For 77 years, Alabama and Auburn have provided college football fans with one of the most entertaining rivalries in the sport. With the Crimson Tide holding an advantage of 42-34-1 in the SEC series, Nick Saban's Alabama team continues to be one of the most successful and recognizable teams not only in college football, but in all of sports. Claiming the last two National Championships, Saban's Crimson Tide are once again in the drivers seat for a trip back to the BCS Title game, but with a mega showdown with their old friend Auburn up next, the task of remaining perfect will certainly elevate in difficulty.
Holding a record of 11-0 and the top spot in all polls, Alabama is making their final preparations for a showdown with No. 4 Auburn at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Alabama. The Tigers are 10-1 overall and a crisp 6-1 in the SEC and with both teams still eying a spot in the conference and BCS championship games, Saturday's Iron Bowl could be considered the biggest in history. Auburn's last victory in the Iron Bowl came in 2010 and in the previous two showdowns, the Tigers have only been able to accumulate 14 total points while surrendering 91 to their conference rivals. Thanks to the hiring of Gus Malzahn as head coach, Auburn has reestablished themselves as a physical team, something that was present when Malzahn served as Tigers offensive coordinator from 2009-2011.
"That is what we harped on when we first got here," Malzahn said regarding his team's physical nature. "We felt like we needed to get our edge back, that physical, hard-nosed, blue collar edge back that starts up front. We are a run, play-action team. A lot of times you hear spread and you think pass to open up the run, but we are a run to open up the pass." Now set to take on an Alabama team that has given up less than 10 points per game to opponents, the Tigers hope to end the recent skid against Alabama in front of the Auburn faithful. Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban also understands that a strong attention to detail will be needed if his squad is to remain undefeated.
"Our focus obviously needs to immediately shift to the opportunities that we have created for ourselves and the games that we have in the future," Saban said. "Obviously the one that we have this week coming up against Auburn is a very important game. They have a great team. They've had a great season. It's going to be important for everybody in our organization to make a commitment to doing their very best job to play their best football, because that's probably what it's going to take to have success against a very good team."
Alabama Crimson Tide vs. Auburn Tigers: DATE, TIME & TV INFO
DATE: Saturday, November 30
TIME: 3:30pm, ET
TV COVERAGE: CBS
LIVE STREAM: CLICK HERE
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