NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Nexstar) – Kayla Anderson and correspondents from around the southeast get you ready for another exciting weekend of SEC football on a special Thanksgiving edition of Southeastern Stream Live!
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, some of the biggest college football rivals will still be played Saturday.
Alabama versus Auburn – it’s one of the best rivalries in the SEC. A win means bragging rights for a full year. However, this will be the first time the Crimson Tide will be without it’s coach during the Iron Bowl.
Nick Saban has tested positive for COVID-19. As of Wednesday, he has been experiencing mild symptoms and is isolating at home.
The Iron Bowl will still happen on Saturday with Steve Sarkisian, offense coordinator, taking over head coaching duties for Saban.
Alabama heading into the game ranked No. 1 in College Football Playoff rankings. Auburn comes in at No. 22 in the CFP. Alabama leads the Iron Bowl series 46-37-1.
While Bama fans want to forget about last year’s loss to Auburn, Saban said his team has learned from the loss. “We couldn’t make plays when we needed to make them. We gave them a couple pick sixes for touchdowns,” he added, “There’s a lot to be learned in every game that you play, and there is a lot of lessons for us to learn from that game. We’ve got to be able to execute better to have success in this game.”
Beating Bama is one of the top priorities for any Auburn coach. Former Auburn head coach Tommy Tubberville had arguably the most success against the Tide. He won 7-3 against Bama with six straight wins at one point.
“Every day that game is brought up – whether it’s from an assistant coach, the head coach or something on the bulletin board. When players come to practice, every day that needs to be the point of concern for the year. That one game – no matter how else you play – that one game,” Tubberville told WIAT.
The Iron Bowl kicks off in Bryan-Denny Stadium at 2:30pm (cst).
The Egg Bowl rivalry may not be as old as the Iron Bowl rivalry, but it’s pretty close.
The battle between Ole Miss and Mississippi State dates back to 1901. In 2020, they’ll meet again. However, in a year of so many firsts in the SEC, there’s another one for the Egg Bowl. Both teams will take the field with two new head coaches.
It will be the first Egg Bowl meeting between the Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin and the Bulldogs head coach Mike Leach. But, it’s not the first time these coaches crossed paths. The last time they coached against each other was in 2013, when Leach’s Washington State squad edged Kiffin and USC.
Kiffin reflected on that meeting this week, “Little-known fact that the last time we played, you’d think there would’ve been a lot of points. Actually, we lost to him 10-7, and if I recall, we threw a pick-six in the game. So, we only scored seven, and they only scored three on offense, which would probably surprise people. That game didn’t help my longevity of my career at USC. I think that was two games before I got fired. That didn’t go over real well, losing in The Coliseum to Washington State. It’s our turn to win.”
Meanwhile, Leach is coming off a great showing in Georgia, and he will try to win this game for a third time in a row. Something the Bulldogs have only done twice since 1941.
Despite the tensions, Leach and Kiffin seem to genuinely like each other, “You try to avoid as many boring people as you can. Lane’s not boring.So, I’ve always been excited to spend time with him. If you’re stuck at one of these coaches meeting things that everybody pretends are so important, Lane lightens it up a little bit. I for one am happy that he’s at the coaches meetings,” Leach said.
Watch the Ole Miss Rebels host the Mississippi State Bulldogs as they battle for the Golden Egg at 3pm (cst) Saturday.
Vanderbilt University’s rivalry game against the Tennessee Volunteers has been postponed. The Commodores will now travel to Missouri on Saturday for an 11 a.m. CT matchup, as Missouri’s previously-scheduled game against Arkansas has also been postponed.
That means the Volunteers will enter a third bye week of the season. Tennessee has now lost five straight games by ten or more points for the first time in program history. But, head coach Jeremy Pruitt said his guys remain confident, “These guys work extremely hard. They prepare the right way. They compete at practice. They’re smart guys.” He added, “One thing that we try to do after games – we’ll do it today – we will have a meeting on things that we done really good and things that we done really bad. More times than not, it’s all about us, it’s not about the other team.”
Watch Southeastern Stream LIVE on this post today at 2 p.m. CST/3 p.m. EST.
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