How Auburn celebrated its tenth anniversary by bringing back the Kick Six football
When Auburn University’s athletics marketing staff started organizing for the Kick Six’s tenth anniversary in the summer, they had the idea.
Auburn’s senior associate athletic director for marketing and revenue generation, Daniel Watkins, stated that the university needed to come up with a special way to commemorate the most well-known play in its history. Chris Davis and Ricardo Louis, two legendary Auburn players, spoke with the staff. Then it dawned on them to show off the football that Davis had run 109 yards across the field at Jordan-Hare Stadium. They intended for it to be a component of a future pop-up store that would sell mementos from the historic 2013 game prior to this year’s Iron Bowl.
As AL.com previously revealed, it turned out to be in a storage cabinet inside the Auburn athletics building.
The next step, according to Watkins, was to figure out how to display the ball so that fans could shop for the jerseys of Louis and Davis, two former Auburn players who made a royal tie, as well as other items like a Yeti tumbler with the radio call of the Kick Six printed on the side and snap pictures with it.
Actually, there has never been a proper display of the Kick Six ball. In 2013, following his touchdown, Davis dropped the ball close to the initial “U” in the word Auburn painted in the north endzone. Despite the chaos engulfing the field, nobody managed to pick up the ball until a student serving as the equipment manager had the astute idea to do so.
After that, he returned the ball to Dana Marquez, the head equipment manager at the time, who gave it to Jay Jacobs, the athletic director. Jacobs never displayed the ball or placed it inside a case. He placed it on his desk so that others could snap photos of it and he could review the memories. Plans to display the ball were never carried out after he left Auburn, and sports information director Kirk Sampson ended up keeping it in a storage cabinet.
Watkins stated, “We have to arrange this so that it appears presentable.” “We absolutely do not need someone to pick up the ball and flee. We had several trophy cases around here between the football and basketball offices, which was fortunate for us because we wanted to put in a really nice trophy case.
This marked the next phase in the ball’s ten-year history since it gained notoriety. Since 87,451 people witnessed Davis catch the ball in the back of the south endzone, this was the largest public viewing event.
What comes next, though?
Auburn intended to display the ball in case either in Neville Arena or the recently built Woltosz Football Performance Center, rather than having it stored in a cabinet. However, it never happened due to a pandemic, several athletic director appointments, and changes in football coaching after Jacobs’ departure.
According to Watkins, Auburn is presently thinking about sending the ball to the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta or planning to display it on campus.
As of yet, no choice has been made.
According to Watkins, “it’s one of the most iconic college football plays in football history.” “This fan base holds great sentimental value for the 2013 team that competed on this field ten years ago. They are the SEC winners. They had the Prayer (at Jordan-Hare), in addition to the Kick Six. We have cause for celebration.
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AUBURN, Alabama A book devoted to the Iron Bowl could have three hundred pages or more, with a chapter named for each of the legendary games. Bama Punt, punt. Bo Excessive. Bo, wrong way. The Pinch. The Mistake. The Reverse. Get Six. On and on and on.
The 88th meeting between Alabama and Auburn took place on Saturday, and the writers once again gave it their all. With 32 seconds remaining, Jalen Milroe found Isaiah Bond for a 31-yard touchdown pass on a fourth-and-goal to give the Crimson Tide a thrilling 27–24 victory.
The suggestions for nicknames started coming in right away: The Milthrow. Gravedigger, a reference to the play’s real title, The Nightmare at Jordan-Hare, according to Bond
AUBURN, Alabama A book devoted to the Iron Bowl could have three hundred pages or more, with a chapter named for each of the legendary games. Bama Punt, punt. Bo Excessive. Bo, wrong way. The Pinch. The Mistake. The Reverse. Get Six. On and on and on.
The 88th meeting between Alabama and Auburn took place on Saturday, and the writers once again gave it their all. With 32 seconds remaining, Jalen Milroe found Isaiah Bond for a 31-yard touchdown pass on a fourth-and-goal to give the Crimson Tide a thrilling 27–24 victory.
The suggestions for nicknames started coming in right away: The Milthrow. Gravedigger, a reference to the play’s real title, The Nightmare at Jordan-Hare, according to Bond
As of Saturday night, 4th-and-31, like 2nd-and-26, was the consensus. The Crimson Tide eventually took the lead thanks to this play, which helped them win 10 straight games and rack up an 11-1 regular season record.
“After the game, some strange things have happened here,” Alabama coach Nick Saban remarked. “This is the first time it has gone our way that I can recall.”
This year’s Iron Bowl took place against the backdrop of Kick Six’s tenth anniversary. Stories were written, special videos were produced, and even though the play was Chris Davis’s 100-plus yard return, the crucial moments leading up to it, like T.J. Yeldon’s 24-yard run in which he went out of bounds with one second remaining, were equally significant.
Though a number of crucial elements on Saturday night—such as a botched fourth-down conversion, an inaccurate snap, and a second illegal forward pass—led to a fourth-and-goal from the 31, none of them were more significant than Auburn’s mishandled punt with under five minutes remaining.
Auburn had taken the lead in the game up to that point. With a 5-play, 75-yard scoring drive on their opening play of the second half, the Tigers took the lead. Pre-snap motion threw Alabama’s secondary off-guard, allowing Ja’Varrius Johnson to break free for a 37-yard gain and a subsequent 27-yard touchdown to put Auburn ahead 21-20.
Auburn went on a 16-play, 72-yard drive that took up 8:18 of the game and resulted in a field goal for a 24–20 lead after Alabama missed a field goal attempt. The Tigers ran 12 times for 58 yards on 16 plays. They outran the Tide for 272 rushing yards during the game, or 7.2 per carry (adjusted for sacks).
Terrion Arnold, a cornerback for Alabama, stated, “A lot of shifts, and we weren’t in our gaps, so ultimately, that falls on us.” “I think we need to return, regroup, and re-orchestrate before we can go back and play.”
Alabama’s offense, meanwhile, faltered. The Tide only managed 179 yards in the second half after amassing 272 in the first. They led 20-14 at the beginning of the third quarter after they opened with a field goal. Over the next 13 plays, they managed just 58 total yards, including a 7-play drive that resulted in a missed field goal and two consecutive three-and-outs.
It was James Burnip’s fifth punt of the evening as he entered the field. It didn’t seem like Auburn had summoned enough Jordan-Hare magic to defeat Alabama, that Hugh Freeze would defeat Saban once more, that… well, hang on.
Malachi Moore observed something strange across the field as Alabama prepared to punt.
The senior defensive back for Alabama said afterward, “They put another No. 0 back there.” The other one had been returning punts throughout the entire contest. “It’s his first one, hopefully something goes our way,” was all I could think.
For this punt return, Auburn did, in fact, send out junior receiver Koy Moore rather than junior defensive back Keionte Scott. The two men are wearing No. 0. Scott was the main punt-returner for the Tigers this season, having fielded the previous four punts. Moore had only been involved in six punt returns this year, and that was against Mississippi State in late October.
With nearly five full seconds of hang time, Burnip sent a towering punt down the field. This gave Jihaad Campbell enough time to cover Moore, who waved his hand for a fair catch before falling as the ball arrived. He dropped it, and Campbell picked it up right away.
It was a wise punt, according to Saban. “The hanging time was good.
“In a game like this, it really came down to those few plays,” Auburn’s first-year coach Freeze remarked following the game. Of course, that was essential. With four minutes remaining, we had the ball and a four-point lead. After a few early touchdowns, things are starting to wind down.
Rather, Alabama’s possession on Auburn’s 30-yard line gave them new life. After taking a sack two plays after running for 11 yards on first down, Milroe ran for 19 yards on third-and-20. First-and-goal was set up by Roydell Williams’ conversion of a fourth-and-one.
The last three plays were as follows: a one-yard loss, an 18-yard loss due to a poor snap, and an illegal forward pass that set up a fourth-and-goal from the 31-yard line, then…
“We’ve experienced both good fortune and bad luck,” Saban remarked. “It is true that we were fortunate. But execution still remains the deciding factor.
Saban recalled Saturday night’s game as vividly as he did this one because of how it concluded and because Kick Six was on everyone’s mind for the majority of the week. There were two missed field goals, a turnover on downs, a blocked field-goal attempt, and then the winning play. Auburn only needed one more chance, and they took advantage of it.
