SZVETITZ COLUMN: Rivalry big no matter the record

All right, you’ve taken the record book, trampled it, ripped out all the pages and tossed the cover out the window.

You don’t need to be reminded that in rivalry games anything can, and usually does, happen. You already know.

Even if the favored team is undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the state.

Even if the underdog is playing at home with its playoff life potentially hanging in the balance.

Even if the whole state will be checking in throughout the game because it’s just that big.

None of that really matters when two rivals meet. Right?

Right.

It’s big because it’s, well, big.

It’s a given.

Just like tonight’s Auburn-Opelika game.

It’s big just because it’s Auburn-Opelika. It’s one of the best, toughest rivalry games in Alabama high school football.

Period.

No hype will make it any bigger. Any more important. Any more ginormous.

But we’ll try anyway.

See, just when you want to forget about the stats, records and implications this game holds, they come flying back in your face like tossing a cup full of water into a stiff breeze.

Tonight’s game is full of those outside factors.

Auburn’s No. 1 in Class 6A for the first time in school history. The Tigers haven’t lost a regular-season game since Opelika beat them on Oct. 26, 2007.

In short, Auburn High is good. Really good.

Opelika’s no slouch either. While it’s lost two games this season, the Bulldogs did beat Class 5A’s No. 1 team. They also have beaten Auburn in 15 of the last 20 meetings.

So there’s more than bragging rights on the line tonight.

Opelika would love to ruin Auburn’s first week at the top of the polls by handing the Tigers their first loss. Just like Auburn would love to get its second consecutive win over the Bulldogs to cement the fact that the Tigers aren’t Opelika’s whipping boy, anymore.

While Auburn High already has a first-round home playoff game wrapped up as a No. 1 seed, Opelika’s postseason fate is anything but clear.

The only way the Bulldogs can get in for sure is to win tonight. If they lose, a lot of other things have to happen, which you’ll need a protractor, calculator and abacus to figure out.

So, in the most simple (and poetic) terms, Opelika needs to win to be in.

So, go ahead and throw one more log onto that already hot fire.

“This one, because of the implications that are involved — the playoffs on our side — and then for Auburn being undefeated, I think there’s a lot involved in the outside things that make this game that much bigger,” Opelika head coach Brian Blackmon said.

But just like any and all coaches, Blackmon and Auburn coach Tim Carter aren’t focusing on anything but four quarters of football. All the other stuff won’t mean anything when toe meets leather at 7 p.m.

“I don’t think you can make this game more intense,” Carter said. “These kids have grown up together, some of them have played in Little League and rec basketball together, there are a lot of friendships that cross the city lines, and there’s nothing better than beating your buddy. All that motivational talk goes out the window when the game starts. It’s about execution and focus and blocking and tackling, and that’s what it’ll amount to. Whoever does that best will win.”

Blackmon agrees.

“We haven’t made a big issue about trying to knock off the No. 1 team,” Blackmon said. “We’re focusing on beating our crosstown rival and getting to the playoffs. We look forward to the challenge.”

So is everyone else, with record books in hand.

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