No. 2 Alabama travels to face Auburn in Iron Bowl

On the ensuing kickoff, Alabama returner Damien Harris lost the ball in the sun, and appeared to touch the football as it rolled past him. Kind of had me nervous that first drive.

But Coker redeemed himself later, wriggling out of a certain third-quarter sack in Manzielesque fashion to rush for seven yards on 3rd-and-8. The Tide slips a bit in overall passing defense, ranking fifth at 187.2 yards per game, but Auburn is 12th there at 237 yards per game.

Louis was lined up on the far left of the five-wide receiver formation, and he ran a crossing route on the play that led him to the Auburn 40, about 10 yards from where Smith first tipped the ball. This year is anyone’s game even though the Tide sit at No. 1 and Auburn has been down all season. The Tide came right back with a field goal to tie it, this one a 41-yarder by Griffith with 11:47 left to knot the score at 6-6. The UA defense held Auburn to 260 yards, matching the lowest Tiger output of the year.

Hey, you try tackling a 6-3, 242-pound man 12 times in 18 minutes. “They got season tickets to Auburn games in the cheerleading section so they can sit there and watch me”. This year’s season will be no different, once again though the Crimson Tide are potentially playing for a chance to play for a national title.

Henry has 1,525 yards rushing with 21 touchdowns. Alabama is going to crush the Tigers’ spirit early with Derrick Henry and cruise in this one.

Alabama has averaged 198.9 rush yards per game over the course of the season while Auburn allows the fourth-most rushing yards in the SEC (180.9 per game) and has given up 23 rushing touchdowns in 2015. Both records were set in 2011 by Trent Richardson. Everyone in Jordan-Hare Stadium knew what was coming. Griffith nailed all five of his field goal attempts, including a 50-yard field goal to give Alabama a six point lead right before the half.

AUBURN | There was no late magic this time, no particular play that will be discussed into dust two years from now.

As a young assistant at Syracuse, Hall of Fame coach Jim Tressel once called a sprint draw for tailback Joe Morris nine consecutive times to score a touchdown.

Derrick Henry carried a huge load vs. Auburn.

Georgia 13, Georgia Tech 7 • Sony Michel rushed for 149 yards and scored a TD on the first possession of the game, enough for the Bulldogs (9-3) to pull out an ugly nonconference victory over the host Yellow Jackets (3-9).

But they won’t be in attendance for this iron bowl to cheer on their team, or their son.

Louisville 38, Kentucky 24 • Lamar Jackson accounted for 316 yards and three TDs, and the visiting Cardinals (7-5) erased a 24-7 halftime deficit with 31 unanswered points to beat the Wildcats (5-7) in a nonconference contest.

Alabama continues its season Saturday, Dec. 5, in the 2015 SEC Championship Game against the Florida Gators. The game will be Saturday, December 5th at 2:30 p.m.

The good news for Auburn is that after its early-season woes, Will Muschamp’s defense appeared to take a major step forward as the season progressed.