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WDTrey ::: Jul 23, 2007 ::: 445 Reads
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COMMENTARY: AU-UA bickering brings back normalcy
By Josh Moon
Over the last several years, there's been something missing in this state. I could never quite put my finger on what it was, but I knew recent life around here had changed.
And then Nick Saban arrived. And it hit me: Genuine disdain.
Those wearing orange and blue really don't like those wearing crimson and white, and vice-versa. Now, we're back to normal. There's trash talking and bickering in the summer. There's a warped sense of reality on both sides (although, far more prevalent on the UA side). And heated arguments can kick up in a matter of seconds over the most innocent of comments.
This is the state I remember -- one divided by football allegiance even in July.
All of this craziness has been missing for the past several years. Since the early 1990s, Auburn and Alabama could never seem to get it together at the same time, at least not for periods of time long enough to generate genuine excitement in both programs.
While Alabama was winning a national title in 1992, Auburn was shipping off Pat Dye and breaking in Terry Bowden. As the Tigers were turning things around a year later, a lot of attention was taken away by the fact that they couldn't play a televised game. A pair of undefeated seasons and one of the best UA-AU matchups in a while in 1994 was tainted by the Tigers' probation.
Even so, those years could've rekindled of the rivalry. But a couple of years later, UA went and got slapped with its own probation and Gene Stallings got run, uh, "retired." The Tide then suffered through the Dubose-Franchione-Price-Shula debacles. In the meantime, AU allowed Bowden to kill the program and had to give Tommy Tuberville a few years to build it up again.
For a span of about the last 12 years, very few people outside of this state have paid any attention to the Iron Bowl. Every year, either one or both of the teams involved has stunk.
And the fans inside the state -- at least half of them -- did very little trash talking or boasting. It's kind of tough to talk trash when you're bringing three or four wins into your end-of-the-season rivalry game.
But now, though, things are different. There's a genuine excitement around both programs. Auburn is as good right now as it has been in a long, long time -- possibly ever. Alabama, while it has proved nothing on the field, has finally hired someone who isn't terrible as its head coach.
It doesn't matter that Saban hasn't coached a game or that we're months away from his first Iron Bowl. You can just feel the difference in intensity around here. (For heaven's sake, UA fans are already naming their kids after the guy.)
But you know how you can really tell things are different?
The scandals.
Think about how long it's been since we've had good, old fashioned, then-I'll-turn-you-in-too scandal. It's been a solid decade.
But all of a sudden, six months after Saban's arrival, we've got AU being burned down in Mobile and UA getting torched in Hoover. A coincidence, I'm sure.
The Tide hasn't pulled a meaningful player out of Mobile in years. The Tigers haven't been able to tap into that Hoover-to-'Bama pipeline since the Bucs went big-time. And all at once, in a span of a couple of months, there's a grade-changing scandal at both places.
After years of not caring what Bowden was doing (has anyone figured out yet what he was doing from January to September?) or which recruits Mike Shula was going after (as if he was going to land anyone meaningful), I love that it now all matters again. That's going to make things mighty fun over the next several years.
It brings back fond memories of Eric Ramsey, Gene Jelks, "keep it down home" and Albert Means.
I like it.
This is what life is supposed to be like around here. UA fans are supposed to act like lunatics. AU fans are supposed to have a severe inferiority complex. The big-money boosters on both sides are supposed to pull out all the stops to crush the other side.
This is the rivalry I remember growing up here. This is the insanity that I've missed so much.
Josh Moon, a staff writer for the Montgomery Advertiser, can be reached at jmoon@gannett.com.
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