1983 Iron Bowl w: Auburn Football Review

welcome to our iron bowl preview have you ever stopped to think why this is such a great series it's because of the fans we live and work together we talk football year round we discuss those alabama auburn games we kid one another sometimes it's good-natured sometimes not and after the years as we talk about those games they somehow get reduced to catch words phrases even numbers there was the mud run snake stapler's keeper in a legion field quagmire on his football show the next day coach suge jordan complained that dennis dixon tackled just a year out to spring the snake loose on this long run but it didn't matter alabama won 7-3 in 1967. sullivan and beasley stands for two big auburn wins 69 and 70. the dynamic duo just couldn't be stopped the scores were 49 to 26 in 1969 33-28 in 1970 alabama fans will quickly counter sullivan and beasley with muso sorto except that the italian stallion's much-discussed painful big toe was not so sore that day he riddled the auburn defense it was 1971. it was bama 31 auburn seven terry henley the auburn tailback remembers watching nusso run on the field that day and thinking he's not limping we're in trouble 1716 has its own special meaning the most incredible finish in the history of auburn alabama two block punts in the final minutes of the game incredibly involving the same two players bill newton blocking david langner scooping them up returning them for touchdowns gardner jet then kicked the biggest point after of the series history auburn had 17-16 for a decade because there was little else alabama reeled off nine straight wins and the series suffered because of it if auburn fans loved 1716 alabama faithful rebel in 3 15. fittingly alabama's first opportunity to make fair bryant the winningest coach of all time came against auburn but only the last three or four days as it's really our last week and it really dawned on me that there were so many people i always knew as many people involved but it just not dawned on me they let me know the people that were involved that have contributed to it that they expected to be done and since i was supposed to be their leader it better be done so access a big relief of me tonight because a lot of them were here from all the schools i've ever been at players and other people and they'd be going there and face them saying we're going to try to do it another time the most recent number is 2322 a year ago a day when alabama churned out what bear bryant liked to call alumni yardage out gaining auburn 2-1 holding an eight-point lead into the fourth quarter which very easily could have been more until bo jackson got loose down the sidelines the run led to an al del greco field goal and cut the lead to five points then came auburn's do or die a last chance to erase a decade of what ifs and wait till next year's campbell saved it on third down and long and after 13 plays had been run auburn at the one foot line on fourth down sent beau over the top a one point lead stop the tide one more time and it's over and it was in the dressing room tears of joy later on the field a celebration that lasted long into the night have traveled different though somewhat expected roads to get to this big game auburn with its 9-1 record was a pre-season pick to be where it is alabama with a new coach a new staff a totally new offense figured to stumble a time of two and the tide comes in here today with a seven and three record ray perkins ran on to legion field on september 10th against georgia tech bear bryant's hand-picked successor a young coach facing a big task the bama defense struck quickly emanuel king knocked the ball away suddenly alabama was in the end zone on a walter lewis to joe carter touchdown pass leading 13-nothing on a pair of van tip and field goals alabama displayed a punt rush that would produce well all year long todd roper blocked it stan gabe took it in and alabama was off and winning under its new coach 20-7. hours later auburn kicked it off against southern miss auburn's doug smith a pre-season all-american went right to the task knocking the ball loose greg carr fell on it auburn was in business at the 12. lionel james took it in seven nothing in the second quarter the auburn defense refused to let southern miss get anything going late in the third quarter randy campbell hooked up with bo jackson auburn opened with a solid 20-3 victory over southern miss the following saturday morning auburn ranked fifth in the country hosted number three texas as it turned out the longhorns were ready auburn was not the bright lights of television may have dazzled them some whatever by the time they came down to earth texas was ahead twenty to nothing one touchdown on this long pass from rick mciver to lawrence epps the tigers played the powerful texas offense to a standoff in the second half but it was too little too late texas had defeated auburn 20 to 7 a damaging blow to the tigers national championship hopes meanwhile at tuscaloosa alabama jumped on the ole miss rebels with both feet walter lewis had a great day throwing 13 of 15 for 230 yards he riddled the rebel secondary passing for one touchdown here running for another alabama went 2-0 on the year and jumped to number six in the ap poll week three sent auburn to knoxville for the traditional conference opener with tennessee the tigers were searching for an identity they found it on the tarkin turf of neelam stadium randy campbell found his passing touch the balls gave auburn the quick eye pass and campbell took it the auburn defense was harrison tennessee's alan cockrell all the time when unknown freshman trey gaines submarined the vol punt coverage and went 81 yards for a touchdown auburn was back in the picture with a 37-14 victory over tennessee alabama meanwhile was over in nashville waiting for the sun to go down so that they could get after the vanderbilt commodores only it was the other way around for a time vanderbilt scored on its first play then converted a turnover suddenly alabama was down 17 to nothing but they rallied did they rally walter lewis made this great touchdown run the 17 point lead had been wiped out by halftime alabama went on to whip the commodores 44 to 24 on a big night for lenny patrick who gained 116 yards the tide looked to be gaining momentum on the first day of october the state of alabama has two top ten teams alabama number six auburn number ten it was the tigers who faced the biggest test that day florida state and kelly lowry auburn had jumped ahead on a touchdown pass to jeff parks and a great run just before the half by tommy agee to make it auburn 20 florida state 10. but lowry and the seminoles were not done suddenly in the fourth quarter it was florida state 24 auburn 20. last chance fourth and five campbell to ed west for the first down now fourth and eighth last chance campbell to lionel james the little train gets into the corner of the end zone but it still is not over not over until greg carr tucks away a hurried lowry pass hurried by a fierce pass rush from donny humphrey at tuscaloosa alabama fell behind a memphis state but not for long todd robert knocked the memphis state runner loose from this ball walter lewis cashed the mistake waiting waiting for joey jones to come open in the end zone and he did bama broke it open in the second half lewis throwing to the freshman greg richardson alabama scored 41 points in the second half delighting the homecoming crowd they won 44-13 alabama went to pennsylvania ranked third in the country but the nittany lions were getting better rebounding from their slow start suddenly astonishingly it was 34 to 7 penn state at the end of three quarters then followed one of the great comebacks of this or any college football season walter lewis and jesse bendross put on a marvelous display of passing and catching under pressure alabama scored three times in quick succession suddenly it was 34 to 28 and alabama was throwing into the end zone for victory preston gothard appeared to have the touchdown but an official ruled he did not have possession inbounds it was a stunning blow to alabama players coaches and fans penn state stopped carrie good on the final play of the game to end alabama's win streak at four that night in lexington kentucky the auburn offense hit full stride randy campbell ran for two touchdowns bo jackson made an awesome run for a td and david king returned an interception for a touchdown auburn on the opening of the racing season in lexington galloped past the kentucky wildcats 49-21 and climbed to fifth in the wire service polls october 15th and auburn on the road grant field atlanta their poorest first half since texas this pass gave tech a 10-7 halftime lead bo jackson's fumble on the opening play of the third quarter allowed tech a field goal 13-7 yellowjackets but as auburn has done so many times this year the offense answered the score going 80 yards much of it on randy campbell runs while the defense continued to harass the tech quarterback dewberry the tiger offense put points on the board jackson slipping a tackler scoring 21-13 now ben campbell finding chris wood all alone auburn rolled to a 31-13 win over georgia tech back at birmingham it was tennessee week a packed legion field a pay-per-view television audience in alabama and tennessee and one of the most thrilling football games ever seen a seesaw offensive show louis and cockrell filling the air tennessee somehow able to make the big play time and time again in the fourth period tennessee trailing 34-24 scored on two long long plays the last a johnny jones pitch out and run tennessee for the second year in a row had defeated alabama on october 22nd alabama was off auburn was back in the conference with mississippi state and the little train was stinging the dogs early with a 74-yard touchdown run the auburn defense was harassing john brown jeff jackson knocked it loose gerald robinson got it tommy powell picked off a bond pass to stop another drive randy campbell to bo jackson for the touchdown the arbor defense denied state a td at the end of the half and auburn coasted to a 28-13 victory alabama began the following saturday with four freshmen in the starting lineup against the same mississippi state team ricky moore was headed for a 100 yard day scoring here lenny patrick on another td run walter lewis to preston gothard alabama was back on track with a 35 to 18 win over mississippi state while alabama was turning back state auburn was beginning a run through the top ten starting with sixth ranked florida bo jackson shocked the proud gator defense on this run lionel james made it 21-7 in the second quarter neil anderson's apparent touchdown was disallowed when tommy powell stripped him with the ball at the one-yard line on the next play bo jackson went 80 yards for one of the great turnarounds all year long in the end it was auburn's defense that had to rise up and stop wayne peace and the gator offense auburn won 28-21 alabama started early on november 5th a regional television game with lsu in late morning but it was the bengals who scored first on the initial play from scrimmage wickersham to eric martin touchdown but alabama's punt rush came through for them again freshman sensation cornelius bennett knocked it down got it and ran it for a touchdown it was a see-saw affair but lewis and company kept the upper hand with plays like this to ricky moore and this one to joey jones alabama hung on for a 32-26 victory over lsu in tiger town auburn was busy back in alabama trying to hold boomer osiason in check the seventh ranked maryland terrapins quarterback came battling back to take a 17-14 lead in the third quarter on this play bo jackson put auburn back in front tommy agee with 219 yards on the day gave the tigers a cushion with this 44-yard run but osiasin chucked the terps to within five points and had one last chance when quincy williams burst through knocked the ball away donnie humphrey recovered for the touchdown auburn 35 maryland 23. november 12th rolled around with the sugar bowl invitation on the line between the tigers and the dogs between the hedges at athens the auburn defense was ready to play allowing georgia only 57 yards of offense in the first half auburn's only touchdown came after this turnover bo jackson set it up on this powerful run lionel james with the knockdown block from jackson walked in georgia finally got on track in the fourth quarter scoring to make it 13-7 the dogs had one last chance after an onside kick but as they have all season long the auburn defense held and the tigers would represent the sec at the sugar bowl back in alabama the tide ran its record to seven and two when carrie good broke open a close game with this touchdown run a few minutes later ricky moore made it 28-16 alabama had ended a two-year drought to southern miss last friday in terrible weather turnovers ruined alabama's chances against boston college two fourth quarter fumbles led to bc touchdowns boston college whipped alabama 20 to 13. quarterbacks in this game are very interesting both have great talent both have proved themselves winners and yet they are a marvelous study in contrast one has great physical talent he can throw he can run he's big and strong and fast the other is not very big not particularly strong not very fast but for what he's asked to do there are few better in all the land you know if you compare me to walter lewis i can't throw if you compare me to doug flutie i can't throw if you compare me to bo jackson i can't run i mean you know you it depends on who you're talking about you're comparing someone to but you know that's not what my purpose is in this offense so you know i don't have to be i'm not asked to do those things that's good you know randy uh uh with the wishbone if you execute it soundly the way it should be executed you know his talents are fitted just fine for with our with our offense um you know god's blessing with the with an arm to be able to throw and utilize some of the scrounge scrambling abilities that i have to to move around there those are my assets uh in the comparison between us you know those are some differences and those are some pluses for us pat dye and ray perkins paths crossed back in the mid 60s and not very much since pat dye was a linebacker coach under bear bryant when ray perkins was an all-american split end at alabama saturday they will look across the field at each other for the first time important sometimes how teams match up strengths against strengths or strength against a weakness how do you think these two teams match up well i think i think auburn has a has a great football team there's no question about that they've they deserve a lot of credit for getting their program on very solid ground over the last two or three years uh at virtually every position not just the first line positions but they have good depth as well and from a program standpoint i understand they have redshirted some 20 freshmen so they've not just for this year just for this team they've got their program on solid ground as far as match-ups are concerned you know i think from our defensive standpoint they have not thrown the ball as much not saying that they won't we kind of expect them to throw it a little bit more than probably they did during during the course of the year previous but our defensive side of the ball has matched up better with teams versus a running type game but they have a great one i think they've got the best four backs of anybody in the country and certainly one of the greatest if not the best back in the country in bo jackson alabama's a balanced football team they're i would think that they are now rushing for more yardage in their passing we played maryland and florida state and florida which are a lot like alabama as far as our offense is concerned and they were balanced offensive football teams but you know we we we shut down the running game against maryland and florida and they had to go strictly to the pass and they ended up throwing for a lot of yardage and but it still was not good enough you know for them to win that's one of the principles of football and if you can take that balance away your you improve your chances i think so i think so because even if they if you're giving up some yardage you have a tendency to have the ability to come up with a big play and stop them when you have to stop them you and i are not personally close are you you've never really had an association pat came here as a as an assistant coach in 1964 i believe that's correct i was a sophomore that's my first year after a red shirt year he coached defense i was on the offensive side of the ball we were acquaintances uh i guess you could say you know but we were never close now and your your professional careers have never taken you uh you've never crossed paths no as far as our professional careers are concerned the closest we got i called pat uh one year when we're getting ready for the draft to talk to him about a few of his players that were seniors that year and that's about it you sold them with gmc pickup one time well i sold them a gmc pickup when uh when i left here you know i think i was leaving in 1973 i think that's right and now it was earlier than that that's when i was playing pro ball was it good stuff living here during the offseason yeah i gave him a heck of a deal i do too but i have some reservations about it i don't like the people that make it a religion that can't handle winning or losing the young men who will play this game on saturday will face whatever happens with dignity we can all learn from them this is phil snow reporting good night the iron bowl a preview of the alabama auburn game has been brought to you by coors now the best of the rockies is yours the clean fresh taste of coors coming through from the adolf coors company golden colorado and by amsouth where their slogan is keep in touch with us auburn versus alabama a final preview tonight from steve phillips in birmingham the auburn tigers rebounded from an early loss to texas to win nine games this season against the toughest schedule in the nation auburn's wishbone offense chews up well over 300 yards per game and alabama coach ray perkins feels the tigers backfield and their defensive front are the areas of strength well the key to winning the football game i think is going to be how well we play up front against their against their defensive down people not freezing company and certainly the biggest ski of the game is going to be how well we can do against their running game the crimson tide has relied on the abilities of quarterback walter lewis lewis has over 2200 yards in total offense at 83 and whether he's running or passing he worries tiger coach pat dye i think that's probably one of the things that scares me more than anything about him is his strength you know people get to him but he you know he breaks a lot of tackles jerking loose from people that get back out close to him he'll jerk away and you think you got him and then you don't or he just goes out there and breaks a tackle at the line of scrimmage you think he got him on option or whatever he's got a very strong arm he just you know he just puts all kind of pressure on defense third ranked auburn and 19th rated alabama lead the sec in virtually every offensive category look for a high scoring affair in what has become known as the iron bowl game well even more on tomorrow's big big game with auburn tiger football [Music] abc sports presents [Music] college football today today we're live at legion field in birmingham alabama with jeff whitaker jim lampley and vino cook welcome ladies and gentlemen for the battle of the state of alabama this will be the biggest one they've seen since the indian wars it's for the football supremacy of this state a supremacy held for the last quarter of a century by alabama and the sainted bear bryant but now auburn has had the audacity to really pose a serious threat and we're here to see the first skirmish with me of course beno cook and jim lampley lambs how are you well i'm great and i've been to this ball game before i think it's great that we get to that come out of the studio once a year and come to experience this atmosphere this is a terrific rivalry but it has a few added elements this year as the auburn people feel they're on the verge of a big turnaround some kind of a change in the traditional relationship the two schools have played with one another and vino everybody talks about the uniqueness and the importance of their traditional rivalry this one is one that's really unusual yes it is because they played in 1907 and then they did not play again until 1948 41 years now the reason they broke off in 1907 was a fight over money and the size of the traveling squad then finally the governor in the 40s of alabama and auburn graduates said hey you going to play each other and he said if you don't play you're not going to get state funds so they started playing in 1948. now the contract is up in 1988 and auburn is saying hey we want this home and home we want to play in the odd years of auburn and you can play alabama wherever you want there won't be a 41 hiatus next time out no more 41 years hiatus for sure for a game that encompasses politics social ties much of what goes on in daily life in this state we'll have more about it right after this college football today this abc sports exclusive is sponsored by vic cynax with instantly penetrating vapors complete relief for hours and hours and by acdelco sustained excitement in legion field on what auburn fans believe may be the beginning of a new era for them as i mentioned earlier in the telecast there's the belief on the part of a lot of auburn fans that they may be in a position to begin reversing the relationship that they have always had with alabama they believe they may be able to move into a period of football dominance i don't know of a greater authority to talk about this particular game then our own keith jackson the foremost broadcaster of college football games of course in this country and a man who's covered this one about a dozen times and i wonder keith if you believe we'd be hearing all the things we're hearing from the auburn fans and reading this week if it were still a paul bear bryant team which would take the field for alabama jim i don't think so because paul bryant had risen to unparalleled posture in this state and in this part of the country there were a couple of instances perhaps that might have told paul however that uh something had to be done which may have helped make his decision to quit and that was a young man named ben tambarella who's going to start at center today for auburn now he thought he had him recruited for alabama but then he changed his mind and went to auburn there was a message in that and i think paul knew it there's an irony also perhaps in the fact that if you're going to pick one present coach who seems to embody some of the qualities that bryant infiltrated into the culture of this state it would be pat dye of alberts he took uh paul brown's system to auburn there's no question about it jimmy he uh coached under bryant for six years played over at georgia knew all about the legacy and tradition of alabama and uh auburn as well they're so closely located and they are not national teams you know these people come from here very very seldom do you find somebody from as far away as new york new york is represented on the alabama roster by two players but not very many now it's a rare opportunity for us to have you in a more informal setting where you can be a little more interpretive as you go over your spotting chart for this game and evaluate the team's position by position is there reason for auburn to believe that they've turned the tide in recruiting against alabama i think for the moment yes it's up to ray perkins now to prove himself but when you look across the roster of the two teams you have to say based on their accomplishments of the season auburn has the betterment power uh ray perkins is under the gun today and everybody talks about the pressure on pat dye i think there's more pressure on ray perkins myself because he's trying to make the transition from pro football back to college and this game of course as ray perkins will soon learn and probably already knows is a microcosm for everything that goes on in the state of alabama 365 days a year a game which as we mentioned cuts across politics social ties the lives of people from the south like keith and myself we'll be back with more right after this college football the crimson tide of alabama and the tigers of auburn p-man for alabama their senior quarterback he is a do everything man in the alabama offense and it's his passing arm today that has to be the weapon auburn fears the most his name is walter lewis the quarterback for auburn randy campbell a master craftsman in auburn's wishbone offense runs the formation as well as anyone ever had ncaa college football this abc sports exclusive is sponsored by chevrolet official u.s cars and trucks of the 14th olympic winter game chevrolet and you taking charge by miller highlight the best beer for the best time of the day welcome to miller time by goodyear makers of ariva the all season radio and by radio shack your christmas electronic store the most precious ticket of this entire college football season may be won to this game at legion field in birmingham alabama alabama is the visiting team and the crimson tide coming into the stadium right now under their new coach ray perkins a record of seven and three this is a game that could be a season maker for them they're coming off a loss at boston college they're headed for the sun bowl the home team for this ball game is from down the road aways down near the georgia alabama line the plainsman the tigers the war eagle of auburn they're ranked third in the nation they have stumbled just one time against the texas longhorns the number two team in the nation they have had three weeks to get the walking wounded ready to play their coach pat dye they won here a year ago 23-22 hello again everybody i'm keith jackson along with coach frank royals and frank broyles as much as anybody understands the various ramifications of this particular ball game keith let me amplify what you and jimmy talked about earlier there's a lot at stake today because they're playing for football supremacy of the state and what this means is that one this person is not enough good football players in alabama for both schools to reign at the top when one goes way up the other goes down that's true in the state of georgia when george is competing for a championship tech is down over in south carolina the same thing so pat dyer knows if he can win this football game today he's gained superiority supremacy over alabama and has a chance to compete nationally and ray perkins knows he's got to stop that if he doesn't today if he doesn't win the day it'd be a few years down the way before he can compete for national honors we have bad weather at hand there is a tornado watch up for the afternoon we're expecting thunder showers through the afternoon we had seven inches of rain last night what's this going to do to this ball game well we can't do anything with about the weather now the bear's gone but i don't think either team is going to make any radical changes in their offensive strategy alabama came out against boston college last week in the rain and didn't throw the ball their coaches have explained to me that they've got to throw the football to win against auburn because the weakness of the auburn team if they have one is in the secondary auburn excuse me um florida and maryland passed over 300 yards against them i look for wall delores to come out and try to establish his good experience receive us against that inexperienced secondary now the history on walter lewis he's never done terribly well in bad weather and you have the feeling that alabama might be hurt by bad weather more than auburn's wishbone game keith that's a very good point the alabama coaches said that walter will have some doubt in his mind because of what's happened in previous years but they can not change they've got to go with it auburn defense is just too tough and their running game too good for alabama to take any other approach no question it is a new experience for all of us to come here without a paul bryant on the sidelines but his influence his legacy will never be felt more than it's being felt today this is the weather circumstance the forecast as it exists right now it's quite mild as far as the temperature is concerned the wind is not a factor that bottom line of that graphic is is not very pretty it has been very tough weather for the last 20 odd hours and it's going to stay tough that way for quite some time but this is artificial surface here at legion field so the pudding is going to be good for them as the day wears on if we get a lot of rain then the ball's going to get heavy and it'll affect some things auburn receiving full wood the deep man he is a freshman out of st cloud florida lionel james uh sometimes does some of the receiving but in this game to start it we're going to use brett folwood and he's very very quick terry sanders the man kicking off for white shirted alabama he spins it down for you it is short it is taken by ed graham graham comes across the 20. moves it out near the 30 and auburn will go to work from the 29. first down as randy campbell a senior at 165 pounds comes out to start at quarterback bo jackson on the right side of the wishbone 230 pounds lionel james the 5 7 170 pounder at the other half back and the full back of the freshman at 210 pounds tommy agee the wide receivers are chris woods he's six feet 185 auburn works out of the wishbone and you'll see a lot of bows action today mason wood way wide as they come to work from the 29 and on the first play of the ball game campbell throws it just as far as he can throw it chris wood just down there in alabama knocks it away he had double coverage so auburn comes out unlike auburn and puts the ball in the air as campbell threw it just as far as he could throw it woods number one he's just going to run a street route what auburn is going to try to let alabama know early we will throw the ball if you bring your secondary up and put them on the line of scrimmage we are going to pass it and you can see the alabama defenders stand grade number 28 is right there comes close to intercepted but wood bites it loose from gay and goes incomplete campbell didn't get a lot on that ball it was sound of a weak goose floating around up there in that wind going to second down inside auburn from their 29 and once again the alabama defensive people in very close as they give the lionel james and he's getting around the quarter and up to about the 33 before he is brought down by emanuel key up front for auburn ed west as the tied in 6-1-235 steve wallace at tackle six six two sixty five david jordan six six two hundred and sixty pound senior of goodwin ben tambarello 250 pound freshman jeff lott 270 pound guard and pat harrington 260 pound tackle at 6-6 and it is third down and six now for auburn alabama again all the defensive people in very close to set up in a manned defense in the secondary outside the projection injection comes across the 40. he hits the sidelines up here to 45 and he's got an auburn first down as stan gay finally shoved him out one of the great football players in america that you fans around the country have never heard of is bo jackson number 34. we believe that he'll be all american he may be the best running back in america number 34 big strong 225 pounds very very fast and he makes his muscles puts his muscle to use there for the first down he's averaging a mere seven yards per carry having carried the ball 138 times for 965 yards coming into this game he is a sophomore [Music] first down the ball is very close to the 45 up the middle perfection and he goes almost five yards as he reaches the 49 alabama's defensive people john hen mike rodriguez and randy edwards up front the linebackers cornelius kennedy manual king wayne davison scott mcrae and the secondary stan gay sammy hood ricky thomas and freddie robinson they're playing a lot of young people change now vincent elder a sophomore from decatur georgia comes in at an inside linebacking position replacing wayne davis second down call it six four auburn on their 49. [Applause] campbell outside with it section gets a block on the corner for lionel james turns it big and he slips and he tries to cut back at the alabama 28 and the plains winner on the move emmanuel king brought him down the key to the wishbone is operation by the quarterback he's going to fake to the fullback the key tells him not to leave the ball with a fullback now the pitch one thing that alabama did not want to happen bo jackson getting the ball outside behind a beautiful block by james the half back in another beautiful block by woods the wide receiver who is occupying the defensive back way downfield even giving jackson plenty of room to run call it the 29 of alabama just inside the 29 and a first down for auburn they're opening possession and they're marching from their own 29. alabama's showing a seven-man front right now as they shift and bo jackson slaps it over the left side and gets two yards cornelius bennett a freshman from birmingham an outside linebacker making the tackle he's 6-4-2-15 a true freshman and destined for stardom it would seem at tuscaloosa a look at the coaches now that's fat guy auburn what a great young coach he is started his head coaching career at east east carolina moved to wyoming back to auburn just a great marriage between the auburn people the school and that young man second down and nine give jackson one yard on that carry headed up into wishbone they've got a double-wide alignment right now as they flex the tight end out and randy campbell goes to throw goes to the sidelines overthrows chris woods the split in britain cooper defending for alabama britain cooper is another a freshman who's playing in the defensive secondary there's a look at chris woods who's the leading receiver for auburn is uh auburn offense for a game rushing and passing you see they're predominantly a rushing team their opponent you can see how much yardage they have made passing as compared to running but i want to say right now that the base defense that alabama's used all year will not suffice against the wishbone they plan and i think we can see more of the blitzing and bringing in the light the defensive backs of the line of spring clayton buford is in it wide receiver right now they break davone and campbell back to pass on third down and nine goes to the sidelines for buford who tries a one-handed grab at a pass that seemed to be floating away the wind dusting occasionally and it fought that fast campbell did not have good rotation on it and buford couldn't pull it down brings up a fourth hand was a quarterback as a freshman has outstanding speed runs a good route you can see that he is open but as keith mentioned the win did get the ball sailing just a little bit he nearly made a great second effort to pull it in but couldn't quite do it gabe was covering number 28. al del greco comes in to try a 44-yard field goal it will be into the win he has scored 225 points at auburn during his career he's a very effective player yet he has a strong leg miguel the ball is loose the quarterback picks it up mike mann the man throws to the sidelines the ball came skittering back to man and man never got control of it del greco was past the point of no return in his movement and so the auburn tigers have their field goal try to go awry the attempted field goal is really involves the three-man team the center the holder and of course the kicker but the hold at number 17 for auburn mike mann fumbled the staff it looked like it was a good snap he just dropped it let's see if you can't tell the ball was right where it should be right over this town all he has to do is grab it put it on the tee but he couldn't do it once del greco had committed himself he was past the point of no return so alabama comes to the attack now with perry good the freshman running back carrying for the crimson tide and he moves it from the 27 up to about the 30. walter lewis the senior from brewton 6-1 210 opens at quarterback for them this is curry guru just carried the ball six feet 170 a freshman the big pullback he's unluckily good one well i mean he is really a tough fellow ricky moore 235 pounds jesse vandross 61185 a flyer outside and a little joey jones 5-9 at 165. alabama will put it up they're working with the window back they'd love to run for a while however to get auburn pulled in but now lewis goes to the air he goes incomplete to his tight end preston gothard preston gothard is six for 210 pounds couldn't reach that pass up front for alabama hardy walker 6-4 270. at guard it's mike adcock 6-3 245 at center the son of billy west neighbors and john mcintosh at the other guard 6-1-245 and doug vickers at tackle 6-3 and 250. and it's third down and six now for alabama from their own 31. walter lewis has really [Music] the improved man for alabama's offense so much rides with what he can do with it and he's going to throw it again throwing twice out of the first possession he is hit as he delivers the ball and it is almost picked off in the secondary it was quincy williams who came roaring in to lay the pads on him and quincy williams remember the last time we saw auburn played a very good ball game between the hedges over to georgia and was a prime figure in orbits 13-7 victory there the defensive people for auburn the secondary some people think there might be enough inexperience back there to make walter lewis's fashion game work today that time it did not the point by malcolm simmons spins it up in the air lionel james it is 25. coming back with it gets one block looking for the corner gets it up field and crosses the 40s to the 45. so the auburn tigers now with their second offensive possession on that 20-yard return by lionel james very good field position at the 45. the wind has picked up some now just over the last few minutes that we've got some broken clouds and the sky is not as threatening as it had been but the wind may be partially responsible for that blowing from right to left or in from that end of legion field right now the organs cleanse when they go to work the tigers from their own 45 no school first quarter auburn ranked third in the nation with a record of nine and one and trying to win the southeastern conference title outright the ball is handed off to the full back out of the woods boom that's tommy agee and he pops in there for about three yards auburn would dearly love to establish their full back on first down and make the alabama defense close in so they could get the pitches you can see that tommy ages just the freshman been the surprise of the alabama offense averaging 5.4 yards per try four touchdowns second down seven [Applause] see if they got into the wide side of the field now as campbell checks off it looked at the alabama defensive people nope he wrote it off in the belly of his full back pulled it out kept it himself and he didn't have any place to go as cornelius bennett that freshman linebacker stepped in and put a helmet on him vanities bennett came all the way from the opposite side of the play to make the tackle catching campbell from behind you see the alabama defensive tackles and king as outside linebacker leads bennett is just a freshman his third with 57 tackles for the season auburn is looking now at third down and a long seven to keep the football from their own 47. and campbell sets up to throw it pops it down the middle for his tight end ed west from layton alabama and the big tight end he has fought more balls than anybody else on the auburn offense holds it down for a first down chris woods far and away has the best average for catch but he is a catch behind now tuketch is behind ed west we see west had 15 receptions for the at the tight end position what uh where ed west excels is his blocking pat dye tells me that he thinks he's the best blocking tied in in america first down ball just inside the alabama 40 auburn down had a chance inside the 30 of alabama got turned away as they missed a field goal try their little play action back there they'll fake it off to jackson give it away to james and james runs down to about the 48-yard line there's cornelius bennett again makes the tackle for alabama in trying to defense the wishbone as we look at the alabama defensive unit the defense cannot swarm and just run and play football they have to have disciplined assignments one and a half people to the full back more to the quarterback pitch and pass and sometimes keith i know i did i ran out of defensive players second down in eight [Applause] alabama 48. i remember jumping around changing their defenses and tommy aj carries close to the 45 they were marking at the 46. eight and a half minutes to go in the first quarter alabama obviously trying to come out here and change those defenses at the last moment keith that's very important in defending the wishbone and talking to the alabama coaches they said we've got to disguise what we're going to do because campbell will change to play at the line of scrimmage some 70 of the time if we show him a weakness and then he uses audible then we can change into strength and maybe have a good play third down [Applause] he seven to ed west as tight in the last time campbell keeps on the option tries to turn it back inside and he is walked down right at the 35. so he's going to be short of the first down as big randy edwards another georgian who came to alabama to play football the alabama defense will try to make campbell keep the ball on option play why because jackson has a seven yard average game six aging full back five but campbell only one point nine here's lewis colbert in defunct now for auburn they're beyond the field goal reign he's pretty good at the coffin corner but he just hangs this one up into the wind and auburn could sit down at the one danny robinson cornerback downfield on the special teams looked over his shoulder caught the ball and they'll mark him at the three alabama's in the hole looking down on legion field at birmingham alabama the weather is holding for us pretty well let's go back to that last play it was fair enough for the auburn man to come downfield and catch the football because alabama did not have a man back to receive it so there could be no indication of interference he just looked over the shoulder the ball was there there was no alabama man in the neighborhood and he put it down on the pad now and a hole just inside the three they go to work as lewis rolls in the end zone lobs a little pass out in front good to ricky moore to pull back and more runs him out of trouble and gets it up near the 16-yard line good call good play here's the alabama offense as compared to the opponents rushing and passing pretty equal threat of running pass is very important offense 431 but that defense is not a typical alabama defense we are accustomed to seeing them being very aggressive and successful and forcing mistakes not the case this year first down auburn 16. blitz right now as tommy fowl safety had come up falls loose in the backfield they were trying to pitch it out while walter lewis was trying to pitch it off and suddenly there was an auburn man involved in it perry good could not get back to it and alabama's lucky to keep it lewis makes a terrible mistake here as you can see alabama running back number 35 carrick huge is not even looking for the pitch lewis should have glanced back out of the part of his eye to see if good was ready for it he wasn't and alabama very fortunate to get the ball back on that error quincy williams that big defensive end was involved in that play again he had that halfback he'd taken good out of the play here should have kept the ball the loss is back to the 12. it's second down and 14. and go to the run with drew and he atones for his mistakes as he comes blowing out across the 35 he only weighs 170 pounds but he runs a lot harder than that cara good as a true freshman broke in the starting lineup in the tennessee ball game watch the fake pass and run alabama auburn excuse me trying to rush the passer take themselves right out of the plate now watch the move of this young freshman good move right there on king the best tackle that uh watch the we have the hardy walker number 73 freezing smith the best pass rusher out of the plate setting up the run back to dude it goes and this time good picks are whack as he gets to the 40. good defensive flow and the man making the hit number 61 the nose guard dow ortman that defensive front for auburn is tough doug smith 6-6 275 auckland 6-2 265 and donnie humphrey 6-3 260. you back him up with ben thomas at 270. jerry williams at 265 and harold hallman at 2 30. then you had those two linebackers greg carr and jeff jackson and i'll tell you right now you're going to get some paint on your helmet if you start running in there too many times it is second down and six for alabama at the 41. [Applause] louis quick almost picked off tommy powell came in and hit louis as he delivered the ball powell is the strong safety but it was big doug smith who stuck up that tree trunk of an arm and knocked it down doug smith reacts beautifully to the block on walker walker raises him up he should have been blocking him low to get his hands down so lewis could throw the ball the little quick pass from close to the line of finish over to the receiver walketh instead blocked him high six thick smith got his hands on the ball and completed so it is third down and six for alabama running about 40 on the season on third down conversions and the referee johnny cook steps in and stops it with four minutes and 54 seconds to play in the first quarter alabama has called timeout we have no score in the football game and they've been playing on alabama's end of the field so far per day the weather continues to improve we can now see blue sky as you look past the press box and the light standards here at legion field and it's full and it's alabama calling the time out to talk about things they have not been able to move the ball particularly well so far they want to get on the other side of that 50-yard line no score first quarter and walter lewis on third down and six he has been dropped in motion coming back towards the ball denver turns up for you lewis getting some pressure can't get away they've got it voting down ben thomas from ashburn georgia the 270 pound junior fought his way through the blocking and he sacks lewis back at the 36. any great defense has the ability to rush the passer with their down linemen otherwise they have to gamble too much and they get hurt the auburn defense the big front that keith mentioned early put good pressure on lewis and forced him to eat the ball malcolm simmons first pick today good for 43 lionel james voted back 20. james is deep again wins the simmons back doesn't get it shanks it toward the sidelines and knocks it out of bounds a very poor kick by malcolm simmons and once again auburn comes out of there with very good field position at their 38th coming up on abc's nfl monday night football the minnesota vikings and the detroit lions they're coming into the ball game with identical records in the in the central division of the national conference both of them seven and six so there's a tremendous amount of pressure on both teams in that ball game on monday night at nine eastern time now here's orphan call it the 38 and randy campbell writes it off to his full-back tommy agee and a.g doesn't get a whole lot out of it they'll give his mark across the jorge so give him the three yards this alabama defense has playing for him three true freshmen sometimes four and five as you look at malcolm simmons's wreck record so far he's got a very bad kick sliced that one off just a moment ago alabama defense is now beginning to gamble and take chances long seven on second down goes to lionel james and a little green pops it up the middle he ran right in behind bo jackson and his fullback and randy edwards number 96 made the play for alabama randy edwards has been a starter for three years he uses his hand the key for a defensive lineman is to keep your feet alive you have to move your feet so that you can move over once you find where the play is going to be run and make the play fine fine play by randy at with the senior tackle ball is at the auburn 44. it is third down and four [Applause] kimberly drops off the he tried to throw the football to jeff park's tight end and it was a very dangerous move on the part of campbell because there were white shirts everywhere what happened on the play keith is the defensive lineman held up legally they tied in he never got off the line of scrimmage campbell had no one else to go to because in the wishbone you don't have option in secondary receivers you have one receiver he was covered nothing to do but throw the ball away lewis colbert the punt first thing was 34 yards this one goes high the wind's going to kill it's going to be a short kick and it bounces back up field and auburn has to put it down so the alabama crimson tides get good field position themselves out near their own 34. [Applause] all traditional college football games are games of emotion this is what auburn quarterback randy campbell says it means everything emotionally we feel like if we lose if we were to lose this game it would destroy our whole season even though we're 9-1 and already going to the sugar bowl it means everything as far as uh state championship for bragging rights and it helps in recruiting and you have to listen to it for a year randy campbell a comment from yesterday and that latter part of his comment may be the most important you have to listen to it for a year my impression about the alabama offenses their receivers that we talked earlier are open lewis has not had protection to get the ball to him i've not seen the alabama the auburn secondary do a good job of covering them so far you've got two minutes and 53 seconds to play in the first quarter it is the defensive front of auburn right now i think that's got control of the football kid in fact both defensive fronts seem to have control at this moment they've got ben's austin jones wide now on first down let's see if ray perkins wants to go to the pass on first down and he does and he gets better protection out of it and lewis threw the ball hard over the middle and ricky moore the fullback couldn't pull it down another problem may have been that he looked back into a very bright sun here's randy campbell who's had an outstanding senior year his leadership is just invaluable to this team a wishbone quarterback you can see he's completed 56 of his passes for 834 yards and seven touchdowns very vital part of the offense both quarterbacks in this game however are one for five and thirteen yards here in the first quarter second down in ten one little draw play it's going to be a big one with perry grood breaking it up the middle and getting an alabama first down on the armored side of the field nick beasley brought him down for the tigers in his first down tied auburn 47 from behind the defense watch the hole open up naturally on fake pass and run you're gonna see um i can guess that was huffer get blocked all the way inside and good comes right down the middle before beasley finally brings him down another first down good on four carries 53 yards from the auburn 47 the tide now moving with the sun in the winter back and louis pitchers outside it's good again got a great block over there and turns the corner we got the block from western guthord the tight end and vic beasley again makes the tackle one thing that alabama added for this ball game was the triple option something that of course walter lewis has been very successful running for the last three years they felt like they could put it in and maybe get outside and circle the defense and they did for a nice game i would think that's where you're going to find your the path of least resistance against auburn outside second down short six and the right side of the alabama line doug vickers missing the snap count and that draws the first flag of the ball game the referee is johnny cooks and johnny is refereeing his final game as an sec official native of rome georgia retiring after 26 seasons in his playing days over at georgia he was an all-conference running back 1943 harold johnson the empire and the rest of the officials you see reflected there illegal procedure false start when the office he certainly has i played against him in college he was a very fine football player so that backs him up five and it's literally second down 10. [Applause] again the little draw goes for the big pullback more he looks around for a place to run and find some daylight and once he gets up ahead of steam you better bring a big stick to knock him down he takes that football down to about the 36 and an alabama first down ben thomas finally rested him off his feet it was in the lsu game where we show alabama that moore had a tremendous ball game he's very strong watch number 91 ben thomas watch the effort he's going to get knocked down by vickers right there on the ground but a good football player doesn't quit there he knows that the play is still going watch him get up make the second effort the third effort and comes over and helps in the tackle right there and it's a first down for alabama from the auburn 36 the first threat of the day by alabama lewis under pressure gets his pass off pass is incomplete coming across was perry good jesse bendross was the short man if jesse had realized that good was behind him and open i'm sure he would not have tried to make the catch once again the front four of the auburn defense that we have two southeastern conference all-conference players on this unit put the pressure on lewis he had receivers open but did not have time to get an accurate pass complete there's the goodyear blimp america from houston texas the captain is jim dexter from smyrna park maryland our cameraman up there with him is art pepper kind of a windy afternoon number 96 john daly defensive in levels walter lewis for the big loss what a great play by john daley and one that all been very desperately needed as alabama was in field goal range watch from the left of your screen number 76 is going to be coming outside all the way now right there is lewis has receivers covered momentarily and he throws lewis to the ground for the sack auburn's secondary did a good job of covering on that play otherwise lewis could have gotten the pass off ball has moved back beyond the auburn 45 they've got to go to the 26 to get the first down they need 19 yards on third down he dropped by lewis better protection this time auburn however dropping back the cover and lewis has nobody to throw it to now he's got some room to run and he is a good runner and he wiggles his way on down to you to about the 32 greg carr finally ran him down linebacker for auburn and we have come to the end of the first 15 minutes of this ball game between the old foes auburn and alabama and there is no score [Music] one would have thought alabama might have had a little more sensitivity toward the clock and spend another time out in order to give van tippen a chance to kick with the win on a 48-yard field goal try now he's got to try to hit it into the win that's a very long kick for the way the wind's swirling at that end of the stadium everything is good on it ball is up and no good wind kind of pushed it out and knocked it down and so alabama is turned away as we have said this is a game of legacy for paul bryant the bear and pat dyer the orban coach worked with him for six years and says this about the man but working for coach bryant was a was a had to be a great importance to me in my coaching career because i learned a great deal of football from him i was i was with him for nine football seasons eight and a half years and we became very close friends and i needless to say i had tremendous respect for him and uh there's no question in my mind or any other people that have been close to him bo jackson as his coach was talking improvises goes outside and once bo jackson with 9-5 speed gets outside it's cu later he goes 69 yards at auburn picks the lead of the ball game a big block for him chris woods hit the free safety freddie robinson took him out of the play and both was gone the people in auburn say the coaches with bo jackson doesn't know how good he can be he may be one before he graduates one of the very great players in america del greco for the extra point pride the snap is high the holder mike mann voted down quickly and well and the kick is good and it's 7-0 and bo jackson now with five carries 109 yards he has now moved over a thousand yards at 1066. from the end zone watch this spectacular play jackson is going to be hit at the line of scrimmage there's absolutely nothing there but every great football team has a back that can make something happen on his own he can defeat the defensive man one-on-one he can improvise he can turn a bad play into a good play now watch woods number one watch number one make the keyboard he has tremendous speed just same kind of speed as jackson and he comes over and makes the very last block to the right of your screen i hope we can see it yes right there he knocks down freddie robinson number 21. we've got to see that again just a sensational play by one man's heaven nothing there alabama defense plays it perfectly but here's wood the alertness of wood knowing what feeds that jackson has to take the proper angle and to knock robinson safe to man down allowing jackson to go in for the touchdown 69 yards and auburn jumps out to a seven to nothing lead and will kick off now as the offensive team rests on the sidelines beau jackson keith alabama defense had played beautifully but since the first possession of albans they had stopped auburn pole they had that play stopped goal and one play one player his effort turns it into a touchdown joe carter is the deep man for alabama the win gets the kick and carries it well back into the end zone he's coming out with it the wedge breaks down at the 16 and down goes joe carter [Applause] alabama will be going into the win which might have some effect on the passing but the alabama offense to be successful it's a finesse offense meaning they finesse plays running plays off of the passes that's what they've been successful with so far auburn ranked third in the nation headed for the sugar bowl only texas and second place nebraska in first place ahead of them they still think they might be able to pull off a miracle and win a national championship here's the pitch back to perry good and good carries for alabama up near the 25 after 15 minutes of play here are your steps you can see that neither team really has up ahead in that first quarter just as even as it could possibly be both teams missed the field goal the surprising thing is that alabama's defense had done a good job of stopping the auburn rushing game and then auburn's past defense had limited lewis to only 13 yards yeah but that 69 yard shot by jackson will distort those numbers somewhat won't they in the second quarter they look considerably different unless alabama can put something together right here good play by good he's got about a yard and a half for a first down as lewis puts it up sideline pattern thrown out of bounds you throw it that high in the air the wind is going to affect it and it pushed it off the field of play that time include the intended receiver covered by david king alabama had a waist down that was second down and one so they decide to use a little gadget play a little fake reverse send their receiver out of the backfield deep hoping they could match him up with a linebacker but it didn't happen the saint demand was covered you really think against that auburn defensive front that's a third down and yard and a half's easy well i should say it's easy they're going to pitch it wide and they get the first round pops through there coming up to support on the play david king king couldn't quite get to him and jim bone also didn't quite get a hand on him and good runs he's a good looking running back but look at the block by ricky moore number 26 that's the key watch more come right here and knock down king number 27. that's the block that spring scoot into the secondary and ski said he has that ability to leap over and make the nice game you know he's got 80 yards himself and just the freshman and jackson is just a sophomore dude is out now and joe carter comes in to replace him at the eye back or tailback position and walter lewis is back to pass that protection throws it down the middle joe jones little joey comes down to the auburn 45 and makes the catch where king makes the tackle that's joy jones number four's 30th reception of the year what a fine fine receiver he is but the thing on this pattern walter lewis has got time the auburn the alabama offensive line protected him to where he can set up read the coverage identify the receivers and open receivers and you can see jones right in the middle for the reception anytime you see a five foot nine inch 165 pounder going over the middle you know he's a tough football player don't you yes you do 45 yard line first down the play goes into the middle of ricky moore the 235 pound junior from huntsville hounds on down close to the 40. ricky moore can be the key of this ball game for alabama also he's the leading rusher for alabama the last three years he's averaging five foot five yards over five yards per try big strong six foot tall 235 keith there's no way you can get a real headgear on it not enough room dude is back in now carter out carry give it a chance for a breather after two hard runs headed second down and six that's ricky moore [Applause] hard to bring down isn't he number 45 jimmy warren finally got enough of him and took him down but he's got a first down for the crimson tide at 12 and a half minutes to go in the first half in auburn leading seven to nothing well alabama guess just right against the auburn defense alban was bunched inside expecting the play to come in the middle ricky moore we see what he's done so far this year four consecutive 100 yard gain donnie humphrey comes out for a breather gerald williams goes in to replace him defensively for auburn it is alabama at the auburn 31 walter lewis pitches the ball outside the good good surrounded by three blue shirts down he goes at the 20. principal tackler was jimmy warren great acceleration by crew he's really slashes in there if he has the coaches told me that he can be going full speed after one step now we've heard that and i've heard that all my life but don't you say that he can't do that but on that last play alabama circled off the defense with option play and joy jones wide receiver making the key block it's first down crimson tide at the auburn 20. curling by seven and threatening now that's ben cross number 88 coming back into the picture toward the ball as lewis drops he's going to the end zone with it for joey jones touchdown these are feuds these old traditionals you may have the better players but you better put your hat on hard and the extra point kick by tiffany's good and we're all even at 11 minutes and 42 seconds to play in the first half alabama now seven at auburn seven 20-yard touchdown pass walter lewis to joey jones they ran four running plays and threw the ball four times on the eight snaps in that touchdown march [Applause] excuse me when a team has the threat to run and pass it puts added pressure on the opposing defense that's what we're witnessing right there perry sanders into the wind brentford is deep for auburn low kick handles well at the three by four wood and he comes out across the 20 and then he's back at the touchdown from the end zone when the offensive line blocks the blitz your defense is in trouble walker adcock neighbor mcintosh and vickers hold the blitz out giving lewis plenty of time to see the receiver and hits him for the touchdown now let's watch the route that george jones runs now george jones is a senior outstanding walker number 45 is trying to cover him you can see he's beat up from the very beginning of the play all lewis has got to do is have time and get the ball there but it is a verified catch as jones watches it into the hands of the attack now from their 21 campbell coming down delivers outside bo jackson gang tackled over there 97 cornelius bennett right place right time that's about the fourth tackle that bennett's logged in this ball game so far bennett is going to be a very dominant football player he stands six foot five weighs 230 and the coaches tell me the third fastest player of the freshman class running a 4-5 it was a fullback in high school number 97. there's a loss of a yard on the carry after the play by minute second down 11 tigers [Applause] campbell outside lionel james block from jackson james turns to the 28th short of the first down they're going to need about three is john hand defensive tackle floated outside with a play and made the hit [Applause] [Music] randy campbell changed the play at the line of scrimmage went to the triple option he wanted to get the ball pitched he did and uh alabama did recover in time with hand making the play short of the first down auburn has played eight bowl teams they've beaten seven [Applause] texas campbell quick pop wood had his man wide open and missed him woods had come into the ball game brought the play and campbell had everything going and everything's set except he did not throw the ball accurately on third in short yardage against the wishbone you put your defensive backs and just about everybody on the line of scrimmage alabama did gambling the pass went incomplete because of the wide throw lewis colbert to caught pressure on him kick is away high hanging kick for greg richardson a quick freshman from mobile trying to go outside nothing to it he's crumbled out of bounds and you've got a penalty flag thrown on the sidelines as they go rolling out of bounds and he might have been attacked a lot of bounds and might be a unnecessary roughness fall here that was a 50-yard punt by colbert you've got 10 minutes and six seconds to play we're waiting for the call now as the referee johnny cooks talks with the linesman who made the call over there five yard face man hey johnny cook says face mask on the tackle so they'll assess a penalty against the auburn tigers and alabama again will have very good field position as the sun is out right right now a five-yard penalty for incidental grabbing of the face mask on the tackle on the sideline and it moves the football out just beyond the 29 for alabama tim brant on the sidelines for us again today beat maybe a little depth but so far he's been able to stay dry joe carter and ricky moore are the setbacks now as walter lewis goes to work hands it off inside or did he keep it noy kept it and number 99 doug smith had a hold of him along with greg carr greg carr wearing number 54. that was the uniform number and the uniform that was taken aboard the space shuttle what smith number 99 he's an all-conference player last year and this he penetrates and by penetrating he really disrupts the ball handling of the wishbone lewis has no chance lewis comes excuses smith comes clean in the backfield and just wraps him up and holds him until the play is over big doug from bayboro north carolina had played the fat guy up at east carolina when pat went to wyoming he dropped out of the game for a year but when pat came to albany he transferred and walter lewis back smith after him lewis throws it in the crowd joey jones is over there and walter threw it about nine feet over his head and why not because that big horse smith was thundering down his throat abc's wide world of sports next saturday world cup boxing championship the world ski flying championship the duke kahanamoku surfing classic from hawaii as top international surfers are in the waves off sunset beach and when you do that good luck third down 12. and lewiston gets away and gets some of it back they almost had him back inside the 25 as doug smith continues to make life miserable for walter lewis every good defense has one or two defensive linemen that can apply pressure without the blitz auburn applied the pressure on lewis forcing him to keep the ball without the blitz and that was a key third down for auburn's defense now alabama has to kick into the win malcolm simmons had a bad kick last time on the 25 yards he's got to hit this one into the wind he gets some spin on it the wind knocks it down rather quickly however it bounces around in favor of alabama and finally goes dead at the 41. that was on the 30-yard punt so that wind is tough going from left to right i'd like to tell you something that's very important to all of us because next tuesday night the gentleman to my right coach frank broyles will be put into the national football foundation hall of fame and it's an honor so richly deserved and we're just as proud as we can be of you coach o.j simpson is also going in with you with others and we're delighted for you thank you it's randy campbell carrying he never really had a chance number 21 freddie robinson the free safety had stepped into the hole they'd open it up but then suddenly robinson appeared and randy really didn't have a whole lot of brothers he picked up five and for a moment if robinson hadn't filled the gap he might have gone for a lot more [Music] keith that's a great thrill for me but i'm also privileged to be going in with my close friend daryl royal and also the legendary woody hayes like it's been said that ain't a bad crowd to hang around with second down pull it four and a half gamble quickly to the sidelines his pass on target clayton buford just beyond the marker gets a first down for auburn buford is a junior out of paletska florida david has outstanding speed the defensive cornerback has got to give him some room no reason to get up and playing very tight and take the chance of going behind it campbell had been very poor throwing the ball earlier and so they just spotted him that little flat pass and made the completion for the first down at the alabama 48 seven seven ball game eight minutes to go first half up the middle goes bo jackson and once again he did it on his own pretty much once they got him past [Music] the line of scrimmage watch jackson run over the linebacker number 45 mcrae is being tied up a little bit by the blocker but he jumps right over it you can see the agility of this big man one thing that really impressed me was that jackson outran hershey walker last spring in a 60-yard dash which tells you something about his feed he's rolling today first down for auburn alabama 36. and it's kimball giving the ball to jackson he's on the loose outside that was a good solid tackle by freddie robinson who's 6-1-175 but freddie has just over-matched against jackson who's 6-1-230 with all that speed keith uh pat dye told us all of the staff that jackson had the best practices this past week he had in all the time that he'd been there this young man didn't know exactly what was happening to him last year threatened to quit uh after the before the alabama game last year but he's got things straightened out and he's just a great football player kim jesse replaces jackson now after that run gets a breather jesse 6-1 200 pounds he's from up and a sophomore and they take it inside with the pullback tommy agee the field wet obviously from the rain that we have had but as the wind continues to blow and the sky continues to appear that it's going to stay clear it'll get pretty dry along toward the second half of this game no one has really mishandled the ball we had one field goal missed because the holder didn't get it down otherwise we've been blessed here with pretty good weather after such a forbidding forecast it sure is a better football game for everybody when you have decent weather as we look at pat dye and the tremendous job that he's done here at auburn ball is down inside the 16 of alabama as campbell gives to lionel james and james trying to get outside uses his speed and picks up pretty good yardage he had nobody in front of him literally but white shirts but lionel james is so quick he just kept bouncing outside outside and one of the officials was one of the gentlemen holding the marker was run into and knocked down and is in some pain keith lionel james is one of the real stories of college football in the south he's very small but the coaches will tell you he's the best blocker on the football team he gets right in the running gears and he has that elusiveness even though he's not all that fast according to the coaches he gives you the illusion that he is has blazing speed and you can see stan gaine number 28 coming up from the outside cornerback tries to wrestle him down to the ground but not before a nice game well you see the alabama player realizing that he was out of bounds and he was going to get involved in a late hit penalty in dodging james collided with the gentleman holding the marker that young alabama and the player was cornelius bennett well that's a lot of weight coming to whistling across at his speeds 215 pounds and i i think they're going to have to replace that man uh he was handling the marker i'm sorry i don't know his name but he uh he really took a whack across the knees as bennett came across trying to avoid james and avoid the penalty you've got 6 16 to play in the first half and it's all even at 7. we do have to get a replacement for the marker crew over there and the game now will resume pat dye on the right and uh ray perkins on the left a 7-7 ball game time winding down first half auburn's ball it is third down for them the ball is sitting just short of the 12. they've got to go near the eight they call it about four yards they're definitely in del greco's field goal range if they're unable to pick up sufficient yardage here jackson is back in the backfield campbell walked down looping around cornelius bennett one more time just on sheer athletic ability called cornelius makes a sensational play number 97 in stopping the quarterback short of a first down camel had no chance to go after cornelius bennett number 97 just reached out and threw him to the turf and that brings in del greco for a 29-yard field goal try on the season four for four from this distance mike mann the holder mike mann fumbled the last snap on the field goal attempt [Applause] that one's clean and the kick is good and you've got five and a half minutes to go in the first half and auburn moves back on top by a score of 10-7. coming up here on abc the gator bowl december 30 at nine eastern time the florida gators against the hawkeyes of iowa oh they'll steve that's gonna be a great ball game that's a footstopper all with peace sugar auburn michigan michigan ranked number eight first time those two teams will have played in a postseason contest florida beat florida state today 53 to 14. dude they really got that hayden prize brought that our team right along 9-2 record this year just close to winning another big ten championship pretty picture there is the gorgeous clouds have moved out well maybe babe ryan is here don't let him like it he's here you know he's watching [Music] right here on abc here's the kick [Applause] going deep into the corner and beyond the field of play and they'll come back to the 20 for this possession auburn out in front by a score of 10-7 of course abc sports will be back down here in the birmingham area next summer too in august for the pga golf championship out of trolls creek what a golf course that is ranked 26th in the nation i think the last country in the world that's right by one of the golf magazines keith and i tried to play it keith played good i didn't yesterday i missed that on the 20 alabama to the attack lewis keeps pitches outside thirds loose trying to get to the marker and he comes up just short what a tremendous block by the splitting coming in and picking up the free safety he happened to be supporting the pitch play and freed the ball carrier to go on down for a nice gain as we look at the alabama offensive line and the huddle and what carried good the freshman running back has done so far when you get outside on auburn out of their defensive scheme those quarterbacks really got some pressure on them yes they do in particular the free safety also louis back going deep joy jones on the dead run out of bounds jimmy warren covering they just ran out of real estate jimmy had him on the boundary and uh the boundary was helping with the defense well joy jones is tremendous receiver has outstanding speed he knows he's got that experience and he's working on jimmy warren number 45 but it's very short yardage and jimmy warren doesn't have to be worried about up there if they run up the middle they're going to make the first down so he very wisely stays back and makes play and prevents the reception walter lewis has now broken scott hunter's alabama season record with 245 pass attempts i'm going to let his arm rest it's cranking the devil up third and one it's good oh what a whack at the line of scrimmage but it looks like he's got it i don't know exactly who it was they went helmet to helmet with him whether it was uh greg carr or quincy williams but you could hear the collision a half a mile away it is a first down chief impressive thing for alabama has been the execution of walter lewis on option play something that he ran for three years on the bay of brown and also when he had time his passing from the 30 first and ten for the pride tommy bell the safety is creeping up now he drops off they run the ball to his side of the field and perry good runs it up across the 45 to the 46 and another alabama first down quincy williams finally runs him down you know what frank if tommy powell had come on up there and filled that position where he had started he just stopped to play probably but by this time goods got up a full head of steam and open field and he's hard to catch well i think quincy williams number 93 makes it tremendous he's going to charge himself up outside which is really a bad defensive play but he recovers and chases the ball gear good defensive players never give up and quincy williams makes a fine play very good now 11 carries at 114 yards and joe carter trying to get outside and does and picks up a big game for alabama so here comes alabama now exercising the option play and the outside it was generally felt by those of us who have seen these two teams and studied them over the last few days that that's where alabama might be able to run if they could get outside well joe carter ran right through the arms of probably the best tackler in the auburn secondary and tommy powell number nine kyle had him for a short game but carter just ran right through him for the big game and a first down ball now on the auburn side of the field is just short of the tiger 43 10-7 auburn leads 357 to go first half louis pitches to the pullback ricky moore and there's a pretty good sized collision when moore comes banging into jeff jackson and company but he's got yardage he's got four well the alabama offense are doing a good job of mixing up the fake pass and run which has been their big play later but they mixed in enough option plays to keep the auburn defense completely off balance pickup is about three and a half actually the comparison of food with alabama and jackson first running back having a big day second down six and a half from the 40. lewis ends it off inside to about the 36. he's got to get near the 33. so it'll be about three yards on third down i think we should point out that goods 114 yards exceeds the average total of the teams that have played against auburn in the first 10 ball game 106 yard average shows you what that freshman can do big big conversion down coming up the third short three lewis still got it quincy williams after him lewis has got the first down he's inside the 20s he's knocked down at the 14 first down alabama how valuable can a quarterback that can run a 4-5 b to your football team here is a perfect example the receivers are covered alban could not do a better job of covering more in the flat and the end on the curl but what's the speed of young walter lewis who runs a 4-5 weighs 205 pounds turns it into a successful place better first down on the auburn 14. alabama trying to get the lead here in the late go over the first half it's lewis calling his own number came outside nobody to pitch turned it back inside and doug smith knocks him down as he runs inside the 10 near the 7. [Music] the alabama offense really has got the momentum going and walder lewis as we said earlier he was going to be a busy man throwing the ball scrambling and running often play some folks who say it can't be done run the option play and throw the ball effectively walton lewis has proven them all wrong auburn right now has gone to a goal line defense as they put ben thomas in and walter lewis hands it off inside lewis was hit just as he made his pivot but the ball was gone to ricky moore the fullback the up man out of the eye and moore's inside the five walter lewis being the senior really wants to have a great ballgame last week against boston college he was only four out of 12. the team had four fumbles and they got beat this young man's had an outstanding career in fact he's the only alabama player to ever gain over 5 000 yards that says something for this young man's ability they are the length of the football away from a first down this is third down coming up everybody is jammed inside lewis slides off the right side guard john mcintosh and the center west neighbors and would appear to have a first and goal [Applause] he's got it the clock is a factor right now alabama has two timeouts and there's 51 seconds left to play they just spent one of those timeouts stopping the clock at 51. trying to take the lead at halftime [Applause] you've got 51 seconds to play in the first half auburn leading by three points alabama owns the football first down and goal to goal just outside the auburn threes the key factor here could be the option play for walter lewis going outside carter touchdown bama oh my goodness keith the man in motion confused the auburn secondary and they busted their coverage look how wide open harder number 46 is when alabama put flanker jones in motion it forced a change in the coverage and alban did not make the adjustment van tiffan's extra port kick is good van tiffen is now 36 for 36 and extra points in alabama has the lead 14-10 and here's a look at alabama it was going to be easy it's a four-point lead for the crimson tide now they will kick it off with 46 seconds to play and it is fred fulwood deep used 12 plays frank to go 80 yards they used almost five minutes off the clock in that possession two long drives by alabama for touchdowns both very impressive sanders the kickoff high hanging kick and full wood at the one he'll give his progress just beyond the 27th and 40 seconds to play in the first half auburn with three timeouts alabama with one what can you anticipate from an auburn football team which basically wishbone as we look at the numbers on that very impressive drive i think give it a bowl outside and just let him try to break one i don't think auburn wants to give the ball up here with any risky plays they can be very conservative with possession type passing or goal for the deep bomb one or the other campbell not having a good day so far two out of seven for 18 yards in the passing game he's going to try it though but a little heat swings it out there to the fullback aeg and aj [Applause] ran right out of his shoe up at the 30. that was a pickup of about two and a half yards bach is at 28 seconds now and auburn calls a timeout so with 28 seconds to play in the first half and alabama leading by four let's visit the orbiting campus quality education is a continuing need in the information age through the auburn generations fund the university will be able to provide the faculty and facilities necessary for economic growth it doesn't matter if you're orbiting the earth in the space shuttle or if you're on your way to the moon it's common sense that pays off every day and that's what auburn provides there may be some who think the price of higher education is too high but it has been said and truthfully i think if you think education is expensive try ignorance the loveliest village of the plane auburn comes back to win this football game and finish of 10-1 they're going to have another big party at toomer's corner i just know it well in a game like this is normally and should go right down to wire before it's set two fine football teams well coached second down their own 30. they need seven yards to keep it but only 28 seconds to play campbell hands it inside aegee football and looks like alabama's got it they do that extra effort the second and third effort the spinning motion of aj alabama people fighting him for the ball and then knock it loose and you've got 23 seconds to play and alabama has one timeout remaining you can see agent number 30 fighting spinning twisting forgets about the ball just a little bit and someone just reached in and stripped it right out emanuel king recovered it emanuel king number 92 they're sitting on the auburn 35 and 23 seconds to play one time out they lead by four [Applause] [Music] they stick it in the end zone the pass down the middle incomplete almost picked off good play by alvin briggs alvin briggs is a freshman from greenville alabama and he came across and almost picked it off jones is going to go across the middle frank's number four is going to break right in front of him and makes a sensational play the emphasis on past defense is moving and reacting after the ball in his throw now you've got 18 seconds to play second down 10 auburn 35. passes away pass good to ricky moore moore goes back into the center of the field when in fact he might have been better off but kept going to the sidelines they'll stop the clock now he's got a first down no he does not alabama spins its final timeout with eight seconds to play and van tiffen comes on the field so ray perkins trying to get three more as we come to the end of halftime van tiften is just a freshman had a sensational year leads a southeastern conference in scoring updating the weather forecast now we're told there's a line of very heavy intense thunderstorms out about 50 miles west of the city it's moving dead east at 25 miles an hour [Music] think about closing the window do we have one here we can close keith you better get out the battle that's what you better do if it rains like it rained last night seven inches of rain some places in the state they had up to 12 inches we're told in fact right here at the legion field they had eight inches last night it was not a fifth night before a walk i'll tell you we mentioned that uh van tiffen will be kicking into that same wind and it has picked up it seems to be flowing about 10 miles an hour oh it's more than that right look at that big old flag pretty strong this is 43 and certainly not a gimmick from 43 yards the last one was 47 if i remember correctly he just missed see the shirt blowing that's how strong the wind is down there that's not going to get there everything worked pretty well except uh van tiffen did not get a real solid hit on it didn't appear he didn't keep he hit the bottom part of the ball and he flipped it up and the wind took care of the rest of it and auburn gets it back with two seconds to play in the first half and they'll just run the clock out and go to the half and both coaches will start making their plans correct their mistakes efficiencies and see what they can do in this second half coming up ought to be another great half [Applause] alabama now playing the deep defense they've got two people back playing center field in case campbell tries to throw it as far as he can and what buford and chris woods have at it nope this takes it sits on it and that'll do it the first half is over here at legion field in birmingham in the crimson tide lead 14 to 10 and here is tim brandt now with coach berkin thank you very much keith the tide has turned so to speak you came back you scored the emotion now and an emotional game is on your side this whole game will be emotional you know this game's not over by long shots yet you know we're very fortunate there in a couple places in the first half gave up the big long touchdown with their great running back bo jackson but they're a great football team and this game is not in your battle the way it looks to me is this walter lewis optioning the outside people has also opened up the passing game well it has and we've got to keep trying to run the football and we're doing a good job running outside with the option like i say but we've got to keep doing that for our pass protections safe besides walter now your defense has played extremely well yes they have you know they're playing their hearts out and i guarantee they'll play another 30 minutes just the same way good luck the second half okay we will be back with our halftime activities after this commercial message and a word from the local stations all right halftime just about gone 14-10 right now let's check in with our colleague tim brent thank you very much keith we're with pat guy the head coach at auburn university my first question did you have a good meeting well you never know till you get the final results but we didn't play very well defensively the first half we didn't tackle uh we didn't tackle very well and they heard us with the wake side option and the draw and lewis broke containment a couple of times and so that's how they got to 14 points pat i was going to ask you about that because when i talked with ray perkins we talked about the option play and you're outside people and how that opened up the passing game yeah well there's no question that it's difficult to play the option in the past at the same time okay hey good luck the second half and that's logical keith let's go upstairs and kick them off you just wait you're not going to be so dapper in about 30 minutes and that big old rain comes over the hill there quickly now let's go to the halftime highlights and we'll start off with bo jackson in a 69-yard run alabama played the play perfectly at least the first part of the play but they didn't wrap up the great running back bo jackson and he improvises that's where alabama slipped up and you see a great effort by woods number one the wide receiver coming over making the play jackson goes 69 yards in for the [Applause] himself a touchdown part of it now we go to walter lewis who's emerging as a star for alabama this a 20-yard touchdown pass to joey jones to tie it well when you blitz and you don't get to the quarterback you're in trouble and this is exactly what happened to the auburn defense they were playing man for man in the secondary number 45 warren was covering jones number four and he couldn't do it right here and then this was the touchdown to the carter in the flat and then walter lewis stuck him in the end zone to recapture the lead after a field goal by auburn a 14-10 louis carter catching the pass the kickoff to start the second half goes out of the end zone there'll be no return on it and alabama will go to work at its 20. crimson tide moving out of the 20-yard line leading by four points and i think frank for the first time today now the weather could become a positive a definite factor nothing positive about it it's going to take away things from both teams if that thunderstorm is as tough as it looks coming over the hill walter lewis turns and hands inside to his pullback ricky moore five yards on the carry the offensive unit has lewis at quarterback good played most of the time at a big first half ricky moore to pull back wide people are ben drosson jones the offensive front big people remain basically the same [Music] and it's second down and five for alabama up around their own 25. lewis on second down again gives it to ricky moore and moore is up to the 29 a yard short of the first down as we look at the auburn defensive people john daly had a quarterback sacked from his defensive end spot doug smith at big tackle made life miserable for lewis dow auckland old country boy at nose guard donnie humphrey is the right side tackle defensively and outside quincy williams who had a big first half linebackers are greg carr and jeff jackson jackson the leading tackler so far in the ball game for auburn with nine third down in a yard from the 29 for alabama lewis goes to google he's hit behind the line of scrimmage and he is locked down at the 26 and doug smith made the play for the tigers once again a big play by a defensive man time that auburn desperately needed it watch smith number 99 well third and one you need to penetrate you need to get somebody in that backfield smith gets blocked by walker only momentarily and look at the effort he comes back and slows dude down enough for his teammates to make the play and force the fight malcolm simmons is in to do the kicking fourth kick of the game lionel james is deep auburn should get very good field position they feel out for a return it's a fine kick by simmons into the win spins it up for you that's good coverage by alabama but lionel james trying to get around the corner could not run away from chester bragg and so they don't have all that good field position after all as simmons was able to spin that ball up field into the win 46 yards auburn opens with campbell at quarterback bo jackson lionel james tommy agee out of the wishbone wide man chris wood ball is just outside the 25. west wallace jordan tambarello lot in arrington are the people up front for them and they set up on the wishbone from the 26. [Music] jackson has eight carries 140 yards and a touchdown so far in the ball game and obviously red to campbell changed the play at the line of scrimmage pitches outside the bull jackson puts his head down switch defenders and may well have a first down he's close to it just a tremendous effort by jackson once again the alabama defense confused the blocking no one was on the cornerback the force was there for the loss to not get jackson to the ground he goes on and makes nine yards just short of the first down ball sitting right on the 35 14 to 10 ball game overnight 7-0 5-7-7 auburn 10-7 alabama 14-10 that's where we are just starting the second half of play again campbell on a long check he may go something different here he goes outside to lionel james and james trying to turn the counter will not do it number 34 ricky thomas really the man that stopped his progress up field scott mcrae helped put him down and scott mccray was really in deep pursuit john hand is a big tackle 265 pounds mike rodriguez 250 of nose guard randy edwards at 255 for the tie defensively the linebackers cornelius bennett leading tackler so far inside outside rather emanuel king and inside it's wayne davis and scott mcrae the backers it is now third down in a full yard for auburn probably don't see anything fancy here they need the first down they just pitch it back to bo jackson he runs over runs over scott mcrae and goes on upfield past the 40 for a first down the secondary for the tide stan gay one of the more experienced the senior at corner other corner is sammy hood he is a junior from eider alabama and the safety is at the free safety freddie robinson and the strong safety are ricky thomas beau jackson is now the fifth all-time auburn rusher there you just really get through with two more seasons first down outside the 41 for the tigers campbell coming down the line on the option gives it off that's a dangerous handball there was very little room between jackson and campbell and it's one of those plays where the ball could come free so easily scott mcrae defensively for alabama on the play and you can see that bo jackson is really and lionel james are in very fast company brooks pribs are outstanding outstanding pro football players as you know ball is sitting now at the 44. james being a senior and jackson just a sophomore second down seven inside lionel james first down and had it not been for sammy hood he might have scored good good little change of pace start this play starts to the right to i'll left comes back to our right good blocking on the linebacker number 32 vincent elder and as she said james is in the secondary hood number 43 is the last man but he makes the tackle two first downs for all of the teeth gives him a little momentum coming out first in possession and making that successful move balls on the alabama side of the field just short of a tide 44. [Applause] campbell got wood first down out of bounds inside the 25 at the 24 working on stan gage keith i wanted to say earlier randy campbell is going to have to have a good passing game if auburn is going to win you're going to see woods fake inside he turns gate all the way to the inside leaving when he self open when he breaks to the boundary and campbell for this time at least was right on target for the big game at the alabama 24 first down tigers [Applause] won a draw with james jane tackled after a two-yard pickup what was it bill lewis the defensive coordinator over georgia said in their game that that campbell missed on the two reads the entire ballgame yes he had chartered the film bill lewis the defensive coordinator and said that he was so impressed with uh randy campbell in particular his the middle part of the game changing the play and not missing the reads and the audibles the ball is closer to the 23 so let's call it second down and nine we've got to check off to the right deep with 101 coverage [Applause] nope comes this way and overthrows chris wood right into the double coverage [Music] one thing that alabama is doing is disguising their their defense forcing uh campbell to delay his audible keith the reason that campbell is staying there so long is his way into alabama makes their shift and then he's riding audible came to the play and going to something that might have an advantage with offense that was the golden eagle the mascot of auburn university it is all the tigers they break the bone this time give that ball off to bo jackson coming toward this side of the field and he's going to have a first down he is down around the 11. oh i tell you something it's it is hard i don't care what you say it's hard to run left-handed when you're right-handed for your right key it's very very awkward but jackson is learning to do it he's lined up at wingback it's going to be a reverse long yardage the wishbone is not that effective passing but watch right here here's the key hood has him short of the first down but he couldn't crash the leg of jackson and he goes on and makes the plan first down jackson now with 170 yards in the ball game let's put it on the alabama 12 and the thai defensive people are jumping all over the place and they give it a lionel james and he cuts it back inside goes to the nine about three yards auburn continues to give different offensive sets the last time they were an unbalanced line with an extra blocker lined in tight trying to get some running room for little lionel james there is bo jackson record 12 170. keith i can't even figure out what that is the average per trial close to 15 and if it's more than one if it's more than ten it's impressive one aim down seven yards alabama nine into the stack for jackson alabama scotty ran right into the stunt that time as we look at ray perkins keith i have said before ray perkins came into the toughest coaching job i think that all of my uh time replacing the legendary baya braun the only other job in coaching at the college level that i can even begin to equate to it was uh the man who tried to succeed john wooden ucla in basketball of course that man barco and he's back here at birmingham at uab back to beat auburn last night this is up to them big flaky third and long they need a touchdown not a first down penalty flags all over the field the auburn man i think left too soon so the auburn tigers now make a mistake as the concentration cracks just a little bit here they do it on third down trying to run outside on the option and the question now is whether or not alabama wants to back them up on the five or bring up fourth down and you know they'll they're gonna look they'll be looking for a third down and about eight or so well that would be their third and they'd be third and thirteen if they take the penalty which would be i think a bad decision fourth down we'll bring in del greco probably for a field goal try johnny cook is the referee he'll tell us what they're gonna do kind of a victory for the defense once again in this goal line position four down i think as we listen to the referee legal procedure no illegal emotion and it is declined they're going to force auburn's hand here and see whether or not pat dye sends his kicking unit or cuss for a touchdown and he immediately entered by sending al delco out you can see the pullback number 30 jumped the starting count and was in motion now auburn is going to go for the attempted field goal i wouldn't be surprised if they might have a fake field goal and pass a run del greco has hit one from 29 wind whirls around but basically it should be at his back this is a 26-yard try the alabama defense this is the second time that they've stopped auburn inside the 10-yard line enforcing field goal attempts mike mann to hold it ryan delaney to snap it the kick is up and the kick is good and so the auburn packers come down are successful with the field goal and pulled within a point at the time 14-13 [Music] some of the people beginning to look for cover or perhaps even start home as they see the sky getting dark 14-13 ball game now as del greco kicks off to auburn and [Applause] [Music] let's see what now the auburn defensive people have in mind for the crimson tide and whether alabama will continue the option coming up on abc's nfl monday night football presentation next monday minnesota vikings and the detroit lions a very big football game in the central division of the national football conference just one game separating those two teams and the green bay packers in the central division lewis turns around keeps it throws it got joey jones and he missed him my goodness if he'd hit him it's been able to drill that ball and get it to jones joey was gone there was nobody in position to run him down he had about a five yard lead on the closest auburn defender the fake of the option play david king number 27. look at the rod of your screen he's going to take the fake and he comes all the way up and lets joy jones run right behind had the pass been accurate it would have been 80 yards in a touchdown say so second down and 10. well the option is the prime weapon for alabama [Applause] lewis on a rollout gets it off that'll be incomplete david king covering joey jones on the play right in front of the auburn bench and he was all over joy jones i i would think they'll soon come back and fake and go deep on david king because he took the chance and came up and covered the receiver on the out pattern very very tight you sort of get the feeling they're kind of picking on king don't you yes king king will will uh bite he's so eager to make tackles that and this is known throughout the conference he will come up too quickly that's good in motion and the whistle's coming i think we should point out that auburn most of this ball game has been playing their defense with five backs and this has hurt their running defense and they're still doing this playing with five backs and one less linebacker on third down four times in ten drives 703 to play third quarter and the tide leads by a point that's jones in motion and lewis back they're going to get him fumbles the football auburn will not get it goes all the way across the field and out of bounds gerald robinson came looping from the blind side and walloped walter lewis walter lost the ball to auburn pursuing it and could not catch up with it until it went out of bounds daryl robertson has tremendous speed coming from the left of your screen runs to 4-6 weighs 220. just a sophomore makes a great individual effort once again i think we should keep pointing out albans defense has been able this year to come up with a big play when it's most needed and that was a typical illustration of it and they should get the football and very good field position because malcolm simmons now is going to be standing back around his goal line the ball tumbling out of bounds back inside the 10 at the 9. so out of the end zone steps to the goal line hits it up in the air wind's going to knock it down lionel james coming up falling fair catch the wind blows it back down the field and alabama finally stops the roll on it and here's auburn's camp on alabama's front porch after a 17-yard punt give the defensive alden credit walder lewis came out and was going to throw the ball the rush got to him he had to throw before he was ready and the auburn defense having the momentum after the field goal bringing the games to 14-13 took the ball away again in this good field position first down for the tigers at the alabama 26 6 45 to go in the third quarter give the ball to jackson is what i would expect them to [Applause] camera do hurry he does jackson was chased and turned back inside as lionel james was not able to affect the block out there and alabama had two people they expected the same thing that you called and they turned him back inside and stopped him down around the 23. bush campbell's defensive backfield coached outbound told me that we're going to overshift the wide side of the field when the ball is on auburn's right so that we can stop jackson and force them turn it in gave him a two yard pick up on that and make it second down in about eight this is given off to jackson and he slides past one man but losing his momentum goes down at the 20 and cornelius bennett is in on the play for alabama a little misdirection play but watch this young freshman play he's unblocked but he also has the quickness the presence of mind to see the play and he's strong enough to go in and prep gold jackson after just the short game again albans in third in five situations been unsuccessful the last two times [Applause] they've got to throw the ball [Music] campbell keeps it dives goes to the 15 and should have a first down for auburn linda campbell called his own number and picks up the first down alabama did exactly what they want to do forced randy campbell to keep it for the left side watch to the bottom of his screen the left side of the line do a good job of blocking particularly on randy edwards he's a force ran the edwards all the way back into the backfield allowing plenty of room for randy campbell to fall and die for the critical first down now auburn getting closer to the front door as they're sitting at the 15 with a first down campbell putting it up on first down going into the corner for buford no almost only the hand of stan gay the presence of gay perhaps i'm not even sure he touched the ball well one thing that camel is doing he's throwing in the double coverage something that i know pat dodd doesn't want you can see the linebacker thomas number 34 covering him short so now they have a deep man back there with him fan gay and gay cuts in front takes a chance to go for the ball and just let's see didn't touch it didn't touch it just goes right through buffet's hands nice fourth nine seconds down you can see there that gate took a chance went for the interception normally you what you ideally you wanting to go through the receiver and get the ball if you possibly can but not take the chance so a second down and 10 at the 15. auburn trailing by a point they take a time out to talk about matters idea that's a good point our producer coach chuck howard we've got a roofton last night from his colleagues and our season-ending party suggests ed west the tight end ed has not seen the ball since early in the ball game back in the first quarter drag him across the middle and see what happened second down and 10. nope they go to lionel james and nothing doing he's whacked down by john hand just over the 15. in each of the three possessions of the last three possessions of auburn they've thrown the ball on first down and failed to make a first down and went but two field goals and now they're third long again throwing on first down and i'm sure pat dies dot cold and what's happening is camel is changing the play he looks at it identifies the coverage and goes for the pass but has been incomplete each time all right we've got west flexed out wide now this time so he's not in a tight position but a wide receiver position set up a screen for lionel james and he cannot get back to the line of scrimmage [Applause] and i think it's john hand that messed it up again freddie robinson also up in on the play it was a blitz of all out sellout blitz by the alabama defense camel had no chance to set it up the linebacker was right over there on the screen plate and that brings del greco in for a 34-yard field goal try at 353 of the third quarter as auburn goes to the lead now dale greco has kicked seven field goals in one ball game against kentucky that's up six on star six field and it's good and auburn regains the lead over alabama by a score of 16-14 well alabama defense uh feels i'm sure that uh only three possessions they forced three field goals in the fourth quarter keep this in mind alabama will have the win to their backs one thing that you you learn to to believe in the wishbone that once you get inside the 15-yard line it's a goal line offense by by design you would take it on in and score but what's happened is the last three possessions auburn has not got the touchdown has gone for the field goal and the reason the ball would pass the fall would pass something that's out of character for a wishbone team yeah but you know what happened last week in the ball game between texas and texas a m when texas turned around and finally got the wind at their back as with macgyver in the game they ran off 45 unanswered ball is sitting down on the 40 now for del greco's kick joe carter is deep 16-14 auburn back in the lead at 3 39 to go into third quarter and it's way back in the end zone and there'll be no return so once again alabama's got to go from the 20. abc's wide world of sports next saturday offers that diversity of entertainment for you the world cup is the only major international amateur boxing competition that we're going to have before the 1984 olympic games in los angeles that's the top amateur boxers from the united states cuba and canada representing the north american continent defending their world championship and alabama to the attack now as lewis pitches the ball outside to carry good and auburn now watching him with a little sterner look because he hurt him in that first half getting outside vic beasley the free safety number 31 came up and made the hit on him after two yard pickup the stunt that that auburn was using the free safety had to pitch something is very dangerous alabama was successful in the first half unsuccessful on the last play beasley to safety making the play they've got bendross out on the lower part of the screen now against david king and ben ross hasn't seen the ball all day this is good getting outside and getting across the 30 all the way to the 35 at an alabama first down and a very critical first down the first first down i should say for alabama this half good made a sensational run this is a fake pass and run there's nothing there where he'd been breaking the play but he has the presence of mind to break outside nothing inside try the outside and he shows his feet and goes down the boundary and finally he's knocked out of bounds but not not before he makes the first down the biggest game of the season for an alabama running back he has 128 yards now on 14 carries lewis pitches outside joe carter carter weaves his way for about eight yards up across the 40th to the 43 at 2 50 to go in the third quarter and auburn leading alabama by 2 16-14 greg carr number 54 is what college football all about he's a great football player outstanding student in civil engineering he jumps right over the blocker and comes right out and makes the play on carter otherwise it would have been a big gain for the crimson tide second down seven second down three picked up seven inside ricky moore the full back breaks it loose and he's on his way touchdown alabama no flag 57 yard and the world does a full back run right up the middle untouched after he breaks the line of scrimmage for a touchdown it's very simple when you're in the blitz then your defensive back are chasing receivers all over the field no one and i mean no one knows that ricky moore's got the ball least of all david king over the right of your screen who is covering the receiver and finally he realizes that it's not a pass and he still tries to make the play but he couldn't bring ricky moore down moore now has 101 yards in the ball game so alabama with two backs over 100 yards and alabama has called a timeout walter lewis going to the sidelines and looks to me like they're cooking up something for a two-point try after their touchdown with 2 20 to go in the third quarter 2016 alabama you can get the two then they'll be back to a six-point lead if they were to kick the point they would only uh lead by five keith they'll be seven point lead seven points get back on multiples of seven walter lewis gets away throws at the end zone and it's incomplete so lewis pounding along suddenly looked back into the center of things and he saw preston garther and fighting to get the ball to him and he couldn't do it and so alabama's lead remains at four 20-16 let's go back again to the touchdown and watch this run by ricky moore the fullback he's going to pop right up the middle auburn is in a blitz of safeties we're all firing so more breaks on open field he says where is everybody there's no one there except david king number 27 who comes across and tries to tackle it high at 180 pounds at 235 no way now watch vendra do you think experience is not important in having a good football team number 88 is outside the res of the blocker on the run he's declawing king back finally king recognizes the run but uh dendros backs away and says no i can't block him it would be a clip and he stays all five in the line in the touchdown run kickoff try to keep it low into the win it's picked up short around the 12 by ed graham and graham comes on back up field to about the 29. i don't want to belabor the point frank but that's 4-2 16 you're right graham returned that uh kickoff and his brother plays for alabama both of them were walk home ed graham has earned uh earned a scholarship at auburn keith outread is 15. i thought it was 15-7 is 22. andy campbell gives to bo jackson jackson's on his way goodbye in your face 71 yards for bo jackson [Applause] bo jackson has now run for 246 yards in this ball game two touchdowns his career best one of the alabama sports writers said in an article recently he's the best football player in america that america has never heard of after this [Applause] oh my goodness ricky moore comes up with a sensational play and runs 57 yards jackson answers with a 71-yarder keith i missed the play i was looking i was actually looking to see about the scoreboard and when i looked up here is jackson right now this is the first time i've seen it but the block by aj was the key for and watch the speed how he accelerates and dodges robinson number 21 just enough to pick up his feet an old wedding drill thing we used to do every day when we didn't have backs like bo jackson that could do it naturally [Applause] wide receivers always have to know how to block a running football team particularly chris woods has already made one great block that sprung jackson for the touchdown watching here see what he does on game number 28. gay is a senior and he gets just enough of the leg right there just a beautiful effort by chris woods who was on the opposite side of the run and he slowed gave down enough that he couldn't make the play good team ever and auburn's back on top 23-20 [Applause] that's the old charlie brown trick the ball rolled off the d and he almost whipped it well i guess auburn's gonna have to put one of their covering men over to hold the ball the win has picked up yes they're going to have to take one of their covers out of the the coverage and of course uh del craco should take it out of the end zone he has on the pass four times got the win to his back what is the score keith i'm not going to say a good football game what you learn to expect from these two teams carter's coming joe carter to the 16. keith i don't think i've ever seen in one football game a better single performance on individual effort than bo jackson has done tonight today tremendous run six foot two by the way 228. look at him number 34. not only is a great run he's going to be the cheerleader don't blame him get that defense for it better not take the safety out of the middle anymore though no you're right ricky muller go right up there again this is terry good and greg carr hits him just when he looked like he might be able to bounce into some open area red car whacked him right on the numbers steve had auburn had their basic defense now they're taking out the linebacker daily and putting in the extra linebacker and the reason alabama has made so much charge running the football unaccustomed as they've been and and all this defense has been so stout they've been playing five backs on virtually every down leaving themselves gullible against the run now they're back nickel defense up there in fact that's what it is that's a good name for it i forgot walter lewis bootlegs it out and gets up close to the 25. he may be a little short of his first down well you can't count out can't count alabama out of any football game with walter lewis and quarterback any player that i've seen this year that they could run and throw like that you keep the defense so off ballot alban don't know what to do now comes the defensive people back in the ball game against the run and out goes the nickel back sooner or later they're going to throw the ball to jesse bendra and they're going to go deep right in behind david king as i said earlier he likes to jump up and take the run and cover tight they don't figure to do it here they're on third down and one everybody's on the line to spin it to one man big smith doug smith grabs a hold of kerry good but good had pretty good line surge there and i think he's got his first down six six 260. runs a 4-8 you expect big plays this is one fine fine defensive player the the offensive blocker number 73 walker fires five the play is too delayed he should have taken a step and tried to turn smith out instead of firing out and just going to the ground smith making another very fine play number 99 he's had a great ball game got his first down by just that much [Applause] lewis fumbles the football arvin's got it greg carr covered it but the key was the penetration against the option play look to the left of your screen let's see who gets in the backfield you can see oh he just dropped the ball as uh lewis was reading the fallback the fullback thought that he was going to take it out now let's watch carl number 54. he's right on it board right there in the play in the backfield and he falls right on it good camera work right on the man that we need to see right there recover the fumble third quarter just about over auburn has the football first down at the alabama 24. let's see if they throw it they got a couple of plays with the wind at their back this is chris woods in trouble they try to reverse it with a wide receiver and they knock him down all the way back at the 37-yard line oh the auburn coaches would like to have that one back when alabama came up with a sellout blitz there was no chance third quarter is over 23-20 auburn more after this commercial message in the word from my local station you look at those stats you would figure you got a close ball game and we do alabama with 15 first downs to 12. but the running is about to say about the same passing a little bit of edge to alabama but look at the total yards one yard difference just a sensational football game both teams well coached and playing the hardship second down auburn on the alabama 38 and the ball off the lionel james he goes to the 31 they've got to go inside the 14 to get their first down after that gimmick play really i think a reverse by wide receivers fit somewhat into the gimmick category and blew up in their face but it blew up because alabama came with a sellout rush bringing everybody from both sides no way a gadget play has a chance to work don't wait take the fight 23-20 the ball game auburn leading by three third down [Applause] campbell pitches outside the lionel james jackson kick gives the block to it bo jackson put his helmet on ricky thomas but he got him a little low couldn't cut him down and thomas he looted the block and made the tackle pat dodge got a big decision to make now whether he's going to go for a field goal going into the win keith unless it has changed a little bit look at the can auburn be that lucky that the wind has switched around a little bit well it looks like the flag is going that way but it does it very much does kind of a crosswind and so del greco is in for a 49-yard field goal drive if it's unsuccessful alabama takes over the ball on the 31 he's hit from 29 26 and 34. [Applause] they take it no i don't know a little snap looked like it was all right i think the hole to juggle the ball again i think man must have juggled the ball because del greco stepped up to kick it and the ball wasn't on the tee right now we saw texas make a big big play in the ball game last week against a m literally to turn the game around now he didn't get it down now in this particular play frank mann has the ball looks up one of his teammates number 21 was all the way down field 15 yards clear by himself if you've seen him it would have been an easy touchdown so it's a fire fire routine again yes it was as i said last week first time i've ever seen it work here goes joe carter and he's brought down by tommy powell as alabama goes to the attack from the 33 and carter runs it out to the 39. joe carter is an interesting story he was one of the fine young recruits four years ago he's a senior but this year he only carried the ball 39 times coming into this ball game but he's looked good in this quarter and ben dross is yet to see it keep that in mind second down and three up the middle goes ricky moore and gets a first down up at the 45. going back to the last auburn possession i know pat dow would love to have that first down play over that he had after the fumble with the momentum he tried to go for the big play alabama by the defense stopped it alone just by the call of the defense all-out charge 12 minutes and 40 seconds to play in the football game [Applause] first down to the 45. lewis has time now he's going to run out of time 93 quincy williams [Applause] well if you got that long time to go hunting if you're if you're good at your trades you're going to get your quarry and that's exactly what quincy finally did for what time lewis has been sacked i think the key here is that the auburn defensive staff told me yesterday we want to see if lewis will really stay in the pocket he's a good runner we want to see if he has that pocket discipline that he has to have so they just kind of cautioned their rush a little bit let lewis start running around and williams makes the great play for the sack losses back to the 37 second down about 18. run a draw nothing doing ben thomas jumps all over joe carter and dow altman the all southeastern conference nose guard made a sensational play flipping the center's block and coming over and stopping the draw play carter shaken up a little bit he's going to have to leave the game and kerry goude will come back in auburn leading 23-20 and it's beginning to rain keith raining quite hard now just about three minutes ago started to come down and it's growing progressively harder and now that once again our flags indicate that auburn has the wind at its back it's turned around and lewis back to throw which one to the sidelines in the pass is incomplete thornton chandler had it right at his hands and dropped it well the completion would have been short of a first down chandler was crossing over auburn conceding the short yardage lewis was right on the target now you can see the flag has reversed this field the win is now coming behind the auburn team from left to right is a piece of real luck well you got to have a little plan and you knew that the front was going to stop it malcolm simmons kicked no was terry sanders doing the kicking it was sanders kicking nuts [Applause] don't know why sanders kicked the time before keith i guess he lost some confidence with simmons 10 46 to play on the change of possession the rain is now coming down in turrets sheets of it tumbling out of that thunderstorm that finally got to town miserable right now my goodness from the 27 first down for auburn they lead 23-20 10 46 to play in the game pitch goes to bo jackson tries to slash it over the left side and does to the 30. alban has gone into a goal-line alignment two tight ends no flankers you know what the purpose is we're going to try to keep the ball on the ground and keep the clock running control that clock [Music] [Applause] inside with the play to aj aj keeps his feet alive and works his way to about the 35 but he had both arms wrapped around the ball keith it must be a penalty the clock uh yes it is officials have stopped the clock somewhere in the middle of that melee and alabama's backing up some type of spacecraft and it was twisting and turning it was a 15-yard penalty against alabama five yards five yards and first down that's right look at that range let's see aj you can see them authority the fullback has the ball it was kind of a trap play a finesse play trying to pop the line you can see the face mask of the nose guard guys left hand right on the mask twisted just enough to get the pin and the first down up at the 40. campbell trying to keep it and get outside is tripped up look like kurt jarvis a freshman playing nose guard for alabama reached and then grabbed his leg and the clock shows 9 40 to play in the game and a three point lead for auburn if the rain continues at this pace you would have to say that auburn has advantage not only with their style of play but leading by three points if you ever want the rain to come down it's when you're ahead not behind it's just getting harder too i don't think it's possible to rain that hard part [Applause] jackson kicks his head down and goes under the stack and gets a couple of yards on it so it's going to bring up third down keith in this stadium last night that had the state high school championship game i was this with pat dye this morning i said pat did you have a nice day yesterday said i went to see three parents in different homes for prospects then came the football game last night college coaches got a lot of pressure on him he also saw 27 fumbles [Applause] it rained about like this last night the problem is going to be snapping for the kick and getting the ball to the kicker third down and eight campbell on an option turns it upfield and breaks it then became a lot of bounds at the alabama 38. that i would tell you that randy campbell doesn't throw very beautifully he doesn't run all that fast but all he does is deep intangible here he takes it apart himself alabama's going to make him keep the ball on the option play he shows that he has good judgment there's the end trying to take the pitch and king couldn't make the play as campbell had just enough speed to go in and back out for the first half watch the wide receivers block again number one wood this is a third key block blocking right now thomas the strong safety gets up right in the under the shoulder pads and keeps them out of the play and it is raining we can barely see across the stadium it's raining so hard this is bo jackson missed by one but vote for the second and virtually no gain on the play alabama is back up into a goal line defense obviously they know what the strategy is going to be from auburn so alabama has nine men on the line of scrimmage and two safe is right up close as we look at the brain coming down goodness keith you're right it's gonna be flooded before long yep i told you to get the oars in the bathtub and you couldn't do it and we haven't seen a football game called because of bad weather yep all-star game 1976. in chicago that's right tim jesse replaces bo jackson now ron middleton number 87 is the second tied in in the game age of the fullback with it and he's knocked down around the 35. that'll bring up third and long for auburn and seven minutes 35 seconds the rain is working against uh alabama right now and so is the clock keith the water is now standing on the field it's going to be covered before too much longer [Applause] third down and seven ball has given off to lionel james and he's struck right at the 35 by kurt jarvis and it brings up fourth down randy edwards number 96 the right defensive tackle short yardage he should be penetrating he gets and just swims right through as the turn that we use and coaching inside the offensive left tackle wallace and comes in and makes the play on james so it's fourth down and still seven it's gonna be interesting to see if that guy is going to punt the ball whether he can or not they've called a time-out and they charge it to albert so six minutes and 34 seconds now the clock's still running but auburn's called a timeout so they they lost about five seconds on i don't i'm startled by what i'm seeing it'll be a 51-yard field goal try under the worst conditions you can possibly imagine the wind is at his back but you've got to snap it keith you've got though they haven't been able to do it twice already twice that's right on two other cages this ball game they couldn't operate as a team though snapper holder and kicker now he's going to that's the best decision yes it is i would have kicked every time i think most coaches would i don't know what pat was trying to do there but uh he came back and decided to go ahead and punt the ball our producer chuck silence said he was listening to him louis colbert well now the snap that's the key you tell your puddle catch the ball don't worry about kicking for catching over get off alabama with a big rush oh he just got it he just barely got it out of there and he splashes it out of bounds at the five he's a good one at it he's been doing it uh throughout his career and he hit it only 29 yards but think about the efficiency of it under these weather conditions with the rain pelting down the wind in their face and alabama's got the ball at their own five and trailing by three keith look how many alabama why shirts are right on top he got the ball up high which is what you want to do when you get a rush in a situation like this all you want to do is kick it high get it off and he's worked on this and of what we call a wet ball drill he's had this in practice in fact dad told them to did it last thursday they snapped the ball with mud and water all over expecting the rain so when they get in this condition did they execute it and they did you've got six and a half minutes to play alabama's 95 yards away from the auburn goal line and they're trailing by three points 23-20 it's amazing how many people are still in the stands well the people in this part of the country love their college football birmingham's one of the very great college towns in america i think i just saw my first lightning heath i saw the reflection some just a few minutes ago coming back over our shoulder [Music] [Applause] auburn defenses all we've got to do is contain play the responsibility not get excited and neglect what their assignments are and they'll keep alabama in the pocket don't let walter lewis get outside and get the big play alabama must come out and decide whether they're going to open up and throw the ball even with this much rain or whether they're going to try to run it i doubt if they will now they're ready to go as they get a fresh ball on the field it's virtually impossible to keep it fresh ricky moore is the lone remaining back now as they send joey jones in motion and this will stop them i think somebody might have moved was it that the alabama team couldn't quite wait for the snap count and jump the head up oh no it was encouragement offside by auburn they're awfully close in there watch number number jumping right off and he's in that uh neutral zone and makes contact oh that's a break for alabama first and five means a lot at this under these conditions uh that deep in your own territory and trailing in a ball game we've been sitting on six and a half minutes now for quite a while auburn has a five-man front defensively they give the ball to ricky moore and his [Applause] root strength on the part of ricky is good for two yards so it'll be second down in about three doug smith the defensive play for auburn and the clock is running now auburn is staying in their basic defense what allowments that they've played all year they do not have the nickel in the ball game right now four linebackers three downline which is ranked 12th in the nation against the rush if auburn wins this game they win the sec title outright if they lose it they share it with alabama and virgil second down three lewis rolling it out to the right lobs it up field it's intercepted picked off by vic beasley and beasley comes back to the 11. well walter lewis has played a great ball game and deserves a great deal of credit the reigns came on and when he rolled out to throw the ball it slipped and goes high and beasley the safety man lays back and bites the throw now let's watch it from the end zone it's going to be a bootleg meaning backs to the right fake to the left and lewis is back on his goal line and he slipped the ball stepped right out of his hand it's the number 81 chandler but beasley comes up now the smart thing that beasley does even though he's going to try to score protect the ball don't give it back protect that football you can see he's got it wrapped up real good bends over and protects it doesn't want to turn it over enormous break for auburn at 5 39 to play in the game and it's randy campbell the quarterback keeping to about the seven for a pickup of four rain is not quite as hard as it was but it's still hard enough to drown speaker keith alabama offensive line has done their job for him with pat harrington all-conference number 76 and david jordan the left guard all accomplished both last year and this this year and jackson of course having a sensational game [Applause] that's tommy agee with the ball no they take it outside with it and fumble it and alabama's going to come up with it agee had it and the ball squirted out i couldn't tell whether he really had it or whether campbell tried to take it away and give it outside but the ball came flying out of his grasp and alabama recovers it's randy edwards ages just the freshman the option play was going right over the left guard david david jordan the all-conference blocker but asia did not print next of all and he pops out and you've got 504 to play in the football game and alabama gets the ball back at their seventh the second fumble for aeg one right before the half that didn't cause carbon anything 23-20 auburn they won last year 23-22 to break that 10-game alabama winning string a long looping pass downfield and joey jones can't run it down and now it looks like the wind has turned around one more time it's sort of favoring alabama but it would appear that because walter lewis threw that ball keith let's see six about 55 or 60 yards down the field now the auburn defensive uh cornerbacks were playing way too tight for this situation they were up very tight playing the receivers very close they should deepen up and i think and give them to concede the short pass and not let them get behind warren and david king and the two that have got the tough responsibility second down and ten alabama from their own seven pitch goes to ricky moore moore stretching along is hit right along the line of scrimmage by greg carr number 54. number 27 david king also coming up on the play once he saw that running back get outside king came like a bullet well king is an all southeastern conference defensive back last year and this really aggressive player likes to come up and tackle an excellent tackle number 54 greg carr the all-conference linebacker leads the team in fact it is third down call it nine ball is near the eight lewis back down the middle incomplete there was an all-american collision downfield as jesse bendross and jimmy warren ran together and vindross has still not caught a ball in this game this is the post route the pass was thrown and i think beautifully by by lewis watch right in between the linebacker and the quarterback warren and bendross took his eyes off it hit him on the left hip should have made the play lewis is now 5 out of 20 for 61 yards and terry sanders is in the punt alban does not put a safe demand back and sanders doesn't get much of it kind of squibs it up field and it is so wet now the ball just hits like an old soft turnip and dies right there 404 to play 23-20 albert 404 to play still rain coming down in sheets here at legion field in birmingham alabama the weather was pretty good until we hit the early going of the final quarter actually with about 10 minutes to play in the game down it came randy campbell gives to lionel james fault on the ball back on the 40. this possession started about where the loss is four yards well lionel james took his eyes off the ball the pitch was back in perfect uh order and uh james was looking to see where he could cut and just dropped it i don't understand why the clock wasn't wrong i guess they stopped it to dry off the ball campbell keeps it turns it in the middle and goes down about the 38th so they're looking at third down and about 12 now alabama's timeouts let's see they have one left auburn has one left alabama defense other than a couple of big plays and i think keith have done an outstanding job jackson on individual effort two long runs the only two touchdowns that they've given up played very well and they've got to stop them here they're really penetrating and blitzing third and 12 it's campbell getting loose on the option and they get him short of the first half randy he got around the corner in pretty good shape and then he got ankle deep in water over there and couldn't make a cut back inside and they've stopped him about three yards short of the first down it was sammy hood who made the play i would predict that pat dye will run the football on this down not risk a punt but run the football or at least do something to keep the ball on the ground and use up more seconds on the clock which is the enemy right now of the alabama team coming up on two and a half minutes to play alabama with only one timeout remaining and they're going to take it right now auburn auburn so auburn will have no timeouts remaining at two minutes and 32 seconds to play in the game and the tigers leading by just three points scoreboard is in their favor and they apparently are going to run the football here because alabama has only one timeout remaining and probably would be reluctant to spend it until they get farther down the clock but right now the chore is to get the ball away from auburn it is fourth and three and it's beautiful throwing that's going to get flagged chris woods ran up the back of the alabama defender now was the alabama man blocking him sammy hood keith has an offensive interference if his offensive interference is a 15-yard penalty and loss of down which means he'll lose the ball out to the 45-yard line and give alabama a chance [Applause] johnny cook the referee indicating that it's going to go that way oh that's a tough break against auburn is going to really put their defense to the test good call keith offensive interference against chris wood he ran right up the back of sammy hood well we talked about it during the year that the offensive man's responsibility is to miss dodge the defensive man now you can see it's a 15-yard penalty loss of down and alabama ain't dead yet so it's first down obviously johnny's equipment is wet sorting out on him two minutes and 26 seconds to play in the ball game you see the collision there the offensive man went right up the back of the defensive end [Music] if i can just figure out where the football is it's on the 44. [Music] what looked like a virtually impossible situation for alabama now comes to a possibility it's not a bach probability start with 2 26 to play in the ball game and lewis back to throw can't get it away batted down at the line of scrimmage might have been donnie humphrey that slapped it away number 79. humphrey made all southeastern conference in 1981 number 79 let's watch the bottom of your screen was redshirted last year with an injury couldn't play but he does a great thing he jumps just at the time and knocks it down with his right hand number 79. that's great pass defense that's the kind the coaches like the ball never gets away from the line of scrimmage second down 10. run it carrying it is perry good and he goes for a first down as he reaches the auburn 45 and the clock shows two minutes and 10 seconds to play in the game we must remember that auburn is only leading about three points i hope i read it right field goal would would still give auburn an outright championship if they tied so i think alabama would go for the touchdown and sustain the field goal first all in the auburn 45 walter lewis a little quick one over the middle it is slapped away and intercepted by vic beasley he was intended for preston gothard slapped away and into the arms of vic beasley with his second interception of the day just a tremendous effort by the safety man leaving his feet as the ball was deflected and scooping it off of the turf for the interception another big play you can see the tight end number 86 preston gotham is wide open the ball is right on the target all he has to do is look it in but campbell tommy number nine knocks it away now watch this effort powell excuse me beasley makes a great effort and comes in up within a statute and alabama now three turnovers in the football game auburn with two time remaining one minute 53 seconds auburn has the ball and a three-point lead again all you need to know really one minute and 53 seconds to play in the football game a three-point lead auburn vic beasley second interception has given the tigers the ball at their own 32 alabama with one time out to play with ball goes to beau jackson picks his way through the crowd gets it across the 35 to the 36th o jackson has had the biggest day of his career and the most valuable players in today's ball game the chevrolet mvps for alabama defensive tackle randy edwards he's been a stalwart defensive warrior for the tide bo jackson well he carried 20 times for 255 yards two touchdowns auburn and alabama each received from chevrolet a thousand dollars for their general academic scholarship funds they're gonna still have to give it up if they don't make a first down keith it will come right down to the to the very last 10 or 15 seconds before they have to punt the ball if they were much closer back to their own goal line they would give them a safety rather than punt it but right here i think they would go ahead and punt it that may slam the door randy campbell one more time for the war eagles the option play is still the toughest to defend in football is we look at ray perkins and now the auburn staff feeling victory right within their grasp now they can run the clock out without snapping the ball if they want to they can fall on it and use the 25 seconds between plays and the ball game will be over and auburn will be the champions outright what a great year for pat dye and his team no timeouts remaining for either team for that matter and they just snap the ball and uh get the clock rolling and they'll be just as deliberate as they possibly can for the auburn tigers a record of 9-1 on the season their only loss was to the powerful texas longhorns in the second game of the season and it happened down at over but since that time they rolled off a succession of victory it's been a big day for a lot of people vic beasley with two pass interceptions for tommy powell who has played very well in the secondary as a freshman beasley is a junior we've got an offside call against alabama so that's five yards to bring a first down and five that did however stop the clock at 110 to play in the game but they started back keith on penalties now in college right so they wind the clock down i must say that both coaching staff have done a tremendous job the alabama offensive scheme to take advantage of the strong auburn defense was outstanding adding the option play and making big yardage on it go on to play michigan in the sugar bowl january 2nd in the evening here on abc television alabama will go out to the sun bowl to play smu and now the clock is rolling again they've got to get one more snap off and so in their first meeting pat dye has bested ray perkins by a score of 23-20 the outcome of the game at this juncture is academic pat james told me this morning he said frank we just kept shooting told me this morning all we've done is just turn and turn and the cream has come to the top this year outstanding leadership in this second half they asserted themselves much better than they did in the first half of this ball game and they have just won their second successive victory over the crimson tide of alabama they won a year ago 23-20 they win in 1983 by a score of 23-20 and it is the first southeastern conference championship for the auburn tigers since 1957. that dog got his conventional ride off the field over to the vesting coach and he gets down to shake hands with ray perkins they will be battling each other for many many years well i don't know what else you could want out of an old traditional match-up to end the college football season we had a marvelous football game bad weather notwithstanding it went right down to the final minute before it became decisive we were hit by a fierce storm in the fourth quarter it is still raining alabama probably can feel it as they go to their locker room auburn no way they're somewhere above the clouds right now and they should be keith it's been an outstanding season for them so auburn the sec champions for 1983. well 23 points has been a magic number for the auburn tigers they won by with 23 points by a point a year ago they win by three today with 23. keith we saw a great inspired effort by both teams played very well in those circumstances emotional in every sense of the word cool stadium when the bad weather hit a lot of folks left early to go home or find some more secure shelter it is still raining but it appears that particular storm has sort of moved beyond legion field thank goodness [Applause] and so the game the season is done for 1983 keith jackson frank royals tim brandt and all of our other guys jim lampley and jack whitaker and vino cook down with us to enjoy this wrap-up of this football season the executive producer of abc sports is rue coverage of today's game was produced by chuck howard directed by andy sedaris our technical director john allen our associate director garland pete our statistician dave bernsen and our spotter todd berry ncaa college football auburn alabama brought to you by the u.s armed forces it is a great place to start and once again our final score from birmingham auburn 23 alabama 20. the blip provided by the goodyear tire and rubber company travel arrangements made through promotional fee paid by united airlines the official airlines of the 1984 la olympic games and proud sponsors of the united states olympic team this has been a presentation of abc sports recognized around the world as the leader in sports television seek up in birmingham today there all seem to be classics lately don great football game the 1983 iron bowl was all if not more than what most expected in birmingham today powerful auburn outfought a determined bunch of crimson tiders as well as a fourth quarter downpour to sneak by alabama 23-20 the first quarter went scoreless but boy was the second exciting second play after a miss bama field goal bull jackson hits the middle of the line and finds nothing then on great individual left he bolts outside and heads toward the end zone it'll go 69 yards for an auburn touchdown tigers take the lead 7-0 but alabama came right back driving 84 yards walter lewis hits joey jones from 20 yards away to tie the game at seven later in the second auburn drives feet but can't punch it in al del greco makes it 10-7 auburn with his 25-yard field goal alabama then drives right back down the field to take the lead lewis to a wide open joe carter made it 14-10 tied then after an auburn fumble alabama had one last chance to score right before half but van tiffen missed this 43 yarder against the win third quarter now auburn leading 16-14 after two del greco field goals ricky moore breaks through the stacked auburn line and rambles 57 yards for a touchdown a try for two failed it was 20-16 bama but auburn bounced right back first play after the kickoff bo jackson breaks outside he'll tightrope the sidelines and outrace everybody for a 71-yard touchdown 256 yards rushing on the day for bo auburn's back in the lead 23-20 then it's on to the fourth quarter when torrential reigns hit legion field it stymied both attacks auburn threatened several times but couldn't score alabama finally got rolling late moving into scoring position with two minutes left but lewis's pass here is off the hands of preston gothard and scooped up by victor beasley for an auburn interception the tigers then ran off the clock and claimed their first outright sec championship in 26 years by beating alabama 23-20 and elsewhere [Music] [Music] oh [Music] it's been a meaningful year all of you know how it started on that hot august day i think it's made better men out of all of us i hope it has the auburn football review with coach pat dye brought to you by the colonial company and by pepsicola and your local pepsicola bottler and by longs electronics tomorrow's electronics today and by sunnyland put a little sun on your bun and by federated guarantee life insurance for the ones you love welcome to the auburn football review unless you uh were in a cave or i guess a coma you know that auburn defeated alabama 23-20 yesterday in sideways rain at legion field but it was still a great victory phil i just uh you know i feel like we got a lot to be thankful for the season has been as much fun as anyone i've ever been around and our players have made it that way our coaching staff has done a great job and the leadership on the football team has been tremendous we just we haven't had any discipline problems they've worked they've done everything we've asked them to do and then some and they did the same thing last night you know we didn't play very well defensively the first half last night and came back second half and you know alabama i guess to six points and 100 yards and just so many things to be thankful for the entire auburn family the students faculty and administration open alumni and fans it's been a great season and one that will go down in the history books now and i think a game yesterday certainly established the fact that our football program is back in the competition i think so that was the eighth top 20 team you played yesterday well a lot of you know i'd like to congratulate coach perkins and alabama football team because they were certainly well prepared and you know they played as hard as you know they they could play and uh they probably deserve better but you know somebody's got to win somebody's got to lose and i'm just glad it was us okay let's go into that post-game dressing room [Music] [Music] i don't want you all to have anything any stronger than this i was started but i didn't i knew they weren't going to score i knew they were tired if anything they were going to win the ball game ben you never have smoked a cigar before that's true but you know this day like today you know you know like coach john said we didn't go out there you know we didn't we didn't do nothing the first half but we came back out the second half we showed a lot of class that you know that we didn't want to we didn't want to share the sec with nobody we went out there and put our goods on the line uh you must be a mudder that's the third down seven run in the driving rain did you uh did you just uh turn the windshield wipers on oh i guess they said they couldn't see on the sideline i could see pretty good where i was but all day their defensive ends have been running to the pitch in that certain way they left a big hole and and that one play cornelius didn't run me down that uh rain may have neutralized their speed again i think it did i really do and their defense had better team speed than any defensive played all year i was glad it rained now i'm just glad we won don't forget to take the rapper off that thing before you smoke it all right i knew they were gonna they couldn't throw the ball while i was running and they were gonna come right at us with a run and we knew that i think you got hit [Music] we had him one time and took some punch at him but you know he was still up and going so he had a great quarterback uh their offense is about as good as you think yeah they was the messengers a lot today you know they run a lot of different formation stuff and uh just trying to confuse it hey they're gonna show you guys how to eat oysters in new orleans [Music] the conditions about bad snaps it crossed our mind i'll tell you what did i say the last time i practiced in the writing was in spring trading in it that uh i had about three or four and boy i was thinking about the whole time it was a great win for us but i don't think none of the fellas here are accepting the win without greg i think you know they've been thinking about him a great deal and i just want to take this time to say hey greg the season was for you and i think we did a hell of a job for you and we just got one more to do go and it's michigan in the sugar bowl and hey buddy we're going to get that one for you i'm saying this for myself and your teammates huh legion field birmingham they came anyway even though the weather was very bad and the tornado warnings out but they came you know still i was concerned about the ball game and not so much it i'm just concerned everything in the papers has been said here's a great day for that young man right there eddie graham walked on at albany put him on scholarship returned opening kickoff his brothers were walking with alabama and the family are alabama fans for 50 years i guess well i tell you what i think we've got a few auburn pens in the family now is bo taking the pitch from randy lion gets his block bull makes a nice one and you can see how wet the turf is there it's really wet we had uh just uh mise execution on two field goals last night that very costly and now i really don't know what the problem was but we'll try to work it out between anabolic jeff jackson and doug king doug smith played outstanding last night it was a great play by quincy williams getting pressure and we got we got pressure too uh walter last night and it really hurt us on some of the traps and drawers that they did fine return here by lionel getting to the corner good blocking by the defense football team we decided to go with lionel last night rather than trey gaines trey is is just as good as lionel as far as catching the football we felt like that that lionel might have a little more better chance to give us a big run off of the punting game but and that was a good return right there but we couldn't move it in louis kobert great play right there by danny robinson downs the ball at the one yard line lewis coburn and brian delaney snapping on the punches ball laying on the ground now and but walter gets back on it and here's a draw play that hurt us last night and i'm going to tell you what folks alabama people have got a lot of thrills coming from that guy right there because he is truly a great running back freshman uh terry carey good that's got great speed and just vision and just a very talented player you're right about that walter did not find play by pressure and we of course we keep him in the pocket and then thomas comes up with the uh sack and again as carrie good you can see him he's got great acceleration uh i tell you he is he's uh he is just watching and that guy he's got some ability because that one right there is a big horse too that can play then thomas makes a play but you know the second half we came back and we we shut down their running game pretty good uh great play by john bailey and donnie humphrey and gerald roberson back there van tiffen that took him out of field goal range right there that was that might have been the biggest play in the ball game you never know which one's going to win the game for you and that one could have very well been the one that did it 48 yard earth there he missed watch this one here it is it's a great play by bo alabama does a great job of stopping the sweep both versus the field comes back and randy campbell gets a key block on it along with chris woods right there to get boring to the end zone we'll see it again and watch campbell he'll just come here with a block right and he blocks stan gay right there and set both free and then of course chris wood is hustling and outruns roberson and makes the last block to get him in the end zone and that put us ahead seven to nothing alabama comes right back it doesn't take them long they've got great talent on offense and we had our kicking game i was just very very if we take out those two field goal plays our kicking game was just out of this world yesterday here comes good again it was something it was the third one play the uh alabama's kicking game had been some phases of it had been great all year long i think they had scored four times on on defense on the kicking game here's walter now his way he's very dangerous stand back and we didn't get good pressure on him then we had to we had a five-man rush playing man coverage and if you've got to make him get put the ball up quicker than that and and we didn't and joy jones got a loose you can't cover him that long and he got open for the touchdown we come right back man i believe we're going to take it down and kick the field goal as going to clayton and come back and hand it off the bow and we didn't put in a lot new that was a play there we hadn't run a lot all year long the count of dive bows coming back on a little short side sweep and good teams don't usually put in much do that no they don't alabama didn't need them they did they had a great game plan for us and and executed very well and it's one of the three great field goals by del greco i tell you there was some great football players on both sides of football field out there last night phil alabama's very talented football team and that young freshman played i thought extremely well and just great coverage by jimmy warren and still i am so proud of bobby wallace the coaches of secondary and and our young secondary that none of them had played before this year and last night i probably was their finest hour i think jeff jackson jeff jackson is playing great football right now against georgia he was out of this world last night he was again had a great night tackled by alvin briggs a little pressure from down at greenville alabama and alvin played his played a big role in last night's game he was our nickel back i guess you won't say it comes in and we have a busted assignment on coverage there and looks like he's out to practice early and of course lewis gets in the football and alabama goes out 14 to 10. we'll be back in just a minute now a word from auburn university quality education is a continuing need in the information age through the auburn generations fund the university will be able to provide the faculty and facilities necessary for economic growth it doesn't matter if you're orbiting the earth in the space shuttle or if you're on your way to the moon it's common sense that pays off every day and that's what auburn provides there may be some who think the price of higher education is too high but it has been said and truthfully i think if you think education is expensive try ignorance let's meet the auburn coaching staff who have worked so hard and so effectively you know they did a great job of coaching this year but it started long before this year still and we've been so fortunate to keep them together as they have neil callaway coaches our offensive line along with james daniels they're two great ones i'm talking about great people in addition to being great coaches bobby wallace had to be a big night for bobby last night in his secondary coach wayne boat played busted east carolina i wish i could get wayne going to die wayne hall coaches the defensive line had three old conference players did a great job larry blackman played it album coaches our wide receivers and just super jack crowe coordinates uh offense coaches of quarterbacks bud casey coaches are running backs coaches bow and line there's a super job in every area frank orgel coaches are linebackers joe wood coaches of defensive ends joe and and james both came out of high school right there in georgia tim styles has been at auburn for a while and coaches of scout teams and our scout teams done a great job for us all year long it's just been very instrumental in the success we've had because we've had such a good picture in practice okay down 14 10 at the half let's uh get back out there in the great auburn band who said our band was outstanding again they went today they got under the stands before the rain came because if you've ever been wet in a pure wool uniform i don't know anything about that i know how it feels to get wet in a cotton shirt and tie but our band has done a super job for us all year long and dr walls and the members of his team certainly need to be congratulated they got a lot of class to auburn football and they are fans they are real first play right there i think is doug smith and doug again the key first stop in the first three times the momentum in the third quarter right after the half is so important and great play right there by doug smith winston williams is out there greg call comes in for a cleanup along with donnie humphrey and ben thomas that was third and one too big big play gets us the ball back and and we have a chance to make something happen here beau is running slipping and dodging and dunking and gaining yards second and seven at the 44. randy's calling the plays here's a fine run by lionel and that's bo's little big brother and let's have a just one of the finest relationships you've ever seen this way it's randy on a fine plate of chris woods when it wasn't raining the wind was swirling all day i'm sure it may was and chris woods had a great career at uh auburn here comes bow on a crucial third and eight situation picks up for first down keeps the drive alive breaks a tackle here he's just so strong and just unbelievable we can't get it in and del greco allen comes in and kicks a field goal and makes it 13 to 14. 26 yarder it would come back on defense again and it's a great series for us right here great coverage on george owns by david king on the bootleg pass again pressure super effort right there cause fumbled by gerald robinson jr robertson big sophomore defensive ends are great players doug smith doug doug looks a lot meaner than he really is because he's just a big old fine human being that is easy going and he's a lot meaner than he is too gentle as he can be alabama does a great job down close to the goal line we end up kicking another field goal and go ahead 16 to 14. 34 yards are there been nice there we come back on on defense again and again as jeff jackson and victor beasley victor beasley had a great night last night and lightning strikes here they run a handoff and a big pullback ricky moore goes for 60 yards or 50 yards or whatever it was this is a big play in the ball game right here now they go for two and good pressure by doug smith and the game is is uh 22 to 16. lewis the eddie graham again on the kickoff return gets it out to the 30. bo jackson 71 yards on the first play from scrimmage and that's what you call answering the call right there how many times has auburn answered a big touchdown i don't know but that guy right there is fine blocked by lionel as as i said earlier uh bo's little big brother and you can't see it in the film right here but chris wood block number 28 right there and kept him from getting in position to make the play i mean with a great great effort backside the scoring is over doug smith again but the thrills aren't that's right this still you can see it's going to be scratching and biting on both sides right there walter fumbles and and this is a big play by alabama we had the ball in great field position take it in and get another one we run the reverse we are played by robinson and and cornelius bennett fourth quarter down to kick a field goal and that's another one of our mishandled kicking situations here we're getting pressure on lewis get to him there's doug and quencher trips him up and that's a big play this part of all game right here this part of the game right here every play is a big play every down's a big down there's dow altman doug smith williams now the rains come third and seven right here this was a big play to run the clock this is one of the new plays we put in to put any game right here it was a off of our trips formation we literally ran a little uh counter trap and a trap option and then ran a field to take randy and had it wall off his side and and he picked up a key first down to control the ball and all we're doing right now is raining like it is we're just trying not to turn the football over had the decision to make there alabama comes with good pressure lewis cobra kicks the ball out of bounds on the five yards that's a great short something and great he has had a fine year and brian delaney's snapping is how to find you fine play right there by doug smith again i don't know how many big plays doug came up with last night you can see in that that very well right there could have been doug smith because that intersection like the way victor protects the ball victor beasley had his greatest night last night and he couldn't come in a better time the last two ball games against georgia and alabama doug smith has has been truly a genuine all-american football player and of course we come back in the ball slick and we form it back to alabama and they got new life ricky moore in the sweep comes back greg carr john daly dirk smith 39 pressure pressure great hit lick right there by jimmy warren drops the ball loose from benderos incomplete pass we come back on offense and this is strictly a fool and play and uh sammy hood their little cornerback did a great job of playing the thing and chris got offensive pass on appearance and really a big play for alabama because they lost their down in 15-yard penalty but we come back and you can see him scratching him back he knocked that one down when she got to lewis and and donny hunter batted the ball down and there's jeff jackson on another tackle i think jeff had 13 or 14 is a tommy powell right here knocks a ball loose and victor beasley comes up with it and it's all over now but they're shouting and singing and because we've got enough time to run the clock out i believe do we have to make one first thing uh you have to make one first down randy runs uh runs ten yards uh to make a progress okay we make one first down and and then we can run the clock out and you can see it that uh it's down there we've made a first down i think alabama was penalized one time five yards and then but it's a countdown situation now and it's a great day for for auburn and you know i i think that uh playing alabama and of course it's a it's a you know it's a family affair and was a great win for us there's no question but i really think that uh that winning the conference championship outright probably meant more to us than beating alabama yesterday you're right we'll be back in just a minute have just a minute just let me say uh how great it's been to work with you and uh to congratulate our folks around here on a good job this year well they have done a just absolutely outstanding job producing the show bill and you know anybody that can take it and make you and i look good they got to do a great job i'd like to thank colonial bank longs electronics pepsi cola snapple lawn mowers and nike shoes phil you know i a year ago i looked at all the different shoe companies came in and presented us with a with a package and and nike shoes we felt like was far and above better than any other shoe that was being used as far as football and what we're using them for and we appreciate that support again don't forget about the pga championship played at shoal creek next august uh mr hall thompson and it'll be a class show and a great uh event for the state of alabama we're looking forward to getting on the road recruiting and getting into homes and and seeing all you mamas and paupers and the outstanding athletes here in the state of alabama okay and we'll see you at the sugar bowl the auburn football review with coach pat dye has been brought to you by the colonial company and by pepsicola and your local pepsicola bottler and by longs electronics tomorrow's electronics today and by sunnyland put a little sun on your bun and by federated guarantee life insurance for the ones you love 25 pound speedster has been named just this afternoon to the associated press all-america squad he joins nebraska's mike rozier and quarterback steve young of byu in the backfield only other sec players named to the first team are florida's wilbur marshall at linebacker and tennessee's reggie white at defensive tackle the upi college football poll shows little change very few teams played as you know in the final weekend of the regular season so this is how they will rank going into the all-important bowl games obviously if nebraska can win if they can beat miami they will be the national champion but should they lose in texas beef georgia it will be the longhorns auburn's only chance at the national championship would be for those top two of course to lose miami with an impressive win over nebraska coupled with a texas loss could make a case but that appears to be about all the possibilities of a national champion looking at this three years to rebuild the auburn football program the 1983 season began with the entire starting backfield returning and expectations for alban's first southeastern conference title since 1957 running high and i think everybody who came in with my class we came to auburn because we wanted to go to auburn i don't think we were thinking about conference championships or national championships and when coach dye came in he instilled that and you know now something we really believe in auburn had not won a southeastern conference title in over 25 years but dye had garnered three outstanding recruiting classes you're talking about a little small country town where there's 18 000 students and all they got is each other and it in it it's a setting where there's a lot of warmth and close relationships between the student body and the players and each other and in the town and the community and it's just one big happy family but during summer workouts auburn lots a member of the family starting fullback greg pratt collapsed from heatstroke and the 1983 season was dedicated in his memory i've already spoke with our squad it's just a very sad time for all of us after an early loss to texas auburn won nine games in a row including seven against teams headed for bowls the regular season came to a close last weekend against arch rival alabama auburn prevailed 23-20 and has bound for the sugar bowl as a third-ranked team in the country for the outstanding job pat dye is done holding the team together and finishing the toughest schedule in the nation at 10-1 pat dye has been named the 1983 ncaa coach of the year and pat dye is with us here in our studios in atlanta we're building up the phone lines in just a moment first of all we'll be talking with pat dine for a few moments looking back at this season we talked to you august said you're playing the toughest schedule in the nation indeed it turned out that way you played what eight teams going to bowls well i guess michigan would make it nine right and but it was a difficult schedule we knew it was difficult going in and we started last spring and preparing for the schedule that we had from a mental standpoint and getting the red kid ready to play it i really don't think that our football team was on an emotional high but three times during the year i think we were on an emotional highway and played tennessee and knoxville coming off of texas loss i think we were emotionally high for florida and georgia i don't think we were emotionally high for alabama and that was kind of unusual but uh i don't think we were but they played well enough to win all year long another thing that we did that i thought was was very important to our football team was that with the kind of schedule we had playing the kind of teams that we were going to be playing our coaching staff did a great job with our players and working in practice to win the close games because we had lost to georgia and florida the year before we lost florida by one in in georgia by five points because we didn't win that close game at the end and we talked about it continuously and winning that close game at the end and as it turned out because we won the florida state game in the last two minutes we won it actually took the whole length of the field on offense and scored and came back and stopped florida state on defense to win it and then against florida they got their own side kick at the end and had a chance to win it we stopped them and of course the georgia game was won in the last seconds the alabama game was one at the end maryland game we came from behind at the end and won it so our football team matured and showed a lot of poise and confidence and got great senior leadership from a group of seniors that were not highly recruited coming out of high school i don't think that we probably we kind of measure how good they are by who recruits them and most of them were not recruited by georgia and alabama but during the course of four years they've worked and matured and developed into players and a talent that can play against anybody and it's been a lot of fun and to watch them grow and mature and see them come in in a frustrated state like we came into three years ago and uh turning to a championship football team has has really been something to be a part of you mentioned you were able to win these close games because of what you did in practice what do you do create pressure situation no not really we well you you talk about you talk about mistakes uh turnovers for instance penalties being able to execute under pressure and because our football team led the nation and fewest turnovers last year and i think we're second this year i believe michigan leads the team and leads the nation in fewest turnovers with 15 and we've got 16. so um we've not beaten ourselves a lot of that credit goes to randy kimmel a little quarterback he probably couldn't play for anybody else in the country but he has been a great player and a winner for us and a real leader for us but our running backs and the people that handle the football you know they're they're disciplined and don't turn it over you mentioned he couldn't play for anybody else in the country but he can play for you presumably because of the wishbone and your talented running backs correct well randy is a is a i don't mean he doesn't have any ability because he does have ability but he has he's not the biggest guy in the world weighs about 165 pounds and and doesn't have the most speed or the strongest arm but he's good enough to to do the things that we ask him to do and he is surrounded with some outstanding ability but the thing that makes randy special is when he steps in that huddle all 10 of the rest of the players are better because of his presence and that sets them apart from a lot of the rest of them well jackson had such an outstanding freshman year coming in there publicity great on the field great off the field but there were some problems she wasn't really happy or he had a hard time adjusting well you'll have to you have to understand bota to uh it wasn't that beau is a very i think a unique individual and and special he's not a bo bo only took one official visit when he was being recruited he was not a highly recruited athlete to start with so he wasn't spoiled by recruiting and he came to auburn he found a place where he could come and play early and he liked the players and the coaches and the atmosphere and i don't think he ever considered going anywhere else once he came down to visit and and uh so he had that going for him but he was still he's still he was still a mama's baby or mama's boy i should say because he certainly wasn't a baby and he had a very close and meaningful relationship with his mother and beau was exposed to a lot of things at the auburn that he wasn't exposed to in high school and you know he he had trouble dealing with it like all other freshmen do and uh i'm sure that uh anybody that goes through the things that a freshman does becomes frustrated and sometimes they don't know which way to turn and his his uh he's fixing to go home but a lot of them have gone home and come back and of course bo never never made it home he came back and he took his discipline from missing curfew and and came in and apologized to me and uh and i told him i said well it's not not something that we all don't think about i thought about it when i was playing i and uh there's not many that don't so you could relate to the markets the right situation right but not not really market to free i think it's entirely different because marcus dupree went completely out of the country beau is you know he's in state uh two hours from home and but beau is a very uh humble unselfish player i really believe that bo cares so much about his teammates that he would rather lionel james have the success that he's having rather than himself i think he's that kind of individual but at the same time he is a competitor this i think just beginning to realize what he can actually do on a football field and and what he can actually do for a team is for in terms of of winning a football team and going out and dominating a football game and and he's he's accepted that role now where a year ago i don't think he really understood that but this year in the big games that we had to win there's no question that from an emotional standpoint on the sideline uh he was a different player a different human being and and uh that that uh competitiveness and that ability to to get the most out of his his ability which is tremendous i think inspired our whole football team offensively and defensively and made all of us better made me a better coach made them better players and and and no question that he's got a tremendous future and i think that based on what he did this year he's certainly established himself as a genuine candidate for the heisman award in the years to come he's not a great football player but he's also drafted by a new york yankees and has plans to run in the olympics we may talk about him more in a moment but right now we're going to take a short break stay with us [Music] with our special guest auburn coach pat dye named the ncaa coach of the year after leading auburn to the 10-1 record we opened up our phone lines let's take the first call where are you calling from what's your question please from mr dodge parker california where it's about 48 degrees and rainy so that's sunny california today okay my question is uh mr dye uh you were at wyoming for a year and for people around the country that might not know uh what would you tell them about the level of football in the western athletic conference well i think it's i think it's good i think that you know they are handicapped somewhat with the population in that area you know there's only 450 000 people that live in the state of wyoming and they have to recruit the athletes outside of that area but it is pretty true throughout that conference of course brigham young has a tremendous program there and there's other strong programs in that conference because air force is doing a great job now and i thoroughly enjoyed my year out there and i never intended to to to leave after a year but i had the opportunity to come back to auburn but i think they do a great job of course it's you know it's a wide open conference they throw the football quite a bit the next calls from tallahassee florida home of florida state university one of your most thrilling wins this season go ahead you're on the air thanks sir uh coach i'd like to ask you to comment on the personnel match-ups between george and florida and i mean uh georgian texas in the uh well it'll be a great football game there's no no question about it both of them are very strong physical defensive football teams and i think texas is the most physical defensive team that we've played against uh since i've been at auburn or maybe ever they're just so strong and so fast you think about the defensive front but that secondary has tremendous ability also but i think georgia too is a great defensive football team and they make a lot of things happen i think georgia's kicking game is better and that could make a difference in the game i would i would give texas the edge as far as overall being a little better football team but george's kicking game may may even hit up if you get some help from your alma mater meaning the georgia i saw coach dooley last night and i told him i was pulling for him in the in the bowl game that's right do you think you have a chance for a national championship well if both of them lost i think we'd have a good argument for the national championship because of playing the kind of schedule we played i don't think anybody in the country can can say at the end of playing 12 games that we've played nine bowl teams and we have and it's been a lot of fun and i was a little cautious going into the season but it's been a rewarding year for our football team and we were a very young team and were not near as good when we played texas as we were later on in the year so about your phone lines where are you calling from what's your question please yeah it's money walter golf again i would like to congratulate coach stein his team on his season this year and i'd like to know if um do coach die i think this is his best team he ever coached walter i uh it's good to hear from you walter and i recruited to wyoming from virginia beach and and he is a great back at wyoming and has had an outstanding career there what i think is certainly the best football team that i've had as a head football coach or ever really because we with we have more ability more talent and it's a good cross section of seniors and juniors and sophomores the chemistry is right for the football team we have some positions on the team that are not great but they're winners and and it's been a good football team same kind of kids that we had at wyoming and they enjoy playing the game yeah also another stop at east carolina they surprised a few people rebuilding their program are they a top 20 team i don't think there's any question east carolina's did a tremendous job this year we pl we played florida state a week or so after they played east carolina and we played part of the week after they played east carolina so we got to see east carolina play both of those teams before we played them and and east carolina can play with anybody in the country and i'd say that if east carolina had played florida state florida and miami and greenville north carolina they'd probably won all three games east carolina's program is in a young stage and they're growing and they have a difficult time bringing the teams into greenville but they are a quality quality football team greenville north carolina is a great place to go to school and a great place to recruit to and we have a lot of friends there and and i think have have a a great future in football let's go back to our four lines next calls from atlanta go ahead yeah first thing i want to say is war eagle um i want a two-part question i want to know what you're going to do next year whether we're going to move from the wishbone to the i formation and what's your plans for brent fullwood next year well i think brent would probably control his own destiny in our program we have you know he's one of our running backs and he showed the ability this year to be a great back but we also have several other talented players to for him to compete with and to beat out we'll stay in the wishbone we thought about other formations but i think what we'll do is probably vary our formations a little more but we still think that making people get ready to play a three back offense and and the beer the option game is still hard to defend against and and gives us some uh ability that other teams don't have wishbone has kind of faded away a lot of places but not at all well it's it's been good to us and you know air force is running at the air force and they've done a great job with it and uh people think you got to have great personnel but i think just the opposite good coaching let's go to the next call this one's from pittsburgh pennsylvania go ahead you're on the air oh that's pittsburgh california i was calling uh the house coach to die what was this feeling going into the alabama game two years ago with all the hoopla and stick and coach bear bryant's record on the line well coach brian and i were very close friends and and i loved him and respected him very much it was a certainly an emotional football game for both sides it was one that we wanted to win very badly it was one that i don't know you remember or not but we were ahead actually in the fourth quarter and alabama came back to score two touchdowns and win it but it was i didn't have any feeling about it being his 315th win because he had beaten a lot of other folks to get to that point i think maybe he took a little special pride in it being open but uh it was uh we just happened to be there when history was created you know they had to lose a couple of games during the season for it to actually come against auburn but it was a lot of publicity and a lot of press involved in the thing and you know i think the way our football team played i think they probably gained respect rather than losing any in the ball game i'll take a short break we'll be right back with pat dye still with us [Music] our next call is from grand lake michigan go ahead you're on the air yes coach and i how do you compare the university of michigan football team coaching wise and team wise with the university of auburn well first of all i've been a fan of coach schembecker's ever since i can remember i've watched his teams play and has been impressed with the intensity in which you play the discipline and they've they've always kind of stood for the best in college football i like the fact that coach hembach believes in defense and running the football just like we do and they are outstanding football team again this year like they are every year it's not a matter of whether michigan is going to have a good football team every year it's just a matter of how good they're going to be and this year is no different they're not quite as big as some of the teams that we've played but they're very quick on defense and and get a lot of people around the football offensively they've got an outstanding offensive line and i think outstanding running backs at quarterback presents a lot of problems with his running ability and and throwing the football so it should be an interesting football game and one that we're certainly looking forward to going to a bowl game also keeping up a busy schedule of football throughout the entire season is it too much work for a kid trying to keep up his grades well you know i always made better grades during football season than than i did any other time during the year because you own more of a disciplined schedule and uh it just seemed to work out that way i think that uh the you when you get on a regular routine that uh you do better and i think all players have basically been that way but we the ones that are having problems academically at all and we keep them study halls so we know where they are all the time and they they seem to do well anyway with a tragedy at the beginning of the season with the passing way of greg pratt did you learn anything about conditioning that maybe you'll do next differently next year well i don't think it was what we did greg i think it was we all try to rationalize what caused it and so on and so forth that it it was something that that we'll never know that we've run the same conditioning for 10 years whatever we started it when i was coaching in alabama and we and it's a it's not that it's not that difficult physically to do it and uh it's so we have no i don't have any reason for for why it happened we'll look at it and but i don't i don't think we'll change it it's certainly going to be different next year when we do it and i may change it just for that one reason but not because of the severity of the test but i may change what we do i have i thought about it a little bit but i haven't dwelled on it but it i think the the passing of greg probably made all of us stronger and and better people because it makes you realize very quickly uh how precious life is and and uh how quickly it can be gone i don't think there's any we never mentioned it during the season but it was always there and i i think that uh the per the only time that i can remember the players talking about it openly was after the alabama game and you could tell that it's been there all year long but we certainly never used it as a motivating factor in our season we have to be proud of what the team accomplished being able to come back like this finish 10-1 possibly a shot at the national title in the sugar bowl good luck and thanks for being with us thank you very much bob kurtz will be back with a recap of this very busy sunday right after this

Channel: Temple Millsap

Views: 1,567

Keywords:

Id: TQ0amFolmRM

Length: 223min 58sec (13438 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 17 2021