Retooled Tigers Hungry For First Iron Bowl Win Of The Decade

ATLANTA -- Auburn football has struggled mightily throughout the first half of the 2020s with a 28-33 record to start the decade and four straight losing seasons following the Covid-shortened 2020 campaign. The most difficult pill to swallow for Tigers fans, however, is the five consecutive losses suffered to Alabama.

The nature of the rivalry is painstakingly simple: neither Auburn nor Alabama can feel truly happy at the end of a season without winning the Iron Bowl. Tigers' edge rusher Keldric Faulk, a Crenshaw County native who grew up 90 minutes away from The Plains, understands this better than just about anyone.

"There's always going to be frustrations because we all grew up winning," Faulk said. "To lose to your rival team, especially for me two years in a row, we've got to break that streak."

So, what is it going to take for Auburn to end the now six-year drought? Realistically, not much. The Tigers have lost their past two home games to Alabama in heartbreaking fashion via Bryce Young's 97-yard game-tying drive leading to the Crimson Tide's four-overtime win in 2021, followed by Isaiah Bond's 4th and 31 'Grave Digger' in 2023. Auburn has pushed Alabama to the brink at home, and third-year head coach Hugh Freeze believes this can be the year his squad gets over the hump.

"Playing at Jordan-Hare is a definite advantage, and our roster is one that can compete," Freeze said. "We've been in the games even the first two years, but we haven't found a way to win, and that's one of the secrets, I think, to our success this year is having guys that we think we've brought in that have the combination of all of it— not just skill set, but being able to say this guy's a winner and has been proven to win and now will help us get over the edge in all these close games."

One of those 'winners' Freeze believes he has brought in is quarterback Jackson Arnold. Arnold needs no introduction to any Crimson Tide fan— he dashed Alabama's College Football Playoff hopes last season by leading Oklahoma to a 24-3 upset win over the Crimson Tide in Norman. The story of that contest was the run game. Arnold completed just nine passes for 68 yards but added 131 on the ground as the Sooners rushed for over 250 yards on over five yards per carry.

"Whether it was me running the ball or just our running backs running the ball, we were effective," Arnold said. "I thought we had a very good game plan that week, and I don't know if we caught them off guard by running that much, but I thought we were very aggressive that game and very efficient in our decision making."

That efficiency is a big part of the reason Freeze paid a reported $2.5 million for Arnold's services. While he underwhelmed in many aspects for an Oklahoma team that went 6-7 and just 2-5 in conference play, Arnold proved himself to be a smart decision-maker, throwing just three interceptions on the season. Despite his status as a newcomer to the state, the junior is as hungry as anybody to end the drought.

"It would be awesome," Arnold said. "All the dudes on the team talked about it, that even the old, the fifth-year seniors, those guys still haven't beaten Alabama. They came close twice, but they haven't beaten them yet. For those guys, I want to get a win.

First-time Iron Bowl participants can often fail to grasp the gravity of the game. It is one of those things that is hard to fully appreciate without being around, a sentiment that has been backed by countless players, coaches, and fans over the decades. How can one fully comprehend the idea of a rivalry that runs so deep? It feels unnatural, and that's because it is. That is precisely what makes the Iron Bowl special. What gives the game its spot in the pantheon of sports rivalries is that it is something you cannot understand without experiencing firsthand.

Fortunately for the Tigers, Arnold has received just about the best possible training for November's game. As a former participant of the Red River Rivalry, he is one of the few players in the nation outside the state of Alabama who can truly say they have played in a game like the Iron Bowl.

"OU-Texas, there's a lot of hate. But I feel like the people here just cannot stand Alabama. It's unbelievable," Arnold said. "In OU-Texas, it's very similar. Honestly, it's not far off. I feel those two rivalries are probably the two best rivalries in college football. But I feel like if you mention Alabama here, somebody would look at you funny."

Alabama won last year's game 28-14 in Tuscaloosa for its fifth straight victory. It's the Crimson Tide's longest streak since the Bear Bryant era, when Alabama won nine straight from 1973-1981. A win this year would move Kalen DeBoer's squad into a tie for the second-longest streak in the history of the game with Auburn's six straight from 2002-2007 under Tommy Tuberville. It is nearly impossible to overstate how desperately the Tigers want to prevent this from happening.

"That would be amazing to end their streak and get things going in our favor," offensive lineman Connor Lew said. "I think Auburn's passion has definitely shown through it. The standard is the standard. No matter the coach, the season, the goal is always the same."

This year's Iron Bowl is set for Nov. 29 at Jordan-Hare Stadium. We have no way of knowing how either school's season will pan out. Both have playoff aspirations, as stated by Freeze himself at Tuesday's SEC Media Day, but it would be a fool's errand to try and anticipate if these teams can reach those heights . Instead, we can put all of our stock into one of the few inalienable truths that still exists into today's college football landscape: the Iron Bowl will be the most heated game either of these teams play this year, and as long as the Earth continues to spin this will not change.

"It would be just like winning the Super Bowl," Faulk said of beating Alabama. "That game's the biggest game of the year. It's the most violent game of the year. You would love to beat your rival at the end of the year. That's the game where you break somebody's will and you take their will away from them."