Auburn landed a season-high score against Alabama. Here's what came together for the Tigers, and how they can use the rivalry meet as a launchpad
Despite losing the head-to-head to the nation's No. 3 team, several pieces to Auburn's game clicked together in tandem. After seven weeks fighting different struggles, the Tigers reset their momentum.
Julianne Huff just called it having ‘emotions.’
“I think we had a lot of emotions towards our rivals,” is how she put it. “I think that helped us.”
‘Emotions.’ It’s a diplomatic way to describe the friction that makes the Iron Bowl rivalry one of the greatest rivalries in all of sports — and certainly the single greatest in college gymnastics. In the gymnastics world, Oklahoma has no Texas, and UCLA has no USC. Michigan has Ohio State but the Buckeyes have not been nearly as competitive as Auburn and Alabama have. It’s the rivalry in college gymnastics.
The old refrain in the Iron Bowl rivalry whenever the schools meet in other sports is to throw the records out, to forget what’s happened that season, because blood boils and the intensity level rises, and anything can happen. A twist on that shook down for Auburn gymnastics on Friday night: Yes, the intensity rose, the desire and the edge were there, and because of that, now, Auburn can just about throw out what’s happened this season.
After seven weeks of battling different struggles, Auburn gymnastics rose to the rivalry occasion by throwing a season-high 197.250 against No. 3 Alabama on Friday night, and — despite an expected head-to-head loss — seemed to reset the momentum of the season by finally proving they can put together a more complete meet.
Alabama won the meet with a 197.950. Huff won the individual all-around, setting season-high scores on two different events, and matching her season-high on a third.
“Honestly, our goal going into this — yeah, we wanted to win, but at the end of the day we wanted to put a full meet together,” Huff said. “I think we finally took steps towards that.
“Obviously it still wasn’t perfect but we took major steps forward and built momentum, and I think it’s only up from here.”
Auburn scored a season-high on bars, and, for the first time all season, all four events scored above a 49.2. It had been one event or two dragging Auburn down in different meets this season — and the story of the year had been that the Tigers couldn’t manage to keep things from going sideways when things didn’t go right for them.
After Friday, the outlook moving forward has seemed to change. Simply put: It’s the teams scoring in the 197s that make it to Sweet Sixteens and Elite Eights every year, and the teams scoring in the 196s usually don’t.
“Every event has room for improvement, which is really a benefit right now,” Auburn head coach Jeff Graba said. “We’re watching this and going, ‘Yeah, that other team’s a month ahead of us.’ But that’s alright. We can’t change where we are. We’re just getting our athletes now.”
Here’s a dive into Huff’s big night in the all-around, what clicked for Auburn, and where the Tigers could pick up even more tenths: