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Sammie Coates explodes for record-setting Iron Bowl performance
By Jordan Cox
Published:
After a frustrating year, Sammie Coates returned to as close to 100 percent as he’d been all season heading into the Iron Bowl.
The result?
A record-setting Iron Bowl performance. Coates erupted for five receptions, 206 receiving yards and two touchdowns. The junior returned to form against the Crimson Tide, using his speed and size to toy with an outmatched Alabama secondary.
As the Tigers prepared for the No.1-ranked team in college football, the more Coates and head coach Gus Malzahn believed Auburn could attack the secondary of Alabama’s vaunted defense.
“Looking at their defense, they’ve got a 5-star player at every position, and we just felt like they could be exposed through the air deep down the field,” Malzahn told AL.com. “That was kind of our plan.”
The junior was lauded as one of the nation’s top receivers in 2014 after a breakout campaign as a sophomore in 2013. Coates suffered a knee injury in the season-opener against Arkansas that nagged him throughout the year, having to wear a brace on his left knee.
Coates returned to the lineup just a week later, but was clearly hampered and ineffective.
“It hurt me a little bit, just because it’s a knee,” Coates told AL.com this week. “When you hurt your knee, it’s hard to get out of our breaks. They had me wearing a big knee brace, it kind of slowed me down, but I just had to fight through.”
Coates’ game as a deep threat is predicated upon his speed and being able to blow by defenders. The injury hampered his speed, and Coates struggled with drops early in the season.
The Leroy, Ala., native dropped what could’ve been a third touchdown pass early in the loss to Alabama on Saturday night. Still, senior quarterback Nick Marshall kept targeting Coates, and eventually No. 18 went off.
Marshall found Coates for a 34-yard touchdown pass to ignite the Auburn offense and give the Tigers a 16-14 lead. Near the end of the half, the two again connected on a 68-yard touchdown pass, the Tigers’ longest pass play of the season.
Coates again got the Tigers within striking defense with under a minute left in the half, making a leaping catch at the Alabama tw0-yard line to set up a field goal.
“We went out there, knew we had to make plays and did that. Our o-line was great the whole game,” Coates said after the game. “Nick threw perfect balls the whole game. It made it easy to catch them.”
After living in Birmingham, Ala., Jordan left the ground zero of SEC Nation to head south to Florida to tell the unique stories of the renowned tradition of SEC football. In his free time, his mission is to find the best locales around.
