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As the Iron Bowl approaches on Saturday, each staff member of The Auburn Wire will be sharing their favorite memory of the greatest rivalry in college football. Here is JD McCarthy’s.
Like many fans I come from a house divided. My family is not split between Auburn and Alabama but between Florida and Florida State.
As a Florida fan who grew up in Tallahassee, I was convinced that the annual matchup with FSU was the best rivalry in sports.
That was changed on Nov. 30, 2013 when the greatest play in college football history took place.
I am ,of course, talking about the Kick Six, which my family and a handful of friends witnessed after a long day of watching football.
While I don’t remember much about the game, I do remember thinking the game was over when Alabama lined up to kick a field goal with just over two minutes to go up two-scores. The kick was of course blocked, and with Tre Mason slowly pushing Auburn towards the end zone it started to look like Auburn may have a chance after all. When Nick Marshall hit a wide-open Sammie Coates for a long touchdown to tie it up, I assumed Alabama would run the clock out and was eagerly awaiting overtime between two rivals.
After Alabama broke off a long run to get in Auburn territory and the game appeared to come to a close, we were ready for overtime with a spot in the SEC Championship game on the line.
When they announced that one second had been put back on the clock, we were all expecting a Hail Mary pass that had little chance of success but would still be exciting.
When Saban trotted out a kicker to attempt a 57-yarder we all were surprised, especially since they had already missed three field goals that day and thinking a Hail Mary throw had a better chance than such a long kick.
It was at this time that one of our guests, who are Australian and did not understand “American football,” decided to take a bathroom break, saying nothing important could happen in just one second. (We all know how that turned out.)
When the kick went up and it looked like the game would end on a walk-off we all rose out of our seats. As the ball traveled further and got lower and lower we realized that it didn’t have the distance and we were going to see a wild ending after all with Chris Davis having the chance to return the kick.
It wasn’t till he picked up about his third block at the 20-yard line that we thought the return had a chance of amounting to something and not being a futile effort. We responded as normal teenage boys do, jumping on the couch and screaming. It was about the 50 when we realized he was going to score, and Auburn was going to win. I don’t know who started it, but someone started a dog pile and soon four or five of us were piled atop our ottoman which quickly collapsed, dropping us to the floor, which we found hilarious.
It was about this time that our Australian friend came sprinting back from the bathroom confused shouting, “I was only gone one second, what happened?”
Which sent us all back into hysterics trying to explain.
The Kick Six is not the reason I attend Auburn, but it was the moment I realized I wanted to spend my life working with sports