SZVETITZ COLUMN: Huge win salvages season

Gene Chizik needed this win more than anybody.

Well, maybe not.

Chris Todd needed it.

So did Gus Malzahn. And the offense.

Oh, and Ted Roof. And the defense.

The entire team, really. Pretty badly, actually.

As did the entire fan base.

OK, so everyone wearing orange, blue and Halloween costumes Saturday in Jordan-Hare Stadium had to have this win.

Another loss might have been a backbreaker.

Another loss might have caused the real boos to come down harder than the rain that fell before and during the game.

(Would it be Auburn Football 2009 without the wet stuff? Seriously? Somewhere, Noah’s boat is coming along nicely.)

Another loss might have been it for this team.

For all the talk about it not being last year, four losses in a row could have very well caused a ripple in time and sent the Tigers back to 2008.

Another loss would have been bad. Really bad, actually.

But that wasn’t going to happen. At least not Saturday.

Auburn 33. Ole Miss 20.

Auburn six wins.

Auburn bowl eligible.

Auburn back on track. Offense. Defense. Special t … well, let’s not go that far.

“I can’t give our football team enough credit, starting with our seniors and just the way they responded in a tough stretch,” Chizik said. “As we all know, that was the question that everybody wanted to know was, ‘How is your football team going to respond in a tough time?’

“I think today was a great example of the way they were going to respond.”

It’s true. Everyone wanted to know it.

And now we have our answer.

The Tigers could have folded, especially after the first possession when Ole Miss drove it 94 yards on 10 plays for a touchdown.

It would have been easy to pack it in then.

They could have rolled over. They could have shut it down. They could have quit.

They won instead.

“They willed that win,” Chizik said.

And with it, earned back most of the respect they lost after losing to Arkansas, Kentucky and LSU. With the win, against a good Ole Miss team, Auburn stopped the nosedive and leveled out the rest of the season.

They battled. They won.

That’s who they are, Chizik said. It’s what they do, players echoed.

I guess we’re the only ones surprised.

Everyone else in that locker room seemed to know it all along.

And that’s what makes this team so different from — and better than — last year.

Sure, the coaching staff is new. So is the offense. And the defense. But the constant is the players. They know what it was like.

They know how bad it was. And so did everyone else.

And now, they know how good it is and can be.

Last year? Ancient history.

This year? A bowl game.

A much-needed bowl game.

MIKE SZVETITZ is sports editor of the Opelika-Auburn News. He may be reached at or 737-2513.