After winning the SEC championship with a 59-42 victory over Missouri on Saturday in the Georgia Dome, Auburn’s players had no problem stumping for a spot in the BCS Championship game.
Entering Saturday, the No. 3 Tigers (12-1) trailed No. 1 Florida State and No. 2 Ohio State in the BCS rankings, and needed one of those teams to lose in their conference championship games to seemingly assure themselves of a spot in the national championship game, which will be played Jan. 6 in Pasadena. Florida State rolled by Duke 45-7 and Ohio State lost to Michigan State 34-24, which should put Auburn into the title game.
Auburn posted four wins this season over teams ranked in the Top 25, including two wins — No. 1 Alabama and No. 5 Missouri — against top-five teams.
“We deserve it,” said wide receiver Sammie Coates, who caught a 38-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter. “We played in the hardest conference. We deserve it.”
The strength of the conference was a theme throughout Auburn’s news conferences, as well Missouri coach Gary Pinkel’s.
“I really think, with the strength of schedule the SEC is, from a guy coming from the Big 12, I think it certainly has to be considered without question,” Pinkel said. “I would hope that it is.”
Defensive end Dee Ford, a senior, was a freshman on the Auburn team that won the 2010 national title. He wants a return trip.
“Everybody has a right to want their team to play for a national championship, if there’s a chance to be there,” he said. “Not to take anything away from Ohio State or Florida State, but after the work we put in, yeah we deserve it.”
About Auburn's title: This was Auburn's fifth appearance in the SEC Championship game. The Tigers improved to 3-2 in the championship with wins in 2004, '10 and '13 after losses in 1997 and 2000. Auburn has won eight SEC titles.
Gus Malzahn became the third coach to win an SEC title in his first year at the school. The others were LSU’s Bernie Moore (1935) and Ole Miss’ John Vaught (1947).
“It’s been one of the more unique experiences I’ve ever been a part of,” Malzahn said.
Records broken: Auburn broke numerous SEC Championship game records Saturday. A few: points (59), total offense (677 yards), rushing yards (545), rushing attempts (74), rushing first downs (26) and offensive touchdowns (eight). The teams combined for a record of 1,211 yards of offense. Auburn and South Carolina set the previous mark (938) in 2010. Malzahn was the offensive coordinator on that Auburn team.
“Any time you can run the football, especially in this league, good things are going to happen,” Malzahn said. “Right now we can run the football on anybody.”
Homecoming: Tight end C.J. Uzomah estimates that between 30-40 friends and family members made the trip from Suwanee to watch him play.
Uzomah, who played at North Gwinnett High, didn’t have a catch Saturday — Auburn completed only nine passes, and its 11 attempts were a low in the SEC Championship game — but that didn’t make the experience any less sweet.
“It means the world to me coming from the season we had last year to this year, to be able to finish it is amazing,” he said.
Uzomah had nine catches this season, and the biggest was his game-winning touchdown against Mississippi State on Sept. 14. If not for that, and the confidence it gave Auburn, a few players said Auburn wouldn’t have had a chance to play for the conference title.
“That sparked our belief that if it’s a close game, we’re going to win,” he said.
Special special teams: Placekicker Cody Parkey and punter Steven Clark did their parts for Auburn.
Parkey nailed a 52-yard field goal in the third quarter to give Auburn a 31-27 lead. It was a personal best and the longest in SEC Championship game history. Parkey missed a 54-yard attempt earlier in the game. He had made 13 of his 17 attempts before Saturday, with his only misses coming on attempts of 36, 40, 50 and 54 yards.
Parkey also successfully attempted an onside kick in the first half.
Leading 14-10 with 4:08 left , the choice surprised Missouri, whose players were running backward to set up the protection. The ball bounced off one Missouri player and then another Auburn player before Parkey recovered it.
Clark nailed three punts inside Missouri’s 10-yard line. The first one was waved off because of a penalty, but Clark put it on 8-yard line on his second attempt.
He dropped one on the 7-yard line in the third quarter and one on the 4-yard line with 6:13 left in the game. Auburn punted three times, and Missouri wasn’t able to return any of them.
Turnovers: Imagine how many points Auburn would have scored in Saturday's game if it hadn't lost two fumbles and put another on the ground before recovering it, in the first half.
Auburn entered the game with a minus-4 turnover margin this season.
On the first turnover, Missouri defensive end Kony Ealy beat his man and stripped quarterback Nick Marshall. The ball bounced to the feet of Matt Hoch, who fell on it at Auburn’s 43-yard line with 11:58 in the first quarter. Missouri cashed in the mistake with a 41-yard field goal to take a 3-0 lead with 10:50 less than five minutes into the game.
Auburn evened the turnover battle when free safety Jermaine Whitehead intercepted James Franklin on the 9-yard line. Franklin was attempting to hit a receiver running up the hash marks, but he never turned his head to find the ball.
However, Marshall fumbled for the third time in the half — he recovered the second earlier in the half — on third-and-5 on the 14-yard line. Missouri’s E.J. Gaines picked up the ball and ran it in for an 11-yard touchdown to give Missouri a 17-14 lead with 13:11 left in the second quarter.
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