The Rare Occurance Of Auburn & uat Starting Out 4-0 In The Same Season

[AUChizad]

http://blog.al.com/solomon/2009/09/sec_inside_look_jon_solomon_ti.html

SEC Inside Look, Jon Solomon: Tide, Tigers have rare 4-0 starts
By Jon Solomon -- The Birmingham News
September 30, 2009, 7:15AM

Surviving the first month of this college football season undefeated is akin to dodging a major car wreck. After rubber-necking at the damage, just be thankful you're safe -- for now.

Fourteen teams from Bowl Championship Series conferences remain undefeated, down from 21 last year through four weeks. The list reads like a Who's Who of national title contenders, surprise teams and fortunate cupcake eaters.

There's Kansas, Missouri, Texas and Texas A&M. Cincinnati and South Florida. Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin. UCLA. Florida and LSU. And, yes, Alabama and Auburn.

 

Nick shrugs.jpgNick Saban has his Alabama Crimson Tide at 4-0. How much further can the team go? (The Birmingham News / Mark Almond)It's been 15 years since the rivals both started 4-0. You know what happened leading up to that 1994 Iron Bowl, right? Neither Alabama or Auburn had lost when they met in late November.

No one should pencil in Black Friday 2009 just yet as a play-in for the SEC Championship Game. But there's a lot to be said for surviving the opening month unblemished.

Winning breeds confidence. Winning hides flaws. Winning usually means you have a quarterback. If nothing else, 4-0 is a referendum on Alabama and Auburn being able to trust Greg McElroy and Chris Todd as the schedules become more difficult.

If history plays out, Auburn's fast start won't be a fluke. In each of the past 13 seasons that Auburn has started 4-0, the Tigers have won at least nine games and finished in The Associated Press Top 25. They wound up a top-10 team in 10 of those 13 seasons.

For Alabama, 4-0 starts have yielded 10 wins or more in seven of the past eight instances. The Crimson Tide finished in the top 10 in six of those eight seasons.

Simultaneous 4-0 starts by Alabama and Auburn are rare. This is only the eighth time it has happened in the past 87 years, joining 1994, '93, '86, '74, '72, '71 and '62.

The past six seasons of 4-0 starts by Alabama and Auburn produced at least nine wins and a final top-15 ranking for each team. The teams split the Iron Bowl during those six seasons. No pressure, Gene Chizik.

Unranked Auburn is far from a finished product, but has been a pleasant surprise thanks to a productive offense, a favorable schedule and such low expectations. No. 3 Alabama was a model of consistency in September as national contenders elsewhere fell.

Now Auburn finally hits the road and Alabama faces life without Dont'a Hightower. Maybe those two facts will mean nothing. Maybe in retrospect they'll mean everything.

A year ago, only one of the 21 BCS teams undefeated through four weeks finished with fewer than seven wins. That was 5-7 Colorado, which had a similar start as Auburn's in '09 (every game in its state and a win over West Virginia).

Twelve of the 21 teams that survived the first month undefeated last year ended with at least nine wins. But three of the teams with fewer than nine wins play in the SEC: Kentucky, LSU and Vanderbilt.

The multi-car wreck always looms in college football. Should it hit this state, the bliss of September will feel so long ago.

[Kaos]

I think somebody should tell him this is a half-ass wikipedia article...

  :thumbsup:

[wesfau2]

I think somebody should tell him this is a half-ass wikipedia article...

  :thumbsup:

You just can't stop yourself, I guess.

[Kaos]

You just can't stop yourself, I guess.

What do you want me to do?  Seriously? 

That article is very similar what we have posted on our front page with the exception of adding where Bama is in regard to 4-0 -- a concept about which I give not one single shit. 

So what should I say in regard to that? 

[wesfau2]

What do you want me to do?  Seriously? 

That article is very similar what we have posted on our front page with the exception of adding where Bama is in regard to 4-0 -- a concept about which I give not one single shit. 

So what should I say in regard to that? 

Say whatever you want...really.

I just think it's funny that he's proving you right on this point.  That's all.