Monday, December 2, 2019

Enjoy it, Auburn fans. But try to keep it in perspective, ok?


Online, on sports talk radio and even in person, grateful Auburn Tiger fans are relishing that unusual sensation of having their team encounter a Nick Saban coached Alabama Crimson Tide and come away the victor.

But my goodness, you'd think that Auburn has suddenly become the giant killers of the Southeastern Conference. 

With Nick Saban at the helm in Tuscaloosa, Auburn has suffered eight losses against five hard-fought Tiger victories. Four of those five wins have come in the friendly backyard of Jordan Hare Stadium. Their only win in Tuscaloosa was a 1-pt squeaker in 2010, when today's Senior class were eighth graders.

It is true that Auburn has become Alabama's most competitive rival. The two closest SEC schools in rivalry terms are LSU and traditional Bama nemesis, Tennessee. But under Nick Saban, those two programs are a combined 4-23 against their Master. Only Tennessee has ever run off a streak of 7-0 against Alabama. Emphasis on ever. LSU has run off a 5-0 streak, but that was during the Mike Shula era at Bama and two of those games were with Nick Saban as the LSU head coach.

No team in the SEC has ever beaten an Alabama squad coached by Saban more than twice, and we all know how Ole Mrs. did it.

So today, Auburn fans are practically bursting with pride because they have five wins against a Bama team led by Nick Saban. Never mind that none of those wins are back-to-back. Never mind that Saban has done the back-to-back thing to Auburn twice and has done a threepeat once. Never mind that not one of Auburn's wins against Master Saban were by more than two touchdowns and all were competitive. Never mind that six of Alabama's wins in the period were blowouts and that two were shut outs. Auburn hasn't shut out Alabama since 2000.

Its kind of a lame claim to fame when you say, "well, he's beaten us twice as often as we've beaten him, but Saban hasn't dominated! He's only shut us out ok... two times! Nobody else can say that! War Eagle!"



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