Alabama Quarterback Keelon Russell (12) in action against Florida State at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, AL on Saturday, Sep 19, 2026. (Photo by Crimson Tide Photos / UA Athletics)
The rivals of the Iron Bowl hosted the rivals of the Sunshine Showdown on Saturday with storm delays and drama with Bama surviving and Auburn leaving with gator bite marks.
After an upset loss to Florida State in last year’s opener down in Tallahassee, FL the tenth ranked Crimson Tide looked the get back at the Seminoles but it wasn’t easy early.
After an hour and 45 minutes storm delay, the Noles came out swinging going up 21-6 at the 9:42 mark in the second quarter thanks to a strong game by former Auburn quarterback Ashton Daniels who started against the Tide in last year’s Iron Bowl. Bama would finally cross the goal line on their next drive.
Then the game was stopped for a 34-minute lightening delay. The Tide came out of the locker room after that on fire. Include the touchdown before the delay, Alabama would outscore Florida State 20-0 in the final 2:36 of the first half to lead 26-21 at the half.
The Noles would then take the opening drive for the second half down the field to retake the lead on a 75 yard 5:02 drive. After that the Tide took over the game.
Bama out scored FSU 24-7 the rest of the game highlighted by a 57-yard touchdown run by quarterback Keelon Russell and winning 50-36.
The highlight of the game for Alabama was Russell. 23 of 30 for 320 yards and three passing touchdowns along with 67 on the ground with a touchdown.
The concern for the Tide’s rushing game should be put to bed after this game as they ran for 247 yards with freshman running back Trae’shawn Brown leading the way with 88 yards and a touchdown.
As for the defense which had been lights out through the first two games, they had trouble stopping the Noles through the air. 377 passing yards allowed while FSU was also 8 for 15 on third down after Bama had only allowed one third down conversion in the prior two games.
The slow starts have been the biggest question around the Tide so far and coach Kalen DeBoer spoke about that in his post-game press conference saying that their practices have been built around starting fast.
“Sometimes I think our eyes were in the wrong spot” and gave FSU credit for playing well and noted their week off last week maybe playing a hand in helping them.
Bama will be at home again this Saturday night at 6p.m. against the South Carolina Gamecocks on ESPN. Alabama has beat South Carolina the last two seasons with Bama needing a last second score to win the Columbia, SC last season.
Auburn welcomed the Florida Gators to Jordon-Hare Stadium for the first time since 2011 and the overcome their own flaws in a 44-39 loss.
Florida intercepted senior quarterback Byrum Brown on the first drive of the game to set them up in Tigers territory. The Gators would put it in on that drive to go up 7-0 early on a rushing touchdown by junior running back Jadan Baugh.
Auburn would get an interception on Florida’s next drive but were only able to get a field goal out of it thanks to two sacks.
Sacks have become the Achilles heel for the Tigers so far giving up seven in this game and leading the football bowl subdivision (FBS) with 13 sacks through three games as mentioned in a story about that topic by Justin Ferguson on the Auburn Observer.
Ultimately Florida would lead at the half 20-17 after both teams traded body blows. Florida would come out of the half needing only three plays to extend their lead to 10.
A three and out for Auburn gave Florida the ball back where they’d take it 69 yards on 12 plays to help double up Auburn halfway through the third quarter.
Photo by Bryce Mitchell/Auburn Tigers
Back to back drives with Auburn and Florida punching into the endzone but Auburn was never able to fully get back into the game as the lead was too much to overcome.
Despite being sacked seven times, Brown had a good game going 20-35 for 271 with three touchdowns and one interception.
Baugh showed he was the real deal rushing for 164 and three touchdowns on 26 carries for Florida.
“The expectation here is to go win that game,” Auburn coach Alex Golesh said in the post-game press conference. “We didn’t start well enough offensively, got ourselves in the hole, really inefficient offensively in the first quarter on first down. Got into some holes on second-and-long and just couldn’t get out of them.”
Auburn will look to get back in the win column at home against the Vanderbilt Commodores Saturday at 3:15 on the SEC Network. Vandy has won the last two years against Auburn.
