The Craziest Day

It was one of the craziest football days anyone in Alabama can remember.

Alabama shocked Tennessee......and Auburn celebrated!

The year was 1990, and nothing in Tuscaloosa was going as planned. The year before, Alabama had shared the SEC championship with Auburn and Tennessee. 3 reasons for that optimism were running back Siran Stacy, wide receiver Craig Sanderson, and wide receiver Prince Wimbley. Together, they provided quarterback Gary Hollingsworth with all the tools he needed to light up scoreboards as they had the year before.

There was only one problem.

In the first couple of games, all three of them were lost for the season with knee injuries. The Crimson Tide’s running game, and most of its passing game, had evaporated. A 5-foot-7 freshman running back took over for Siran Stacy, and tight end Lamonde Russell was moved to receiver to help out.

Alabama lost its first 3 games, and things were looking bleak.

When Tennessee week arrived, the nation had written off this historic rivalry as an automatic win for the Volunteers. ESPN’s Lee Corso famously called Alabama “a high school team,” and the Tide fans, though angry, could only hope for a miracle.

Alabama did have one unlikely cheering for a Tide win. In 1990, the SEC had not yet split into divisions, so Auburn, Tennessee, and Florida were leading the race for the conference championship. Auburn needed Tennessee to lose the game.

The Crimson Tide may have suffered a depleted offense, but new head coach Gene Stallings and his defensive coordinator Bill Oliver had plenty to work with on the other side of the ball.

The third Saturday in October was a defensive struggle. Going into the final minutes of the game, each side had only managed 2 field goals. The 6 to 6 tie was about to be broken, as Tennessee lined up for what could have been the winning field goal.

On the Auburn campus, fans and tailgaters were not yet in the stadium because their game against Florida State was still several hours away. People were huddled in groups around radios all over campus, hoping that something crazy would happen to prevent the seemingly inevitable Tennessee win.

It did.

Stacy Harrison blasted through the Tennessee line and blocked the field goal. The Neyland Stadium artificial turn allowed the ball to bounce...and bounce...and bounce...until Alabama’s Steve Webb outran everyone to the ball and recovered it. The ball had traveled so far on that hard turf, that Alabama was now in field goal range.

Cheers could be heard all around Auburn’s Jordan Hare Stadium, but it was about to get much louder.

When All-American kicker Phillip Doyle’s kick sailed into the autumn air of the Smokey Mountains and through the uprights, most of the 100,000 people in Neyland Stadium stood in stunned silence. The few thousand in crimson, along with the players in white uniforms running around on the field, had an unforgettable time.

One person standing in the Jordan Hare parking lot that day, waiting for the Auburn-Florida State game, said that it was probably the only time in Auburn history that an Alabama victory was cheered so loudly.

It’s just another reason why there is nothing else quite like SEC football.

Roll Tide!!