âHoly sh–, heâs going to go all the wayâ: Auburnâs Pearl, Freeze reminisce on Kick Six
Auburn men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl didn’t have a dog in the fight on Nov. 30, 2013.
Neither did Auburn football coach Hugh Freeze.
And while evidently one of Auburn’s coaches has a better 10-year memory than the other, both do have memories of the iconic game-ending from the 2013 Iron Bowl, which still bears its affectionate Kick Six nickname a decade later.
Unlike Freeze, who said Monday that he was “trying my best” to remember where he was, Pearl “absolutely” remembers where he was and what he was doing that November Saturday night in 2013.
RELATED: Auburn’s players remember where they were during the Kick Six
Pearl, then the head basketball coach at the University of Tennessee was out having dinner with his family in downtown Knoxville.
“We were having dinner at a restaurant that also had some televisions. And so we were actually locked in the entire second half,” Pearl remembered. “And we just couldn’t believe it. Unbelievably entertaining game. The swings that were taking place.”
For those whose memory might be more along the lines of Freeze’s, here’s a brief recap:
After scoring a touchdown in both the first and second quarters, fourth-ranked Auburn allowed top-ranked Alabama to score 21 points in the second quarter, meaning the Crimson Tide had a 21-14 advantage at halftime.
But thanks to a 13-yard touchdown pass from Nick Marshall to CJ Uzomah, the Tigers knotted the ball game up at 21 all early in the third quarter.
The Crimson Tide would climb back on top with 10:28 to play in the fourth quarter as Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron completed a 99-yard touchdown pass to Amari Cooper, giving the away team a 28-21 lead.
Auburn would eventually answer the call with just 32 seconds to play as Marshall hit Sammie Coates for a 39-yard touchdown, which tied the game at 28-28.
On the back of running back TJ Yeldon, the Crimson Tide marched 33 yards downfield to the Tigers’ 38-yard line, where Adam Griffith lined up for his first field goal of the game – a 57-yarder to win the Iron Bowl.
And everyone knows what happened next.
Griffith’s kick didn’t have enough leg, but Auburn’s Chris Davis had enough fuel in the tank to return the miss 109 yards to the house for the game-winning score.
“I just remember looking at that last play and going, ‘Holy sh–, he’s going to go all the way.’,” Pearl remembers.
Meanwhile, once Freeze saw the play, which he doesn’t believe he got to watch live, he knew he had a phone call to make.
“I do remember once I first saw it and found out, I couldn’t wait to call Gus (Malzahn) and say, ‘Man, you’ve got to explain to me how in the world that felt,” Freeze said. “That’s got to be one of the all-time, maybe the all-time greatest finish in college football. It’s definitely top three, I would think. But man, what a finish that was.”
Given Malzahn’s extensive Iron Bowl experience, the two shared a phone call earlier this week.
“I know you’ve been part of a big one across state lines,” Freeze said on Monday’s Tiger Talk radio show, echoing what Malzahn told him. “But this one here’s on another level.”
The Kick Six – or better yet, the impact the 109-yard play still has in the state of Alabama a decade later – is an example of what Malzahn means.
And though Pearl didn’t have direct ties with either Auburn or Alabama ten years ago, he remembers who he was pulling for.
“Being from Tennessee, Alabama was a pretty big rival, so I was probably rooting for Auburn,” Pearl said. “Little did I know, four months later, I’d be coaching here.”