Considering true freshman quarterback Anthony Jennings came in for an injured Zach Mettenberger and led a 99-yard touchdown drive in the final minutes to defeat Arkansas, it would take something incredible to upstage LSU.
Enter the Iron Bowl.
In the latest chapter of the best rivalry in college sports, No. 4 Auburn pulled the upset of No. 1 Alabama that effectively stemmed the Tide’s run of BCS National Championships and turned the college football world on its ear.
But the result itself isn’t nearly as remarkable as how it happened and how it ended.
With the game tied in the final seconds of regulation, Alabama running back T.J. Yeldon took a handoff on a draw play and scampered 24 yards before being pushed out of bounds at the Auburn 38-yard line as time expired.
Alabama coach Nick Saban went to the officials arguing for one second to be added to the clock, and after an official review, he got his wish. The Tide had one play to attempt their own Miracle at Jordan-Hare on a heave to the end zone — or not.
Instead, Saban decided to send out his field goal team to attempt a 57-yard game-winner. But since senior kicker Cade Foster had already missed three shorter kicks, out trotted Adam Griffith, a freshman who had attempted all of two field goals before Saturday.
To Griffith’s credit, the kick looked good in the air. But ultimately it fell 1 yard short of the uprights, and everyone began mentally preparing for overtime.
Well, except those who stayed through garbage time of LSU-UAB and remember how the Tigers scored their final touchdown of the day.
On that September evening, the University of Alabama at Birmingham found out that nine linemen, a kicker and a holder have a hard time tackling an elusive return-specialist in the open field.
Nearly two months later, on the largest of stages, the more prominent U of A learned the same painful lesson as Chris Davis returned the missed field goal out of the back of the end zone.
One hundred-plus yards later, Alabama’s title hopes died as CBS panned the camera to every slack-jawed Tide fan in the stands desperately trying to figure out what just happened.
What happened was the best coach in college football lost a game he had no business losing because he outsmarted himself — again.
I say “again” because the entire game felt eerily similar to another famous Alabama defeat, the “Game of the Century” in 2011 against LSU.
Although the teams were better in 2011, the 2013 game was more entertaining, but the reason behind the Tide’s shortcoming, were utterly the same — special teams.
Both games went down to the wire because the Tide failed to convert on four separate field goal attempts. And both times the final miss was a 50-plus yarder that ultimately cost Alabama the game.
Saban electing to try the long kick against Auburn made even less sense because if he tries the Hail Mary and fails, the game goes to overtime. A defender is less likely to go 100-plus yards off a jump ball in a crowded end zone than a kick returner is to do the same against a bunch of linemen in the open field.
That seems obvious, but apparently special teams aren’t part of the process.
Despite the loss, Alabama still found its way into the BCS National Championship Game in 2011. This time around, the special teams’ blunders will dash the Tide’s title hopes for good.
James Moran is a 21-year-old mass communications senior from Beacon, N.Y.