A Matter of Heart

8/29/2007

Growing up, it was always fascinating to listen to the Auburn legends of Pat Sullivan and Ralph "Shug" Jordan. I would always fill up with wonder when my aunts and uncles would talk about Bo Jackson and Pat Dye while they went to Auburn for college. I grew up during the Terry Bowden era, and there were some amazing runs during that time in Auburn football. In Trussville, where I grew up, it sometimes felt that it might as well should have been painted Crimson and White. Our star quarterback that defined "Hewitt-Trussville" was famed Alabama quarterback Jay Barker. Not until my freshman year of high school we had somebody else take the reigns of football greatness at Hewitt-Trussville. His name was Brandon Cox. Although my memory of him is fuzzy, his senior year was by far the best year of football during my stay at the high school. Every play seemed to be a Brandon Cox pass to Lee Guess for the touchdown. Hewitt's amazing season was over with a loss to the Hoover Buccaneers with a little known quarterback named John Parker Wilson taking the snaps.

Fast forward a few years. My freshman year started like it did my freshman year in high school- with Brandon Cox the starting quarterback. I'll always remember that year because Cox made a clutch 4th down pass to a 31-30 win over the University of Georgia. My first Iron Bowl was a massacre- we sacked Brodie Croyle 11 times and beat the mighty Tide 28-18.

Sophomore year we came out swinging. Washington State was another massacre. Our first test was against a highly ranked LSU team. We beat them in the closest game I've ever witnessed, as we went on to win 7-3. I thought that nothing could top that win, but again I was proved wrong by my Tigers. #2 Florida came into our house with a senior quarterback in Chris Leak and a cocky freshman named Tim Tebow. Although we were down at halftime, our defense helped us win 27-17. There were no offensive touchdowns in the game. Jordan-Hare Stadium had never been that loud.

And then came this year, which is my Junior year. With losing great players such as Kenny Irons, Courtney Taylor and Ben Grubbs, I knew this year could be tough. Our first game was a true fight, but we prevailed against Kansas State. Then came South Florida and Mississippi State. Both were upsets, and resulted in the booing of our quarterback. Many felt he had lost his touch, and demanded Kodi Burns to take his place. I never booed Brandon, I have always cheered for him since he's a fellow Hewitt graduate, so I was eager to see if he could redeem himself.

Throughout my life, I always dreamed of being apart of one of those "legend" games. You know what I'm talking about, the kind of games that you will want to tell your grandchildren one day. A game that truly shows the character of man. 1972's "Punt Bama Punt." 1982's "Bo Over The Top." 1989's "Iron Bowl." 1994's win over #1 ranked Florida.


Hearing about these kind victories always made me happy. I would especially get excited when the I heard the old legend of when Terry Bowden's 1994 Team beat #1 Florida in the Swamp. My chance to invade the swamp came on Saturday the 29th.

The Swamp is an intimidating place. The fans are loud, but not as obnoxious and rude as LSU fans. As I entered into the stadium, all I could think about was how this was the place Steve Spurrier built. Nobody gave us a chance to beat the then #4 ranked Florida Gators. Lou Holtz even said our chances of us beating Florida were as good as him becoming Senator of Florida. We were supposed to be a 21 point underdog in this game. Florida had not lost a home football game since late 2004. And oh yeah, by the way, the last time we won at The Swamp was that fateful game in 1994 where Patrick Nix found Frank Sanders in the endzone with 30-odd seconds left in the 4th quarter to beat #1 ranked Florida. Earlier in the season, Auburn had lost to a talented South Florida team. Mississippi State came next, and dealt a serious blow to Auburn's confidence. Auburn redeemed itself after a dominating victory over New Mexico State a week earlier. The week leading up to this Florida game, I just had a special feeling inside. I knew that big things were in store for Auburn. I had not had this feeling since the 2005 Iron Bowl when Alabama was favored to beat us at home.

Early in the game we scored. However, cheesy this may sound, all I could think about were all the times I had seen the AU flag fly. Images of Samford Hall and Toomer's flooded through my mind. I, along with my Auburn brothers and sisters went nuts when that first touchdown was scored by Kodi Burns, a freshman quarterback. I looked down at my hand, and it was shaking. A few possessions later, Florida got into field goal range, only for their attempt to be blocked. This was shaping up to be huge. Every cheer that was called I yelled. Every time Florida was on offense I yelled. Every time we played a song, I played every note as loud as I could on my trombone. Auburn got the ball back and eventually scored once again by a run from runningback Ben Tate. Again, images from my experiences at Auburn just flooded through my mind. It was almost indescribable. I started to get chills. My hand was shaking even more. Could it be that I get to experience a win in The Swamp? Could I share an experience with those that witnessed that famous 1994 victory? Florida fought back mightily. Florida scored to tie the game 17-17 near the fourth quarter. My hopes never faded for Auburn. I had had a special feeling about my Tigers all week leading up to the game. We got the ball back and quickly went three and out, giving Florida another chance to score on one last possession. And then something amazing happened. Our defense, which had to have been tired, came out and stopped them in the their tracks. Three and out for Florida. They punt the ball away. A drive, led by Brandon Cox and Ben Tate set up one last attempt for us to kick a field goal to win the game. Our kicker, Wes Byrum, had been doing a good job, but I couldn't help thinking that because he was a freshman he would crack under the pressure of kicking a game-winning field goal. Especially in The Swamp. The field goal unit came on the field, and it felt like time stood still for a while. I had a certain calm come around me, and I remember yelling "I believe!!" The kick went up, and it was good!! The Auburn fans screamed, yelled, went crazy. We then found out that Urban Meyer, Florida's head coach, had called a timeout before the kick. This set up another kick for Byrum to make. Once again, time stood still, and nothing else mattered. I still believed in the Tigers. The kick went up, and went straight through the uprights. It was good, again!! Everybody went crazy, I jumped up and down and pumped my trombone up in the air. My dream had come true- I had just wintessed the Auburn Tigers upset the Florida Gators in The Swamp!