AUBURN, Ala. (AP) -It’s September, and two Southeastern Conference division rivals with legitimate national title hopes are meeting in a high-stakes game with compelling story lines.
What else is new?
Here’s the twist: It’s No. 3 Auburn vs. No. 6 LSU and a rivalry doing its best to emerge as this decade’s version of Florida-Tennessee in the 1990s.
Then again, the seventh-ranked Gators and 13th-ranked Volunteers play in a significant game Saturday night, too. One day, two games, four highly ranked teams from the same league.
“It’s a big day for the SEC,” Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville said.
Well, yeah.
If only the SEC could mix in No. 10 Georgia round-robin style, it could have its own mini-playoffs. At least a plus one game, NCAA style.
The dueling duels are enough to excite everybody around the league – almost everybody.
“Honestly, I don’t even know who else is playing each other,” Volunteers coach Phillip Fulmer, too busy preparing for the Gators.
First, there’s the best of the West, with LSU at Auburn. Then, 4 1/2 hours later, two beasts of the East, with Florida at Tennessee at Knoxville.
The Auburn-LSU winner has captured the SEC West four of the past five years. But the stakes have gone well beyond that recently. In 2003, LSU won 31-7 en route to a BCS national championship. The following season, Auburn escaped with a 10-9 win and finished 13-0 and ranked No. 2.
The last two losers have been victimized by a missed extra point (LSU) and five missed field goals (Auburn).
“It’s the team that we’ve played for the Western Division championship most of the time in the 21st century,” Tuberville said.
This one’s bigger than that, even though it’s only the third game of the season. It’s the first time LSU and Auburn have both entered the game ranked in the Top 10 since 1972.
“It’s a monster game,” LSU quarterback JaMarcus Russell said.
But has it bellied up alongside Florida-Tennessee as a game that typically resonates with college football fans nationally? The participants think so.
“Most definitely. That’s all everybody talks about, Auburn-LSU, the series, the slugfests we’ve had the past few years,” said Auburn receiver Courtney Taylor, who caught the winning touchdown pass two years ago.
The one thing it lacks: Steve Spurrier. Or at least his sly wisecracks and needling that helped fuel Gators-Vols mania back in the 1990s.
You can’t spell Sugar without “AU” doesn’t have nearly the same effect as Citrus and “UT.” And LSU coach Les Miles‘ stock response of “you take each game one at a time” isn’t exactly a pot-stirrer.
While Auburn-LSU has taken off on the field, Florida and Tennessee have both been caught by Georgia.
The Gators and Vols had a nine-year monopoly on the East titles after the SEC went to the divisional format in 1992. Now, the Bulldogs have won at least a share of the East title three times in the past four seasons.
“Back in the early and mid ’90s, we were two of the best teams in the conference and usually the winner went on to win the Eastern Division and had an excellent chance to win the SEC,” said Spurrier, now at South Carolina. “The last few years haven’t necessarily been that way. Certainly both of those schools have a chance to get back in that situation.”
The Spurrier-Fulmer element helped, too. The head Gator won five straight meetings from 1993-97, including blowouts of 31-0 and 62-37.
The Gators won the national title in ’96.
The Vols got over that orange-and-blue hump – and won their own national title – two years later.
“It’s one of the biggest games in college football, period,” Fulmer said.
He doesn’t think the rivalry has suffered since his nemesis left after the 2001 season, but certain dynamics have clearly changed.
“It might not be as entertaining to the media types, but certainly to the fans I think it has the same interest,” he said.
Florida’s Urban Meyer, who won his debut against the Vols last season, also doesn’t think the rivalry lacks anything.
“This is why you get up in the morning, and go to work and shave and take care of yourself because you want to coach and play in a game like this,” Meyer said.
It’s also why at least some Auburn players plan to check out that other SEC rivalry game after leaving Jordan-Hare Stadium.
“You have to peek at that one,” defensive end Quentin Groves said. “That’s a pretty intense rivalry.”