This is an opinion column. ___________________ Two days later and Alabama’s historic loss to Vanderbilt remains tough to digest. For Auburn, things are somehow even less palatable after loss number eight in a row to rival Georgia.

DeBoer took the Alabama job to be The Guy After The Guy, inviting the comparisons to the greatest college football coach of all time, and he was always going to be raked over the coals by fans whenever his first loss came. But his first loss wasn’t supposed to be this, a setback arguably worse than any loss Saban suffered with the Tide.

"Those are the things that really hurt you, because they kept the drive alive and then ended up scoring a touchdown," DeBoer said. "Just that hump that we couldn't get over with a lot of the game. And that was the early one."