How Auburn's Resilience Culminated in Win over Texas A&M

The Auburn Tigers didn't give up on their season after the rough start, and they were rewarded for it on Saturday

The determination to turn the season resulted in a thrilling upset win for the Auburn Tigers / Jake Crandall/ Advertiser / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Auburn Tigers' ability to close out games this season has been non-existent, a factor that has led to most of its losses this season.

After the Tigers blew a 21-0 lead against Texas A&M, it looked as though another winnable game had slipped through their grasp. That obviously was not the case, however, as they drove down the field for a game-tying field goal by Ian Vachon and then outlasted the Aggies in quadruple overtime.

Being able to close out a game like this is a sign of improvement made by the Tigers as the season has continued.

“I think our kids are starting to play with more of a will to win and believing that they can,” Freeze said. “Not sure exactly what caused that. I'd love to play some of those games over. I think we could be sitting here with one or two losses and feeling pretty good about the season. But we didn't get it done. But we did tonight, against a really good football team.”

Safety Jerrin Thompson, who finished the game with 11 tackles and an interception, knows the willingness of the team to stick with it and not give up despite the start Auburn had to the season has made the Tigers better.

“It just shows you the steps we done took all year,” Thompson said. “We didn't start the way we wanted to this year, but this team just continue to fight and have faith in one another and Coach Freeze and all our coaches do a good job of preparing us and at the end of the day, it's just us finishing and that's what we prove to everybody that we have to kept team of beating anybody in our conference and we show up and in our mindset and have the energy. 

“It's going to be hard to beat us. We play real good complementary football tonight, and I think that's one thing that gave us the edge.”

After Auburn has been close to coming out on top but ultimately fallen short multiple times this season, finally getting the job done leaves an even sweeter taste in the mouths of the Tigers.

“Credit to the guys for being resilient and playing their tails off,” quarterback Payton Thorne said. “It’s nice to come out on the right side of one of these. We’ve been close a few times and we were able to get it done tonight. It was fun.”

With their hopes of qualifying for a bowl game intact heading to Tuscaloosa, the Tigers will give Alabama everything they have in the Iron Bowl. Kick off is set for 2:30 p.m. CT and ABC will carry the television broadcast.