AUBURN, Ala. – For the last three months, you've had an opportunity to listen to some of the best radio calls in Auburn history as a part of the "Greatest Games" series. The series is wrapping up this week with Auburn's 48-45 victory in the 2019 Iron Bowl. Click above to listen to the call.
For Andy Burcham, that call will always hold a special place in his heart because it was his first Iron Bowl call as the Voice of the Auburn Tigers. From a crazy second quarter to Zakoby McClain's 100-yard interception return to the fans storming the field to celebrate, there were so many memorable moments throughout the game.
We caught up with Burcham who took us through a day he won't soon forget.
Gallery: (11-30-2019) Auburn 48, Alabama 45
Q: What makes the Iron Bowl rivalry special?
Burcham: I think one of the things that makes the Iron Bowl special is until 1989 that game for the most part was played in Birmingham – and for Auburn fans, even though there were years where Auburn was the designated home team, I don't think Auburn fans ever felt like Legion Field was a home field for them. And so getting the game, getting Coach [Pat] Dye and moving that game to Auburn made it even more special for Auburn fans outside of just the rivalry with Alabama. I wouldn't know this, but I think it's probably made it special for Alabama, too, to have that game at Bryant-Denny Stadium. The Iron Bowl has always been special, and there are always those great games that folks will talk about, but I think moving those games on campus has made that even more special. Every other year, you're going to get that team on your home field. I'm not sure you can put a value on how important that is, especially for Auburn.
Q: The 2019 Iron Bowl was your first as the Voice of the Auburn Tigers. What went into the preparation for you going into the game?
Burcham: Remember how busy November gets. It's not just football, it's basketball. I think by the time the Iron Bowl had rolled around, Auburn had played six or seven games in basketball at that point and we were all together in Brooklyn the week leading up to the Iron Bowl. So it wasn't just the football game out there. We were very busy with men's basketball in addition to the football season.
But yes, you know going in it's going to be the first Iron Bowl you're going to get to call on the radio side. I called a couple on the tape delay TV side, but this is a different setting. It's just a huge day. So you think about it, and you think about what Jim Fyffe and Paul Ellen and Rod [Bramblett] went through to get ready for that game. It's a lot. You go through a lot of emotions getting ready for that game. And then there's the game itself. I think it almost helped a little bit that there was basketball going on at the same time, and it certainly doesn't hurt that Auburn was still undefeated in basketball at that time. They were playing very well. They had just won their first regular-season tournament in quite some time when they went to Brooklyn and won those games on back-to-back nights. You've got the momentum of that and then you've got the Iron Bowl, and it's Thanksgiving weekend as well. There's a lot that goes into that Iron Bowl game, especially when it's at home.
Q: Let's talk about the game itself. What stood out from the first half?
Burcham: What stands out to me about the first half of that game is the second quarter alone is remarkable. Najee Harris scores and makes it 10-7. Anders Carlson ties the game at 10 with 7:04 to go in the second quarter. From that point – Smoke Monday has the 29-yard interception return giving Auburn a 17-10 lead with 5:36 to go. Jaylen Waddle takes the ensuing kickoff 98 yards, and it's tied at 17. With 4:12 to go, Henry Ruggs goes in from three yards out on a pass from Mac Jones. They're up 24-17. Auburn ties the game with 1:06 to go in the first half on the Bo Nix pass to Sal Cannella. Alabama, with 33 seconds to go in the half, comes back and regains the lead on the 58-yard pass to Jaylen Waddle. And then all of the maneuverings to get one second on the clock, and Carlson hits that 52-yard field goal as time expires. All of that happens in the last seven minutes of the second quarter. It goes from a 10-7 game on Najee Harris' touchdown with 10:16 to go in the second quarter, and at halftime it's 31-27 Alabama. There wasn't a lot of time to even take a breath in that game. There weren't a lot of long drives. There were big plays and wild emotions going back and forth. I remember at halftime going, 'Holy cow, what just happened?' The second quarter alone, you're not going to find a more power-packed quarter of football maybe all season long on both teams' part. You are just calling the game at that point. You are calling what you're seeing in a second quarter like that one.
Q: On to the second half and everything changed when Zakoby McClain took the interception back 100 yards for a touchdown. What do you remember from that call?
Burcham: That's the opposite side of the field from where we are in the press box. So I'm half watching the play from the press box and half watching the play on a monitor we have in the booth that helps us be more exact with down and distance and that type of thing. There are times that I get caught trying to do the play-by-play too quickly, and that's one of those plays. You see the pass thrown – I didn't see until after why Mac Jones had to throw the pass quicker than he wanted because of the pressure from Big Kat – and the ball hits Najee Harris on his hip, he's hardly turned around. So immediately I call incomplete pass, and I'm excited it's an incomplete pass because Alabama's not going to score a touchdown. And then in the next second, the ball bounces up in the air and Zakoby McClain is coming right at us. At that point, you can tell he has several Auburn players blocking for him and Mac Jones is the only one who has any shot at him, and by the 40-yard line going in, it's nothing but green grass. You realize in an instant just how big this play is, how much of a turning point in the game this is, because it looks like Alabama is going to go in and regain the lead and just like that, McClain goes 100 yards in the biggest game of the year with a crowd that's going crazy for a touchdown that gives Auburn the lead.
Q: What was it like in the booth when McClain is running down the sideline? I know it's not the Kick Six, but it was reminiscent of seeing Chris Davis run down the sideline.
Burcham: Well, you've got 100 yards to call a play. You don't get that very often. The way that the play develops, you could see that unless he trips or something like that, he's gone. Mac Jones isn't going to catch up to him. So you kind of know in your mind it's going to be a touchdown call, and yeah, there's excitement in the booth. Everybody is excited in the Auburn booth to be sure. As he gets into the end zone, Stan [White] gives a big whoop and I'm not even sure he realized he had done that until after he looked at the highlight. Zakoby is on the ground and they're piling on top of him. It's an amazing thing to watch.
You hope you're ready to make a call like that. You don't want to mess up that kind of call because folks are going to see that call for a long, long time. The best two examples I have of that are Rod's calls in the Miracle at Jordan-Hare and the Kick Six. I think the Kick Six is probably going to go down as one of the most famous calls in college football history, regardless of Auburn. But you add the Miracle, which is probably top five in Auburn history, and he was ready for both of them. Neither one of those you can think about in your mind, 'Well this could happen next.' You're not thinking of that at the time. You just have to be ready to call it.
Q: When the final seconds tick away, you say "Get ready Toomer's Corner, Auburn is coming for you." Was that spur of the moment? Did you plan that ahead of time?
Burcham: I am not one of those people that has something scripted and just drop it in at that point. That is just something that comes to me. At that moment, you knew there were already people heading to Toomer's Corner. I remember a call that Jim [Fyffe] had after an Iron Bowl, if I'm not mistaken, about rolling Toomer's Corner. Maybe that came into my mind at that point. The only time I can tell you that I had the luxury of thinking about it was North Carolina, Game 3 of the Super Regional, last year. When you score 13 runs in the first, it's hard not to think about, 'OK, how are you going to handle Auburn's first trip to Omaha since 1997?' I thought about that a little bit, but I had no time to think about that with the Iron Bowl because until the penalty that gave Auburn the first down, Alabama still has a shot.
Q: This was your first Iron Bowl call but also the first Iron Bowl without Rod. Did you think about Rod and Paula while you were calling the game or leading up to it?
Burcham: I typically get to the stadium for a home game about five hours before kickoff. Paul Ellen is typically there. So is Patrick Tisdale, our engineer. In this case, Brad [Law] was already in the booth by the time I got there that morning as well. We watched the feature that ESPN did on Jan and myself and the kids and Rod and Paula. That was during College Gameday. I think there were four of us in the booth that morning, so we all watched it. There was just silence in the booth, and as soon as it ended, I said 'All right, it's time to go to work.' I was just saying that for my benefit because then we go next door to the arena to the Auburn Sports Network tailgate party and have a bite to eat there, and then as a group, we will walk across the south end of the stadium to get ready for the Tiger Tailgate show on the east side of Jordan-Hare Stadium. So yes, Rod was certainly on my mind. But for Jan and I, Rod and Paula are in our minds every day. Every single day because Joshua lives with us.
I don't know if he was necessarily in my mind calling that game, but he was after the game. My car is typically parked over at Beard-Eaves Coliseum. So after that game, after postgame and the TV show with Coach Malzahn, by myself I walked from Jordan-Hare Stadium to my car, and the first thought I had was how blessed I was – in spite of the reason, in spite of all the things that had happened since May 25th – how blessed I was to work with a crew that I get to work with. Stan and Ronnie and Jason and Brad and Paul and Gene and Patrick and Chris – all those folks that are with us game in and game out. And how blessed I was that my first Iron Bowl game was that game. 48-45. You could've gotten pretty good odds from a lot of folks that the game would not get out of the 20s, let alone 48-45 for goodness sake. I was so blessed and so grateful to have this job, to have this job with Auburn and to continue the legacy from Rod to Jim Fyffe to Paul Ellen to Gary Sanders and Buddy Rutledge and all the folks that came before them. That's when it really hit me, getting an opportunity to kind of reflect on what had been a remarkable day for me professionally and personally.
Q: For your career, where does that 2019 Iron Bowl rank for you?
Burcham: Sometimes it's comparing apples to oranges. Remember my first two years at Auburn calling women's basketball, I was calling a national championship. The '97 David Ross home run against Florida State and then the next night clinching a spot in the College World Series with Rod and now the athletic director at Florida, Scott Stricklin, who was the SID at the time, and driving back from Tallahassee that night to Auburn and getting ready for a trip to the College World Series – that was really special. The North Carolina game last year, that Game 3 and what that game meant to that team and getting to go to that College World Series was really special. But listen, this is an Iron Bowl. You only get to call one of those every year. It was my first. So that may be the No. 1 memory I have in Year 1 as the Voice followed closely by that Kentucky home basketball game and that day with College Gameday here and AUTLIVE here and a win against Kentucky. There are a lot of great memories in my first year, but boy it's hard to beat Iron Bowl 2019 for me.