‘Everybody’s watching’: The Iron Bowl, through the eyes of a former Auburn Tiger
Greg Hall Jr. did not arrive at Auburn the typical way.
Originally from Athens, Ga., Hall played one year of college football at Appalachian State in 2012, then decided to transfer. His options were Georgia, Auburn and South Carolina, he said, and he knew Tigers associate head coach and defensive line coach Rodney Garner, from his coaching days at Georgia (Hall’s uncle, William Witherspoon, played football at UGA).
Hall saw his fair share of rivalries at Appalachian State. Georgia Southern, he said, was the biggest one. But even that couldn’t prepare him for a game as big as the Iron Bowl, the latest of which takes place Saturday at Jordan-Hare Stadium (3:30 p.m. EST, CBS).
“When it comes down to the Iron Bowl, the whole nation knows the Iron Bowl,” Hall said. “Everybody’s watching that. People fight over it. People don’t talk to their families over it.”
Since Hall grew up in Athens, “all he knew” was Georgia-Florida. He knew about the Iron Bowl, sure, but it didn’t have the same meaning. He rarely cared who won.
That all changed when he moved to the Plains. Whether it be Auburn fans telling him “war eagle” or Alabama fans telling him “we’re going to get you this year” in the middle of Walmart, the intensity was everywhere.
“It’s just everywhere when it comes down to Auburn-Alabama,” Hall said.
Nothing in, nothing out
The message was clear: anything discussed in practice, did not leave the confines of Auburn’s athletics complex on South Donahue Drive. Going home for Thanksgiving? Bite your tongue. Got a close friend who’s curious if a key player might be cleared from his injury in time for the game? Keep it to yourself.
It’s Iron Bowl week, so you’d better not speak with anybody outside the Auburn football program.
That was how Hall remembered those weeks at Auburn. It was not unusual for Tigers head coach Gus Malzahn to “shut things down” for the bigger games, i.e. Georgia and Alabama. Most players on the team hailed from one of those two states, Hall said, only a few coming from states like Louisiana or Florida.
The practices are different. Everything is much more precise, Hall said. Mistakes aren’t tolerated.
“It was shutdown mode,” Hall said of Malzahn’s message the week of the Iron Bowl. “Don’t talk to anybody outside of here. This is it. It was basically almost like a Super Bowl.”
The majority of Hall’s playing time came his senior year in 2016, at linebacker or (mostly) on special teams.
The Tigers played in Tuscaloosa that year. Alabama won the game 30-12, but Hall vividly remembers his first time stepping onto the field in one of college football’s premier rivalries.
“Just being out there on special teams, and you can’t hear the guy beside you,” Hall said. “It’s like you’re in a whole ‘nother world. You’re imagining the guys you’re playing against are all top NFL talent-type guys, the speed of the game is so much different. The intensity of the game — you feel it.”
‘Easily.’
Hall sees the same type of intensity and toughness in this year’s Auburn defense, specifically the linebacker corps, that he saw in past units that fielded players like Deshaun Davis, Cassanova McKinzy and Tre’ Williams.
Auburn held Samford to 35 first-half yards, the fewest given up by an Auburn defense in the first half since the 2003 Western Kentucky game (11 yards). The Tigers held Samford to 117 total yards, the fewest since Georgia Southern finished with 78 yards in 2017. They kept Georgia in striking distance, held LSU to its lowest point total all season and kept the Florida game from being a blowout.
“Easily. It’s always going to be like that,” Hall said, when asked if Auburn’s defense is the best in the nation. “As long as you’ve got (defensive coordinator Kevin) Steele, (linebacker coach) Travis Williams and Coach G out there.”
The defense will face a much tougher challenge than Samford on Saturday, even though Alabama will be without starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.
“The toughness is always there,” Hall said. “Everyone plays their hearts out.”
