Nostalgia Friday: 1987 Auburn vs. Georgia Tech
by Jay Coulter
on Mar 14, 2008 6:13 AM CDT
in Nostalgia Friday
By Jay Coulter
jccoulter@gmail.com
Today’s Nostalgia Friday looks at the 1987 Auburn-Georgia Tech game which produced one of the most famous Auburn calls of all time. Jim Fyffe’s "Tillman! Tillman! Tillman! at the baseline of the end zone...." can still be heard around Auburn tailgates today.
Auburn was trailing Tech with about 24 ticks on the clock when quarterback Jeff Burger found Lawyer Tillman in the back of the end zone. Future NFL number one overall pick Aundray Bruce picked off two passes that day in leading fifth-ranked Auburn to a 20-10 win at Grant Field.
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The people have spoken! This is one of the greatest Auburn games that no one ever saw. It wasn't televised. You had to be there or have had the radio in your ear.
Aundray Bruce had a career in this game. This is probably the one game that made him the #1 pick in the 1988 NFL draft. Two interceptions, including the game ender--65 yard return for a TD, outrunning Tech QB Rick Strom--plus a whole slew of tackles.
Auburn was trailing 10-7 late in the 4th quarter and Jeff Burger was orchestrating a very intense drive. Following the Alabama game the previous year, we just loved to run the reverse in situations like that--in the red zone. I fully expected it, but instead, Burger found Tilman in the end zone with a bullet of a pass. It must have surprised Jim Fyffe, too--hence his immortal call.
The second video doesn't exactly get the highlights in game-chronological order, but we're lucky to have them, I guess. Whoever made the video apparently stole the music from Disney, the soundtrack from Jaws, and some 80s pornos...
by War Eagle Atlanta on Mar 14, 2008 11:31 AM CDT 0 recs
Outstanding!
.....I had remembered the Tillman X 3 radio call wrong, I guess. Aundray Bruce did make some crazy-good plays. That clinching TD, though, looked like a "right place/right time" deal. Much more impressive was him showing rush, then peeling off to cover a back out of the backfield, and getting the interception. That was amazing!
.....After doing a little digging, it appears I had merged the call from the 1986 Tillman 34-yard TD against Tech, with the 1987 call, in my brain. Our Youtube friends haven't gotten around to putting that somersaulting freakshow up, yet!
by Acid Reign on Mar 15, 2008 9:12 AM CDT 0 recs
Hey Acid: Question for you, Jay, Todd, et. al...
Give me your answer for the following:
Ever seen in person:
Ever seen, period:
Damnedest Finish:
Best game that was a loss or tie:
For me:
Best game live: 1993 Florida
Best Ever: 1994 Florida
Damnedest: 1994 LSU
Loss or tie: 1997 Tennessee SEC title game
by War Eagle Atlanta on Mar 15, 2008 12:56 PM CDT 0 recs
Historia!
.....Best ever seen in person: 1st quarter of the 2005 Iron Bowl. I was literally hyperventilating in the stands. 21-0 lead over hated Alabama! Sack, sack, sack, sack, sack. Jump ball TD, 9-yard crash up the gut TD, spectacular end-around monumental-blocks TD! Thought it was going to happen that day, but I'm still waiting for another blow-out of Bama in my lifetime...
.....Best Ever: I'm going to have to agree with War Eagle Atlanta on this one. That 1994 win over No. 1 in the Swamp was incredible. We had no business hanging with the Gators. But there we were, slugging it out like equals on national TV! I was exhausted and elated, at the end.
.....Damnedest: The 48-7 loss in Gainesville in 1990. I was the first member of the family to get cable TV. I had every family member in town and then some over to watch it. I had cooked all day, and had a FEAST laid out. Auburn was 6-0-1, ranked #3 in the nation, and No.s 1 and 2 had lost during the afternoon. It was an electric orange and blue party atmosphere. We expected to win. This was the Dye era. We were gunning for our 4th SEC title in a row! And... we got SHELLED. Staggered. Crushed. It was arguably the worst first half in Auburn history. It was a blow that knocked Auburn off the top of the hill in the SEC, and signaled the decline of the Dye era. The Dye administration never recovered from that blow. There was doubt, from there on out, and we were very average till the end.
.....Best loss: The 1979 Iron Bowl. Bama was tops, but we hung with them all game long, in a brutal showdown. I was there. The noise was deafening. Joe Cribbs broke a big punt return late, and we took an 18-17 lead with about 3 minutes left. Despite a valiant defensive effort, Bama hammered out a tough, length of the field TD drive, and punctuating 2-point conversion, for the 25-18 win, en route to SEC and National championships. You had to hand it to them. They did what they had to do. But what a game, what an atmosphere!
by Acid Reign on
Mar 15, 2008 3:09 PM CDT
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Answers
Best game live: 2006 Florida
Ever seen: 2006 Florida
Side note: best football game I've ever seen, period, regardless of Auburn being in it or not: 2007 Fiesta Bowl, Boise St./Oklahoma
Damnedest: 2005 LSU
Loss or tie: 1996 Georgia
Biggest kick to the stomach loss: Either 2003 USC or 2003 Georgia Tech, my first two games as an Auburn student
Most enjoyable game: 2005 Alabama or 2004 Tennessee (in Knoxville)
by PowerOfDixieland on
Mar 17, 2008 5:25 PM CDT
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Can't argue with those, either.
.....I was present at 2006, Florida, too. Frankly, I was sick with worry, for much of it! I know, I went down there the week after the Arkansas debacle, not expecting much, but still! We flat couldn't stop 'em in the first half. We were dinking and dunking it pretty well, and eating the clock, but I thought that we were lucky to still be in it at the half. We shook Chris leak up on UF's first offensive series. They failed to block Groves. Then we got two critical calls in our favor, first, the no call on Trey Smith's flip, then, more importantly, the Leak fumble. Leak came apart after that one! I was still on the edge of my seat till the scoop 'n' score at the end...
.....There's an interesting parallel between 1996 AU/UGA, and the 2007 Fiesta. If the other team has already gotten the TD and PAT, and you're the underdog (and getting more fatigued by the second) you go for two and end it. Boise did. And Tubs did it in the Peach, last New Year's Eve, too. Bowden flunked that test. It was clear that we were past running on fumes in OT against UGA. We had NO depth, thanks to probation and injuries. UGA had run though us like a knife through hot butter, twice. When we scored to pull within 41-42, I was hopping up and down SCREAMING for us to go for two. Nope, Bowden kicked the tying PAT, even though it was clear that we had lost the fatigue battle on both sides of the line of scrimmage...
.....Two things could have won that UGA game before the 4th quarter. First, with a 28-7 lead going into the half, we were calling timeout on UGA to try and get the ball back. Spurrier-level greed, there. UGA managed to punt us deep. Did we play smart football and run the clock out? No. Despite having a walk-on tackle on one side, and a freshman on the other, Bowden called a 4-wide roll-out pass, deep in our own end, and Craig coughed it up and handed UGA an easy TD to pull within 14. The second thing was the Jarrett Holmes miss in the 3rd quarter that would have made it a 17-point lead. Yeah, the zebras incorrectly stopped the clock prior to UGA's hail-mary play, but we botched it on executive decisions, even more so!
.....My biggest kick to the stomach game: 1980, Tennessee in Auburn. We were supposed to be a contender, at that point. Brooks for Heisman! Yeah, we had piddled around and barely beat Duke 35-28, the week before, but that didn't matter, did it? The 42-0 shellacking the Vols put on us was the worst Auburn football loss of my lifetime. We didn't give up more points till Spurrier, and still haven't lost by 42 since. (I was afraid UGA was going to eclipse it, for a while, last fall.)
.....I do have to agree that the those first two 2003 games were horrible, especially against a terrible QB and mediocre Jacket team. USC was good, and after the first play, when you HAD to see that they had our line calls down, and you knew that game was not going to turn out well for our offense.
.....That Knoxville game was great. One thing about Gene Chizik was that he could rattle QBs like no one we've ever had. Ainge and Shaeffer were SHOOK! It was hysterical! Other 2004 "shook up" victims included Marcus Randall (thanks, Bret Eddins!), Matt Jones, Andre Woodson, and David Greene.
War Eagle
by Acid Reign on
Mar 17, 2008 8:56 PM CDT
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2nd Best
The second best game for me that was a loss or tie was that Tennessee tie in 1990, a few games before that blow-out in Gainesville. We fought very hard to come back and tie that game. Then we go and get that rude introduction to the Old Ball Coach a few weeks later.
I think I remember you talking about that 1979 Alabama game. We did hang in there pretty well, considering they were about to win their second consecutive NC. It's a shame that I didn't become an Auburn fan until 6 years after that!
As far as my damnedest finish, I forgot to mention that the 1994 LSU game was otherwise known as the Interception Game. I'm hoping that will make it on a future episode of Nostalgia Friday!
by War Eagle Atlanta on Mar 15, 2008 4:34 PM CDT 0 recs
I remember those.
.....The UT game was cool, too. It was on TV. We did not look like we belonged, early, a lot like the 1989 game. I think UT got way ahead, and got cocky for a while. Dye and Co. just turned Stan White loose in the 2nd half, and he was throwing it up for grabs. Fortunately, it was Herb Casey, and especially Greg Taylor, getting those balls. Tennessee started blitzing, but we had veterans Stacey Danley and James Joseph standing stoutly on the max-protect package. We roared back from a 26-9 deficit to tie, with a couple of minutes or so, left. UT drove the length of the field in the final minutes, and should have won it, but missed a chip shot FG. We should have known we weren't a title contender at that point, and even more so, with the cardiac comeback needed to beat La. Tech the next week.
.....I was at work during the LSU interception game, and we couldn't get it on the radio (AM gets NUKED, inside a plant with a ton of big electric motors and 2000 amp power panels!), and the little TV one guy had, broke the week before. I'd head outside the building now and then to catch a listen, but we kept getting farther and farther behind. I think at one point early in the 4th quarter, I went outside, and we were behind 23-9, and had 4 first downs for the game. Bowden yanked Pat Nix, and sent the freshman Craig in. We were promptly at 4th and 10, and punted. Disgusted, I was done slacking off on the job, and put the radio away. I was SHOCKED to find out that we had won, later. And especially HOW we had won!
by Acid Reign on
Mar 15, 2008 7:00 PM CDT
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Nostalgia Friday request
As mentioned earlier, 1994 LSU would be a great one. I'd also like to see either (or both of) the 1989 Iron Bowl or the 1997 Iron Bowl.
by PowerOfDixieland on Mar 17, 2008 11:47 PM CDT 0 recs
Worst Beat-Down
I forgot the Worst Beat-Down category, but you guys picked it up with Kick to the Gut. I think Acid is right with the 1980 Tennessee game, but the worst one I ever saw was the 1987 FSU game that we were talking about the other day, 34-6. We were impotent all day, and it cap it off, Tracy Rocker goes down with an ACL.
A close second would be that drubbing by Florida in 1990 that's been mentioned. I can't remember much about that game because I tried real hard to forget it.
Damnedest game is open to many interpretations, including Most Improbable Come-Back as I intended it with the 1994 LSU interception game, or Biggest Load of Crap, which was both the 1996 Georgia overtime game that never ended and the 2005 LSU Five Missed Field Goals game--both solid choices!
The What the hell are we doing losing to these chumps games could be the 2003 GA Tech game, the 2005 Cap One Bowl game with Wisconsin, and the 2006 Georgia game...
Best Bowl Win would have to be a game I never saw, the 1983 Sugar Bowl victory over Michigan, 9-7, to give Auburn 19 national championship selectors, albeit neither one of the two that counted...
I'm sure Acid Reign can give us about 10 paragraphs on that season--whenever you have time, Acid.
by War Eagle Atlanta on Mar 18, 2008 11:49 AM CDT 0 recs
I wonder why Jay and Todd haven't weighed in?
So we're clear, for everyone else that wants to jump in: Auburn games only:
Best game you ever saw in person:
Best game ever:
Damnedest Game (your interpretation):
Biggest Kick to the Gut:
Best Game that We didn't win:
Biggest Load of Crap:
Best Bowl Win:
by War Eagle Atlanta on Mar 18, 2008 11:56 AM CDT 0 recs
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