An oral history of the University of Alabama’s football season, as told by the people who lived it
Iron Will
By Aaron Suttles Sports Writer
For the second year in a row, the University of Alabama’s postseason fate came down to the annual grudge match with Auburn in the Iron Bowl. The game featured five lead changes, with Alabama overcoming a 12-point second half deficit to earn a 55-44 victory and a trip to the Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game. Reggie Ragland, junior linebacker: What happened with the previous year, them going back and catching that field goal and running it back, it was very emotional. Reuben Foster, sophomore linebacker: I didn’t want to go through a whole other year listening to the same stuff and going back home and having to listen to all the crap that they talked about me, Rashaan (Evans) and our coaching staff and my family: and when I say family, I mean my teammates. Jalston Fowler, senior fullback: That was fun. I was up for that game. The only thing we kept saying the whole week was, “We owe these guys.” It played a big part in it because we wanted, I wouldn’t say revenge, but we wanted payback. Ragland: We wanted to come out and prove something. Everybody wanted to come out and prove something. We have to come out and stop these guys and what happened last year, we can’t give them that kind of chance again. staff photo | robert sutton
Alabama running back Derrick Henry carries the ball into the end zone for a a fourth-quarter touchdown against Auburn at Bryant-Denny Stadium on Nov. 29, 2014. Alabama won the game, 55-44.
Auburn got the better end of the shootout in the first half, taking a 26-21 halftime lead. Continued
staff photo | laura chramer
Quarterback Blake Sims was 20 of 27 passing for 312 yards and four touchdowns and three interceptions against Auburn. He also had one rushing touchdown.
Landon Collins, play well. junior safety: It’s very frustrating, but you have to tell Amari Cooper, your teammates to turn the page and go junior wide receiver: on to the next play. Myself, DeAndrew (White) and Christion (Jones), we’ve always rallied behind Smith: (Sims) when he messes up a little bit. We Geno Smith, You’re going to get beat. That’s going to tell him he can overcome it and to play the junior defensive back: happen when you play defensive back, next play. So when we did it this time, he That was a crazy game, I’m not going to you’re going to give up plays. You’re not believed us. lie. going to play the perfect game all the time. Austin Shepherd, Foster: senior offensive lineman: It was scary. Kirby Smart, defensive coordinator: He had to just go out there and change As bad as the Auburn situation was, they the game. He had to just put in the past It was a back-and-forth first half with Au- never quit. And they got better throughout because coach always tells you to play the burn taking a five-point lead into the half. Au- the game and they never pointed fingers. next play. burn then took advantage of quarterback Blake Sims’ third interception of the game during the DePriest: Sims: first drive of the second half to go ahead by 12 To give up that many yards, that many We never gave up when we were points. The Tigers used the deep passing game points, it was frustrating at times. down. to surge to a double-digit lead. Smith: Cooper: Trey DePriest, That’s life as a DB. I said to Blake, “We’re behind you. Lets senior linebacker: go, play the next play.” It was frustrating to me. That’s not how Blake Sims, senior quarterback: we play defense. I made some mistakes and got down on After his third interception led to his team myself. I’ve got great players, great coaches going down by 12 points, Sims caught fire, behind me that picked me back up and throwing three touchdowns and running for gave me an opportunity to go back in and Continued T.J. Yeldon, junior running back: It was a crazy game. Xzavier Dickson, senior outside linebacker: It was scary. The first half was scary.
staff photo | robert sutton
Alabama receiver Amari Cooper races down the field for a touchdown. Cooper tied his own school record with 224 receiving yards in the Tide’s win against Auburn. Cooper caught three touchdown passes.
another as he led the Alabama offense to five DePriest: consecutive touchdown drives in the highest The offense had our backs in that one, scoring Iron Bowl in history. The defense also and I’m glad they did. We just couldn’t got in on the act, limiting the explosive Auburn seem to get them stopped there for a minoffense just enough for its offense to grab con- ute. trol. Ragland: Dickson: We came out and made some good stops, I just knew we had to get out and stop but we also did some bad things that we them in the second half. needed to fix. I think it woke everybody up and then we had to buckle down. Smart: That reflects on the leadership of the deDickson: fense. They did a really good job of staying We just had to settle down and make within themselves and not panicking dur- adjustments. Basically that’s what we did. ing the game. We went in and made adjustments at halftime and came out and executed. Smith: It was so many highs and lows. Smith: For us to pull it out just shows our team
this year. We played with a lot of purpose. Shepherd: You just never knew what was going to happen so you knew you had to score. The way it was going you had to score every possession because you don’t know what they’re going to do. Sims: The young guys played for the seniors. Yeldon: They were scoring, we were scoring. We took the lead and just kept going after that. The team responded well. The defense got a couple of stops and the offense just kept putting up points. Continued
DeAndrew White celebrates after scoring a touchdown in the second half.
Yeldon: Cooper: They weren’t stopping us. The intercepSince I’ve been here, the emotion when tion stopped us. Other than that we scored were down is always we can come back. every drive. Sims: Shepherd: I just took it one play at a time. I guess his confidence just got back. I hope my words had something to do with Shepherd: I just pulled (Sims) aside and said, “We it. He switched it in his head and the light need you.” I told him he was a game- came on. changer. Sims passed for 312 yards and four touchdowns, running for another score. Cooper had Cooper: We’ve been doing it all year. He just for- touchdown receptions of 17, 39 and 75 yards. got about them and made big plays. Sims: The long passes to Amari, that was great
staff photo | erin nelson
play calling from Coach (Lane) Kiffin. That was very big to continue the momentum. Yeldon: Once Amari got going, I knew we were going to win the game. Cooper: They played a lot of man. On the first long one they were in man (coverage). On the second one they were in man. On the third one they were in Cover 8. Sims: (Cooper) ran a great route on both of them. I just put the ball where it needed to be, and he went and got it and did the rest.