Preview: Alabama at Auburn In the Iron Bowl
By Denis Brown
November 19, 2007
Alabama (6-5, 4-3) will visit Auburn (7-4,4-3) to finish both teams' regular season this Saturday with the winner of the game taking second place in the Southeastern Conference West Division. Neither team successfully challenged LSU this season, who will represent the West Division in the SEC Title game and will play in the BCS National Championship game if they win out. However, Auburn and Alabama do not need anything else on the line when they play, because this rivalry is as intense as any other in college football today. Since 1893, Alabama has won the Iron Bowl 38 times to Auburn’s 32 wins.
The Crimson Tide has had a disappointing end to their season, losing three straight games to LSU, Mississippi State and Louisiana-Monroe. Nick Saban is in his first season as head coach at Alabama and had things looking up after blowing out Tennessee 41-17 just one week prior to the LSU game. Since then, the wheels have come off and because 10 teams are already bowl-eligible with the possibility of an 11th team qualifying, Alabama will need to win this game to help ensure that it plays in a bowl game. Losing four straight games to end the season could potentially be a reason for a bowl to not invite the Tide and allow another SEC team to take that spot.
The biggest off-the-field story is that five Alabama players will return after being suspended for four games for improper receipt of textbooks. These players are starting offensive linemen Antoine Caldwell and Marion Davis, along with backup running back Glen Coffee and defensive backs Chris Rogers and Marquis Johnson. The Crimson Tide should gain greatly from these returns and will make ’Bama a much more complete team.
The Tigers are led by quarterback Brandon Cox, who has not had a stellar year this season. He is only averaging 159 yards per game and has thrown nine touchdowns to 11 interceptions. Auburn also has three good running backs led by Ben Tate and followed by Mario Fannin and Brad Lester. The trio has combined to rush for 1,584 yards and 14 touchdowns. The Tigers have out-rushed their opponents this season but have given up more passing yards than they have gained. Auburn will have to use the running game to set up the passing game.
Alabama will counter with a good freshman running back in Terry Grant. He ranks seventh in the SEC in rushing yards and averages 81 yards per game. His backup, Coffee, had also gained 413 yards this season before being suspended. However, the biggest play threat for the Tide is wide receiver DJ Hall. This season, Hall leads the SEC with 918 receiving yards and has scored six touchdowns.
The Iron Bowl will take place this Saturday at 8 PM and the rivalry will be renewed once again.
Denis Brown is an independent contributor to College Football Poll.com.
