TV Lineup and Lines Below

Time Out
by Dan Rutledge

You know, it’s sort of fitting that Week No. 13 of the Southeastern Conference 2009 football season is also Grudge Match Week — where in-state or traditional rivals get together. You know, the “you can throw the record books out on this one” kind of games where a win for one team can salvage a losing season, send the fans home into the long dreary night of no-football with happy memories with which to sustain them.

There are seven SEC games on a long-Thanksgiving Week schedule that begins with one game Friday and has a full slate on Saturday. Four of the seven are league encounters and all of the games are of the traditional type.

Of course, the biggest game of the week, the annual Iron Bowl, where Alabama and Auburn battle to decide state bragging rights for the upcoming year, leads off the action, set for Friday afternoon. And you can say that this year’s edition is special … OK, OK, you are right … every Iron Bowl is special, but for different reasons each time around. (Maybe something will happen this year to inspire a new name for the game, since it hasn’t really been the Iron Bowl since leaving Legend Field in Birmingham).

After snapping a six-year AU winning streak last season, Alabama will be going for a winning streak of its own … as well as stopping a couple of more trends that have been going Auburn’s way. The Tigers have won the past four games on The Plains. And Alabama head coach Nick Saban would love to see a personal losing string come to an end. Saban has never won a game at Auburn, going 0-3 there when at LSU.

Auburn fans also have special reasons to crave a victory. This year mark’s the 20th anniversary of the first-ever Iron Bowl to be played in Auburn — something that took years of effort and legal action to bring about and a feat that was so significant that legendary AU coach Pat Dye compared changing the venue from Legion Field in Birmingham, the neutral site where the game had been played since resuming in 1948 after a 41-year hiatus, to Auburn to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Auburn won that one 30-20 and would more than love to celebrate the anniversary with an upset victory.

The Crimson Tide comes into the game an almost two-touchdown favorite (Line: Alabama by 13). And through the years it has been rare in Iron Bowl history for either team to be a double-digit favorite. But as legendary Alabama coach Bear Bryant would tell you, which team is favored by what odds doesn’t mean a thing and if you go into any game believing you are two touchdowns better than the other squad, you’re heading for trouble. Bryant’s Bama teams defeated Auburn 19 times in 25 meetings.

The story goes that when Bryant was being interviewed for the Alabama job, he was asked, “Do you think you can beat Auburn?” Bear answered, “I know I can” and had the job. With AD Mal Moore actually being one of “Bear’s Boys,” I’m sure the question came up when he and current head coach Saban had their initial discussions. Saban is off to a good start and can only make his stature larger with a second straight Iron Bowl win.

Since the first Iron Bowl in 1893, played at Lakeview Park in Birmingham, this rivalry has truly been one of those “throw out the record books” games. Other grid “experts” have written in recent weeks how that particular cliché doesn’t hold true where the Iron Bowl is concerned, pointing out that in more times than not, the favored team has won. True – but although the upsets have been fairly rare, when they happened, they have been memorable.

This year not only marks the 20th anniversary of the first Iron Bowl played in Auburn, it is also the 25th anniversary of one of the most stunning upsets in the game’s history. In 1984 Ray Perkins’ Alabama squad was just 4-6 when it knocked off an Auburn team needing just one more win to punch its ticket to the Sugar Bowl by a 17-15 score in the famous (or infamous, according to your point of view) Wrong Way Bo game. And the last time Alabama was a two-TD favorite (actually14 points), Auburn pulled off one of the biggest upsets in the history of the game.

In fact, I was there on the sidelines that day in 1972 to witness what has become known as the Punt, Bama, Punt game. I watched in shock as the No, 2-ranked Tide dominated most of the way, holding a 16-point edge with less than 10 minutes to play. After an Auburn field goal cut the margin to 16-3, Bama played conservative with the lead. The Tide kept it on the ground to eat up time, then was going to play safe and punt the pall away and depend on its great defense.

But AU’s Bill Newton unbelievably blocked two straight punts and David Langer scooped up the ball each time and returned them for touchdowns of 25 and 20 yards. It was an unforgettable sight. The first block and return was amazing. But for it to happen again, with the same people involved, seemed at the time — and still seems — almost impossible. It is proof that fact is often stranger than fiction. So if it has happened once, it can happen again. As I found out that day in ’72, at the Iron Bowl, anything can happen.

But what probably will happen is that undefeated Alabama (11-0) will used its superior defense to throttle, or at least slow down, an Auburn offense that has been both hot and cold during the season. The Bama offense, led by Heisman Trophy vote leader Mark Ingram, will have a field day against an undermanned AU defense that will end up the season as one of the worst, statistically, in school history. So far this year the AU defense has given up more points overall and per game than any other Tiger team, breaking records set in 1976 and 1948, respectively. The Tiger “D” has allowed 359 yards per game and 27 ppg this season, offsetting the much ballyhooed improved offense.

Another reason that Auburn will have a tough time in this Iron Bowl – it’s the first one for new head coach Gene Chizik, who obviously doesn’t understand the importance of the game. Chizik called the game a “ferocious but ultimately respectful rivalry” in a recent speech. Chizik was the defensive coordinator at Auburn for three years previously and has been through three Iron Bowls. But as head coach, the man answerable to the fans for the success or failure of the Tigers against the Tide, he will soon find out that college football analyst Beano Cook may have said it best: “Alabama-Auburn is not just a rivalry. It’s Gettysburg South.”

It has been called the “nastiest rivalry” in college football. Alabamians align themselves on one side or the other from birth. I’ve personally seen couples break up, marriages fail, family members not talk for years; have seen many fights — and have heard and read about deaths — over the outcome.

This year a big Alabama win and a big game by its star running back and prime mover on offense could bring a major first for a proud program that has won so many national titles and considered one of the nation’s best for decades. Ingram is poised to be the first-ever player from the Crimson Tide to win the Heisman Trophy. Currently, Ingram is the vote leader for the honor and a big day on national TV in the Iron Bowl could win him a few more votes.

The six Saturday games include three conference outings — Tennessee (6-5) at Kentucky (7-5) (Line: Tennessee by 3), Ole Miss (8-3) at Mississippi State (4-7) (Line: Ole Miss by 7) in the annual Egg Bowl game for the Magnolia State championship and Arkansas (7-4) at LSU (8-3) (Line: LSU by 6).

The three non-conference grudge matchups include No. 1 ranked and undefeated (11-0) Florida hosting FSU (Line: Florida by 21), South Carolina (6-5) hosting state rival No. 15 Clemson (8-3) (Line: Clemson by 3) and the Georgia Bulldogs (6-5) traveling to Atlanta to take on No. 7 Georgia Tech (10-1) (Line: Ga. Tech by 9½).

WEEKEND TV LINEUP

They say something is “as American as apple pie.” Well, something that is also American through and through is Thanksgiving. And football has been part of the holiday tradition — joining turkey, dressing and overeating — since the days of the leather helmets.

It was 1935 when the Detroit Lions began playing their annual Thanksgiving Day game against the Chicago Bears. The newly-christened Lions (named the Portsmouth Spartans 1930-34) needed a gimmick to boost ticket sales in their first season in a new town and a holiday game seemed like a good idea at the time. It must have been a good one since it has been played every Thanksgiving since.

The colleges followed suit over the years, often scheduling big games on the holiday. One collegiate rivalry game that is always played on Thanksgiving is the Texas-Texas A&M battle This year it has extra significance with the Longhorns coming in at No. 3 nationally and already penciled in vs. the winner of the SEC championship game, Alabama or Florida, in the BCS national championship game. But like most rivalry games, records just aren’t as important as usual. Sometimes emotion takes the day. And playing at Texas Station in front of the A&M cadets is never an easy assignment. The Longhorn-Aggies battle kicks off this week’s long weekend TVschedule, set to begin at 8 p.m. Thursday night on ESPN.

This week, the Friday boob-tube grid lineup is almost as long as the Saturday one. So, following are the weekend schedules for each (except pay-for-view):

9:30 p.m.
Navy at Hawaii (ESPNU)