Sports

Mason rushes Auburn to SEC title

Auburn running back Tre Mason (21) and Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn celebrate after the second half of the Southeastern Conference NCAA football championship game against the Missouri, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2013, in Atlanta. Auburn won 59-42.
Auburn running back Tre Mason (21) and Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn celebrate after the second half of the Southeastern Conference NCAA football championship game against the Missouri, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2013, in Atlanta. Auburn won 59-42.
By Steve Hummer
Dec 8, 2013

A recently settled lawsuit may have effectively killed off the college football video game for now. No one mourns the loss today, having witnessed joystick offense played out in flesh and blood, to the coarse howls of 75,000 overtaxed voice boxes.

Indeed, both Auburn and Missouri attacked Saturday’s SEC Championship like gamers with an endless list of cheats.

Both teams wore deep grooves in the Georgia Dome carpet with their many long sorties back and forth, accumulating close to three-quarters-of-a-mile (or 1,211 yards to be precise) of total offense.

At the finish, the weary scoreboard wept: Auburn 59, Missouri 42.

With the victory, Auburn completed its remarkable worst-to-first comeback, from 0-8 in the conference a year ago to undisputed SEC champion today. And with a 12-1 record, it celebrated on the confetti-strewn Georgia Dome floor Saturday evening while awaiting a summons to some as yet unknown postseason destination. It clung to hopes that it could still be called to the BCS Championship Game.

In a game with so many electric offensive performers – and with no one on defense wanting to admit they were within 100 miles of Northside Drive – one name stood above the rest.

As they are wont to say around the greater Auburn-Opelika metroplex:

Tre magnifique!

Tre Mason, calling upon the Auburn tradition of steel-jacketed ball-carriers like Bo Jackson, Ronnie Brown, Joe Cribbs and Cadillac Williams, rushed for 304 yards and four touchdowns. He toted the ball 46 times without complaint, running through Missouri with the fluid ease of the Grand River.

About the Author

Steve Hummer writes sports features and columns for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He covers a wide range of sports and topics.

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