Joseph Goodman: Excruciating theater on a Saturday in the South

It was incredible theater.

College football: excruciating, beautiful, soul-crushing college football on a Saturday in the Deep South.

And for a few minutes it was all happening at the same time for Alabama and Auburn.

Alabama was playing for everything on Saturday night in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Auburn was battling for pride and new interim coach Carnell Williams in Starkville, Mississippi. Both teams went into overtime, and then both teams watched their opponents celebrate dramatic wins.

In Baton Rouge, it was LSU 32, Alabama 31. In Starkville, it was Mississippi State 39, Auburn 33.

Earlier in the day, UAB took UTSA to overtime in Birmingham before losing 44-38.

For college football in Alabama, it was a historic day of hysteria. Never before have those three teams gone into overtime on the same day. Sometimes it hurts, but it has never hurt quite like this.

“We didn’t make the play at the end of the game,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said.

Simple as that, but oh so complicated all at the same time.

For No.6 Alabama (7-2, 4-2 in the SEC), the loss crushed any hope of playing for the College Football Playoff. At the same time, the victory for No.10 LSU (7-2, 5-1 in the SEC) rattled the bones of the SEC West and the foundations of Tiger Stadium.

No one’s laughing at LSU coach Brian Kelly anymore.

Remember the beginning of the season? LSU’s special teams were a disaster against Florida State in the season opener, and the Noles won 24-23 in the New Orleans Superdome. Those same special teams might have won the SEC West for LSU against Alabama in Week 10.

Kelly left Notre Dame for LSU to give himself a chance to win games against Alabama. He’ll never admit that, but that’s why the coach with most wins in Notre Dame history left South Bend, Ind. Kelly was a great coach then, and he is a great coach now. The difference? Kelly now has the players to hang with Alabama’s Saban, and Kelly proved it in his first chance.

We began this season thinking Texas A&M was Alabama’s new rival after the beef between Aggies coach Jimbo Fisher and Saban. Kelly was an afterthought at LSU, but it’s impossible to discount his abilities anymore.

Alabama scored first in overtime, but LSU answered on its first play when quarterback Jayden Daniels rushed for a 25-yard score. Go for the extra point and make Alabama earn a road victory, right?

Wrong.

With an opportunity to best Saban, with the SEC West on the line, Kelly chose for a two-point conversion to win it. The play called for tight end Mason Daniels to go in motion behind a pair of LSU receivers. Brilliant. Easy score. Ball game.

For the second time this season, a delirious fan base stormed the field in celebration after a victory against Alabama.

“It would be an understatement to say how disappointed our team is, how disappointed we all are,” Saban said after the game. “Our guys really competed hard in the game today. It was a tough environment, a tough place to play, we got to give credit to LSU for making the plays that they made when they needed to make them.”

It was Alabama and everyone else before the season started. The Crimson Tide was everyone’s pick to win the national championship. Now Alabama won’t get a chance to play for it, and the way this season has played out will cause people to question Saban’s dynasty at Alabama. Are these the final days of a faltering empire? I went into Week 10 with an open mind after Alabama’s near loss to Texas in Week 2 and then that struggle win against Texas A&M. It’s impossible to make excuses for Alabama now, though. This team has failed to improve this season, and maybe even regressed.

Compare that with the rise of Georgia, Tennessee and LSU, and Alabama’s future as the perennial standard-bearer of the SEC is suddenly in doubt.

It doesn’t take three or four years to build a title contender anymore, and Saban clearly missed in the transfer portal with former Georgia receiver Jermaine Burton. Is Alabama’s best receiver at this point in the season actually tight end Cameron Latu? There isn’t any reason to believe this is Saban’s final season as Alabama’s coach, but the same cannot be said for Alabama offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien.

Alabama trailed 7-6 at halftime, and needed moments of magic from quarterback Bryce Young to have a chance at the end. Young is expected to go pro after this season, and he’ll do it with a Heisman Trophy and an SEC championship as a starter. For anyone, that’s a Hall of Fame career. For Young, who might be Alabama’s best quarterback of the Saban era, it feels incomplete without a national championship as Alabama’s QB1.

No one had LSU rebounding this quickly following the final season under former coach Ed Orgeron, but Kelly is probably the coach of the year in the SEC with his victory against Saban. I’ll give the coach of the day award to Auburn’s Carnell Williams, though.

While LSU’s fans rushed the field in Baton Rouge, Auburn was in Starkville storming from behind against the Bulldogs. The Tigers trailed Mississippi State 24-6 in the third quarter. On Monday, Auburn fired Bryan Harsin as head coach and promoted Williams to interim boss. In that second half, Williams proved he belonged.

It was beautiful the way Williams’ team fought for its new coach. Auburn took the lead 33-30 with 1:05 left in the fourth quarter, but too much time remained. The game finished as a loss for Auburn and Williams, but it felt like a great victory for the Tigers from a seat in the press box high above LSU’s stadium.

Joseph Goodman is a columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of “We Want Bama: A season of hope and the making of Nick Saban’s ‘ultimate team’”. You can find him on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr.