Auburn 59 Missouri 42. The 2013 Auburn Tigers are SEC champions and there is no doubt they earned it. The Tigers ran the gauntlet down the stretch with road games at Arkansas and Tennessee before facing a top 20 Georgia team, #1 Bama and #5 Missouri. You could tell the Tigers were starting to wear down in Atlanta but like the champions they are they got it done. The game kept most Auburn fans on edge till Tre Mason "put it on ice" with his last touchdown of the night. I know I was sweating it till that point in the game. It was a similar feeling to the national championship game against Oregon where you could tell Auburn was whipping them up front on both sides of the ball but could not put the game away.
The Auburn defense looked a step slow all night and you kept wondering how much Auburn's great offense had in the tank as well but we should have known they would not let Auburn lose this close to the promise land. In fact when it was all over the Auburn offense had put up a legendary performance in this championship game. The Auburn defense did contribute though. They gave up 42 points and were torched for another 500 plus yards of offense on a bunch of big plays but they did get some critical stops in the second half of the game. They forced three punts and Mizzou gave up the ball on downs their last two possessions. The defensive coaches have done a great job getting the most out of this group.
The story of the night though was Tre Mason, Nick Marshall, the Auburn offensive line and juggernaut Jay Prosch. These men put up maybe the greatest game running the football in Auburn's long and storied history. That is really saying something at "Tailback U". Auburn ran the ball for almost 550 yards. It is an incredible feat to rush for 400 yards. It was an astonishing performance by this amazing group. This Auburn offensive line of Greg Robinson, Alex Kozan, Reese Dismukes, Chad Slade and Avery Young are now one of the greatest lines in Auburn history without having one senior. The biggest question coming into the season would be if these highly rated recruits would finally start paying dividends. They have and the returns have been better than anyone ever expected.
The difference between really good and great though could be Jay Prosch. This guy is an old school fullback. There were questions before the season on what his role would be in this offense. I could not even dream things would work out this well but I knew Malzahn would put Prosch to good use. Eric Smith though a behavior problem played the same role and was a huge contributor on the 2010 team. I knew Prosch was a better player and would fill the same role even better. Prosch will be playing on Sundays next year. One of the most memorable plays from Saturday for me was watching #35 absolutely take out two Missouri players on one block.
Next we come to SEC Championship game MVP Tre Mason... Mason was not a huge recruit and has been an afterthought for most of the two seasons before this one. Most people including me thought he was decent but were looking elsewhere for Auburn's next great running back. Mason though without much fanfare has been a bigger and bigger contributor since starting at Auburn. He opened his career with a kickoff return for a touchdown against Utah State in 2011 and went on to put up over 600 yards in returns his freshman season. Last year with everything falling apart around him he ground out an 1000 yard season. However the spring star on offense was Cameron Artis-Payne and he was the guy most people were looking at coming into this season...
Mason teamed with Artis-Payne and Corey Grant Auburn's first few games but then started separating from the pack. He stood tall in Auburn's lone loss to LSU with 132 yards. He then topped that with the best game of his career till Saturday with 178 yards at Texas A&M. That was when it really started and the coaches made him the go-to guy. Starting that night at Texas A&M he has had six straight 100 yard games in conference including 164 yards against Bama. He carried the Auburn Tigers on Saturday and put up maybe the greatest rushing performance in Auburn history with 304 yards on 46 carries. One guy rushing for 300 yards in an SEC Championship Game. I think that speaks for itself.
From 0-8 in the conference to conference champions. I believe it is the greatest turnaround in Auburn history and maybe the greatest turnaround in college football history. I know I keep using that same word but nothing else fits... amazing. One of the biggest catalysts for this turnaround was finding the right guy to lead this offense. Auburn had tried four different guys since Cam Newton left with no success regardless of the offense. Nick Marshall like Tre Mason has now moved out of Newton's shadow and carved his own niche in Auburn history leading this offense. Marshall started shaky but settled down and led the offense using his head, arm and feet. With Mason grabbing the headlines Marshall still went 9 of 11 for 132 yards and also rushed for 100 yards himself.
I have mentioned nothing but the SEC Championship so far because it is enough. As I have written several times including when we won the national championship in 2010: "The conference championship games are real post season games because their
participants get in through an objective system and they are played immediately
following the season. The BCS is a complete failure because its participants
get into it by a completely flawed subjective system of computer and popularity
polls and then they wait over a month to play it. It is great to be in the mythical national
championship game. If you have to play in the system, as flawed as it is, you
might as well play in the best game. However no matter what happens this team
is one of the all time greats in Auburn history."
I also believe this 2013 team is one of Auburn's all time greats regardless of whether they made it to the national championship game. But again it is great getting into the national championship because as I said above if you have to play in this system, ridiculous as it is, you might as well play in the biggest game. I also love getting into the national championship to see all the mediots eat their words and see our adversaries gnash their teeth. We will also get to hear Auburn hyped all the next month and we also get a great matchup in Auburn and Florida State. There is a lot of history to this rivalry and this will be an awesome addition to it.
Thank goodness the week ended good. All of my disdain for college football's postseason I just wrote about came boiling up listening to the mediots prop up the Buckeyes this week. As I said in my last post "Auburn's and Missouri's eleven wins are better than Ohio State's twelve wins or Florida State's for that matter. It is a fact not an opinion." Just check the facts. However it was made clear during the week that the mediots did not believe that and that somehow an inferior undefeated record trumped all (thus the reason BYU has a national championship after beating a 6-5 Michigan team in the Holiday Bowl in 1984). Therefore I kind of put the national championship out of my mind this last week. I knew Duke was not beating Florida State and did not think Michigan State would take care of Ohio State. Anytime Auburn has needed help over the years it has never worked out.
I refused to watch the Big Ten title game and kept up with the game through texts from friends. However with five minutes left in the game I finally turned it on. Michigan State was clinging to a 27-24 lead. I could not believe it when their running back broke through the line to deliver the clinching touchdown or when Ohio State sputtered out on downs after that. I was simply amazed that after 1983, 1988 and 2004 that a huge break had finally gone our way. There really is something special going on with this team. The Auburn Tigers are SEC Champions and are going to the Rose Bowl to play the Florida State Seminoles in the national championship. Let the hype begin.
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