WarEagle1982

Orange face masks! Let’s go!

To cap off a season that began as a Top 10 team and Jeremy Johnson as a Heisman candidate.

It was actually a poor decision by Marshall that turned out to be an iconic moment in AU history. He had Coates wide open on a dig route for the first down. All they needed was a field goal. Oh well. That team was built on dramatic moments. It worked out.

There’s the key. IMO they have not had an elite O Line coach since Jeff Grimes.

It could have easily happened in 2005 but Tubby took his foot off the gas. Game was 28-7 at the half.

I was 19 years old working as the cleanup guy in the meat department at Sam’s Club in Florence, AL. I listened to it, while I worked, on a little radio we had in the corner. I thought Jim Fyffe was going to rattle that radio off into the floor! I’m now 41 and less than 8 years from being able to retire as a high school teacher and football coach.

The 1988 Tennessee game was my first AU game. It was about 2 weeks after my 8th birthday. My late grandfather, who was killed in a car accident a little over 2 years after that, took me. I was definitely hooked for good after that!

https://youtu.be/LDHPPv2JvNQ I found this on YouTube. Still one of my favorite AU teams. Damn that loss at LSU though!

And Bama is NOT GOOD defensively

They have actually ran it okay with Tank, but on 3rd and 3 when they kicked the field goal they take him out and run a a sprint out concept.

Here’s the difference in these two teams outside of recruiting. The ball that Williams dropped: when Bama’s receivers drop that ball in practice they get their asses chewed and they run it till they can’t get it wrong. I doubt that happens on the plains.

Love, love, love this!!! That era is when my love of Auburn football was cemented. My grandfather took me to my first game in 1988 right after my 8th birthday. They played Tennessee and bludgeoned them 38-6. I still believe that had that team not lost the heartbreaker at LSU they would have played, and beaten, Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl for the title. As for Reggie Slack I will never forget that he was like a hero to me as an 8 and 9 year old. When we were playing on the playground at school or I was playing alone in the yard at home I was Reggie Slack 😂😂. I even had a number 17 jersey. He was the epitome of an Auburn man. I don’t know that any AU QB threw a better deep ball or a better sideline comeback route. He was also absolutely brilliant in the 89 Iron Bowl. Last thing: could you imagine what that offense (especially 88 when Tillman and Reeves were still there) would have been like if they had come along during the spread em out 4 wide or 3 wide with a TE era? Interesting thought.

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Stats wise our best returner ever may be Thomas Bailey. He was definitely very consistent over his career. Tim Carter was also really good back there. I will never forget listening to Jim Fyffe's call of his big KOR against LSU in 2000 while I was cleaning up the meat department at SAM's Club for the night! It flipped what had become a very tight game.

Oh yes, I remember laying in my bedroom floor listening to the Vandy game. I believe they played two Thursday night games that year. I want to say Ole Miss in the opener was on Thursday night as well.

Several of those guys on that team, especially the ones from Dillard High in Florida like Otis Mounds, were guys Pat Dye actually took a chance on by bringing them to Auburn. They had a very checkered past, and had run ins with the law. Jason Miska had 3 options: Auburn to play football, military, or prison. To say those guys were bought is kind of out there because I don't know that anyone else wanted them.

Dixie, I totally agree with you that those were also some of my favorite players. Stan White, Patrick Nix, Reid McMillon, Tony Richardson, James Bostic, Andy Fuller, Frank Sanders, Thomas Bailey, Chris Shelling, Otis Mounds, Brian Robinson, Jason Miska, and, one of my favorites ever, Anthony Harris just to name a few. That was a bunch of hard-nosed guys!

Jim Fyffe's radio call of the Calvin Jackson interception was one of the greatest calls he ever made! I will never forget listening to him on the radio that entire season.

The thing about Ace Atkins was that game with those two big hits were the highlight of his career. He was a backup player that saw very little action. I want to say one of the DEs was hurt for that game, and that would be why he saw action. It was either Willie Whitehead or Alonzo Etheridge's. I want to say that Ace Atkins is an author now. He was profiled in the Sports Illustrated that commemorated the 2010 season.

I was looking through some old stuff the other day and came across some magazines (one of them being the Sports Illustrated with Ace Atkins on the front) and videos I have on the 93 team. I was like, " Has it really been 20 years?" That was one of the best falls ever even though they were not on t.v. I was recently sitting next to Patrick Nix at a coaching clinic, and it took me back to the exact place where I was huddled around that little radio when he threw the 4th down touchdown to Frank Sanders to spark the comeback in the Iron Bowl. Great memories!