The annual Iron Bowl rivalry started early this year, when my uncle started teasing me at my cousin’s wedding two weeks ago. I had just watched us barely beat Mississippi State, so I wasn’t saying a word. I love my team, but this year I had a bad feeling.

I turned on my TV Saturday afternoon, and it wasn’t long before I saw Auburn start pulling those tricks out of their hat. When they did the jump throw and scored first, I texted my friends and said “What the heck are we doing?!” Instead of responding with a “we got this,” they told me the atmosphere there was insane, and they had a bad feeling.

It’s not that we weren’t going to cheer until we were blue in the face, because we still were, but sometimes that gut feeling just hits you.

I watched us score and tie it up 7-7, then I watched them score, us score, and them again twice more. It was hard to watch, because you want your team to do so well, but I knew Auburn had outplayed us. It didn’t help we had players injured, but they’ve been injured for a while, so we should’ve been able to work around that by now.

I wasn’t really sad until Nick Saban had his press conference. As a student at University of Alabama there were faculty members who were similar to parents of the whole school. The school’s mom was Judy Bonner, President and the school’s dad was Nick Saban, coach.

In reality, children hate to hear their parents are disappointed in them, but it’s even sadder to see them blame themselves for not raising you to know better or do better. That was the sadness all Saban’s children (the students) felt after that press conference.

Coach Saban was quoted as saying, “I’m sorry I could not do a better job as a coach and a leader to help them play better in this game.”

All my friends tweeted his quote and said they were crying. It’s true, though. How could you not cry after a man who has won numerous National Championships still feels disappointed in himself for “not doing a good enough job.”

Coach Saban, from the bottom of my heart you did a great job! Maybe the players need to get out there and practice more and have the want that you do.

Like I said, I love my team, but I haven’t heard one player say “Coach Saban we messed up too and should’ve had that.” Take responsibility boys! He is still trying to get the team to the National Championship, so you better work hard and show your gratitude.

My hats go off to Auburn for their win, but I surely hope the Dawgs rip them to shreds after their tacky storming of the field.

The school got fined $250,000 for their little charade, but it’s still not enough. It’ll only be enough when they lose and Alabama takes the title of National Champions home again.