View full sizeAuburn
defensive end Nosa Eguae (94) and Auburn defensive lineman Nick Fairley
(90) celebrate the 28-27 victory over Alabama in the Iron Bowl at
Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Friday, Nov. 26, 2010. (The
Birmingham News/ Mark Almond) AUBURN,
Alabama -- The Auburn Tigers' national championship hopes were dissolving before their eyes. They were down 21-0 to Alabama at Bryant-Denny Stadium and seemed to have no answer for a Crimson Tide offense that scored touchdowns on its first three drives of the game.It was the day after Thanksgiving 2010, and the Tigers were getting stuffed.
Nosa Eguae, starting at defensive end as a redshirt freshman, joined his defensive teammates on the sidelines as Auburn's offense took the field. But instead of looking for new ways to slow down Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson, Auburn defensive tackle Nick Fairley had something else on his mind.
"We were just sitting there, nobody was really talking, and Nick Fairley said, 'What are y'all thankful for?'" Eguae recalled. "With the crowd screaming, us being down 21 points, us knowing that we were going to have to come back to win this game, he asked us all what we were thankful for."
Auburn defensive tackle Jeffery Whitaker said the discussion was actually a continuation of one that had begun a day earlier, on Thanksgiving Day.
"A
couple of us went around and said what they were thankful for, then we had to go into meetings or something like that," Whitaker said. "We came back that night and couldn't finish it. Then we came back that morning (and) it just so happened we couldn't finish it because we started back over."We were sitting on the sidelines and everybody's got their heads down, and Nick just said, 'Hey, man, what are we thankful for? Let's finish that up.' And everybody went around and told what they were thankful for. At the end of the deal, he just said, 'Let's go on and play ball. Let the chips fall where they may.'"
That turnaround in Tuscaloosa on the way to the 2010 national championship became Auburn's Ultimate Moment.
The timing may have been odd, what with the Iron Bowl and its national championship implications to worry about, but one by one the Tiger defenders shared those things for which they were most thankful.
For Eguae, it was his family.
"That was the first time I had my whole family at a game," he said. "It meant so much to me, and I'm definitely thankful for it."
For Fairley, who had not qualified academically coming out of high school at Williamson and played two years in junior college before coming to Auburn, it was the opportunity to play with his teammates on the Plains.
"He just talked about the guys around him," Eguae said. "Guys like him who were up for all these postseason awards, picked to be the No. 1 pick, he didn't talk about that. He didn't talk about the great season he was having. He talked about guys playing next to him, his friends on the football team and how he's cherishing the moment. It was deep."
View full sizeAlabama
running back Mark Ingram (22) fumbles the ball as he is hit by Auburn
defensive end Antoine Carter (45) in the second quarter the Iron Bowl at
Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Friday, Nov. 26, 2010. The
ball went through the endzone for a touchback. (The Birmingham News/
Mark Almond)From
that point on, the Tigers allowed only six points the rest of the game. On the next series, Antoine Carter ran down Ingram from behind and stripped the ball on a 41-yard pass play in which it looked as though Ingram might score. Two possessions after that, Fairley forced and recovered a fumble near the Auburn goal line to thwart another Alabama drive.After trailing 24-0 in the second quarter, Auburn went on to rally for a thrilling 28-27 win.
Not only did Auburn's defense play better in the second half, it played well the rest of the season. A Tiger unit that had given up loads of points in victories over Kentucky and Arkansas allowed just 17 points in an SEC championship game rout of South Carolina and shut down high-powered Oregon 22-19 in the BCS national title game.
"After you come back from 24 points and you're able to pretty much shut down an offensive like Alabama's -- which was prolific, which had three first-rounders -- we hung our hats on that," Eguae said.
"We worked so hard. Guys would start being accountable. So when you make a mistake, you watch film, you learn from your mistake and you didn't make the mistake again.
"Going into the SEC championship, we were able to go out there and play good defense. Going into the BCS championship, we were able to go out there and play good defense. It goes back to the Alabama game."
We may never know exactly how much Fairley's sideline speech had to do with the Tigers' comeback against Alabama. But Eguae and Whitaker will never forget it.
"That was my most memorable (moment) from last year -- not winning the championship game, but winning the Iron Bowl and what (Fairley) said when we were down there," Whitaker said. "A lot of people say character is defined when something is going wrong. Well, something was going bad and he showed great character."
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(Auburn Bureau reporter Evan Woodbery contributed to this report.)
