#15 Alabama beat #18 Auburn 24-16 at Legion Field on 30 November 1968, in a meeting between two ranked teams for the first time since 1963.
The scoring
Ed Morgan ran 35 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter and John Riley answered with a 22-yard field goal for Auburn. Morgan scored again from a yard out in the second, making it 14-3 at half-time. In the third quarter Scott Hunter threw five yards to Mike Hall and Loran Carter replied with a 70-yard touchdown pass to Mike Currier. Mike Dean’s 30-yard field goal and a five-yard Carter touchdown pass to Connie Frederick completed the scoring in the fourth.
Both of Auburn’s touchdowns came through the air and both came after half-time. Alabama’s came on the ground and in the first half. Neither side led by more than eleven at any point after the first quarter.
The fifth in a row
Alabama had now won five consecutive meetings, matching Auburn’s run of 1954-58. It was also a season in which Alabama were not especially good: 8-2 entering the game, 8-3 after losing the Gator Bowl to Missouri 35-10, and out of the conference title race.
Auburn finished 7-4 and sixteenth in the final Associated Press poll, beating Arizona 34-10 in the Sun Bowl. On the season’s evidence there was very little between the two teams, which had not been true in the series since 1958 and would not be true again for some time.