He erupted for all three of his touchdowns and 101 of his 182 yards in the fourth quarter Saturday night as No. 8 Alabama stormed back for a 28-17 victory over rival Auburn.
"I went over to the sidelines and coach told me to that I was blessed with the ability to step up and turn this game around," Alexander said. "It wasn't that I didn't already know it, I guess I just needed to hear it from someone else and get fired up."
Alabama coach Mike DuBose said he felt Alexander did enough to get him back in the Heisman race.
"I don't know what the Heisman race is, but there can't be a better football player in this country than Shaun Alexander," DuBose said. "To play that wellin a game like this and not be 100 percent is amazing."
The performance made Alexander the Crimson Tide's career rushing leader and gave Alabama (9-2, 6-1 Southeastern Conference) the SEC West title. Alabama is back in the league championship game for the first time in three years, where it will play Florida, which it beat 40-39 in overtime last month.
It was Alabama's first-ever victory at Auburn, where the Tide had lost their previous four games. The loss assured Auburn (5-6, 2-6) of consecutive losing seasons for the first time since 1980-81.
"It was a one man show -- the difference was Shaun Alexander," Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville said. "We got beat by No. 37."
Alexander, who became Alabama's career leading rusher by passing Bobby Humphrey's mark of 3,420 yards, took control of the game after Auburn kept him out of the end zone on four straight tries. Trailing 14-6 in the third quarter, backup quarterback Tyler Watts started the second half for Alabama and marched the Tide down to Auburn's 6 on 12 plays. Alabama tried to score the touchdown with four handoffs to Alexander, who was stopped each time. Kenny Kelly tackled him for a 3-yard loss on 4th-and-2 to take the ball away on downs.
But his defense got him the ball back. Kindal Moorehead sacked Ben Leard in the end zone on the very next play for a safety that cut it to 14-8. The Tigers then kicked off to Freddie Milons, who returned it 30 yards to the Auburn 47. Alexander took over from there. He broke free for consecutive runs of 15 and 14 yards to put the Tide in scoring position. Alexander went untouched into the end zone on an 8-yard run to give Alabama a 15-14 lead with 11:55 to play.
Auburn was forced to punt after three plays and Alabama started its next series on the 50-yard line. Alexander opened the drive with a 14-yard gain, then reeled off a 17-yard run on the next play that moved him past Humphrey. Six plays later he put Alabama up 22-14 when he scored on a 2-yard run.
Auburn cut the score to 22-17 with 2:58 to play on Damon Duval's 35-yard field goal. But Alabama's Terry Jones Jr. recovered Auburn's on-side kick at the 41-yard line and Alexander sealed the win six plays later with his third TD, a 6-yard run. Alexander carried 33 times and finished with 3,468 career yards.
1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH FINAL
--- --- --- --- -----
Alabama 6 0 2 20 28
Auburn 0 14 0 3 17
First Quarter
Ala-FG Pflugner 33, 5:29
Ala-FG Pflugner 41, 1:20
Second Quarter
Aub-Diamond 7 pass from Leard (Duval kick), 10:06
Aub-Cooper 15 pass from Leard (Duval kick), 4:46
Third Quarter
Ala-Safety, Moorhead sacks Leard in end zone, :42
Fourth Quarter
Ala-Alexander 8 run (Pflugner kick), 11:55
Ala-Alexander 2 run (Pflugner kick), 7:02
Aub-FG Duval 35, 2:58
Ala-Alexander 6 run (kick failed), 1:09
Ala Aub
--- ---
First downs 28 17
Rushes-yards 46-226 29-66
Passing 124 237
Comp-Att-Int 17-26-1 26-40-1
Return Yards 53 12
Punts-Avg. 3-41.3 2-41.0
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 1-0
Penalties-Yards 5-41 3-30
Time of Possession 32:34 27:26
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING-Alabama, Alexander 33-182, McClintock 5-17, Zow 3-13,
Milons 1-8, Watts 2-4, Brown 1-4, team 1-(minus 4). Auburn, Evans
21-83, Cooper 1-11, Williams 2-5, T.Robinson 1-(minus 5), Leard
4-(minnus 10), team 0-(minus 18).
PASSING-Alabama, Zow 12-20-1-67, Watts 5-6-0-57. Auburn, Leard
26-39-1-237, Manno 0-1-0-0.
RECEIVING-Alabama, Milons 6-54, Bowens 3-27, McAddley 3-27,
Alexander 3-1, Jones 1-13, Carter 1-2. Auburn, Daniels 6-78, T.
Robinson 4-55, Cooper 4-24, Williams 4-19, Worthy 2-18, Diamond
2-16, C.Robinson 2-8, Evans 1-18, Carter 1-1.
A-85,214.