Title Hopes Dashed, Auburn Can Now Focus

The storied history of the Auburn program includes an AP national championship, six SEC titles, and they hold the series lead in the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry versus Georgia. In 2004 the Tigers were undefeated and made a case for being included in the national title game. Despite all that, the primary thing on the lips of Auburn fans over the last two or three seasons has been their Iron Bowl streak against Alabama, now sitting at six.

It's not the only thing Tiger fans care about but, when it comes right down to it, the most important thing in their world isn't winning conference or national titles... it's beating Alabama.

While the Tigers are on the rocks, and their offense is easily the most pathetic in the conference, it's pretty amazing to listen to the boasting from a certain subset of the Auburn nation. I won't pretend to know what proportion this group makes up, but you don't have to go far to find someone in orange and blue insisting that Auburn still has Alabama's number.

One would think that a reasonable Auburn fan -- one who has taken stock of the things that have happened so far this year -- would stay away as far away from trash talk directed at Tide faithful as possible. After all, Auburn's no Clemson and they're no Georgia, and if the Tide comes out amped up for the Iron Bowl and Auburn plays like they have so far this season, Saban's young squad could hang 100 points on Tubby's Tigers.

Of course, we all know that's not going to happen. The largest margin of victory in the series over the last 20-something years has been the 24 point win Auburn racked up in 2001, with most of the games in that span being decided by less than two touchdowns. Cliche though it may be, rivalry games like Alabama/Auburn are always in play.

Nevertheless, the reason some Auburn fans are still so mouthy is two-fold: first, six wins is the most Auburn has ever amassed on Alabama in succession. There is no shortage of Auburn fans who can't even remember the last time Alabama won the Iron Bowl. College freshmen this year were 12 the last time that happened.

The second reason, though, is because Auburn fans are absolutely obsessed with Alabama and while ruining the Tide's title hopes wouldn't fix everything that was wrong with this season, Tiger fans would look back on the season fondly, knowing that they were able to keep big brother from doing the thing they're really interested in: playing for national championships.

So while Auburn's season is certainly in the crapper, if you're noticing an inordinate amount of optimism from Tiger fans, fear not, there's a good understand that while it's virtually impossible for Auburn to win the BCS Title and highly improbable that they'd even make it to Atlanta, they're now free to focus on the thing they care about most.

I guess that means Auburn has six weeks to try to find a way to score on 'Bama's defense and stop their running game. Will it be enough?