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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — It’s been described as a stabbing feeling, a gnawing at your soul that lingers all 365 days of the year. At Alabama, any loss is deemed unacceptable. But a defeat to Auburn, well that’s more than just a blemish in the record books.

If football is religion in Alabama, losing the Iron Bowl is a cardinal sin. It’s a demerit that weighs heavily on your conscience until it can be redeemed a year later.

At least, that what people say. Alan Gray will just have to take their word for it.

The former wishbone quarterback was a team captain of the 1981 Alabama football team and a member of the last senior class to beat Auburn four straight years. That class compiled a 42-5-1 record, including two national titles and three conference championships. However, nothing offers quite the satisfaction of knowing you’ve never lost to your hated rival.

“Whether it’s your first year out or it’s your 20-year reunion, it’s one thing that our team can look back on,” Gray said. “In the state of Alabama that’s huge, so we’ll carry that to the graves with us.”

Thirty-six years later, Alabama has another chance at history as this year’s senior class is in position to claim the elusive four-game sweep. Here’s a look at how truly special that accomplishment would be.

Legendary head coach Paul “Bear” Bryant’s deep, gravelly voice quickly choked out the premature confidence that clouded Alabama’s locker room. The Crimson Tide entered the 1979 Iron Bowl undefeated and were ranked as the No. 1 team in the country fresh of a 30-0 thumping of Miami.

None of that mattered a lick to Bryant, who delivered a sobering message to his players before the game.

“He said, ‘Guys, if we don’t beat Auburn, we don’t even deserve to go to a bowl game,’” Gray said. “Here we were undefeated, but it was that kind of rivalry that you just didn’t want to lose that ballgame. That went for both teams.”

Alabama players had grown accustomed to similar speeches from their head coach throughout the years, especially when it came to the Iron Bowl. In what is the longest streak by either team during the rivalry, Alabama reeled off nine straight victories against Auburn from 1973-81.

That meant seniors on the 1981 team weren’t even in high school the last time the Crimson Tide fell to the Tigers. Losing to Auburn had become a sort of fabled, cautionary tale passed down to freshmen in order to remind them of the severe expectations in the state.

“You didn’t want to be the team that lost to Auburn,” said Warren Lyles, a defensive tackle and team captain of the 1981 team. “We ran about nine or 10 straight games without ever losing. Coach Bryant would say, ‘You don't ever want to be the team to lose to them because they’re never going to let you live it down.’ That was enough to put respect and fear in you to not be the one. That’s what did it for me. I wasn’t going to be the one who lost to those characters.”

Lyles, a native of Birmingham, Ala., had a good knowledge of the rivalry entering college. However, even he needed to experience it firsthand in order to fully grasp the true meaning of what it meant to the state. Lyles started in all four Iron Bowls during his college career and remembers each one to be a 60-minute brawl.

“That’s one of the most intense ballgames to participate in as a football player,” Lyles said. “I mean, it’s nothing like what you’re going to experience anywhere at anytime. When those two teams meet, it’s a battle.”

They played on turf back then.

Not the grass-like, artificial fields of today with millions of pieces of ground-up rubber to cushion your fall. This was AstroTurf, akin to rolling a somewhat spongey, green carpet over a parking lot. It was hard, and when you were hit you felt it.

Especially in the Iron Bowl.

Gray is well acquainted with the turf at Legion Field. During the 1981 game, a trio of Auburn defenders made sure of that when they plastered him into it during a hit near the sideline.

“I remember after the game one of my friends told me, he said ‘Alan on one particular play, we didn’t think you were going to get up. We thought that linebacker killed you,’” Gray said. “I went back and I watched the film on Sunday and I saw the play. I think it was two lineman and a linebacker just drilled me into the sideline.”

The following Monday during warmups, a teammate stopped Gray with a confused look on his face.

“He said, ‘You have something stuck in your helmet,’” Gray said. “I took my helmet off and there was AstroTurf embedded into the helmet like splinters. It was from that hit at Legion Field. There were like four or five, it looked like they were just grooves, and the AstroTurf was just stuck inside them. We just looked at each other, and it just reminded us how much each team wants to win that game.”

Lyles didn’t need the scuffs on his helmet to remind him how physical the Iron Bowl could be. Four straight years fighting the Tigers in the trenches left a sour taste in his mouth.

“Back then, Auburn was low-down and dirty,” Lyles said. “Coach Bryant taught us to have class, but their plan was to make us lose our cool and respond to their antics. At the pile, after the play is over, they were punching, kicking and spitting on you. It made you want to get up and lose your cool and get a flag thrown. Coach Bryant warned about that kind of thing, so we were ready.

“What you do is you line up and get even the very next play. That was motivating for us. It makes you perform. I can’t get you illegally, but legally, once this ball’s snapped I’m going to get you back.”

Antonio Langham would gladly trade an extra bump or bruise to replace the stinging feeling left behind from losing the 1993 Iron Bowl. Even with three career victories over the Tigers, the former Crimson Tide cornerback still hangs his head when discussing his 3-1 record against Auburn.

“It still devastates you because you want to say ‘For four years I was at Alabama, we never lost to Auburn,’” Langham said. “It’s still with you. Even when you’re done and you’ve walked away from the game, it still hurts you when you have to say ‘I’m 3-1 against Auburn.”'

What makes Langham’s lone defeat so excruciating is how close he came to perfection. Heading into the 1993 game, Alabama had won its last three meetings against Auburn, putting Langham and the rest of the Crimson Tide’s seniors in position to complete the sweep.

For a while, it looked like that would be the case. Playing in Jordan-Hare Stadium, Alabama went into the half with a 14-5 lead over the Tigers. However, following an injury to Auburn quarterback Stan White, backup Patrick Nix came on to lead a second-half comeback.

Langham still remembers the touchdown pass from Nix that helped Auburn get back into the game as the quarterback connected with Frank Sanders for a touchdown pass on fourth-and-15 from the Alabama 35.

Langham had been matching up on Sanders for much of the game but was lined up on the other side of the field for that play. He motioned to fellow cornerback Tommy Johnson to switch sides, but with Auburn about to snap the ball, there wasn’t enough time.

“I can’t tell you to this day what the receiver on my side of the field, what kind of route he ran,” Langham said. “All I know was the ball was snapped and we had pressure coming on Patrick. He’s on his back foot falling back and he just throws the ball up to Frank Sanders. I’m running from my side of the field and all I’m saying to myself is ‘Just knock it down, just knock it down.’”

Sanders caught the ball over Johnson at the 4-yard line before diving into the end zone. Auburn later went on to win the game 22-14.

“I’m telling you, that was the longest bus ride of my life,” Langham said. “You want to go to sleep and sleep it off and hope that by the time you make it to Tuscaloosa and wake up that everything is over with and finished, but it’s not. You can’t sleep. The whole bus ride home, you are playing the game over. You’re trying to figure out what could have been done differently. Man, it’s a feeling that you never forget.”

Bryant used to tell his players that every game is made up of four or five plays that would determine the outcome. You never knew when those plays would occur, but you best be ready for when they do.

Heading into the 1981 Iron Bowl, Gray had averaged just 2.5 yards per carry. However, the former quarterback’s favorite memory against Auburn came on a 62-yard scamper down the left sidelines of Legion Field.

The play came on Alabama’s second possession of the game as Gray kept the ball on a reverse option. The tall, lanky quarterback lumbered past Auburn defenders before finally being brought down at the Auburn 21-yard line. Five plays later Gray scored Alabama’s first touchdown, leaping into the end zone from the 1-yard line on a quarterback sneak up the middle to put Alabama up 7-0.

The 1981 game was special as Bryant had tied Amos Alonzo Stagg’s record of 314 career wins the week before with a 31-16 victory over Penn State. That meant a victory over Auburn would make Bryant the winningest coach of all time.

History, though, wouldn’t come without a fight.

After Auburn tied the game at the half, Alabama retook the lead at 14-7 on a 26-yard shovel pass from Ken Coley to Jesse Bendross in the third quarter. The Tigers battled back, taking advantage of two muffed punts by Alabama returner Joey Jones which allowed Auburn to take a 17-14 lead early in the fourth quarter.

A 38-yard touchdown pass from Walter Lewis to a wide-open Bendross put Alabama back on top 21-17 with 10:07 remaining. Needing a stop from his defense, Bryant turned to one of the players he trusted most.

“When it was time for us to go back on the field, he called my name and said ‘Lyles come here,’ Lyles recalled. “I don’t tell this to many people this, but he went up to me and he told me, ‘Lyles, you’re the only one who can do it, and you got to get it done.’”

Behind a strong push from Lyles, the defensive line was able to force Auburn to punt on its next possession. Alabama running back Linnie Patrick then iced the game for the Crimson Tide, providing a couple of big runs, including a 15-yard touchdown to put the game out of reach at 28-17.

“You have to realize what that meant to me then,” Lyles said. “That just showed the confidence he had. It was later that I reflected on it and the encounter I had with Coach Bryant... Coach Bryant had a gift. He knew what it took to get the best out of every individual player. That’s what made him so great.”

No. 1 Alabama will travel to No. 6 Auburn on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CT on CBS. You’ll forgive the Crimson Tide’s seniors if the potential history of the matchup is a bit lost on them at the moment. Right now, Alabama has bigger things to worry about.

Saturday’s matchup will not only decide the SEC West title, it will also have plenty of implications for the College Football Playoff as both teams control their own destiny moving forward.

“This is a great team that we’re going against, they’re the No. 6 team in the nation, so that just goes to show you how important this game is,” Alabama senior linebacker Rashaan Evans said. “And for us, we just have to continue to keep doing what we’ve been doing this whole year.”

Ask anyone who’s ever played in an Iron Bowl, and they will tell you that’s precisely the mindset Alabama needs heading into Saturday’s game. They’ll also tell you just how special a victory would be.

“If this senior class can walk out of there Saturday being able to say they’ve never lost to Auburn, that’s an accomplishment,” Langham said. “They won’t ever have to talk about that time they lost in the Iron Bowl. That’s something that they’ll have for the rest of their life.”

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