. When we care, it hurts, but it the pain is worth it for moments like Punt Bama Punt, Bo Over the Top, Lawyer Tillman on the End-Around Reverse, the First Time Ever, Nix to Sanders, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes Auburn, Yes, Jarrett Holmes, Tre Smith, Go Crazy Cadillac, Honk if you Sacked Brodie, Fear the Thumb, the Camback, and the Kick Six.

“Together we can break this trap, run ‘till we drop, baby, we’ll never go back.

Will you walk with me out on the wire? ‘Cause baby, I’m just a scared and lonely rider, but I gotta now it feels. I want to know if love is wild, babe, I want to know if love is real.”

The love is real. That much I know to be true.

It’s the Iron Bowl.

It’s love and hate.

It’s life and death.

It’s honor and dishonor.

“Together, [Auburn], we can live with the sadness, I’ll love you with all the madness in my soul...

Someday, girl, I don’t know when. We’re gonna get to that place where we really wanna go.

And we’ll walk in the sun...

But ‘till then, tramps like us, baby we were born to run.”

We’re in this together, I’ve got you, and you’ve got me, we’ve got each other, and because Auburn men and women believe in these things, I believe in Auburn, and love it.

And I believe that we will beat Bama. War Eagle.