There have been plenty of classic Iron Bowls that were in non-championship years. And you mean non-national championship year. Bama still did win the SEC championship and that is a big deal. The 1984 and 1985 Iron Bowls were classics in years Bama had no chance of winning a national championship. Same thing with 1996, which was my first Iron Bowl and a game I will never forget. In 1996, no one cared that Bama had no chance at a national championship, we just wanted to win a big rivalry game.
14, 85, and 94 are probably the greatest IBs in history in terms of games that Alabama has won. All 3 have 3 things in common. 1) equal teams 2) actual tension 3) non NATIONAL championship years. While 94 has kinda lost its luster because 96 and 99 had more important narratives, it still was a great game with real tension and stakes between two equal teams.
96 and 99 are the two most important IBs in the 90’s for most Bama fans because 96 was a great ending and Stallings last IB. And 99 we broke the curse at JHS. 96 is still one of my favorites.
21’s tension really is BoB screwing us over on the road like he has done in pretty much every road game in the last 2 years. Auburn had a lead with a minute left with Finley as their quarterback and only 10 points. 9 other teams scored more points vs Auburn that year than we did vs them in regulation. This isn’t one of those bogus “throw out the record book” lines that we try to tell ourselves. It really was an OC out of his depth.
Had the drive happened 3-4 minutes earlier then absolutely no one would consider it a great game. Everyone would basically look at it how we look at the aTm and Texas games from this year… needless gut checks against vastly inferior opponents because of dumb play calling and execution.
Calling the 21 IB a great game is like calling the 09 Tennessee game a great game. It is remembering key emotional points and forgetting how boring 99% of the game actually was. It’s okay, but it’s still hard to watch the game outside of very condensed highlights.
