This is an opinion column.

There are facts, and there is truth. They can look awfully similar, like virtual identical twins, but subtle differences can set them apart. Which brings us to the dawn of another Iron Bowl week that looks terribly familiar. Alabama’s chasing conference and national championships. Auburn’s striving to make its season by breaking Alabama’s heart.

It is a fact that Hugh Freeze’s first Auburn team just lost a guarantee game as a 25 ½-point favorite to New Mexico State. It is also a fact that Nick Saban’s first Alabama team lost a guarantee game to Louisiana Monroe as a 24 ½-point favorite.

In the search for a silver lining to New Mexico State 31, Auburn 10, some of the more hopeful members of the Auburn family have seized upon Louisiana Monroe 21, Alabama 14 as a painful parallel with the potential to become a powerful precedent.

It is at this point that the truth arrives with bad intentions not unlike New Mexico State quarterback Diego Pavia introducing himself to Auburn cornerback Nehemiah Pritchett. In one of Saturday’s defining sequences, Pritchett intercepted Pavia and halfheartedly started a return as whistles blew the play dead. Pavia, a former high school wrestling champion, wholeheartedly picked up Pritchett and body-slammed him to the turf.