Timing is a funny thing.

Last week, Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher hosted Louisiana-Monroe, currently coached by former Auburn head coach Terry Bowden. Fisher worked as a quarterbacks coach at Auburn and under Bowden from 1993-98. Bowden was Auburn’s head coach for the same time frame.

And a week later, Fisher plays Auburn.

The Tigers are going to Kyle Field for an 11 a.m. kickoff on ESPN Saturday against the Aggies.

On his segment of the weekly SEC coaches conference call with reporters, AL.com asked Fisher about his memories of Auburn with back-to-back games against his former boss and former program.

“We got a chance a little bit before the game at midfield and got to reminisce,” Fisher said of playing Bowden. “Like I said, he was my coach, man. He recruited me. It was like family and I was like family to them. Just have some great memories and talked, like we used to do. We were sitting there bragging, thinking about many years when we started at Salem that were fortunate enough to still be doing this at our ages, to still be doing this at the level that we’re doing it at. Very fortunate to be part of the game. I owe a huge part of that to him and his family, what they did for me and the opportunity they gave me. Very thankful for that, so it was good. I have some Auburn roots, we had some great times there. We had some great runs. I think we won 20 in a row while I was over there. Had some great players. Runner-up SEC championship. The two years we were on probation won 20 out of the 22 games, 21-1. Won 20 in a row. Great players, great memories, great people. So have a lot of respect for Auburn, always have, and what kind of team and program they have.”

Texas A&M won last week’s game 47-3 over Bowden’s team. Before the game, Bowden made an appearance on The Paul Finebaum Show, and discussed his time at Auburn. He recalled a story of calling his father, famous Florida State head coach Bobby Bowden, during halftime of Auburn’s 1994 comeback 36-33 win over then-No. 1-ranked Florida in Gainesville.

“Actually, we were having a great first half, and I was sitting there by myself as all the coaches were going off to talk their positions,” Bowden said. “There was a phone sitting there on the wall. I pick it up and I get a direct line to my dad. I said, ‘Dad, what do you think?’ That’s what I said. I just said ‘Dad, what do you think?’ I was just kind of passing a couple of minutes and Dad said, ‘Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it.’ That was the extent of the phone call. I thought there was zero chance the phone would work, let alone someone answer the phone.”

“But the biggest thing, you said it, Steve Spurrier is so competitive, he wasn’t beating us bad enough. They threw, I want to say, four or five interceptions, and at the very end of the game, when it was over, he was throwing the ball deep, we intercept it, we score with 15 seconds left.”

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at [email protected]