AUBURN, Ala. -- At Auburn, Chris Davis is well-known and well-respected as the Tigers' leading tackler and top cover man at the cornerback position.
Outside of Auburn? He was pretty anonymous -- until Saturday.
Davis returned a missed field goal 100 yards officially, 109 from where he fielded the ball in the back of his own end zone, on the final play of a 34-28 upset of defending national champion Alabama. The post-game stadium scene was one of utter mayhem.
See the thrilling finish:
Alabama looked as though it would head to overtime in a 28-28 deadlock, but an official review of a T.J. Yeldon run indicated one second remained when Yeldon went out of bounds.
That call inspired UA coach Nick Saban to send kicker Adam Griffith out for a 57-yard field goal try.
When asked after the game about his critical decision to attempt the field goal, Saban said: "You know, Griff (Griffith) makes them from 60 in practice. So it was a shot. We had the wind behind us. We had the wind in the fourth quarter."
It was a wild finish to a wild game, in which AJ McCarron appeared to have potentially put the game away with a 99-yard touchdown pass to Amari Cooper earlier in the fourth quarter. Auburn quarterback Nick Marshall followed with a 39-yard touchdown pass to Sammie Coates, however, to tie the game with under a minute to play.
With the win, Auburn will represent the SEC West in the SEC Championship Game against Missouri or South Carolina. After going winless in SEC play just a year ago, a potential SEC title for the Tigers would mark one of the most impressive one-year turnarounds in college football history.
"That's what these kids come to Auburn for, to contend for an SEC Championship," Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said.
Alabama missed multiple opportunities to put the game away in the second half, but a dropped touchdown pass by Cooper, and an 0-for-3 night on field goals by Cade Foster, whom Griffith replaced for the final field-goal try, kept the Tigers within a score. Alabama also passed on a chance at a field goal in the fourth quarter on a 4th-and-1, but the AU defense stuffed the play.
"We've been a very good short-yardage team all year," Saban said. "It didn't work out that way. Myself and a lot of other people will probably say we should have kicked a field goal there. But we had a field goal from the same spot earlier and we missed, so you can't take it for granted that we would have made it."
Marshall completed 11 of 16 passes for 97 yards, but threw two touchdown passes and had a 45-yard touchdown run to put Auburn ahead 7-0 early.
Davis finished with 10 tackles. And 100 yards of history.
*Follow Chase Goodbread on Twitter **@ChaseGoodbread.*
