{"id":314715,"date":"2025-11-26T11:56:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T11:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/314715\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T11:56:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T11:56:09","slug":"kirk-herbstreit-joey-galloway-reveal-how-nervous-alabama-should-be-for-iron-bowl-vs-auburn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/314715\/","title":{"rendered":"Kirk Herbstreit, Joey Galloway reveal how nervous Alabama should be for Iron Bowl vs. Auburn"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Iron Bowl is widely considered among college football\u2019s most prominent rivalry games, on par with The Game between Ohio State<\/a> and Michigan<\/a>. Even in years where neither team is playing for anything but pride, the annual intra-state feud between Alabama<\/a> and Auburn<\/a> always seems to bring the heat.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why this season\u2019s Iron Bowl between the 10th-ranked Crimson Tide (9-2, 6-1 SEC) and unranked Tigers (5-6, 1-6 SEC) still carries plenty of weight. Especially given the implications for both programs.<\/p>\n

Auburn, which fired third-year head coach Hugh Freeze<\/a> on Nov. 2, need a win Saturday to achieve bowl eligibility for the first time since 2023. Meanwhile, Alabama can secure a spot in next week\u2019s SEC Championship Game in Atlanta with a win, and further strengthen its chances of making the College Football Playoff. Of course, the opportunity to play spoiler and ruin the Tide\u2019s season would arguably mean more to the Tigers\u2019 fanbase than any bowl game.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s for all those reasons, as well as the Iron Bowl\u2019s longstanding history of surprising results, that ESPN\u2019s Kirk Herbstreit suggested this year\u2019s rivalry game is a \u201cscary\u201d one for the Crimson Tide.<\/p>\n

\u201cKind of like Ohio State-Michigan, whoever has everything to lose and the other team has nothing to lose, in this game \u2013 Auburn-Alabama and Ohio State-Michigan \u2013 I\u2019ve seen way too many examples of upsets happening,\u201d Herbstreit said on Monday\u2019s episode of the Nonstop podcast with co-host and fellow ESPN analyst Joey Galloway. \u201cBut on paper, anytime (we\u2019re talking about) a rivalry game and (we think) this\u2019ll be a blowout, oh, does that make you nervous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Galloway agreed, and even pointed to Alabama\u2019s inconsistency and propensity to lay an egg in games they should win handedly \u2014 specificially citing last season\u2019s 24-3 loss in Norman to a .500 Sooners squad \u2014 with why the Tide could be on upset alert in Saturday\u2019s Iron Bowl.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen Alabama, even this season, they go and play Oklahoma at home and they just don\u2019t have their fastball,\u201d Galloway added. \u201cSo, I\u2019ve seen Alabama these past few years just not have their fastball sometimes. I would love to say Auburn has no shot, (but) I don\u2019t think that\u2019s the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s because of the reality that a third regular-season loss would likely doom Alabama\u2019s Playoff chances for the second year in a row that both Herbstreit and Galloway suggested Miami fans \u2014 which would likely be among the biggest beneficiaries of the Tide falling out of the mix \u2014 become Auburn fans for a day.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if you\u2019re a Miami fan, go buy your Auburn gear,\u201d Herbstreit said.<\/p>\n

\u201c100-percent,\u201d Galloway agreed. \u201cGo to the game and root for Auburn.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Iron Bowl is widely considered among college football\u2019s most prominent rivalry games, on par with The Game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-314715","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}