My Favorite Auburn Home Games

In honor of football season, I wanted to post my top Auburn home games I've ever seen. I've grown up going to all the Auburn home games. My extended family would stay at the same hotel with our rooms all right next to each other. We all lived in different places, but we would spend the weekend together tailgating and cheering on our team. Auburn football and just Auburn in general has had a huge impact on my life and it's a big part of who I am.

I'm just including the ones I've seen in Jordan-Hare so that means no national championship, away games, etc.

In no particular order:

2001- Florida
When I was young I wasn't aware of our rankings or how good the other team was, I just loved Auburn. However, Florida was the exception. Growing up in Florida, I had to deal with trash-talking Gator fans. Coming into this game, Florida was the top team in the nation and Auburn was unranked. I remember my mom talking to the hotel bellhop who brought our luggage in and them saying how they hope we don't lose too bad. That was the general atmosphere. "I know we're going to lose. I just don't want to get blown out".
I don't remember much from the game but that last field goal to win and my dad lifting me up in the air.
Final Score: Auburn 23, Florida 20


2010-LSU
This is the game when I thought "Okay. This team might be something special".
Final Score: Auburn 24, LSU 17


2009-West Virginia
Also known as "The Rain Game". We got to the stadium and before we could even go up to our seats, the announcer came on the speakers and told everyone to leave their seats and seek shelter. We ended up against the glass where the recruits were. It kept raining and lightning and they kept pushing back the start time. On the screens, you could see that the students had all stayed in their seats. My dad said that we would be able to sit anywhere we wanted when it started because everyone will have left.

Forty five minutes later, we walk up the ramp to a completely packed stadium. When the players ran out onto the field, you could feel the energy in the air. It was electrifying.
Final Score: Auburn 41, West Virginia 30


2009-Alabama
Here I am, a Barner, claiming another moral victory. Alabama was national championship bound and we were a team with a brand new coach. The game starts with an Auburn touchdown...then an onside kick and another touchdown. 14-0 against Alabama when everyone predicted a blowout?!

They can call this game "the Drive". I don't care. All I know is that you couldn't even hear Rammer Jammer because the entire stadium was chanting "It's great to be an Auburn Tiger".
Final Score: Alabama 26, Auburn 21


2006-Florida
The things I remember the most about this game are Tre Smith's flip into the endzone after the blocked punt and how loud it was.
Final Score: Auburn 27, Florida 17


2013-Georgia
For this game I was lucky enough to sit on the 30 yard line at the top of the student section and right below the alumni. Auburn dominated most of the game and it looked like we had it won...until Georgia came back in the 4th quarter. They went ahead with one point. We had the ball on 4th and long with   seconds left. I knew we had already lost. The season was over. Nick Marshall throws it into triple coverage and it's an intercept...wait Ricardo Louis catches it and runs it in for a touchdown!! I just remember screaming "WHAT?!WHAT?!" over and over. I hug complete strangers.
It was the greatest play I had ever witnessed...until two weeks later.
Final Score: Auburn 43, Georgia 38


2013-Alabama
I said no particular order, but this is #1 and always will be. I'm a pessimist when it comes to football, but deep down I felt like this game was going to be something. And this isn't hindsight talking. There was a definite feeling among Auburn fans that this game was going to be special, though we didn't know how special. There was so much hype going into it...#1 vs #4, Gameday was here, and the winner goes to the SEC championship. Students were camped out the day before to get a seat.

Me and my roommate get there two hours before, skip a ton of people in line, and act like we've been there the whole time. When we get inside, we run to the nearest empty ramp and see that it is already packed. We go all the way to the top of the endzone and ask everyone, "Is this seat taken?" until we find room for two. The game is back-and-forth with a couple of missed field goals on Alabama's part. I don't know how many times I said, "That's it. We had our chance and we blew it."

At end of the 4th quarter, Alabama had the ball. The time ran out as the Alabama player ran out of bounds. That was it. We were going to overtime. Except Saban challenged it, they reviewed it, and he stepped out with one second left. So they line up to kick a field goal. Everyone was screaming. He kicks it and...he misses it. At first, I was just relieved and happy he didn't get it. I remember seeing Chris Davis catch it and start running. I heard someone say, "There's still time". I couldn't believe what I was seeing. This couldn't be real. He crosses the goal line, fireworks go off, and the students start rushing the field. History had been made.

I am so happy that I was able to witness that game in person and that I was old enough to fully appreciate it.
Final Score: Auburn 34, Alabama 28

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the Broke and the Bookish. This week's list was your top ten quotes from books you read in the past year.


1)

"Hell is the absence of people you long for"

 

2)

 

"There are moments that you'll remember for the rest of your life and there are moments that you think you'll remember for the rest of your life, and it's not often they turn out to be the same moment.”

 

3)



 

“But she needs me more than she needs him and I guess being needed is almost as good as being loved. Maybe better.”  

4)



 

“She was of the stuff of which great men's mothers are made. She was indispensable to high generation, feared at tea-parties, hated in shops, and loved at crises.”

 

5)

 

“All true readers have a book, a moment when real life is never going to be able to compete with fiction again.”

 

 6)

“Haven't you always been more than yourself? Haven't we all? We are none of us just one thing.”

 

7) 

 

“His whole future seemed suddenly to be unrolled before him; and passing down its endless emptiness he saw the dwindling figure of a man to whom nothing was ever to happen.”

 

8) 

 

“Then she was laughing. They both were, and the savage teeth were the most joyous sight Phaedra had seen for a long time. It was as if they were dancing. There it was. Suddenly the strangeness of Quintana of Charyn's face made sense. Because it was a face meant for laughing, but it had never been given a chance.”

 

9) 

 

"When she reached him, she bent to kneel in respect for the Mont Leader. Horrified, Saro pulled her to her feet in the same way Sir Topher had once reacted when Evanjalin tried to kneel at Trevanion's feet. Sir Topher knew, Finnikin realized, had always known. A queen never bent to her people."

 

 10)

 

“It wasn't the high-pitched purity in Quintana's voice, nor the fact that she recalled every word in a sad song she had heard only once today in the caves of the Citavita, sung in a language she had never known. It was that he knew that voice, had dreamed it over and over again in a lifetime of rot and misery, and Froi wanted to weep. For he knew he would break his bond to his queen not just with his body but also with his heart.” 

 

Favorite Legend of Korra Episodes

Since I love lists, a top ten list of my favorite Legend of Korra episodes will be my first post on here.
(images taken from avatarspirit.net)

10. Out of the Past

Flashbacks to the Gaang. Mako full of concern for Korra. Amon resisting bloodbending and saying he is the solution, revealing yet another reason to be terrified of him.  Korra demonstrating how amazing she is and escaping herself while everyone is trying to rescue her. One of my favorites of Book 1. And I love Book 1.

9. Rebirth

One of the most entertaining episodes to watch. The whole Tenzin sequence with recruiting airbenders reminded me of avatar and what I loved about it. We also get the introduction of Kai and the birth of Kainora. Also...Zuko.

8. Long Live the Queen

I love every side plot in this episode. Mako's concern for Korra and cheering on Bolin. Korra and Asami breaking out of their prison. And the disturbing death of the Earth Queen at the hands of Zaheer. I watched this episode over and over.

7. The Sting

I want a spin off series of Mako solving crimes in Republic City with cameos by Korra, Asami, and Bolin. This episode reminded me of the mood of Book 1. It almost feels like a noir.

6. Light in the Dark

The season finale that felt like a series finale. Korra realizing how powerful she was, not as the Avatar, but as Korra. Dark and filled with tension, it truly felt like the end of the world. It was grand and heroic, and the series never matched that feeling again. 

5. A New Spiritual Age

I screamed when I first saw Iroh walking up. His lesson to Korra about looking for the light instead of the dark is one of my favorite moments on the show. Adorable Korra asking, "I can make the sun shine?!" just makes me so happy. An absolutely beautiful episode. 

4. And the Winner Is...

I love all the probending in this episode. Korra holding onto Mako and then throwing him back up and then Mako winking at Tahno..those were the days. I love Lin reaching back down for Korra, not to catch her, but to throw her back up so she can go after Amon. It all leads to one of my favorite fight scenes.

3. Beginnings Part 2

Every time I watch it, it never fails to make me cry. It raises the entire series, including the original, to another level. A masterpiece in storytelling that shows how powerful animation can be. 

2. Welcome to Republic City

I appreciate this episode so much more now that the series ended the way it did. My favorite introduction to a protagonist ever. There is Korra dominating her fire bending test. Korra being so ready to take on her responsibilities as the the Avatar and begin her life outside the compound. Korra taking matters into her own hands and running away. Korra challenging gangsters and standing up for a stranger. Korra hugging Tenzin and his family, lifting them off the ground. Korra being extremely confident, aggressive and outspoken yet not a stereotype, things few female characters are allowed to be.  As soon as little Korra proclaimed herself the Avatar and we had to "deal with it", I knew I was in love. What an amazing character establishing episode.

1. Endgame

There is no other episode that comes close to how much I love Endgame. I can't even describe why I love it so much, just that it was everything that I wanted. I still remember exactly the way I felt when I watched it the first time. Non-stop action, twists, and Korra restoring Lin's bending as everyone looks on in awe. It was very much about Korra, not anyone else. I love it so much that a part of me wishes this had been the series finale.