- 1996 was Bebes last regular season game and we won on a last minute drive to win the SEC West (and was a good Auburn team)

- 1999 was the first win in Auburn and clinched a trip to the SEC Title game

- 2001 was the most out of the blue win and beatdown of an Iron Bowl in my recent lifetime (and was a good Auburn team at the time before we helped start the collapse)

- 2005 Tennessee was the Fulmer stuff and a game winning field goal and the fumble in the end zone all wrapped into 1

- 2008 Auburn was a 36 point beat down that broke the streak and finished an undefeated regular season

- 2008 Tennessee we had 35K fans take over Neyland and put the stake in Fulmer's heart (2009 was a mistake, that game was not satisfying at all I was glad it ended and we won)

So, yea, all those games individually meant a whole helluva lot and were incredibly satisfying.

I mean technically I guess 2007, 2015 and 2016 Tennessee teams were better than 2005 or 2008 but only 2007 would come close in terms of satisfaction.

This post was edited on 7/7/19 at 10:41 pm

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Posted by FearlessFreep

Baja Alabama

Member since Nov 2009

17392 posts

Posted on 7/8/19 at 10:02 am to SummerOfGeorge

quote:
- 1996 was Bebes last regular season game and we won on a last minute drive to win the SEC West (and was a good Auburn team)

That was a great game, but AU was coming off a gutwrenching 4-OT marathon loss to UGa that took us out of contention for the West. Plus it was the typical Bowden team in terms of talent distribution - i.e., a lot of 3- and 4-stars in the skill positions, and 1- and 2-stars in the trenches (it still amazes me how poorly AU used to recruit compared to recent years). Yeah, that was a decent team, but they lost to every team they played that year with a pulse.

quote:
- 1999 was the first win in Auburn and clinched a trip to the SEC Title game

Hands down the largest talent discrepancy between the two teams in the last 40 years. It's a miracle we were even competitive in that game, a real tribute to the incompetence of the Bama coaching staff (save possibly for Dabo).

quote:
- 2001 was the most out of the blue win and beatdown of an Iron Bowl in my recent lifetime (and was a good Auburn team at the time before we helped start the collapse)

That beatdown was out of the blue, alright, but to call that a "good" Auburn team is a huge stretch. Granted, we were in the driver's seat for the West title coming in, but we'd already been blown out by Syracuse, needed last-second FGs to beat 2-9 Vandy and 3-8 MSU, and were taken to overtime by LA Tech before getting hammered 42-17 by a mediocre Arky squad. Our only claims to respectability were the miracle win over then #1 and apparently invincible Florida and a DSOR where Richt went brain dead with a chance to tie in the final seconds and called a running play from the 3 yard line with 20 seconds and no time outs (karma for Dye losing the same way in '92). We very realistically could have been 2-7 coming into the Iron Bowl instead of 7-2. In short, the 2001 Auburn team was living a lie, and when Caddy went down with an injury in the first quarter the end result was inevitable.